Loss of 2nd Anti-Submarine Squadron on 4 September 1943

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Hello,

On 4 September 1943 a B-24 of 2nd Anti-Submarine Squadron USAAF nicknamed “Jere Linda” took off from Port Lyautey for a 14hr ASW patrol. The left outboard engine flamed on takeoff. The pilot, 1st Lt John E Kraybill, jettisoned the depth charges in the ocean and was attempting to have the crew bail out over the airfield when the aircraft abruptly stalled and crashed killing all 10 crew members on board.

So far I have found the names of 4 of this crew:
1st Lt John E Kraybill (pilot)
1st Lt Will Armon Yates (navigator)
T/Sgt John E Pryor, Jr.
T/Sgt Frank F Ranucci

I am searching the names of the other crew and the serial of the lost aircraft.

Thanks in advance

[Buckeye30]

This was B-24D-25/AS 41-24233 "M" , mentioned in Max Schoenfeld's "Stalking the U-Boat" (Smithsonian 1994) which may have crew names.


Regards
Nick

[Alex Smart]

1st Lt John Eber Kraybill - O-726259. No MACR.

[RSwank]

Writeup on Kraybill. Darden was the regular pilot but he was hospitalized the day of the flight. It was his crew that was lost.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/t...une/180477286/


Another crewman was Will A Yates:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/t...light/1466494/

Another crewman was John Ellis Pryor, Jr:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/t...rat/180478467/


No mention of Darden's letter re: Ranucci

https://www.newspapers.com/article/t...ord/180481430/



Crewman Thomas R Bartlett:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/s...ion/180479106/

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks for the serial and the extra crew.

I know that Darden was the usual pilot of this crew but was sick, and so was replaced by Kraybill. According to what I read, he then wrote letters to the families of his lost crew, making at least one believe that he was the pilot of the last flight and survived the accident.

[Leendert]

Laurent,

Please refer to https://catalog.archives.gov/id/4516...objectPage=212 and top of following page to find all (sur)names of the 10 men.

Next to those already found, there are Froccaro, Maninger, Vann, Sherburne and Kozvik.

Regards, Leendert

[Leendert]

Full names:

Carmine J. Froccaro, Raymond H. Maninger, William M. Vann Jr., Darol M. Sherburne and Walter J. Kozvik.

Leendert

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks a lot Leendert. By the way I did not know this source of data and it may be useful in other cases I am searching. Best regards

Just found confirmation of something I searched for same day, an explosion that killed 17 or 18 (the latter probably includes one DOW the next day) at Munda. I had the point of view of VMTB-233 (and the five killed for this unit), and two more casualties identified by name, but found nothing more on fold3. The same query on the above webiste allows me to find another report giving more details: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/78295317?objectPage=46

And some clicks later, I found the muster roll for CASU-14, that probably has most of the casualties in the explosion (I found 3 in the first pages, will check later): https://catalog.archives.gov/id/190074623?objectPage=89. This muster is not available in fold3 AFAIK.

By the way, CASU-14 arrived at Munda in later August IIRC, and I found reports that airmen complained of the bad service provided by the unit. I guess that losing tens of members so early after their arrival did not help.

Thanks again