Mid-Air B-24 Crash
By Bob Mason
Note from Editor. Bob’ Mason’s article was originally published in three parts in 2015. We are re-publishing all three parts of this excellent article at this time. .
Prologue
This article will be published in three parts. The entire article will be published by the middle of August. Editor
Mid-Air B-24 Crash: Part 2. Search for Crash Site – Published 8/4/2015
Mid-Air B-24 Crash: Part 3: Postscript – To be published by 8/15/2015
Part 1. 1944 Collision Seen by Local Ranchers
The cover of the March/April 2012 issue of The Peak featured a photo of author Bob Mason examining B-24 wreckage near Rio Verde.
In February of 1944 observers on the Ft. McDowell reservation and a few isolated ranchers saw two large airplanes locked together and spinning toward the ground. The planes burned on impact, killing 17 airmen, at that time the largest loss of life in Arizona’s aviation history.
Many other crashes were occurring in the state at that time as hundreds of 18 and 19 year-old pilots were being trained. “Almost one crash per day,†one aircraft historian said. Human remains were removed along with the larger remaining parts of the plane. The rest was left to the restorative forces of Nature.
In the case of this crash it was identified only vaguely as “about 30 miles north of Williams Field, Chandler,†“46 miles NE of Willians Field†and “20 miles northeast of Phoenix.†Another newspaper report said the planes crashed on the Salt River-Pima Reservation, later proved to be incorrect. The two airplanes were B-24s from Davis-Monthan Air Base in Tucson.
Searching for Site
This writer heard about this event while interviewing persons for a story of the P-Bar Ranch, located where McDowell Mountain Regional Park is established between Fountain Hills and the Verde Communities. Nancy Robbins MacCloud remembered seeing the smoke from the crash and that her uncle rode to it to see if there were any survivors. However, she and her sister were too young to remember where the impact was located in relation to their ranch home.
The writer, Dave Roberts of Fountain Hills and a crash hobbyist, Steve Hoza, of the Arizona Historical Society, and others, searched many days both east and west of the Verde River trying to identify and document the location. Other than the general description that encompassed dozens of square miles, the only other clues available were dim 57-year-old pictures showing the retrieval crew with mountain ridgelines in the background.
An English pilot who was flying a training mission from Mesa’s Falcon Field on the day of the crash was located and asked for his observation. On March 9, 2001, he wrote from Somerset, England; “I was close to the Superstition Mountains. I was excited to be flying so close to those Liberators. My recollection of the collision was one of horror. We saw one turn into the other and saw pieces of fuselage falling to earth. My feelings were of total disbelief and my thoughts are still full of sorrow for those who lost their lives and sympathy for those related to them.â€
Painting of B-24 Liberators Over France
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Mid-Air B-24 Crash: Part 2. Search for Crash Site – Published by 8/4/2015
– Published 8/17/2015
January 1, 2017
I am William Thomas Dixon youngér brother, we have named our son after him. He is still being missed after 72 years.
December 16, 2017
My mother Mary wenzel is the sister of h.c.meade jr.balto md. 4102546972 appreciates everything you all have done for their memores thank you
December 19, 2020
H.C. Meade Jr. was my mother’s brother. My grandfather told me he wanted his son’s ring but it was missing. I would love to visit the crash site and retrieve a piece of the aircraft for a keepsake. I received documents pertaining to the crash in the 80’s under the FOI.
December 19, 2020
Hello David, Seasons Greetings. The author of the article told me that site is on Native American land and is considered sacred. He promised the tribe that he would never divulge the location of the site. I’ve have also been told that the Army sent in a team that camped at the site for quite awhile and removed everything including all the parts of the plane. There is nothing at the site but vegetation. I’m sorry for your loss. Evidently, there were a number of plane crashes north of the airfield, today’s Scottsdale Airpark. In fact, Scottsdale Road was paved from the air field, today’s Scottsdale Airpark north to Pinnacle Peak Road so that people could get to crash sites faster. It was all a vast expanse of open desert with a few dirt tracks and washes. Sorry I cannot be more help. Editor