ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 111803
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| Date: | Friday 1 January 1943 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  North American B-25D Mitchell |
| Owner/operator: | 11th BSqn /341st BGp USAAF |
| Registration: | 41-29675 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Yunnani airfield -
 China
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Ferry/positioning |
| Departure airport: | Kunming |
| Yunnani |
The men of 11th BS, 341st BG, USAAF, based at Kunming, China, spent the last day of the year 1942 installing half bomb bay tanks and loading bombs aboard their B-25s to prepare a raid on Shwebo, Burma, some 475 miles southwest. Seven aircraft took off on 1st January 1943 and flew to Yunnani airfield for the purpose of topping off their tanks and picking up escort.
During his landing approach at Yunnani, Capt Robert W Ford got into prop wash of another aircraft and was unable to right his plane in time to prevent a wing from hitting the ground. The B-25D (serial 41-29675) skidded across the ground, barely missing parked P-40s and finally coming to rest as a mass of wreckage. At the time the squadron wired the arming wires of the bombs to the shackles so that duds could not be dropped. One of the 550lb Russian bombs carried by this aircraft broke loose from the shackle, lost its arming prop and fully armed buried itself two feet in the earth beneath the plane… but did not explode. No one was injured.
As soon as servicing was completed, the remaining six aircraft took off for Shwebo. Although the target was two hundred miles into enemy lines, no opposition was met and 11th BS’s CO, Col Basye, led the two flights in an uninterrupted run on the target, laying bombs across the runway and well into the revetment area. All bombers returned safely to Kunming.
Sources:
https://worldwartwoveterans.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/The-record_-the-eleventh-Bombardment-Squadron-M.pdf
https://www.aviationarchaeology.com/listPages/airforce/asp/AF_Monthly_1943Jan_O.asp
https://pacificwrecks.com/airfields/china/yunnani/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangyun_Airport
https://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=25.418811&lon=100.700697&z=14&m=w
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 10-Jun-2023 05:24 | RDV | Updated |
| 12-Oct-2023 09:56 | Laurent Rizzotti | Updated |
| 16-Oct-2023 18:01 | Nepa | Updated |
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