ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 202591
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| Date: | Sunday 5 December 1943 |
| Time: | 12:08 |
| Type: |  Consolidated B-24D Liberator |
| Owner/operator: | 566th BSqn /389th BGp USAAF |
| Registration: | 42-40738 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 9 / Occupants: 10 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Around Saint-Brévin-les-Pins, Loire-Atlantique -
 France
|
| Phase: | Combat |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | |
On 5 December 1943, during VIII Bomber Command Mission 149, 452 B-17s and 96 B-24s were dispatched to attach French airfield but few could bomb due to bad weather.
1. 216 B-17’s were dispatched to La Rochelle/Laleu, St Jean D’Angely, Paris/Ivry, Paris/Bois Colombes airfields; none hit the planned targets due to weather; 1 B-17 was damaged beyond repair and 1 damaged.
2. 96 B-24’s were dispatched to Cognac/Chateaubernard Airfield; 2 hit St Nazaire; 1 B-24 was lost and 7 damaged; casualties were 2 WIA and 10 MIA.
3. 236 B-17’s were dispatched to the Bordeaux/Merignac air depot; 1 hit the target; they claimed 12-5-5 Luftwaffe aircraft; 8 B-17’s were lost and 19 damaged; casualties were 1 KIA, 4 WIA and 50 MIA.
These missions were escorted by 34 P-38’s and 266 P-47’s plus 36 Ninth Air Force P-51’s; 1 P-47 was lost (pilot MIA).
________________________________________________
The Liberator lost during the raid on Cognac/Chateaubernard Airfield was the B-24D-90-CO 42-40738 "The Oklahoman" of 566th BS, 389th BG was lost during a raid on Cognac-Châteaubernard Airdrome, France.
This airfield was of considerable importance as a major, well-equipped base for long range bombers operating against Allied convoys. It was also observed at this time that it was increasingly being used as a training base for single-engine fighter pilots. But cloud cover over the target prevented bombing the primary (Cognac-Châteaubernard Airdrome) and the secondary (St Jean d’Angely Airdrome). The 94 B-24s (23 of 389th BG, 26th of 44th BG, 24 of 93rd BG and 21 of 392nd BG, 2 more of this unit having turned back) reached the Cognac are without any opposition but a solid overcast extended across much of southeastern France, and the bombers were ordered to bring bombs home.
The return trip should not have been fraught with danger if the formation had kept well out to sea. Unfortunately, the formation took up a north-northwesterly heading that, unfortunately, put it on a direct path to Saint Nazaire, instead of the more northwest heading that was briefed. Had the formation followed the briefed route back to base, it would have been well out to sea and away from the flak batteries of Saint-Nazaire, a major port with a veritable hornet’s nest of defenses protecting shipping convoys, shipyards, and one of the Reich’s largest U-boat bases.
This was unappreciated until Flak suddenly bracketed the Liberators. A photographer in the high squadron clicked his shutter as the first salvo blossomed. An instant later "The Oklahoman", flying right wing to the leader, took a direct hit in the bomb bay at 1208 hrs, at 12,000 feet. The camera’s next frame caught the result of the explosion as nose, rear fuselage, and each wing separated. A third frame shows the four major items of wreckage as they tumbled towards the clouds – one wing burning fiercely. Lt Mason and his crew were all veterans of the Ploesti raid on 1 August 1943 and well on the way to completing their tour. Only two to three parachutes were observed leaving the ship. Two other crews of the 389th dropped their bombs on the source of a flak concentration. Flak damaged 5 other B-24s of 389th BG and 2 of 392nd BG, wounding one crew of 389th and one of 44th BG.
Mason, the pilot of 42-40738 and the only crew member to survive, stated in his post-war interview following liberation from a POW camp that his ship took a direct flak hit in the bomb bay and exploded. He believed he must have been blown from the cockpit by the explosion and was briefly knocked unconscious, as he recalled that he came to while falling through the air. He managed to deploy his parachute in time to break his fall, but shortly after, he found himself in the freezing waters of the Atlantic. Mason came down off the coast of Saint-Brévin-les-Pins, which was about three miles southeast of Saint-Nazaire. He released his parachute and inflated his Mae West and quickly began his struggle to shore.
Local civilians observed Mason’s descent with anxiety as he drifted away from land toward the sea, including two Frenchmen, Adolphe Jarniou, 24, and a friend, who immediately set out to retrieve him in a small row boat. Mason was only 150 metres away from the beach, but the boat was already too small for two people and water was leaking inside and the two French had to turn back. A German power boat then came and picked up the American.
The greatest part of bomber, the tail, crashed at La Croix Chatre, 1.5 km east of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins. Three bodies were found in or near it. The crashsite had been found and searched. Other fragments and bodies fell all around the area, four bodies being found 1.5 km north of the tail crashsite. The co-pilot, 2nd Lt Thomas C. Baum, was picked up in the Loire mouth by a German boat and landed at Saint-Nazaire where he died instants later of his severe injuries. He was probably one of the other parachutes seen by the other crews.
On 8 May 1999 a memorial was dedicated on the seafront in Saint-Brévin-les-Pins, just where Mason fell into the sea, to honor Harley Mason and his fellow crew members who perished on 5 December 1943. A yellow buoy was fixed off the coast to mark the spot where Mason landed. Mason was invited by the citizens to attend the dedication ceremony, but he was then in a nursing home and his physical condition prevented him from making the journey. His cousin, Eddie Green, attended the ceremony on his behalf and said the French treated him royally. The citizens presented him with a small part that was retrieved from the wreckage of "The Oklahoman", and a remnant of Mason’s parachute canopy.
Crew (9 KIA, 1 POW):
1st Lt Harley B. Mason (pilot) POW
2nd Lt Thomas C. Baum (co-pilot) KIA
2nd Lt James F. Nolan (navigator) KIA
2nd Lt Edward Lesnak (bombardier) KIA
T/Sgt Martin E. Marzolf (engineer/top turret gunner) KIA
T/Sgt Robert W. McNair (radio operator) KIA
S/Sgt Walter E. Taylor (ball turret gunner) KIA
S/Sgt Rudolph O. Anchondo (waist gunner) KIA
S/Sgt Doyle L. Kirkland (waist gunner) KIA
S/Sgt Lester T. Ward (tail gunner) KIA
Two usual members of Mason crew, 1st Lt Harold Roodman (navigator) and S/Sgt Victor E. Scollin, Jr. (engineer/top turret gunner), did not fly this mission. Roodman was killed on 7 January 1944 with another crew shot down by a German fighter. Scollin survived the war.
Sources:
http://chemin-memoire39-45paysderetz.e-monsite.com/pages/faits-de-guerre/05-12-1943-b24-d-42-40738-the-oklahoman-st-brevin-les-pins/histoire/histoire-rene-brideau.html
http://www.absa39-45.asso.fr/Pertes%20Bretagne/Loire%20Atlantique/pertes_usaaf_loire_atlantique.html
http://francecrashes39-45.net/page_fiche_av.php?id=2065
http://dsf.chesco.org/heroes/Baum/baum.htm
http://dsf.chesco.org/heroes/Baum/Okahoman_DirectHit.jpg
http://www.389thbombgroup.com/December_05_1943.php
http://www.389thbombgroup.com/MACRS/MACR_Mason_5DEC1943.pdf
http://paul.rutgers.edu/~mcgrew/wwii/usaf/html/Dec.43.html
http://www.maplandia.com/france/pays-de-la-loire/loire-atlantique/saint-nazaire/la-croix/
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 06-Dec-2017 11:25 | Laurent Rizzotti | Added |
| 22-Mar-2020 19:34 | DG333 | Updated [Operator, Operator] |
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