Date:	Friday 4 July 1952
Time:	23:46
Type:	Boeing RB-29A Superfortress
Owner/operator:	91st SRSqn /91st SRGp USAF
Registration:	44-61727
MSN:	11204
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 13
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Sinanju, South Pyongan, 2 km west of Khakusen -   North Korea
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Yokata AB, Fussa, Tama Area, Western Tokyo, Japan (RJTY)
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Boeing B-29A-45-BN Superfortress 44-61727: Modified to F-13A, re-designated 1948 as RB-29A. Assigned to 505th Bomb Group. Named ‘So Tired – Seven to Seven’. Re-Assigned to 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Group, Yokota AB, Japan. Damaged in an accident 4 September 1951 due to mechanical failure 5 miles North of Yokata AB, Japan. Repaired and returned to service.

Attached to 4th Fighter-Interceptor Group. Shot down by MiG-15 while on a photo reconnaissance mission over Sinanju, South Pyongan, North Korea on July 4, 1952. 11 crew survived/2 missing in action (1 presumed killed in action, Clifford Henry Mast was observed bailing out of the aircraft by Lt Francis Strieby.). Eight of the 13-man crew became POWs who were eventually released.

A Soviet transcript report stated, "...elements of the 351st lAP encountered a USAF B-29 while on a combat sortie. At 22:46 hours, Major Anatoly Karelin (Russian Ace) observed one B-29 in the searchlight beams near Khakusen at an altitude of 7200 meters and attacked it. Orienting on the flaming aircraft, the pilot conducted three more attacks and shot down the B-29. The bomber started to break up mid-air and fell two kilometers west of Khakusen. Four engines and the burnt fuselage were found at the crash site. Eight crew members of the B-29 were taken prisoner by our Chinese comrades." The crew members were:

Albright, S/Sgt. Richard Louis - POW/MIA/possibly KIA
Mast, A/1c Clifford Henry - POW/MIA (was captured and transferred to prison in China and Russia)
Strieby, 2nd Lt. Francis A. - co-pilot - POW, repatriated
Brazil, 1st Lt. Kenneth S. - POW, repatriated
Koski, A1c William B. - POW, repatriated
Harris, Capt. Theodore R. - POW, repatriated
Hand, A2c Donald L. - POW, repatriated
Evers, A1c Eugene B. - POW, repatriated
Rivers, S/Sgt. Bernard F. - POW, repatriated
Johansen, S/Sgt. Charles V. - POW, repatriated
Moreland, 1st Lt. Joseph E. - POW, repatriated
Combs, A1c Edwin D. - POW, repatriated
Bass, A1c Kenneth H. - POW, repatriated

There was an extensive SAR effort by one Navy combatant and at least eight aircraft, including two SA-16s and five B-29s to recover the crew. The 11 crew taken as POWs were repatriated in September 1953 as part of "Operation Big Switch". One of them T/Sgt Bernard Francis Rivers, returned to service with the USAF, but was killed in the crash of Boeing KB-50 49-0328 on March 5, 1961 at McClellan AFB, California. The remains of S/Sgt Albright and A/1c Mast did not return home when the other 11 were repatriated at the end of the war. Both men are listed as MIA but were presumed dead (KIA) by the U.S. Government on November 20, 1953.

1. http://www.dpaa.mil/portals/85/Documents/KoreaAccounting/korwald_all.pdf .
2. http://www.rb-29.net/HTML/84.RB-29.1727/84.02.01part%232.htm
3. [LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1944_4.h]tml
4. http://www.koreanwar-educator.org/topics/b29s/p_b29s_losses_damage.htm
5. https://airforce.togetherweserved.com/usaf/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=ShadowBoxProfile&type=PersonAircraftExt&ID=39239
6. [LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://www.cannon.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/616888/clovis-son-not-forgotten/]
7. https://airforce.togetherweserved.com/usaf/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=ShadowBoxProfile&type=Person&ID=141944

Photo: Department of Defense. Department of the Air Force.

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
11-Jan-2011 09:46	harro	Updated [Location, Country, Phase, Source]
15-Oct-2012 15:16	Uli Elch	Updated [Cn, Operator, Location, Phase, Source]
13-Jun-2017 00:29	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
13-Jun-2017 00:30	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
13-Jun-2017 00:33	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
19-Jan-2019 17:51	Searching Daughter	Updated [Narrative]
19-Apr-2020 07:55	Next of Kin	Updated [Total fatalities, Narrative]
09-Feb-2021 20:21	Pong	Updated [Operator, Location, Operator]