Warbird Information Exchange

Human remains recovered from legendary WWII airman Jack Zimmerman’s last flight

The recovery of human remains this week from the Canadian crash site of a Second World War U.S. seaplane has turned a spotlight on the remarkable career of the man who piloted the doomed aircraft — the so-called “Million-Miler” airman Col. Jack Zimmerman, a pioneering American aviator who was so well known at the time that a biography detailing his exploits was published just months before the November 1942 tragedy off the Quebec coast.

Zimmerman, 37, was one of five U.S. servicemen who died when the amphibious PBY Catalina went down in the Gulf of St. Lawrence during a mission from Maine to what was then a newly-built Allied airfield in the eastern Quebec village of Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan.

Local residents were watching as the so-called “flying boat” attempted a takeoff on Nov. 2, 1942 but foundered in rough waters after hitting a wave. Fishing boats were dispatched to the scene and four American airmen were rescued before the Catalina sank to the sea floor with Zimmerman and four other crew members trapped inside.

Killed in the crash, according to the online database warbirdcrash.com, were Zimmerman, engineer Sgt. Charles Richardson, assistant engineer Pvt. Erwin Austin, assistant radio operator Pvt. Peter Couzine and passenger Capt. Carney Lee Dowlen. Radio operator Pvt. James Click and passenger Capt. J.B. Holmberg were injured but survived, while co-pilot Sgt. Bernard Peterson and gunner Cpl. Robert L. Ashley were rescued without injury.


http://www.warhistoryonline.com/feature ... light.html