Looking for additional information on XB-29 crash in 1943

[clangjr]

Greetings-
I have the privilege of having a WW2 veteran of the 113th airborne living up the street from me. He was on gliders. Even in 6 inches of snow he was out picking up some lunch today.

He has asked me to look up information a few times on the crash in 1943 of the XB-29 into the Frye meat packing plant in Seattle. Today he was telling me that he saw it go down. He had a then famous boxer who had enlisted in the jeep with him and they raced to the scene where the boxer ran in, busting down doors. According to Walter (my WW2 vet friend) they guy was nothing short of a hero and was pulling people out. Walter followed the boxer in (I think he said his name was Sam) into the building multiple times.

Anyway, I'm looking for any articles, books, or other information about the incident. He would like to know why the incident was kept so secretive (I tried to explain the sensitivity of the B-29 and its purpose to bomb the Japanese mainland).

Any help appreciated.

He is also looking for information on a significant training mishap in Georgia or Florida with the 113th where several gliders were released premature due to a mid-air incident. He stated that this training debacle was also kept fairly hush hush. Apparently one controversial columnist wrote a scathing article on this incident and it was his last article.

Any and all help appreciated.
Chuck

[Second Air Force]

Chuck, I'd swear we had a thread on WIX a few years ago pertaining to this but I can't find it. Here is a link with two photos of the plant after the accident:
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?Di ... le_id=2874

I'll keep looking for the thread.
Scott

[The Inspector]

Try these;

http://www.historylink.org which is the official Washington State history site. It's laid out a bit oddly, but by plowing around enough, you'll get to what you want, and it'll be the straight scoop.
http://www.pauldorpat.com Mr. Dorpat is sort of the Seatle areas semi official historian. He does a weekly column for the Seattle Times newspaper focusing on photos of say Yesler Way @ 3rd Ave. from 1899 and offsetting it with a photo of the same corner from the same angle from today. His site is a treasure trove of Seattle facts big and miniscule, in fact, I was reading an article there about the XB-29 crash about three months ago.
While you're at it, see if you can find out details about the B-50 thatr crashed just down Airport Way from the B-29 crash in 1950 behind the RAINIER BEER Plant after takeoff from KBFI Northbound, or the DC-4 crash @ SEA-TAC

[TonyM]

There is an extremely detailed summary treating this accident, (based on the actual Army Air Forces Form No. 14 Aircraft Accident report)

in Volume I of FATAL ARMY AIR FORCES AVIATION ACCIDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1941-1945.

Chuck, almost every fatal AAF accident occurring in the US during WWII can be found in this book.

The accident was no secret--it was on the front page of many newspapers.

Good Luck with your research

TonyM.

Last edited by TonyM on Thu Jan 27, 2011 12:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[Obergrafeter]

Is that article correct..............Eddie Allen only 26 years old?

[The Inspector]

The photo with the logo painted on the wall is (was since the buiding was torn down for an office building years ago) on the North side of the building facing towards downtown Seattle, Boeing Field is out the top right of the photo. The METRO TRANSIT Atlantic St. base (then Seattle Transit) is sort of off the lower right corner of the picture and just to the West (right side) now sits QWEST Field home of the Seadisappointments and SAFECO Field home of the 'what!?! another 100 game losing season?" MARINERS. At least we unloaded the not so SUPERSONICS on Oklahoma City-and you're welcome to them!

As a kid, I remember being able to see where the brickwork was replaced during the rebuild as my folks and me rode to and from my Grandmothers place.

[Scott Keller]

According to Boeing's archives, Eddie Allen was born on Jan. 4, 1896.

Scott

[Obergrafeter]

OK 47 years old, much more believable. The article said he was born in 1917 making him 26 is a mistake.

[JohnB]

Last year, FlyPast ran a nice article on it. It featured some nice photos I hadn't seen before.

Years ago I was researching my Masters thesis and came across at academic paper someone did on wartime censorship that had a section on the crash.
To make a long story short, the media went along with the wishes of the Army and didn't ID the plane type, IIRC only calling it an "Army bomber"...eleading most people to think it was a B-17. The FlyPast article saws photos of the building were airbrushed to remove anyaircraft wreckage.

I'd love to learn more aboutthe crash, especially the aforementioned security concerns.

[b29flteng]

The cause of the crash was fuel leaking into the leading edge of the wing onto the hot engine exhaust. The first design of the airplane had the refueling caps in the wing leading edge throught the front spar. The scupper drain for the cap was leaking into the wing leading edge and flowing down the wing and into the hot engine compartment and on to the hot exhaust. Smoke and fumes flowed into the cockpit through the leading edge, most WWII bombers have this airflow pattern, and the smoke filled the compartment. The pilot opened his window but that made it worse, overcome by smoke the plane crashed. Shutting down the engine and blowing the fire bottles wouldn't have saved the plane. The fuel tank filler caps were moved to a more conventional place and the smoke elimination procedure is to lower the nose gear and open the forward crew entrance door, and keep the pilots windows closed, causing the smoke to flow out the crew door.

[Holedigger]

A couple more pics of the crash site at the following link. They press did report, but very carefully to avoid giving away critical info.

http://books.google.com/books?id=VzT9lk ... &q&f=false

[TonyM]

There is an accident report for this B-29 crash, available to anyone. It is substantial.

TM

[The Inspector]

Found the article in Paul Dorpats site-go to http://www.pauldorpat.com, click on the box on the right side that says 'Seattle then and now' with the sort of pink-ish block, when you're in there, scroll down the list of articles to the listings header for 2010, drop down 10 items to '2010-03-06 Secret Crash' and click into that. Lots of now and then photos and information.

I also recall reading somewhere years and years ago that the Army had the Seattle Police confiscate every camera from every newspaper photographer there. The Army developed the film, kept any that showed any part of the airplane, and gave the others back to the newspapers for the morning editions.

[The Inspector]

Through GOOGLE links I found an on line copy of a book by Cory Graff called 'Images of Boeing Field' which covers more of the crash including other, different photos and an artists impression of the crash from the perspective of the hill East of the packing plant.