[ARC5] Camel's hump B-24 wreck site

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On 4/25/05, Clarence M. Owens <Owens_Clarence_M at cat.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> By the way, there are some good pictures of the B-24 remains on Camel's
> Hump and the commemorative plaque at this site:
> 
> http://wandel.ca/camelshump/

On 4/25/05, Clarence M. Owens <Owens_Clarence_M at cat.com> wrote:
>
>
> By the way, there are some good pictures of the B-24 remains on Camel's
> Hump and the commemorative plaque at this site:
>
> http://wandel.ca/camelshump/

Yep, that's the wing/gear strut on the Forestry Trail. Not easy to
tell in the picture, but there is a steep drop off directly behind the
back edge. There is also a supercharger/turbocharger unit down below
and a few other odds and ends that weren't discovered by the locals. A
section of fuselage survived, although I've never found it. Did find
what looked like the remains of a tire, round steel wires with rubber
chunks still attached.

Story from Les Relation, K1OXG who was a radio operator in one of the
other B-24s that night is that they think the pilot dozed and no one
noticed their proximity to the mountain until it was too late. They
caught the tip of the port wing on the rocks near the summit (there is
still a large scrape) which cartwheeled them around and into the side
of the mountain a hundred feet or so below. They were flying out of a
field in Massachussets, IIRC. Les said the base called and called for
the other plane but no response, he figured they were having radio
trouble.

Official crews came to search but wx was bad so they delayed. The
local Boy Scout troop wasn't deterred though, and found the only
survivor. Army found enough piecesparts of remaining crew to send to
families and said case closed. Following spring some locals were up
recovering aluminum and found a crewmember in flight gear hanging in a
tree from his chute, which had apparently deployed on impact. Family
had made their peace and didn't want remains back, at least initially.

Quite a story. If you ever meet K1OXG on air, ask him about it. He has
some very interesting stories about flak over Europe, as well as
buzzing his mom over in Northfield during one of their training
flights, while she was hanging out the laundry. And he has a lot of
info on the radio gear used (plenty of stories about it, too!).

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ