Last Flight of the Diamond Bomber by James Carron

Author:James Carron [Carron, James]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Amenta Publishing
Published: 2014-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

A USAF photo of the wreckage taken during the subsequent crash investigation

The Dundee Courier article also confirmed that while initial approaches were underway from the east, a search party also reached the crash site from Strachur on the day of the accident. It reported that Dr W D McLellan, from Strachur, climbed to the scene with officers from Argyll Constabulary.

‘He established that there were at least six bodies, but owing to gathering darkness a full search could not be made. No attempt was made to bring the bodies down the hillside in the darkness,’ the paper stated.

The article also quoted a USAF spokesman who said: ‘We still have a faint hope that there may be survivors who were able to use a parachute and may be lost in the very difficult country.’

Tragically this was not the case.

In an articled filed from Strachur at 1am on January 18, the Aberdeen Journal reported that the wreckage was still burning despite gale force winds and heavy snow and sleet showers.

‘It was impossible because of the wild weather to take the bodies down yesterday evening and the police decided to suspend operations until dawn,’ the article continued. ‘So far only seven bodies have been definitely located.’

While Argyll Constabulary continued to investigate the incident on the ground, the British Air Ministry and USAF mounted their response to the accident. The loss of 44-62276 was officially confirmed on the afternoon of January 17 and officials at Smoky Hill released the names of the deceased airmen.

The RAF Rescue Co-ordination Centre put the RAF Kinloss Mountain Rescue Team (MRT), based in Morayshire, on alert and arranged a flight to Prestwick and then Royal Navy road and ferry transport to Strachur for an advance rescue party. Other members of the team would follow by road once details of the nature and scale of the operation became clearer.

However, just as members of the team were about to set off, they received a telephone call telling them to stand down. The USAF planned to handle the incident itself.

At around the same time, a team of six USAF accident investigators was dispatched to the scene from the US Army base at Burtonwood, Lancashire. Travelling via Dunoon, they arrived at Strachur late in the day and found lodgings in a local hotel. At 7.45pm they submitted their preliminary report listing the names of all 20 men on board. At that point, the fate of each simply read: ‘Injury unknown’.

The report stated: ‘On 17th January, 1949, at approximately 0940, 12 miles west of Dunoon, Scotland, B-29A 44-62276 crashed and burned. Cause of accident undetermined at present time. There are unknown fatalities. The rough and isolated terrain are greatly hampering rescue operations.’

The report also included an unconfirmed report that a local shepherd who identified the number ‘27’ on the tail section of the aircraft located the wreckage. It added that the last signal received from the aircraft by air traffic control at Prestwick was logged at approximately 09.30am.

At first light on the morning of Tuesday,

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