O-365690Ronald A Harte Maj IN 25-MAY-1945 B-29 #42-65269

Maj Ronald Alvin Harte (1915-1945) - Find A Grave Memorial

The surviving crew member, Sgt. Dale Johnson, gave the following account of the fate of the crew and their plane:

"On the mission of the May 25, 1945, everything was going fine until we got near Tokyo and made our turn toward the target. Our altitude was pretty low, we all thought. The searchlights started to pick us up. We could have read a newspaper in the gunner's compartment. We had dropped our bombs before we were hit."

"I think we were hit by anti-aircraft. There was no communication from any crew members after we were hit. The plane had a big hole near my position (Right Gunner), and I felt it (the plane) was falling so I rolled out the hole, waited a few seconds and pulled the rip cord on my chute. That was the last I saw of any members of my crew. I landed on the edge of a bay or lake."

B-29 #269 spiraled to the surface and crashed. Only Sgt. Dale Johnson escaped the doomed plane. He was captured by the Japanese and spent the next two months in a Prisoner of War camp. The bodies of his ten crew members were never recovered and the men were listed as missing in action.

MACR 14508

APC Pilot: O-365690Ronald A Harte Maj IN 25-July-1945 B-29 #42-65269 tail code: Triangle-S

44th Bomber Squadron, 40th Bombardment Group (VH), 58th Bomb Wing, XXI Bomber Command, 20th Air Force at West Field on Tinian in the Mariana Islands; Western Pacific Theatre of Operations

Flight Engineer: O-864895George Patrick Appignani 1Lt NY

Bombardier: O-685433Robert Lind Brush 1Lt NY

Radio: 31271201Edward Allan Gisburne, Jr. SSgt MA

LB Gunner: 31246742Clement Edmund Gorman PFC RI

Pilot right seat: O-807424James Deans Haddow, Jr. 1Lt Jersey City, NJ

Navigator: O-690457Harry Oliver Lee, Jr. 1Lt Bedford, IN

CFC Ring Gunner: 32764766Algernon Matulis SSgt NJ

RADAR: 18076688Lyman York McGehee SSgt TX

Tail Gunner: 7022441Harry Spack TSgt PA

Harte's Crew B-29 42-65269: a Virtual Cemetery - Find A Grave