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Pages of History
“17 DIE IN THE CRASH OF TWO BIG BOMBERS,” was the lead story in the Advocate of Aug. 9, 1944.
Even though no local people were killed or injured, the crash was one of Laurel‘s biggest news stories of the century. The story was picked up by the Associated Press and distributed to newspapers all over the country.
Shortly before noon on the morning of Saturday, Aug. 5, 1944, people heard the drone of large planes approaching Laurel from the east. At least some of the planes were the new B-17G bombers shown to the public for the first time at an open house at the Sioux City airbase on Aug. 1.
B-17 “Liberators” were large planes with wingspans of more than 100 feet and an empty weight of more than 36,000 pounds. Upon each wing was mounted four nine-cylinder radial engines each developing 1200 horsepower.
The planes had been on a training flight and were returning to the base where the Sioux Gateway airport is now located. The pilots were flying in a V-shaped combat formation consisting of one six-plane squadron in the center, a six-plane squadron above and to the right, and another six-plane squadron lower down and to the left.
Although staggered in altitude, the planes in each squadron were spaced fairly close together with wingtip separations of around 50 feet. B-17s were notoriously difficult to control and pilots had to pay close attention at all times. But these young pilots were still training and inexperienced in formation flying. The bombers passed over Laurel roughly a quarter mile north of 870 Road. Although such flights were common in the skies over Laurel during the summer of 1944, most people stopped what they were doing and looked up when big planes went over.
What they saw on that warm August morning was horrifying. Just as the bombers passed over the northern edge of Laurel, the planes attempted to execute a 180 degree turn while flying in formation. This maneuver involved having the right (upper) squadron move to the left over the lead (center) squadron while the planes were making the turn in unison.
“The beautiful sight was suddenly turned into one of horror and grim tragedy,” reported the Advocate. Two of the big planes collided in the air. The plane piloted by Lt. Joseph E. Mead fell almost straight down and hit the ground near the edge of a cornfield on the Chris Helwig farm about 2 1/2 miles east of town and just north of the correction line road. The impact was so great that the heavy engines buried themselves so deeply in the ground that they could not be seen. All nine crew members aboard this plane were killed.
The other plane exploded in mid air, scattering bodies and pieces of the aircraft over a wide area south of the spot where the first plane hit the ground. Eight of the nine men on board were killed. Miraculously the pilot, Lt. Charles A. Van Pelt of Dayton, Illinois, was blown clear of the plane by the explosion and managed to parachute to the ground.
Harry Joy, who farmed west of the scene of the second crash, immediately jumped in his pickup and rushed to the site. There he found Lt. Van Pelt struggling to get out of his parachute harness. Joy helped the dazed airman into his truck and drove him to Dr. R.P. Carroll’s office where he was treated for relatively minor injuries. Van Pelt was the only survivor of the 18 men aboard the two downed aircraft.
Several eyewitnesses claimed they saw a smaller plane darting in and out of the bomber formation and thought this might have been the plane that caused the collision. That was the story picked up by the Associated Press and published in newspapers throughout the country.
But no wreckage from a third plane was found, and military authorities from the Sioux City airbase confirmed that all of the smaller aircraft participating in a simulated interception of the bombers had returned safely. It was later decided that the severed tail section of one of the bombers was likely mistaken for a third plane as it spiraled to the ground.
Lieutenant Paul Honke of Naper, NE, who was piloting another B-17, did not mention a third plane. “I was also flying in this formation and was just behind one of the planes that crashed. The pilot was flying too close and got into the prop wash of the lead ship. It threw him to one side and he hit another plane. One plane crashed and burned and none of the nine crew members escaped. The pilot got out of the other plane but eight crew members were killed.”
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