B-17F Crash Site

www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/LeechLake_B-17F_crash_sit... --

"If It Ain't Raining, We Ain't Training..."

... is a phrase often used in the American military to emphasis the necessity of training to fly in any sort of weather. But on this particular training flight, living up to that frequently used quote contributed to the death of 6 men.

A B-17F 'Flying Fortress' bomber, assigned to the 331st Bomb Group's 464th Bomb Squadron. departed the Army Air Base at Capser, Wyoming, at 0311 on the morning of May 30th, 1943, on an over-water training flight to Marysville, California, and Eugene, Oregon.

The flight, part of a 12 bomber training exercise, was suppose to take place in clear weather conditions. However, someone in Marysville cleared the planes for takeoff, despite low flight ceilings and bad weather.

A series of position reports by the bomber gave no indication of any problems with the flight, until after its last report at 0923 Pacific Time. An hour later, when another bomber's position report located it near Medford, Oregon, despite the crew thinking they were near Marysville. After two hours of constant radio contact with the wayward bomber, the plane and crew were saved. But contact had been lost with #318.

Missing in America...

At 1700 hours, efforts to locate #318 via radio were given up. The other 11 bombers had all landed safely, albeit one landed in Red Bluff, California, and another in Medford, but Ship #318 was gone.

For three days, a search for the bomber, and its six Army Air Force personnel, was conducted over land and sea, but no trace of them was found. Several days later, an investigation was begun into the flight, and the likely cause of its disappearance. The investigation committee, a panel of eight officers, concluded in June of 1943, that the loss of the bomber, valued at well over a quarter of a million dollars, was caused by an inadequate weather forecast for the route of flight. Furthermore, they presumed the plane, and its crew, were lost at sea.

On August 10th, a month and a half the accident board concluded, the wreckage of a large aircraft, with six deceased occupants, was found near Leech Lake Mountain, about 10 miles to the northeast of the small town of Covelo in Mendocino county. The next day, the wreckage was positively identified as being that of Ship #318.


The Final Crew of B-17F #42-5318 of the 331st Bomb Group's 464th Bomb Squadron.

Pilot - 2nd Lt. James Owen Westbury - from Alabama - age 25
Co-Pilot - 2nd Lt. William Wedrell Blalock - from Georgia - age 22
Navigator - 2nd Lt. Joseph J. Weitzel - from Pennsylvania -age 22
Bombardier - 2nd Lt. Ralph S. Johnson, Jr. - from Massachusetts - age 23
Flight Engineer - Staff Sgt. Paul P. Schaeffer - from West Virginia - age 27
Radioman - Staff Sgt. Ralph J. Sicking - from Lakewood, Ohio - age 26 - enlisted a year prior