The April 29, 1944 Crash of a B-25 Bomber in Memphis
By Dennis Wolf
Eighty-two years ago today, on April 29, 1944, a Saturday, Memphis experienced a major incident that claimed the lives of 7 people. At approximately 11:00 a.m., a North American B-25D Mitchell twin-engine bomber, United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) serial 41-30830, crashed into a two-story home at 322 North Claybrook between Peach and Larkin. The B-25 had fallen directly on top of the house next to the house on the southeast corner of Claybrook and Peach Street. The building had recently been converted into a 5-family apartment building. The crash site was two blocks from Tech High School (which was not in session because it was a Saturday) and two blocks south of Sears on Crosstown.
The plane was on a training flight and preparing to land at the Memphis Municipal Airport. Three people were on the plane. Captain Ralph Quale was piloting the plane, and Lt. Leon Kleinman of Dallas and Flight Officer Glenn Trickel, from Memphis, were also aboard. Witnesses reported hearing sputtering noises from the engine just before the crash. A least two witnesses stated the plane was flying upside down at one point. Witnesses reported that the pilot appeared to be trying to miss residential areas before it crashed. All three on board were killed.
Four people in the home were killed when it was hit. Norman Cobb, his wife, Naomi, their 2-year-old daughter Garlene, and Beatrice Withers were killed. Norman Cobb was an air traffic controller at the Memphis airport and was scheduled to work that day starting at 4:00 p.m.
Several people reported near misses. Mrs. Marguerite Markson, Mrs. Sam Spiegal, and Miss Rita Rooney were in a first-floor apartment at the front of the building when the plane hit. They felt the house shake and immediately ran into the street.
Mary Withers, the sister of victim Beatrice Withers, had just left the home at 322 North Claybrook and was two blocks away when the crash occurred. Mr. W. D. Parr was outside a gas station at 332 North Cleveland and saw the plane falling from the sky and heading towards him. Because the plane was “zigzagging” he wasn’t sure which way to run. He said the plane dived almost straight down into the house just before it would have reached the gas station.
A young boy, Francis Shepperd, 8, and his friend, William Ruby, 9, were building a treehouse in a tree two houses down from where the plane crashed. The plane clipped the top of the tree just before it crashed, and a piece of the plane hit him and caused a gash on his leg. Both boys were splashed with oil. Had the plane hit Sears Crosstown or the Bowling Alley, the death toll would have been much higher.
The crash ignited a massive fire. The Commercial Appeal said the scene was “a maelstrom of shouting, running people; of siren-screaming fire apparatus and ambulances; of -semi-hysterical women; of grim-faced men who wanted to do something but couldn’t.” Bystanders were able to pull two bodies from the plane before it exploded. The original house that was struck, and two other houses, as well as the plane, were on fire. The gasoline from the plane fed the flames. Signal rockets inside the plane were exploding. Firefighters requested “special chemical units” from the airport to respond to the scene. It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the fire.
The cause of the crash was never determined. The B-25 had been overhauled six days before the crash. The pilot never reported any problems during the flight. One of the investigators from the Army’s Accident Investigation Committee said, “I am as much at a loss as to the cause of the crash as the general public.”
A bit of trivia for this incident is that the first firefighters to arrive just minutes after the crash were dressed in baseball uniforms and cleats. The Memphis Fire Department was playing a baseball game against the Millington Shore Patrol at nearby Hodges Field. The crippled bomber passed over the field before it crashed. The first fire engine to arrive was Engine 7. The incident went to a third alarm, and a total of seven engine companies and two truck companies responded.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from 1927 showing the neighborhood around the crash site.
Firefighting operations at the crash site (colorized photo)
A Total of Three B-25 Bombers Crashed in Memphis During World War II
Two other B-25 bombers crashed in Memphis during World War II. Just 15 days after the Crosstown crash, on Monday, May 15, 1944, at 1:30 a.m., a B-25 bomber crashed just after taking off from the airport. Several witnesses reported hearing the engines making “an unusual noise” on takeoff. One witness said the plane was “barely in the air” before the engines quit completely. This plane crashed and exploded about two miles west of the airport in an open space in the Nonconnah Creek area north of Brooks Road, between Brooks Road and Alcy Avenue. The two flyers on the plane were killed, and no one else was injured or killed in this crash.
The first crash of a B-25 bomber in Memphis occurred on Monday, March 19, 1943. At 3:35 p.m., a B-25 Mitchell crashed in Orange Mound in a pasture on Select Avenue between David Street and Boston Street, just west of Melrose High School. The plane had taken off from the airport just five minutes before it developed engine trouble. The plane clipped several trees and destroyed some outhouses as it crashed. All seven of the service members on the plane survived but were injured. The plane missed three cows that were grazing in the pasture, but two chickens were killed. In this crash, witnesses reported that both engines quit while the plane was in flight, and the pilot managed to steer the plane away from houses in the area.
The B-25 Mitchell and the Memphis Connection
The B-25 is a twin-engine, twin-tailed medium bomber that served in all theaters of World War II. The plane is 52 feet 11 inches in length with a wingspan of 67 feet 7 inches. On missions, the plane operated with a crew of five and could carry 3,000 pounds of bombs at 230 mph.
Photo of a B-25 Mitchell Bomber in Flight
The B-25 was the plane that was used in the Doolittle Raid on the Japanese homeland on April 18, 1942. On that day, sixteen B-25s took off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet and bombed the cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Yokosuka, Nagoya, and Kōbe. This was America’s first strike on the Japanese homeland just 132 days following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The B-25 was made by the North American Aviation Company, and 9,816 were made. The wings and other structural components for the B-25 were made in Memphis at the Fisher-Memphis Aircraft Division plant for assembly at the North American factory in Kansas City, Kansas. The Memphis plant was the former Fisher Body plant, which was converted during World War II to produce aircraft parts. The plant was located at 400 Mahannah Avenue just south of the Wolf River.