Crash of a Boeing B-29A-70-BN Superfortress in Suwon

The B-29 was part of a three wing formation aimed at destroying railway bridges across the Yalu river at Sinuiju and Antung. This was a dangerous daylight mission that was so disastrous for the Air Force that on the following days the planes were painted black on the bottom and scheduled for safer night time raids. The aircraft was acting as the electronics countermeasure aircraft for that particular bombing mission. Its job was to confuse enemy ground radar through the use of electronic jamming equipment combined with the dropping of aluminum foil strips called chaff. It was in the slot (last) position of the 2nd group (of 3 groups) which put it in the middle of the 3 groups. There was some space between each group. This B-29 had some engine trouble (from age) causing it to slow down, so rather than force its own group to slow down it dropped from the last spot of the 2nd group back to become the lead plane of the next group (the 22nd Bomb Squadron). It was during this brief unfortunate window that the Russian piloted MiG-15's attacked, finding a lone B-29 all by itself between two groups. The aircraft was damaged by the MiG-15s. A fire erupted forcing seven crew members to bail out; they became PoWs. The remaining crew managed to extinguish the fire and nursed the aircraft back to Suwon AFB, South Korea. Badly damaged, the crew did not attempt to land but bailed out, leaving the aircraft to crash into a hill near Suwon, 10 miles S of Seoul.
Crew:
1st Lt Henry N. Anderson,
1st Lt Charles N. Banchiera,
Cpl Edward F. Clements,
Cpt Jack W. Frost,
Sgt Floyd T. Hobbs,
M/Sgt Owen M. King,
1st Lt Paul D. Lehman,
1st Lt Francis J. Liberatore,
1st Lt Charles W. Matt,
1st Lt Pierre E. Nys,
S/Sgt John L. O'Flynn,
Cpt Stanley N. Prewdzik
Cpl Thomas H. Protiva Jr.,
Sgt John B. Tutt.
Source:
http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1944_4.html