August 3, 1944 - Charles Simonson Protects a Damaged B - 26

I interviewed Charles Simsonson at his home and he told us of a mid air collision of two B-26s from the 397th Bomb Group.

After the collision, one plane had its tail ripped off and the other has its nose damaged. The plane with out the tail went down. The other plane was still able to fly and Charles Simonson flew wing to that plane and helped it get back to the round safely in Caen.

I have been editing this segment today and spent some time researching the event on the web. I was able to find a great website where there are three mentions of the accident. The main page is at www.b-26marauderarchive.org


Here are some still screen captures from the website. (I have an email to them asking permission to use the diary pages in the documentary.)

1) From the diary of Allen Wright Stephens - He dated the event as having occurred on August 2 (not the 3rd)






2) From the diary of B 26 pilot Marvin Schulze









3) From the diary kept by Albert Neil McGinnis

Update and New Art Owen Photos

Well, the new house I had put an offer on did not work out. The home inspection went terrible! So I am staying put for while here in Porter Ranch.

The last few months have been spent looking for a house, working lots of overtime and evacuating fire zones. Things seem to have calmed down quite a bit. I was able to get all my computers up and running tonight (they had been in my garage since we were able to return from being evacuated.)

And so now I have some free time to work on the documentaries again.

I just scanned some photos that Art Owen's family gave me at the last reunion.

Here are 2 of the scans.