Commando 42-96779

VARIANT: Curtiss C-46A-45-CU Commando

USAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 42-96779

CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 30441

COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): CU977

FATE: Written off

  September 1944 to December 1944

  42-96779 - USAAF (USA)

13 September 1944

Delivered from the Curtiss-Wright factory in Buffalo, NY.

29 October 1944

Assigned to 20th Air Force, XX Bomber Command, 2^nd Air Transport Squadron (Mobile), based at RAF Kalaikunda, Bengal, India.

31 October 1944

Moved with 2^nd Air Transport Squadron to Dergaon, Assam, India.

November 1944

Moved with 2^nd Air Transport Squadron to Luliang, Yunnan, China.

10 December 1944

Shot down by Japanese fighters near Kaifeng, Henan, China (1/4 fatality). [MACR 10380]

Crew:
2^nd Lt Albert J. Fisher, Pilot (rescued)
1^st Lt George E. McGuire, Copilot (killed, body recovered)
S/Sgt Peter M. Kouzes, Radio Operator (rescued)
Sgt Elon W. Patterson, Crew Chief (rescued)

The Commando was operating a flight between Luliang, Yunnan to Laohekou, Hubei, China with a cargo of gasoline barrels. The crew became lost in poor weather and overshot their destination by 350 km, breaking out of the weather near Kaifeng. A Japanese fighter attacked the Commando, and set the right engine on fire. The pilot ordered the crew to bail out while the fighter was making more passes. The copilot did not survive. Once on the ground, the survivors took cover in the woods until the fighter departed.

A patrol of Nationalist soldiers under the command of General Wang Dagong picked them up later in the day and took them to a small village near the border of Henan and Hebei provinces, north of the Yellow River. They had been there for a week when, on the night of 20 December, Communist troops attacked. The battle lasted for 32 hours. The airmen sheltered in the attic of a mud building through the night while the Communists fired with machine guns, mortars, and light artillery. Around 1100 hours on 21 December, soldiers climbed atop the building and tore a hole in the slate roof, dropping grenades into the room. Fisher led his crew running out the front door into the middle of the firefight. One of the Communist officers recognized them as Americans immediately. His troops stopped firing long enough to bring them safely behind their lines. The battle resumed and lasted until 0400 hours the next morning.

The Communist troops wiped out the entire Nationalist garrison, including General Wang himself. Their commanding officer pretended to have attacked the town to rescue the Americans. He alleged that General Wang had connections to a traitor and the Communist troops liberated the airmen before they could be handed over to the Japanese.

Only on 3 March 1945 did Captain Robert E. Kunz come to pick the men up, along with 6 other downed airmen, in a B-25 Mitchell. They landed to safety at Xinjin near Chengdu, Sichuan.

13 December 1944

Condemned for salvage.

Below: 42-96779 somewhere in the China-Burma-India theatre.
Photo credit: USAF Museum