Submitted photo
Submitted photo
On Sept. 7, 1944, a B-25 Mitchell Bomber crashed near Quaker Gap in Stokes County. Pictured is a memorial that was recently donated by the Walnut Cove chapter of the Veterans for Foreign Wars that has the names and the ranks of the five men that died in the plane crash.
Submitted photo
A cross, that is 5 feet by 3.5 feet wide and about 12 inches thick, was created to honor those that lost their lives on Sept. 7, 1944 when a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed in Stokes County. There are pieces of the aircraft embedded in the upper surface of the cross.
Submitted photo
Pictured is a replica of the B-25 Mitchell bomber that crashed in Stokes County in 1944. The B-25 was taken at an airshow at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro. The only difference between the one pictured and the one that crashed is the color. The one that crashed in 1944 was olive green. This one is a shiny silver.
Billy Joyce remembers it like it was yesterday.
As a four-year-old boy, 20 days short of his fifth birthday, Joyce was playing outside with his brother on a typical September afternoon when it happened.
On September 7, 1944, a group of World War II military planes were heading south from Virginia and flew in formation over the Stokes County mountains. All of a sudden, one of the planes veered out of formation and started spewing black smoke from its tail.
The smoke eventually developed into flames, and it was just a matter of seconds before there were two separate explosions.
Wreckage strewn over several hundred yards indicated that the plane’s high octane fuel tanks exploded before crashing into the woods near Sizemore Road in Quaker Gap. The crash took place near Joyce’s grandfather’s house, and as soon as they saw it, his family immediately started driving towards the site.
“It got lower to the ground and then it was just a steady steam of black smoke,” said Joyce, who is now 71 years old. “It was far enough that I don’t remember the sound of any explosion. Mom got us into the car, and we drove towards Grandpa’s house, and we were just a quarter of a mile from the South Stokes Volunteer Fire Department. When we arrived, there were already guards preventing sightseers from getting close to the crash site. Other planes were circling where the smoke was billowing from the steep Stokes County hollow.”
Joyce says that the military spent several days in the county looking in the woods for any information regarding the crash.
“There were military cars and police everywhere,” said Joyce. “They allowed no one near its lines. They were looking for anything that could be of use, but there were only small parts left. Close witnesses said the plane exploded just above treetop and those on board the plane were torn apart.”
The plane was a B-25 Mitchell bomber. The twin-engine, single fuselage, twin-rudder aircraft was the only American military aircraft named after a person, Gen. Billy Mitchell, who is regarded as one of the most famous and controversial figures in the history of American air power.
The crash killed all five crewmen on board, none of whom had any Stokes County connections. The crew, which consisted of two lieutenant and two corporals, hailed from Pennsylvania, New York, Idaho, South Carolina and Alabama.
The crew on board that was killed were: 1st Lt. Walter A. Knecum, 2nd Lt. James G. King Jr., 2nd Lt. William H. Barnes Jr., Corporal Leonard J. Colburn and Corporal Irving Haber. Knecum is believed to have been the pilot instructor and King is believed to have been the pilot of the aircraft. Barnes was the co-pilot, Colburn and Haber are expected to have been the navigator and the tail gunners, respectively.
According to news reports from that day, an identification card was found along with other papers and personal belongings in a wallet. The ID card indicated that one of the men on board’s home base was in Greenville, S.C., which is believed to be where the planes were heading prior to the crash.
The B-25 Mitchell was the bomber used in the Doolittle Raid, which took place on April 18, 1942. In the Doolittle Raid, 16 B-25B’s, led by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, attacked mainland Japan four months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The planes took off from the USS Hornet and successfully bombed Tokyo and four other Japanese cities without loss.
Unfortunately, 15 of the planes eventually crash-landed en route to recovery fields in China. Only one plane landed intact, coming down in the Soviet Union. The aircraft was confiscated, and all five crew members of the plane were killed.
“Despite all 16 planes being lost, the Doolittle Raid was a huge morale boost for America because it showed that we could, in fact, bomb Japan,” said Joyce.
Joyce recently purchased a remote controlled replica of the B-25 bomber that crashed in Stokes County in 1944. He purchased the plane in Elkin and hopes to have it on display at this week’s Memorial Day celebration in King.
The replica weighs about 20 pounds and has an 88-inch wing span and is six-feet long. The replica is not ready for flight, but Joyce says he wants it to just be a memorial.
“If it doesn’t fly, it doesn’t fly,” said Joyce. “I want it to be used as a memorial to honor those who lost their lives back in 1944. That’s all it’s about.”
The Memorial Day celebration will take place at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Veteran’s Memorial at Central Park in King. Retired Army Colonel Rick Morris will serve as the guest speaker. Congresswoman Virginia Foxx will also be in attendance.
If it rains, the event will be moved to 5 p.m. Monday.
At the crash site today, there still stands a memorial dedicated to the five men who lost their lives in Stokes County on that tragic afternoon in 1944.
At the site is a cross made of concrete with small parts of the plane embedded in the upper surface. The cross is about 5 x 3.5-feet and is about 12 inches thick.
“A few years ago, the Walnut Cove chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars had a program there and installed a stone with the names of the five who gave their lives for their country right here in Stokes County,” said Joyce.
On this Memorial Day weekend, the crash site, which is deep in the woods near the South Stokes Volunteer Fire Department, serves as a reminder to Stokes County natives, residents and visitors that history was made in this county.
“It just reminds people that there is a piece of American history right here in Stokes County,” said Joyce. “It’s just one of those things that makes you proud to be an American.”
