Patrick County In World War Two
The National World War Two Memorial in Washington, D. C.
American reporter Ernie Pyle wrote on June 12, 1944, "In this
column I want to tell you what the opening of the second front entailed,
so that you can know and appreciate and forever be humbly grateful to
those both dead and alive who did it for you."
General Omar N. Bradley summed up the sacrifice made that day sixty
years ago, "I have returned many times to honor the valiant men who died
on that beach. They should never be forgotten.
Nor should those who lived to carry the day by the slimmest of
margins. "History should give us pause to think about those young men
now old who fought in that war.
My boyhood friend Teddy Guynn hauled granite from nearby Mount Airy,
North Carolina, to Washington D. C. to become part of the World War Two
Memorial that will honor his father, Theodore Guynn and countless others.
Although Tom Hank’s character last words in Saving Private Ryan are
part of Hollywood make believe, we should not take freedom for granted.
We should all "Earn this" freedom these men fought and died for.
Patrick County Soldiers Who Gave All In World War Two
HASSELL G. ANDERSON
JOHN V. ANTHONY
RICHARD G. AYERS
SYKES L. BEASLEY
THOMAS C. BINGMAN
HARLIN H. BOYD
WINFRED B. BRANCH
WARREN G. BRIM
JOHN T. CAMPBELL
ESTEL C. CONNER
GLEN R. CORN
GUY E. CORNS
JOHN H. DALTON
HOWARD E. DAWSON
LEONIDAS C. DICKERSON, JR.
JOHN J. DILLON
WILLIAM D. DUNCAN
EUGENE C. FOLEY
JOHN W. GATES, JR.
HARBOUR GILLEY
DALLAS J. GOIN
LEONARD A. HAZELWOOD
JAMES R. HEATH
ARTHUR R. HIATT
CECIL F. HUBBARD
ELMER L. HUBBARD
CECIL H. HUBBARD
PATEN A. JEFFERSON
RAYMOND W. JOYCE
ELISHA J. KNOWLES
GUY D. MABE
HERBERT L. MARSHALL
JAMES J. MARTIN
SHUBLE W. MARTIN
FRANK MILLS
ORBY M. NESTER
RICHARD M. PALMER
WILLIAM R. PALMER
JAMES A. PORTER
WILLIS G. POWELL
BUREN D. RAKES
ELMER F. RAKES
CECIL G. ROGERS
PAUL W. RORRER
CARL W. SHELOR
MAURICE W. SHELOR
THOMAS H. SHELOR
JOHN D. SHOUGH
FLOYD G. SMITH
SILAS W. SMITH
ISIAH J. SPENCER
HARRY L. STOWE
FRANK W. TAYLOR
GORDEN L. TRENT, JR.
JOSEPH H. VIPPERMAN
JOEL G. WILLIAMS
LEONARD E. WILLIAMS
ROBERT M. YATES
CLAUDE A. YEATTS
Patrick County's World War Two Plane Crash On Bull Mountain
The Story...
Teenager Leland Martin of Patrick County was walking home after seeing a movie in the town of Stuart, Virginia, on the night of March 15, 1944. The night was clear and cloudless. He noted a low flying plane, a bomber circling over the countryside. The plane heading north swung to the west. Martin saw a flash around ten o'clock on the mountain. Martin went first to the home of Bill Wood and then to James Taylor to let someone know what he saw. The three of them, Martin, Taylor and Wood went up the mountain to the crash site. When Leland went to school in Critz the next day he went to every class to tell what he saw. Leland Martin joined the Air Force and became a bomber pilot as a Colonel. He works with the Confederate Air Force in Texas. In the spring of 1944 World War Two raged all over the world.
In Patrick County, Virginia, a ten year old boy saw a light on Bull Mountain he had never seen before. This was Clarence Hall's first recollection of this historical event that would become his hobby. His story is like many other involved in history beginning at a young age with a pivotal event. What Clarence Hall observed was the fire occurring after ten o'clock on the night of Wednesday, March 15, 1944, when a B24E Liberator aircraft crashed and burned on impact on 3,000 foot Bull Mountain.
Anyone with
information may contact Clarence E. Hall, 4388 Salem Highway, Stuart, VA 24171.
cehall1@embarqmail.com
The Mission...
Eleven young men left on a point to point navigational mission from an air base near Charleston, South Carolina, on a four hour mission to Mount Airy, North Carolina, to Madison, North Carolina, at 5,500 feet, to Florence, South Carolina at 4,500 feet and then back to Charleston, South Carolina. The crew left Charleston at eight minutes before 8 p. m. flying a B-24E Liberator airplane #42-7417 with a full load of fuel enough for nine hours of flying. They flew to Elkin, North Carolina, to signal the family of Pilot Gilbert Felts. The plane was to fly at 5,500 feet. The plane got off course during the Mount Airy to Madison part. From oral interviews, people in Woolwine saw the plane and from a Freedom of Information Act request on the official report of the crash. We speculate the pilots mistook the Mayo River for the Dan River, which would lead them to Madison, North Carolina.
An interesting note about missions of this type during World War Two is that the names of the towns were painted on top of prominent buildings such as the George Building in Stuart, the location of Stuart Motor Company. There were few outside lights and during the war blackout conditions existed, so finding an exact location relied on railroads, streams and highways.
The plane flew over Elkin at 9 p.m. flashing the search and landing lights at his to signal the Felts Family as it was just a few miles from Mount Airy. Near, the "Granite City" resident John Wolfe(Worth) saw the plane flying low over a river bottom. He thought they were trying to land.
Clarence Hall believes they got lost on the Mount Airy to Madison section of the mission and came down from the altitude of 5,500 feet to search for the Dan River and mistakenly found the Mayo River. The Blue Ridge Mountains of the Appalachian Range rise up to 3,000 feet above sea level in this area and the first extension of the range is Bull Mountain in eastern Patrick County. The mountains near Madison, North Carolina, did not rise to the heights near Stuart and the crew may not have realized the danger.
They flew on both sides of the Mayo River, named for one of the surveyors who accompanied William Byrd II on the first survey of the state line in 1728 between North Carolina and Virginia. From Amostown, near Sandy Ridge, North Carolina, along the Mayo they flew towards the town of Stuart, local residents saw the plane circling and then went North. Clarence speculates the crew thought Stuart was Madison and searched for railroad tracks to lead them out of the town. They flew over Patrick Springs and then turned west towards Bull Mountain, where they crashed near the fire tower that exists today on the mountain. The pilot apparently saw the mountain and tried to pull the aircraft up. Thirty feet higher and the B-24E Liberator would have missed the mountain.
The Men...
Eleven young men died that night on the night navigational mission:
The pilot, Lieutenant Gilbert R. Felts, age 26, of Elkin, North Carolina. Members of the Felts Family visited the crash site the week after the tragedy. His sisters Dorothy and Louise and brother Arthur attended the courthouse dedication ceremony.
The co-pilot, Lieutenant John R. Gipson, age 22, of Logansport, Indiana. Gipson's brother, George, stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, came and spent the night with the family of Martin in Critz, Virginia. He wanted to make sure his brother was identified correctly. A sister, Bettie and her husband, Bob Barr, live in Longansport, Indiana, came to see the courthouse marker in 1995 and watch a video of the dedication ceremony.
The instructor, Lieutenant Aubrey E. Brown, age 24, of Dallas, Texas. Brown had been overseas on one tour of duty in the war. He had no brothers and sisters, but did have a wife. None of his family were located.
The bombardier Lieutenant Wayne R. Alber, age 22, of Manchester, Michigan. His brothers and sisters came to the dedication ceremony.
The navigator, Flight Officer Howard A. Jennett, age 21, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Clarence could not contact any member of his family.
The assistant radio operator, Sergeant Neale M. Narramore, age 21, of Elmdale, Kansas. The assistant engineer, Corporal Joseph L. Fountain, age 23, of Warren Massachusetts. Mr. Milton Fountain came in 1944 and visited the crash site.
The engineer, Corporal Charlie B. Herring, age 23, of Oxford, North Carolina. Herring Family members or at least his father came in 1944 to visit the crash site. His sister, Mamie Mullins, donated her brother's watch and the flag from his funeral to the Patrick County Historical Museum and came to the dedication ceremony.
The gunner, Corporal Charles D. Libbey, age 19, of Waukesha, Wisconsin. His brother, Fred, came to the dedication ceremony. The two brother rode bicycles from Wisconsin to California in 1939.
The radio operator, Corporal Carl E. Pierce, age 23, of Knoxville, Tennessee. Clarence Hall located two sisters in 1997 after the dedication ceremony.
The gunner, Private First Class James J. Tiffner, age 20, of Alkol, West Virginia. The Tiffner Family visited the crash site in 1944 and the dedication ceremony.
The Plane...
The B-24E Liberator Bomber crashed on March 15, 1944, at 10 p.m. on Bull Mountain. Over 18,000 of these planes were built from 1939 through 1945. Constructed mainly in San Diego, California, and Fort Worth, Texas, by Consolidated Aircraft. Ford built them at Willow Run, Michigan, and North American built them at Dallas, Texas.
Air Forces from eight countries flew the B-24 during World War Two including Australia, Canada, China, Great Britain, India, Netherlands, South Africa and Yugoslavia. Eight Groups of the U. S. Army Air Corps flew the B-24 from the ice and cold of the Aleutians Islands to the sand and desert of North Africa.
The plane was 66 feet long with a wingspan of 110 feet. It had a gross weight of 58,000 pounds and carried 3,000 gallons of fuel and 68 gallons of oil for the four 1830-94 Pratt and Whitney engines that each produced 1200 pounds of horsepower. The plane consumed 200 gallons of fuel per hour reaching a cruising speed of 200 miles per hour and a top speed of 275 miles per hour.
Click Here To Learn More About The Plane
The Crash...
The plane crashed into Bull Mountain around 10 p. m. exploding on impact sending parts all over the ridge and down the opposite side of the mountain from the initial impact. Most of the crew died on impact or from the intense fire that the large amount of fuel caused. Bodies were burned beyond recognition along with large amounts of magnesium, aluminum. A forest fire erupted that took well into the next day to control. One of the crew's watches was found stopped a few seconds after 10 p. m.
The first local men to reach site of the plane crash were Roy Pilson and Arnold Wright. It took the pair about an hour to make it up the mountain near the then and present day fire tower. Unbelievably, a man named Ross was in the fire tower had not seen or heard the crash on the mountain and would not accompany the pair to the site. The two men found a hole in the circle of fire and entered the crash zone. After determining no one was alive and fearing possible unexploded bombs, the two left when other arrived at the scene.
Moir Clark led a rescue team including Elmer Smith, Grady Creasy, Guy Haley and others up Bull Mountain to the crash site. The area of the crash still shows scars of the impact of the engines and places nearby that the temperature grew so intense and melted the aluminum of the plane that grass will not grow.
The military came early the next day, March 16, 1944, and took control of the scene. The bodies of the crew were taken to Mays Funeral Home and shipped to their respective families. Five of the families visited the crash site over the years.
In the aftermath of the crash the engines were blown up with dynamite to safeguard them from theft. The only piece of any size from the plane is a gun turret at the bottom of a ravine west of the impact area. The holes made by the engines are still visible at the crash site. Today the crash site is on private land belonging to local Veterinarian Dr. Lock Boyce.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE CRASH SITE
Remembering...
Clarence Hall did research for many years contacting all, but one of the crew's families. Beginning in 1993, with a request for information from Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. Clarence eventually contacted Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, where the crash reports are stored. He received a reply dated March 15, 1994, exactly fifty years to the day of the crash.
Clarence interviewed many local residents alive when the crash occurred among the Moir Clark, who led the rescue team and brought all, but one of the bodies out. Elmer Smith told of his experiences. Clarence looked at 1975 article by James Plaster about the crash. He enlisted the help of Hamon Wilson, Lloyd Goad and Earl Creasey to find the site of the crash. Goad donated a propeller blade for the monument on the mountain and Escar Stone donated the propeller blade on display in the museum. The latter heard the engines of the plane the night of the crash and stated the engines revved up just before the crash as if the pilots were trying to go higher to miss the mountain. Apparently, getting souvenirs from the crash site was a local avocation afterwards with many people coming out with small pieces from the plane.
Many members of the families visited Patrick County including attending the dedication of the two monuments in honor of the fallen aviators. Mr. Hall wrote an article on the crash on page 80 of Volume One of the Patrick County Heritage Book. He setup a large collection of materials relating to the crash on display in the Patrick County Historical Museum in Stuart, Virginia.
Clarence Hall eventually made contact with all the families except for Flight Officer Howard Jennett of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Lieutenant Aubrey E. Brown of Dallas, Texas.
Courthouse Marker
Twenty-one veterans of Patrick County gave money to place a marker on the grounds of the Patrick County Courthouse in Stuart, Virginia, to honor the memory of the eleven men who died on Bull Mountain. A ceremony held on October 16, 1994 at 2 p.m. included an address by Brigadier General Stanley O. Smith retired, a native of Patrick County, who makes his home in Raleigh, North Carolina, gave the keynote address. Stanley flew over 150 missions in Vietnam.
Clarence and Marshall Hall along with Larry A. Vernon, Howard C. Pilson, Billy A. Dalton, C. Edwin Maness, Charles L. Smart, Lonnie M. Dillon, W. A. Arrington, J. Cornelius Stovall, H. Bruce Dollarhite, Morton W. Lester, Fred M. Ray, James E. Walker, James S. Love, Glenn W. Gunter, Robert M. Carl, Arlis C. Wright, H. Alvin Haley, Ray W. Roberson and Isaac L. Sheppard donated funds to place the marker.
Eight of the eleven families attended the event.
Bull Mountain Marker and Flagpole
In the summer 1994, Clarence and Marshall Hall placed a propeller blade from the crash, donated by Lloyd Goad at the site of the crash on Bull Mountain.
Exhibit At The Patrick County Historical Museum
A display case of materials donated by Clarence Hall relating to the
World War Two plane crash on Bull Mountain including a scrapbook
of the project is on display in the Patrick County Historical Museum
on Blue Ridge Street in Stuart, Virginia.
Patrick County People Who Fought In World War Two Coming Soon...
Left, one of two lists at the Patrick County Courthouse naming Patrick County
Veterans from World War Two. Right, monument on the Patrick County Courthouse
grounds honoring those from Patrick County who died in World War Two.
Below, left to right Bull Mountain, Vietnam and World War Two monuments on
the grounds of the Patrick County Courthouse.
Related Stories From WORLD WAR TWO
Virginia on D-Day
Over sixty years ago at 6:30 a. m. on June 6, 1944, a group of men from Virginia specifically Company A, 116th Regiment, 29th Division landed on a beach near Vierville, in the Province of Normandy in France. Waiting for them was the 352nd Infantry Division of Adolph Hitler’s German Army. It was D-day, departure day, for what General Dwight D. Eisenhower called Operation Overlord, the invasion of continental Europe by forces of Great Britain, Canada, Greece, Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and the United States of America. By darkness, one town in Virginia lost more men than any other and Nazi Germany, the nation British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the "worst evil of modern times" was doomed.
Company A landed on the Dog Green section of Omaha Beach. Steven Spielberg’s film Saving Private Ryan depicted the landings with graphic realism. Author and Englishman Alex Kershaw wrote about the reality for a small Virginia town in The Bedford Boys: One American Town’s Ultimate D-day Sacrifice. Kershaw recently said that he "grew up in freedom because of the sacrifice" of the Virginians.
Nineteen men from a town of 3,000 died on June 6 and three more died during the invasion of Normandy. One hundred and twenty all together from Bedford County lost their lives during World War Two.
Eleven of Bedford’s boys still lie in France, part of a peaceful and prosperous Europe for six decades. These men are a small part of the 15,000 Americans lost in the invasion of Normandy. The United States rebuilt war ravaged Europe under the direction of the Marshall Plan named after another Virginian, General and President Truman’s Secretary of State, George Marshall.
On June 6, 1954, Bedford honored its men with a memorial on the courthouse grounds. Nearby is the Bedford City/County Museum, which includes an exhibit on D-day.
(http://www.bedfordvamuseum.org) Three years ago, the National D-day Memorial opened.
WEB PAGE DEDICATION
In May 2004, a few months after the sixtieth anniversary of the crash,
members of the Patrick County Genealogical Society accompanied Clarence Hall
to the crash site and witnessed the impact craters of the engines
still visible and places on the mountain that foliage will not grow to this
day due to the fire and melted aluminum in the ground. That day we held a moment
of silence for these young men, members of a generation that saved the world from
fascism, We took a moment to thank Clarence Hall for preserving this
part of Patrick County's History.
This webpage is dedicated to the men who lost their lives on Bull Mountain and the people of Patrick County especially Clarence Hall who preserved their memory.
Special thanks to Clarence Hall!
Copyright 2006 Tom Perry. No material to be used without permission. Contact Information: P. O. Box 50 Ararat VA 24053 freestateofpatrick@yahoo.com
