Crew #15
Crew of 15th Aircraft - Plane # 40-2267 - "TNT" - Crew from 34th Squadron, 17th Group - (Crash Landing - Ditched off China Coast)
Lieutenant Smith and his crew were assigned to bomb targets in Kobe, southwest of Tokyo. They successfully dropped their payload on a large aircraft factory as well as around the dock yards, before flying on towards China. Smith decided to ditch his bomber in the waters near a small island near Sangchow. All crew members safely exited the aircraft before it sank, and paddled to shore in a life raft. For days the Japanese hunted the area for the American raiders, but evaded them in a Chinese junk. En route to Chuchow Smith learned of Ted Lawson's serious injuries and the evaders traveled on to meet up with him so Lieutenant White could render medical aid.
In the dark rainy night, pilot Lt. Donald Smith finally saw the mountains along the Chinese coastline. He tried in vain to raise the bomber to escape the mountain peaks--the fuel is running out. Smith was then forced to land on the sea, an area less than 500 meters away from the Tantou Mountain Island of east China's Zhejiang Province. The bomber landed steadily on the sea water and the aircrew all was safe without any injury. When the crew swam safely to the shore on the Tantou Mountain Island, they found that gunner(and surgeon) Lt.. Tom "Doc" White was left nowhere. It turned out that White was looking for his "treasures"--a surgical instrument box and a case full of medicine. White failed to find his medicine box, though; he got back his surgical instrument box in the sea. Years later, White still regretted failing to find his medicine box. Had the medicine box not been lost in the sea, Lt. Ted Lawson of Bomber No. 7 might not have lost his leg.
Ma Liangshui was playing cards with friends at home when suddenly he heard barks outside the village. Sparkling flash of flashlights could also be seen in the darkness at the far side of the village. In time of war, those who use flashlight in the night were either enemy soldiers or pirates. In a hurry, The Mas' fled to a mountain behind their house. After a moment of silence, Ma Liangshui's father-in-law volunteered to find what had happened. The old man soon came back and said that there were no pirates at all but a few foreigners. So Ma Liangshui and his family went home and found four foreigners, in odd leather dresses and all wet, in their pigpen. Ma brought them home and his wife Zhao Xiaobao found some dry clothes for them and lit a fire to warm them. Since no one in the village understood any English, it took the Mas'quite some time to identify the four foreigners. With the help of a world map, the Ma's finally knew that the four tall foreigners were U.S. pilots.
At daybreak the next morning, Ma Liangshui helped the four U.S. pilots find Doc White under a huge rock at the entrance of the village. In the night, Ma Liang Shui and other Chinese friends dressed them all up as Chinese fishermen and helped them through the Japanese blockade on a sampan.
Pilot Lt. D.G. Smith
Co-Pilot Lt. G.P. Williams
Navigator Bombardier Lt. H.A. Sessler
Flight Surgeon Lt. T.R. White M.D.
Engineer Gunner Sgt. E.J. Saylor
Saylor
Edward Joseph Saylor, 6569707, Lieutenant Colonel
Sessler
Howard Albert Sessler, 0-43165, Major
Smith
Donald Gregory Smith, 0-389010, Captain
White
Thomas Robert White, 0-420191, Major