CAPTAIN CHARLES CALVERT BENEDICT JR – B-29 SUPERFORTRESS PILOT - SERIAL O-025437

794th BOMB SQUADRON, 468th BOMB GROUP, 58th BOMB WING, XX BOMBER COMMAND

PERSONAL

Charles Calvert Benedict (15 December 1921 – 21 December 1944) was born in Los Angeles, California to Major Charles C. Benedict Sr (12 February 1891 – 7 May 1925) and Dorothy Potter (15 April 1889 – 4 December 1979).

Benedict’s father graduated from West Point in 1915, and served in WWI. However, he died in 1925 when he crashed into a barrage balloon.

Charles had two siblings:

· Patricia (29 June 1923 – 21 July 2017).

· Calvert Potter (26 May 1924 – 21 February 2011)

Charles also had a half brother Frederick D (15 August 1912 – 17 November 1917)

On 1 June 1943, Charles married Virginia King Smith (11 July 1921 – 2 February 2001) and had 3 children.

The 1930 US Census showed Dorothy and her 3 children living with her father.

MILITARY

By the time of the 1940 US Census, Charles had followed his father’s footsteps and was a cadet at the US Military Academy. He graduated from West Point in the class of 1943, graduating third in his class. Benedict trained at Hobbs, NM, Pyote, TX, and Dalhart, TX.

Lt. Benedict joined the 468th Bomb Group in Kansas in October 1943 and trained as a pilot for the new aircraft. A crew formed around Lt. Benedict and became crew #9 within the 794th Bomb Squadron.

When it came time for the 468th to deploy overseas, Lt. Benedict did not have the seniority to fly from Kansas to India, so he went by sea to Casablanca. His crew left Salina, Kansas on 11 March 1944, and after arriving in Virginia, the crew boarded a boat headed to Casablanca, where they arrived on 19 April. From there, Benedict and his crew flew via Air Transport Command to Kharagpur, India, arriving on 19 April 1944.

On 18 July 1944, Lt. Benedict was promoted to the rank of Captain.

On 21 December 1944, the 58th Bomb Wing flew mission #23 to Mukden, Manchuria to bomb the Manchurian Airplane factory. This was the 58th’s 5th mission to Manchuria, and the 2nd to Mukden. This would be a 2,600-mile round trip.

Capt. Benedict and his crew flew in B-29, serial 42-24715, named “Old Campaigner II”. This plane had been delivered to the Army Air Corps on 14 September 1944, and left for India from Morrison AAF, FL for India on 24 November 1944. The plane arrived in India on 5 December.

DEATH

The Mukden mission was the last mission of a “triple header” of missions which included the 18 December 1944 mission to Hankow, China and 19 December to Omura, Japan and Shanghai, China. Executing 3 missions in four days from the advance bases in China was quite a feat due to the supply issues.

Mission #23 was characterized by moderate to strong fighter interception, aggressive and heavily concentrated in the target area, resulting in a period of intense aerial combat. The Wing’s claims were 21 destroyed, 6 probably destroyed and 19 damaged.

The flak was moderate, low and inaccurate, but the fighters were thick and deadly in earnest at firing and ramming the B-29s. Old Campaigner II was flying as the lead aircraft when a kamikaze, a “Nick” fighter (Kawasaki Ki-45), already hit by the guns of Old Campaigner II, rammed the airplane.

The B-29’s bomb load exploded, the plane went into a barrel roll, and plunged to the ground, only the radio man escaping by parachute. The B-29 crashed approx. 5 miles from the target, killing all 10 men remaining on board.

S/Sgt. Elbert Edwards was the sole survivor, and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp.

FIRST HAND ACCOUNTS

Elbert Edwards

“The following statements were made to Lt. Col. John T. Burns on 8 October 1945 by T/Sgt Elbert L. Edwards (serial: 35627577):

Date, time and approx. location of plane crash or landing

21 December 1944, 0930 hours, 5 to 10 miles SW of Mukden.

Nature and extent of damage to plane when you bailed out. Was it on fire, etc?

Plane was rammed by an enemy fighter plane at 20,000 ft and cabin was depressurized. Sgt. Edwards bailed out at 20,000 ft and lost consciousness just after he cleared the bomb bay.

Were any of the crew injured or killed before the plane crashed?

Sgt. Edwards does not believe so.

What members of the crew bailed out? Did their parachutes open?

Does not know whether anyone else bailed out.

Did the plane explode on striking the ground?

Did not see the plane after bailing out.

Did you see any other members of the crew dead or alive after reaching the ground?

No

What is your opinion as to the fate of the other crewmembers and the reasons for your opinion:

Sgt. Edwards thinks they are dead simply because he hasn’t seen any of them or heard anything from them since 21 Dec 1944

Howard Andreoni – 468th BG – Radio Operator

“About Capt. Benedict’s plane going down - I'll try to be more specific.

It was a daylight mission. We had started toward the Initial Point and I was to let the Pilot know if any bombs got caught up in the bomb racks, as one did on a previous mission.

I was sitting in my spot watching for our bombs to drop, when suddenly this engine came flying by, followed a few seconds later by a B-29, upside down, bombs still in the bay. I kept following it until it was out of sight. We must have been at 20,000 ft. because I was able to follow it for several minutes. I saw one parachute come out and it looked like the Tail Gunner.”

Willard Holderby – 468th BG – Navigator

“On 21 December, we bombed the Manchurian Aircraft factory at Mukden, Manchuria. This was a rough and tough mission, our roughest by far. The flak was moderate, low and inaccurate, but the fighters were thick and deadly in earnest at firing and ramming us. Captain Benedict and crew, flying on our right wing, were rammed over the target by a Jap “Nick” fighter. We watched them go down in a barrel roll. One chute was seen to open at 5,000 feet. The ramming Jap fighter blew up into pieces. Lts. Deacon Dailey, T. Evans, Bugs Bale and Mahoney were all well-liked by us all.

Merle D. Jones – 468th BG – Flight Engineer

“I was on Captain Levi Goodrich’s crew flying close to the Benedict’s plane. The Japanese ship was making a head-on attack on the plane and hit the ship just inboard of #1 engine. The last thing we saw was the wing folding back. I think the Pilot of that Japanese ship may have been dead before hitting the plane. Our Radio Operator, T/Sgt. Smith, saw the plane crash and the Tail Gunner on Capt. George Heneveld’s crew saw one parachute leave before the crash.

Jim Pattillo – 468th BG – Commanding Officer – Pengshan, China advance base

"Benedict was a West Point graduate, a fine officer, a good pilot, and was sorely missed. Had he survived he would have gone a long way in the U. S. military.”

AWARDS

· Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

· Purple Heart

BURIAL

Memorial marker:

· United States Military Academy Post Cemetery

Group burial site (with 9 other men)

· Arlington National Cemetery

KILLED IN ACTION

· Capt. Charles C. Benedict – Pilot - Montana

· 1st Lt. Robert M. Baer – Co-pilot – Buffalo, New York

· 1st Lt. Tom C. Evans – Navigator – Los Angeles, California

· 1st Lt. Warren D. Dailey – Bombardier – Ponca City, Oklahoma

· 1st Lt. Arthur R. Mahoney - Flight Engineer – Arlington, Massachusetts

· 1st Lt. Jack L. Roberts - Radar Operator – Leadville, Colorado

· S/Sgt. Charles A. Varsafsky – Central Fire Control Gunner – Trafford, Pennsylvania

· S/Sgt. Stanley J. Berger - Left Gunner – Jersey City, New Jersey

· S/Sgt. Elmer Jelgerhuis - Right Gunner – Edgerton, Minnesota

· T/Sgt. Carl L. Drummond - Tail Gunner – Canyon, Texas

SOURCES

· US Military Academy

· Findagrave

· Familysearch

· Ancestry

· Fold3

· Diary of Willard Holderby, 468th Bomb Group

· Archives of the New England Air Museum

· https://dispatchesfromthefront.net/new-page-1

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Charles C Benedict