USAAF Navigator Second Lieutenant Henry R. Weber of 6925 Trouville Esplanade, Miami Beach, Florida is taking bombardier training at Roswell army air field, New Mexico.

The Miami News

03 Feb 1944, Thur · Page 4

Navigator-Bombardier (MOS 1036), B-29-15-BW (Boeing Wichita) Superfortress serial #42-6379, 883rd Bomber Squadron, 500th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy), 73rd Bomb Wing, 20th Air Force.

excerpt from: The 500th Bomb Group Day By Day – Part 1 - Training

17 Sept 44

On this day at Walker AAF, Kansas, at 1754hrs the Cooper crew (#349) of the 883rd Squadron took off in B-29 42-6379 for a scheduled air to ground gunnery training mission. They completed this mission and returned to Walker field at 1926, where the navigator, 2/Lt Henry R. Weber, who was suffering from what was termed “a slight illness”, left the plane. But the training wasn't over for the rest of the crew.

Fifteen minutes later, at 1941, the Cooper crew took off again, this time to practice formation flying with another plane. However, the second plane was unable to take off, so the Cooper crew was directed instead to conduct “local instrument practice”. Presumably 2/Lt Kenneth West, the listed bombardier, was now acting as navigator. (In the 500th Bomb Group navigators and bombardiers were generally dual-trained.)

It appears that 2/Lt Cooper and crew chose to interpret “local” quite liberally, as a little over two hours later their B-29 was seen flying very low, at an estimated 200 feet, roughly from north to south over the little town of Copeland, Kansas, 132 miles southwest of Walker Field. Witnesses said that the plane descended even lower as it approached the Ora Hatfield farm about a mile south of Copeland. At 2150 hours the plane made a right turn, which caused the tip of the right wing to dip and strike the ground, which in turn caused the plane to cartwheel into the ground and burst into flames.

The plane's momentum carried it on across the farmyard and into the Hatfield barn and house, both of which were destroyed. All ten crew members were killed. Also killed were two civilians inside the farmhouse, 59-year-old Ora Hatfield and his infant grandson, Jay Settles.

Surviving but badly burned were Ruth Settles and Kittie Hatfield, the baby's mother and grandmother respectively.

The very thorough 2nd Air Force accident investigation which followed determined that this was no random accident. The copilot on the crew, 2/Lt Lawrence H. Eslinger, was a native of Kansas and was very familiar with the Copeland area, having relatives there and having worked on various farms in the vicinity, including the Hatfield farm, over the past four summers. Moreover, he was a personal friend of Dean Settles, the husband of Ruth Settles and the father of the dead infant.

Dean Settles, a B-17 pilot who had completed 25 missions in Europe, had been home on leave at the Hatfield farm with his wife and baby but had recently returned to duty.

It was a common (but forbidden) practice for B-29 crews, whenever they were in the vicinity, to buzz their hometowns and the homes of relatives and friends. It was a thrill not only for the crews, but also for the people on the ground when a huge B-29 thundered close overhead. But it was also dangerous, which is of course why it was strictly prohibited. It was certainly Eslinger's idea to buzz Copeland and the Hatfield farm that night, but the AC, 2/Lt Cooper had to give his permission. We don't know if it was Cooper or Eslinger at the controls, but whoever it was misjudged the altitude. Regardless, it was Cooper, the AC, who was officially charged with violation of flying regulations and pilot carelessness and held responsible for the crash.

This was the 500th's first loss of a full, or nearly full, crew in training. (Two men had died bailing out near Omaha on 25 Aug.) The men of the Cooper crew are not listed as combat casualties, but they were training for combat, so probably they should be. They were just as patriotic, just as young, ...and just as dead.

Henry R Weber