My Great Uncle Kenneth was 1st Lt. Kenneth Maule, 5th Air Force, 312th Bombardment Group, 386th Bomber Squadron based on Okinawa. He was a crewman on a B-32 Dominator (#42-108544) similar to the aircraft shown below. He was also one of thirteen who perished when the plane crashed on take off on August 28, 1945.
He seldom wrote home and died so young my family did not know much about his life in the service. Joe Baugher’s webpage on the B-32 said this about Uncle Kenneth’s last mission:
“The last Dominator mission of the war was flown by four B-32s on August 28 in a reconnaissance mission to Tokyo [NOTE: the war was over at this time]. The mission was a disaster, although not because of any enemy action. 42-108544 [Kenneth’s airplane] lost an engine on takeoff and skidded off the runway. All 13 men aboard perished when the aircraft exploded and burned. On the way back from the target, 42-108528 lost power on two of its four engines. The plane’s pilot ordered the crew to bail out, but two men perished.”
