6 Group Unavailable
On the 16th of January 1943, Peter Zoephel and his crew boarded Liberator C87 41-11708, of 12 Squadron, 12th Ferry Group United States Transport Command, at Accra in Ghana as passengers, bound for the United States air base at Natal in Brazil and then on their base at Dorval. On board was a crew from the United States Air Transport Command, who had ferried a Boeing B-17 aircraft from Miami to Africa and were returning home. Also on board was a crew from Royal Air Force Ferry Command and four other passengers. The aircraft took off at 11.30pm that night but failed to arrive at its destination and all on board were lost.
The crew (6) was: - Captain Orval Eknes (Pilot) Captain Felton Barton Lancaster (2nd Pilot) Second Lieutenant Joseph F. Peoples (Navigator) Master Sergeant Alvin A. Young (Radio operator) Sergeant James N. Clauss (Crew Member) Master Sergeant Charles W. McKain (Crew Chief)
The passengers (5) were: - The United States Air Transport Command crew was: - First Lieutenant John Allen Byler (Navigator) First Lieutenant Hugh Parker Minor Sr. USAAF (2nd Pilot) Major Arthur Mills USAAF (Pilot) Corporal Joseph P. Braniff USAAF Corporal Grover Kirby Trees Jr. USAAF
The Royal Air Force Ferry Command crew (12) was: - Flight Lieutenant Herbert James Martin (RCAF) (Pilot) Sergeant Harold Victor. Lamb RAAF (Wireless Operator) Flight Sergeant John Henry Warman RCAF (Navigator) R/84897 Captain Paul Bleecker Makepeace (American Civilian Pilot) Radio Officer Clinton Blackwell Berry (Canadian Civilian Wireless Operator) Flying Officer Peter Charles Zoephel RCAF (Navigator) J/11212 Captain William Richard Nixon (Canadian Civilian Pilot) Flight Sergeant Norman Patrick Drury RCAF (Radio Operator) R/108444 Flying Officer William Thomas Wright Smithson RAAF (Navigator) Sergeant John Lowery Bell RAF (Navigator) 1078990 Flying Officer Geoffrey Addison Clegg RAF (Pilot) Radio Officer Otway Cecil McCombie (Canadian Civilian Wireless Operator)
The passengers (3) were: - Lieutenant Colonel Russell Reed Brunner US Army (Pilot) Colonel Douglas Cornell MacKeachie DSM US Army (Director of Procurement European Theatre of Operations) Air Commodore Desmond Herlouin De Burgh AFC RAF
An extensive search was mounted which lasted until the 29th of January. On the 4th of February, the destroyer USS Kearney found a life raft some 60 miles from the coast of Brazil, to the east of Ponte Negro. It contained the body of one of the passengers. The following day another raft was discovered containing the body of Major Arthur Mills and with six life jackets on board. The evidence on board the raft led to the conclusion that there had been others on board who had died and had probably been buried at sea by others, other than the last man to have died.( Source Peter Hill)
