Historical Marker
WW II Mid-Air Collision
Dyersburg, Dyer County · Tennessee
Formation flying was the last lesson Dyersburg taught. Third-phase training stressed squadron work in the combat box, the tight stagger Eighth Air Force devised to concentrate firepower and blunt fighter attacks, along with long navigation legs and mock bombing runs. This collision came as the war's needs changed. In March 1945 the field passed from Second Air Force, which turned to training B-29 crews, to Third Air Force, and daily training hours were cut. After the German surrender, flying here wound down and stopped by the end of August.
What the plaque says
WW II Mid-Air Collision While flying a training mission on January 24, 1945, two B-17 Flying Fortress bombers from Dyersburg Army Airfield, located at Halls, Tennessee, collied in mid-air killing 16 airmen. One plane crashed southeast of this location near the Illinois Central Railroad track, killing all ten onboard. The second bomber continued northeast two miles further where four men managed to parachute to safety. However, the remaining crewmen were killed when it ultimately fell from the sky. This would be the last fatal crash flown from the base.
Where it stands
36.06790, -89.34068 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Davy Crockett Cabin — 20 miA restored cabin and museum in Rutherford for the last Tennessee home of David Crockett, who broke with Andrew Jackson over Indian removal.
- Reelfoot Lake State Park — 21 miA shallow cypress lake in the northwest corner of Tennessee, left by the 1811-12 New Madrid earthquakes and fought over by the Night Riders in 1908.
- Carl Perkins Visitors Center — 22 miA restored caboose in Tiptonville telling the story of Carl Perkins, the sharecropper's son from Lake County who wrote Blue Suede Shoes.
- Big Cypress Tree State Park — 27 miA small floodplain park on the Middle Fork of the Obion River, named for a bald cypress that stood 175 feet tall before lightning destroyed it in 1976.
More markers nearby
- Bruce High School — 3.6 mi
- Otho French Strahl — 11 mi
- Dyersburg Army Airfield — 12 mi
- Banks P. Turner — 12 mi