May of burns sustained during the forced landing of Lockheed P-38F-1-LO Lightning, 41-7554, c/n 222-5681, from March Field, California, after engine failure, near Greenup, 16 miles W of Russell, Kentucky, this date. 23 May North American B-25 Mitchell, 40-2173, c/n 62-2842, of the 390th Bomb Squadron, 42d Bomb Group, McChord Field, Washington, crashes, explodes and burns at the base during a routine flight, killing five crew. The Army Air Force said that this was the sixth bomber crash in the Pacific Northwest for the month of May, with a death toll of 30. Dead are Lt. Col. Eugene Wall, (listed as Eugene Nall in some records) Atmore, Alabama; 1st Lt. Charles E. Daly, Tacoma, Washington; M/Sgt. Delana A. Shephiard, 56, Frazier, Montana; Cpl. Guinn N. Murdock, 19, Denton, Texas; and PFC Walter F. Rudesill, 20, Hot Springs, Arkansas. 24 May Lockheed C-40D, 42-22249, c/n 1273, ex-NC21770, Air Transport Command, Trans-Atlantic Sector, Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., crashes in swamp one mile NE of Howe Brook Mountain, NW of Houlton, Maine, during "routine" flight out of Houlton Army Air Base, after possible disorientation in poor visibility, killing all six aboard. Accident is first reported by forestry lookout station observer Alex Bouher. A detail of men under Maj. F. E. Lodge is dispatched to search the wooded area. KWF are 1st Lt. J. D. Fransiscus; Lt. Col. Louis S. Gimbel, New York City; 1st Lt. Herback; S/Sgt. Frederick Taylor; 2d Lt. Earl R. Wilkinson; and Lt. Col. Clarence A. Wright. SOC 1 June 1942. This airframe was one of eleven civilian Lockheed Model 12A Electra Juniors impressed 14 March 1942 by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF), with standard six-passenger interior. Surviving examples redesignated UC-40D in January 1943. The board of inquiry was unable to determine a cause, but listed weather and pilot inexperience under instrument conditions as factors. Lt. Col Gimbel, "who resided with his wife and two children at 163 East Seventy-eighth Street, New York City, was once an executive of the Saks Fifth Avenue and Gimbel stores. A graduate of Yale, he entered the Atlantic Ferry Service about six months ago and later transferred to the Army Air Corps. He was a son of the late Louis S. Gimbel and a cousin of Bernard F. Gimbel, President of Gimbel Brothers, Inc." 24 May Two Curtiss P-40F Warhawks, 41-13793 and 41-13798, of the 62d Fighter Squadron, 56th Fighter Group (redesignated