 |
| The house in the background was later razed for the freeway. |
Anacostia
residents today are likely unaware that their historic community was once the
site of a fatal plane crash, with the deceased pilot eventually having an Air
Force base named after him. Neighbors
were then well used to low flying military aircraft, however, because they were
not far from Bolling Field, and Army Air base with an active runway. The crash occurred right next to 1847 13th
Street, SE on November 9, 1938.
The
photo caption read: "Two U.S. Army
fliers -- Lieut. Col. Leslie MacDill, General Staff Corps Officer, and Private
Joseph G. Gloxner -- were burned to death today in the worst aerial tragedy in
the history of the Capital when their plane crashed on a street in Anacostia, a
short distance from Bolling Field. Three automobiles were wrecked in the crash.
Col. MacDill was piloting the plane." (Library of Congress, Harris & Ewing
Collection glass negative) Col. MacDill
was flying a North American BC-1, used by the Army Air Corps from 1936 to 1940.
Two
employees of Mandell Chevrolet at 13th Street and Good Hope Road rushed
to the scene with fire extinguishers, but were rebuffed by the flames: Louis Fiedler, mechanic,
and the manager, Harry Rosenthal. As
did Earl Hazel, of 1235 U street, SE.
As we’ve
warned readers before, newspapers reporters were fairly verbose and not shy of
telling it like it is, and the scene of a deadly plane crash is certainly not
pretty. The Washington Post of November
10, 1938 filed this story:
Army Studies Cremation of 2 Fliers Here
Crash in Anacostia Fire Destroys Plane
Officer is Killed, Pilot Dies Also
“A special Army board last night was
investigating the crash which killed and cremated two Army fliers when their
pursuit plane went into a spin, narrowly missed two houses and smashed to earth
in Anacostia, 2 miles from Bolling Field.
The dead were Col. Leslie MacDill,
49, of the War Department general staff, who lived at 3105 Cathedral avenue
northwest, and Private Joseph G. Gloxner, of First Staff Squadron, of Reading,
Pa. Both were instantly killed.
Maj. Charles P. Prime, chief
investigator, said last night that eyewitnesses have given conflicting reports
regarding engine trouble. Coroner A. Magruder MacDonald said he would postpone
decision on holding an inquest into the deaths until he had received the Army
report.
 |
| The house at 1847 13th Street, SE in the background |
Trouble With Motor
The BC-1 pursuit plane piloted by
Col. MacDill took off from Bolling Field at 9:36 a.m. Three minutes later it
crashed on S street, a block away from the busy intersection of Good Hope road
and Nichols avenue.
Accounts pieced together from
numerous eyewitnesses indicate that something happened to the motor and Col.
MacDill tried to get back to his field, and then with death staring him in the
face aimed his plane for a narrow space between two houses in order to land on
Thirteenth street, headed for an alley.
The plane cut down telephone and
power wires, knocked down a pole, clipped off tree limbs and plunged into the
earth between the curb and street in front of the home of Robert Thompson, 1807
Thirteenth street, southeast.
The plane immediately burst into
flames, settled back on a parked car. Burning gasoline flowed down the street
and destroyed three other parked cars.
One civilian came within 10 feet of
being killed in the crash. That was Clarence W. Ohm, plumber of 1612 W street
southeast. He had parked his car directly across the street from the crash, and
was just getting from his car when the plane struck.
 |
| 1847 13th Street, SE today. |
Flames Leap 50 Feet
Both bodies were burned beyond
recognition by the flames which leaped as high as 50 feet. One of the bodies was
thrown from the fuselage, while the head was torn from the other. Fireman
fought half an hour with water and chemicals.
Louis Fiedler, mechanic, and Harry
Rosenthal, manager of Mandell Chevrolet garage at Thirteenth street and Good
Hope road, and Earl Hazel, of 1235 U street southeast, rushed to the plane with
fire extinguishers. The heat drove them away. Fiedler's face was scorched.
The street at the time of the crash
was deserted except for Ohm. Few people were attracted by sound of the plane
until it exploded because Anacostia residents have become accustomed to
low-flying planes.
Heard Body Plop
Ohm related that because of a broken
gasket on the exhaust pipe of his automobile, he heard nothing until a plop
which suggested to him falling of a human body. From his parked car he heard a
scream and saw a body on the pavement before an explosion "like a 16-inch
gun" shot up huge clouds of black smoke and flames.
Still shaking from his experience
last night he said, "it was the most horrible thing I ever saw. I thought
the world was coming to and end. I have felt so bad all day I couldn't clean up
the brains splattered on my car."
Col. MacDill was a graduate of
Hanover College, University of Indiana, and the Army War College. He leaves his
wife, Mrs. Marilla Augusta MacDill, and two daughters, Katherine Rose, 14, and
Rose, 11.
Col MacDill was first commissioned a
second lieutenant, Coast Artillery Corps, in 1912. By time of the World War he
had been promoted to captain of Air Corps. Overseas he organized the Aerial
Gunnery School at St. Jean de Monts, France.
In 1920 he was graduated from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and held several commands until 1930 when
he came to Washington in Plans Division, Office of Chief of Air Corps. After
attending the Army and Naval War Colleges, he returned here in 1934. The bodies of both men are being
held at Walter Reed Hospital.”
Copyright Paul K. Williams
Cool!
ReplyDelete