By Mary Dodge Allen
On December 21, 1943, Lt. Leon Crane, a pilot with the U.S. Army Air Corps, became the sole survivor of a fiery plane crash on a mountain in Alaska’s remote wilderness. He had no food or supplies, no map, and the temperature was 40 below zero. But he was determined to make it back home.
Leon Crane as a young airman, 1941 (Public Domain)
Lt. Crane was the co-pilot of a B-24 Liberator Bomber on a high-altitude training flight out of the U.S. Army’s Ladd Air Base in Fairbanks. They were flying at 25,000 ft., approximately 130 miles east of the air base, when an engine malfunction sent the bomber spiraling out of control.
Lt. Crane struggled to regain control of the plane, along with the pilot, Lt. Harold Hoskins. But the powerful centrifugal force of the spiral dive made it impossible. They had enough time to radio a distress call, but not their location. After sounding the alarm to abandon ship, then they both donned parachutes.
The B-24 Liberator that crashed in Alaska, 1943 (Public Domain)
When Lt. Crane leaped out the open bomb bay doors, he felt the shock of icy air slapping the exposed skin on his face and hands. He saw only one other crewman bail out - Sgt. Richard Pompeo. He watched Pompeo’s parachute as it drifted over a mountain ridge. Then the B-24 Liberator slammed against the frozen ground below him and burst into a ball of red flames.
Photo of the B-24 crash site in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve (Public Domain)
Alone in the Wilderness:
Lt. Crane landed in waist-high snow. He repeatedly shouted “Ho!” as loud as he could, but his shouts were met with silence. He was alone, and the temperature was nearly 40 below zero. He knew it would get colder as night fell. He looked toward the smoking crash site and realized the fiery explosion had probably destroyed all supplies, so he trudged down the mountain through the deep snow toward the river below. (The Charley River, a tributary of the Yukon River, in an area now known as the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve.)
Lt. Crane was wearing a new down parka the Army had been experimenting with, and he knew this would help him stay warm. He also had his parachute, two matchbooks and a small knife. When he reached the river, he started a fire using a letter from his father that he had kept in his shirt pocket. He fed the fire with pine boughs, wrapped himself in the parachute, and sat through his first long night. In December, the night darkness lasts nearly 20 hours.
No Sign of Rescue:
After nine days of waiting for rescue, with no food or shelter, he decided he had to leave the area of the crash site. He began walking downstream, hoping the river might lead him to a town or encampment. The lack of food had weakened his body. He made slow progress as he trudged through the deep snow.
Just before nightfall, he was overjoyed to find a small cabin! It was unlocked and unoccupied, but it held supplies of canned food, sugar, powdered milk, a fry pan and a cooking stove. He soon had a fire going and was drinking a cup of hot cocoa. The cabin also had a rifle, a tent, and a pair of moose-hide mittens.
(A backwoods miner and trapper named Phil Berail had built the cabin. The Charley River was a popular trapping area and locals often built rustic cabins along the traplines, which they stocked with supplies.)
A Brief Respite:
Lt. Crane had found shelter and food, but his ordeal was far from over. It was early January, freezing cold, and he was alone in a rugged, remote wilderness. He knew he needed to regain his strength and take care of his frostbitten hands and feet before he resumed his journey.
During the next six weeks, he stayed in the cabin and rested, hoping to hear the sound of rescue aircraft or a dog team. He thought the cabin’s owner might return, but nobody did. By mid-February, his supplies were getting low. He decided to pack what he could, and he set out to find a town.
Lt. Crane's Wilderness Journey (Public Domain)
The Last Miles:For several days, he walked on the frozen Charley River dragging his supplies on a crude sled he made from a wooden washbasin. He fell through the ice twice and nearly drowned the second time. His supplies were almost gone when he came upon another rustic cabin. He rested a few days, gathered fresh supplies and moved on. Days later, he reached the Yukon River and found a sled trail that led to another cabin. He was relieved to see smoke rising from the chimney. It was March 9, 1944. His ordeal was over.
Rescue:
Albert Ames, the owner of the cabin, came out to meet this strange man in a tattered puffy jacket, with a black beard and wild hair. He was amazed to hear his story. Lt. Crane had survived nearly 80 days in the Alaskan wilderness, and he had walked over 120 miles downriver, alone, in frigid winter temperatures.
Lt. Leon Crane was shocked when he saw himself in a mirror:
"I had a two-inch beard, black as coal; my hair was long and matted, covering my ears and coming down over my forehead. I looked like some strange species of prehistoric man. I was dirty, sunburned and wind-burned, and my eyes stared back at me from the centers of two deep black circles."
Lt. Crane got cleaned up and spent the next two days regaining his strength. Then Albert Ames hitched up his sled team and mushed Lt. Crane to the Woodchopper mining camp along the Yukon River, 33 miles away. While there, Lt. Crane met trapper Phil Berail and thanked him for the use of his cabin. Berail said he was glad his cabin and supplies had helped him to survive.
The mining camp had a small airstrip. Days later, a light aircraft flew Lt. Crane back to Ladd Air Field in Fairbanks to report to his commanding officer.
Lt. Leon Crane during the October 1944 Recovery Mission (Public Domain)
Recovery Missions:
In October 1944, Lt. Crane led a recovery team to the crash site, and the remains of two of his crewmen were found. They searched the area near the last sighting of Richard Pompeo’s parachute, but his remains were never found.
One of the B-24 Liberator's four propellors (C. Houlette, NPS)
In 2006, a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command returned to the site and found metal buckles from a parachute and bone fragments of the pilot, Lt. Harold Hoskins. His remains were interred with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.Later Life:
Lt. Leon Crane returned home to Philadelphia, married and had six children. He became an aeronautical engineer and helped design the first helicopters. He passed away in 2002.
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Mary Dodge Allen is currently finishing her sequel to Hunt for a Hometown Killer. She's won a Christian Indie Award, an Angel Book Award, and two Royal Palm Literary Awards (Florida Writer's Association). She and her husband live in Central Florida, where she has served as a volunteer with the local police department. Her childhood in Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes, sparked her lifelong love of the outdoors. She has worked as a Teacher, Counselor and Social Worker. Her quirky sense of humor is energized by a passion for coffee and chocolate. She is a member of the Florida Writer's Association, American Christian Fiction Writers and Faith Hope and Love Christian Writers.
Mary's novel: Hunt for a Hometown Killer won the 2022 Christian Indie Award, First Place - Mystery/Suspense; and the 2022 Angel Book Award - Mystery/Suspense.
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