Identity of B-29 Wreck found in South China Sea

While surfing another Website, I came across this great link by Robert Mann on the identity of the B-29 wreck found by divers in the Suth China Sea in the 90s.
http://revhowe.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=interphone&action=display&thread=122&page=1
 
It establishes that the B-29 wreck was not 42-65226 ( 444 BG MIA 1-11-45) which was  a preliminary finding. Does anyone hazard a guess as to the identity of this wreck or have any pictures to share?

This link describes the raids on Singapore.  Since it looks look all came from India  and returned there, the location of this wreak (200 mi NE of Singapore)  seems odd.  Does not  even seem to be a location where a mine laying B-29 would go either (assuming they also came from India).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Singapore_(1944%E2%80%931945)#cite_ref-Cate_156_5-1
 
Could this possibly be a post war crash?

PA.Dutchman

42-24704 – “The Gear Box” – 793^rd Bomb Squadron – Delivered to the USAAF on 9/8/44 – Model B29-45-BW – Departed Morrison for India on 11/26/44 and gained by the 468^th Bomb Group on 12/5/44.
 
India Missions – 7
 
January 11, 1945, mission to Singapore 42-24704 Major Humphrey’s crew with Lt. Col. Billings as copilot have been listed as missing since the time their radio “bombs away” message was received. It was reported that there were severe and persistent fighter attacks to and from the target. A plane from another Group reported seeing what he believed to be 42-24704 from the 468^th Bomb Group with one and possibly two engines feathered 30 minutes past the target along the Malacca Straits; the reporting aircraft request 42-24704 to join them but no answer was received. MACR 10879.
 
42-24704 crashed in Malaya. Several crewmembers were killed when 42-24704 was shot down or died of injuries shortly after the crash. Several were captured by the Japanese and held in a POW camp in Singapore for the remainder of the war. Four, including Maj. Donald Humphrey, managed to evade capture and spent time with a communist guerrilla band in Malaya, one of the four died before the war ended, the others were not able to return to US military control until after Japan’s surrender.
 

According to reports within the MACR as displayed on footnote, natives visited the crash site of 42-24704, found two bodies near the wreckage and buried them.  Thus this is not the plane found in the South China Sea.

Unless you have an immediate family member or relative who served in the Pacific in one of the Air Corp/Force units people have no idea how difficult it can be to find out where and when their planes went down.
 
I have made friends with a number of families whose loved ones served with my father in the Pacific. Their family members were shot down over the Pacific neither the crew or plane was ever seen again. Many times they were not declared KIA until 1946.
 
In Europe even the Germans etc would document the crash sites or where the KIAs were buried. When it comes to the Pacific the only markers maybe a memorial stones in Hawaii or the Philippines.
 
There is a new Museum in Hawaii dedicated  to the Aviation War In the Pacific. There is nothing mentioned concerning the Hickam Attack on 12/7/1941 or the 11 TH BHG, the 13 TH, the 5 TH, or 7 TH in the Pacific War, it is all Navy and Marines. I have a letter written to me from a 94 year LT. Krey telling me how they asked him for a donation since he was in the Pacific Theater and he checked it out and found nothing was mentioned of his Air Corp/Force campaigns only the Navy and Marines. He gave them nothing. I wrote to confirm his information and they told me it is the plans for a later date.
 
With our economy there is never going to be a later date. When they were shot down in the Pacific you may be lost and a MIA, but now their are also MIA to the History of the Victory over the Japanese. 

MACR 12874 for 42-24469.
Plane was based at Khargpur, 468th BG, 793rd BS and went down 2 MAR 1945 at  0600Z.  Target was Naval Base at Singapore
Entire Crew bailed out of Aircraft 42-24469 near Auriel Island, 9 deg 38 min 25 sec N , 98 deg 5 min 40 sec E on return from target;  42-24469 had been hit by flak over target.  Ten members of crew were picked up alive and well; eleventh man (Clark) has not been located.  Aircraft later crashed into water.
Crew listed as:  
Pilot: 1st Lt D. S. Ellestad 0805787
Co-Pilot: 1st Lt. W. H. Wills  0750912
Nav: 1st Lt. J. D. Burton 0667138
Flt Eng: 1st Lt. S. G. Wolfe 0862854
Radar Op: 1st Lt. O. H. Ellenberger 0866240
Radio Op: T/Sgt P. R. Holliday 39175046
Senior Gunner:  S/Sgt H. A. Peterson 11078738
Rt Gunner: S/Sgt D. C. Clark - 19014463 -missing
Left Gunner:  S/Sgt W. G. Thomas 34354266
Tail Gunner: S/Sgt J. W. Speer 36322433
The Crash location is off the Western Side of the Malay Penninsula.  This is North West of Singapore in theAndaman Sea not the South China Sea.  Looks like the wrong location.

There doesn't appear to be an unaccounted for plane missing from Singapore.  However, there is a possibility lost from Bangkok on 12/14/44.  All I have pertaining to 42-63452 is "Abandoned - fuel transfer system out"
Granted the South China Sea is in the wrong direction (??) but it is an unaccounted for aircraft.
 
Bob Mann

This is listed on:
http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hfhm/Roster/p_names.htm
 
December 19, 1944, Omura Mission #22, 42-63452 had fuel and engine trouble and crew had to bail out.
42-63452 flew the "Hump" on 12/19/44 from Piardoba, India to Kiunglai, China. Then set out from China for Omura, Japan and experienced no difficulty until they had turned back from Omura because of cloud cover. The formation headed for Shanghai,  the alternate target. About 90 minutes west of Omura they left the formation due to #2 engine failure. After several course corrections they had a fuel transfer problem.  With no gas was given the bail out signal from the AC after crossing the Han River. The enlisted men landed on the west bank, just in the foothills. The officers bailed out immediately after the enlisted men and landed farther west and higher in the foothills. 

The crew was rescued by U.S. Navy Group China (SACO) and Chinese Nationalist Army and Chinese peasant farmers.

i finally got a chance to dive this wreck. there is no fuselage only wings. the wreck is upside down and in clear water. we have found nothing with any numbers or plates to narrow down the search. the only thing i can add for info is that it was armed with 50 caliber ammo. i found a small belt of 5 rounds near the wreck. it appears that trawlers have torn off the majority of the wreck with the nets 
video from the wreck 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUmBGp-qMxc 
  
this wreck is far off the beaten track and is rarely ever visited 
  
  
best brooks 

I checked on which submarines were in the South China Sea on Feb 1.  Many of the war patrol  logs are available on fold3.com .  Three submarines were acting as a group, BLACKFIN, HARDHEAD and BESUGO with BESUGO  in command.  They had stretched a patrol line about 40 miles long  in the South China Sea and were looking for Japanese shipping.   BESUGO was on the eastern end of the line, BLACKFIN about 20 mi to the west and HARDHEAD another 20mi to the west (near Pulo Tonggol).   Here are their logs for that day.
The USS Blackfin has the following entry for Feb 1, 1945.   
0330 (H)   At new patrol station, latitude 5-06 N, longitude 104-11E.
0900(H)   Commenced guarding aircraft frequency for raid on Singapore.
1930(H)   Secured aircraft frequency. 
2255(H)   Received message to shift patrol station to southern approaches Palawan passage.   
 
USS Hardhead has the following entries for Feb 1.  
0330   In Position 16 miles Northeast Pulo Tonggol. (Palau Tenggul).  
0655  Submerged
0712 Surfaced
1033  SD radar contact at 14 miles
1035  Sighted B-29 flying very low on a Northerly course  just North and West of Pulo Tonggol.   Aircraft Contact #22.
1044  Intercepted distress calls from plane #589 evidently damaged during strike on Singapore.  Did not hear any answer to plane call so shifted transmitter to 4475 kcs and gave our position with reference to lifeguard reference point but plane either did not hear us or was suspicious.  Authenticated call using CSP 1270 which is used by 14th Air Force for authentication.  Positions given by plane were at approximately  02-25N,  105-22E  and 03-10N, 103-53E.   Hardhead position 05-06N, 103-50E.  Plane position reports changed so radically that he may have been in doubt as to his location with respect to reference point.  
 
1130  Requested permission from  BESUGO to search vicinity where plane was sighted since distress calls stopped soon after we sighted a B-29.
1145   BLACKFIN reported positions given by plane in distress.  BLACKFIN had been assigned to guard 4475 kcs for  group today.
 
1400  Completed search to 20 fathom curve from South of Pulo Kapas to last bearing of plane.   Shore line very clear at range  of 10 miles but nothing sighted. 
 
1414 Reported results to BESUGO.  Also reported that plane distress calls had not been answered.  
 
1612  Sighted unidentified plane very low bearing 197 degrees T , range  about 14 miles.  Aircraft Contact #23
 
2231  Moonrise
2325  BLACKFIN reported departing for new station assignment.
 
At this point in the log, BESUGO reports a radar contact with a Convoy and the HARDHEAD sets out in pursuit at flank speed.    The war goes on...........
--------
A couple of comments on this log.   The "Lifeguard Reference Point"  is a "secret"  fixed position that was known to the aircrews and submarines.  Rather than give positions in terms of Latitude and Longitude over the radio for the Japanese to hear, positions would be given as a distance and a bearing from the lifeguard reference point.  It is possible the reference point this day was on one of the islands, i.e., Pulo Kapas or  Pulo Tonggol (or the little island just to the North).   It appears the B-29 crew could not give their location correctly with respect to the reference point.  
The use of a 14th Air Force Authentication procedure might also be problematic as this plane was from the 20th Air Force.
 

Here is information from the MACR for 42-24589.
MACR 12020 for B-29 42-24589, Calamity Jane, 40^th BG , 25^th BS. Based a Chakulia, India with the 20^th AF.
Mission to Singapore on 1 February 1945.
 
Hit by Enemy Antiaircraft Fire or Fighter #3 Engine on Fire. MACR says “believed ditched SW of Singapore”. MACR lists all serial number of engines (type R3350-34A) and 12 guns.
 
Pilot:    Richard, Aubrey J
CP: Fesler, William R
N: Schuette, Raymond C
B: Miller, Jim E
FE: Ingalls, Walter W
V: Brennan, James L
RO: Kidd, Oliver M
CFC: Hanger, George W
RG: Bridges, Herbert E
LG: Chapman, Lee E
TG: Fiedler, Alvin K
RCM: Walter, Edward R.
 
The MACR contains a long description of the Air Force investigations after the war. Many crashes were looked at but in the end the AF does not find any evidence for the location of the loss of this aircraft. It is interesting that they don't seem to be aware of the submarine logs that have been posted above.   The entire crew is still listed MIA. 
Here is a picture of the "nose art".
http://www.40thbombgroup.org/images/CalamityJane1.jpg
 
Here is some background on the co-pilot.
http://www.neam.org/profile.asp?ID=660
Some background on Ingalls.
http://www.proviso.k12.il.us/bataan%20web/Ingalls_W.htm
 
The original Richard crew.  Many of them were on the plane 1 Feb 45.
http://prairiebombers.org/index.php/eng/Army-Air-Fields/Kansas-AAF/Pratt/40th-BG/45th-SQ-Original-Crews/Richard-Crew
 
A link to the crew members  on 1 Feb 45.
http://projectpriam.com/priam/view_aircraft.asp?id=42-24589