Control wheel from B-25G Mitchell : 820th Bomb Squadron, 41st Bomb Group, 7th USAAF

Damaged, pilot's control wheel recovered from a B-25G-5-NA Mitchell bomber aircraft. The control wheel is attached to the front top of the control column but is missing most of the right side hand grip. It has Part Number 82-52124-3 in the casting.

This control wheel was recovered from the wreck of B-25G Mitchell bomber 'Coral Princess', Serial Number 42-64977, of the 820th Bomb Squadron, 41st Bomb Group, 7th United States Army Air Force (USAAF). The aircraft took off from the Makin atoll in the Gilbert Islands on the morning of 29 June 1944 to attack a gun battery located 2500 feet north of the runway intersection on Nauru Island. It was shot down by 'intensive and accurate' Japanese anti-aircraft fire from the island whilst flying at 10500 feet. The Mission Report states; 'While on a bomb run at about five seconds before bombs away, one shell burst directly under bomb bay which immediately caught fire. Plane peeled off over the lead plane and went into a spin. The tail and rear third of fuselage broke off. Plane was burning between left wing tanks and fuselage. Left wing fell off and plane dropped straight down breaking up. Several black objects fell out of plane but no chutes opened and it is not definite if these were crew members or not. Plane was observed to crash in the vicinity of the diggings East of Phosphate Plant No.3. An explosion followed the crash and a large column of dense black smoke was observed, five minutes later another explosion occurred giving off white smoke. It is felt there could not possibly be any survivors.'. The crew, Pilot 0-742328 1st Lieutenant Karl R James, Co-pilot 0-749559 1st Lieutenant Alexander Cheropovich, Navigator 0-685943 1st Lieutenant John A Keeling, Radio-gunner 35011421 Technical Sergeant Frank J Kapla, Engineer-gunner 39453932 Staff Sergeant Harry L Stockton, and Armourer-gunner 16094647 Staff Sergeant Benedict T Jasper were killed in the crash. Jones and Kapla are buried in individual graves at the National Memorial Cemetery in the Pacific, Hawaii. The rest of the crew are interred in a 'Group Burial' at Fort Snelling, Minnesota.