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Aircraft Wrecks in the
Mountains and Deserts of the American West
Dakota MK IV
KN345
3/13/45
Royal Canadian Air Force Warrant Officer
Class 2 Floyd E. George was only twenty years old at the time of his
death on 3/13/45. He was co-pilot aboard a Royal Air Force Douglas
Dakota MK IV KN345 en route from El Paso, TX to Sacramento, CA via
Southern California. Other crewmembers included RAF pilot F/S Peter
Antrobus, RAF navigator F/S Frank S. Holmes, and RAF radio operator
F/S Edward Watkins. USAAF A/C Max K. Nelson was the only passenger;
he boarded KN345 in El Paso, TX.
The loss of KN345 occurred at night in
stormy weather NW of the Los Angeles Basin in the rugged mountains
of the Los Padres National Forest. The wreckage of the Dakota was
not located until 5/13/45. We must not forget our comrades in arms
from allied nations who lost their lives on missions flown within
the U. S. during WWII.
(Special thanks to Marc McDonald for
locating next of kin and
Walt Witherspoon for contributing to this unfolding story)
More information on
the ill-fated flight of KN345 and her crew will be posted soon
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Starboard horizontal stabilizer and
empennage of Royal Air Force Douglas Dakota KN345 that crashed on
3/13/45 in the mountains of the Los Padres National Forest killing
all five men on board. The wreckage was not discovered until
5/13/45, and the X painted on the empennage was applied
during the summer of 1945.
(Photo courtesy Craig Fuller, AAIR) |
 Royal
Canadian Air Force Flight Sergeant Floyd E. George was only twenty
years old at the time of his death on 3/13/45.
(Photo courtesy Edwin & Janice Zander)
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Floyd E. George is buried at the
Beechmont Cemetery Edmonton, Alberta Canada.
(Photo courtesy Edwin & Janice Zander) |
 W.O.2 Floyd
E. George in Canada with a friend on 2/4/44.
(Photo courtesy Edwin & Janice Zander)
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F/Sgt. Edward
Watkins served as radio operator aboard KN345, and he is buried in Santa
Barbara Cemetery, CA. along with two of his crewmates, F/Sgt. Peter Antrobus,
F/Sgt. Frank Holmes. (Photo courtesy Marc McDonald) |
F/Sgt. Edward Watkins, Royal Air
Force Volunteer Reserve was twenty-one years of age at the time of his death
aboard Douglas Dakota Mk. IV, KN345 on March 13, 1945. (Photo courtesy Marc
McDonald) |
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