Kenneth Akins was the Pilot on B-29 aircraft serial # 42-6231. The crew was flying the first bombing mission over Japan since the Doolittle raid of April 1942 to Yawata, Japan, home of the Imperial Iron and Steel Works.

The accident happened eleven miles northeast of Kiangyu, China on June 15 1944. All eleven crew members were killed when their aircraft crashed into the side of a sheer cliff and exploded.

The plane took off for the mission from Pengshan, China and was returning after the mission. There were 19 aircraft in the attack formation, and the subject aircraft was the 17th to take off. Takeoff appeared normal in all regards.

The last report was the plane was 115 miles northeast of Pengshan on its return. On June 20 1944, a search party reached the scene of an aircraft accident, reported by the Chinese and found the radio operator's log which contained the last three digits of the aircraft serial number (231).

The Accident Review Board did not have sufficient evidence to determine the cause or to fix the responsibility of the accident. Weather was not a factor.

He is now buried in the Fort Smith National Cemetery, Fort Smith, Sebastian County, Arkansas, USA and his name is inscribed together with the others on a group headstone.

He He was one of over 2000 Americans who lost their lives defending China from their Japanese invaders from 1941-1945. He is commemorated on the The Monument to the Aviation Martyrs in the War of Resistance Against Japan in Nanjing, China.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com