On March 2, 1945, an Army Air Corps Lt. Colonel was acquitted by a military court of the charge of "voluntary manslaughter" in China's Yunnan Province city of Kunming. The charges stemmed from a B-25 bomber returning from a combat mission when it overshot the runway and hurtled down a sixty-foot embankment. The plane burst into flames causing the ammunition and oxygen tanks to explode. Rescuers extracted the dead co-pilot and injured pilot, but could not free the gunner whose legs were trapped by twisted metal. As the flames approached the gunner, he began to scream! There was no time to cut the metal away and a doctor could not get close enough to amputate his legs and free him. The Lt. Colonel approached and pulled his pistol and shot the young man twice to end his misery, amid the exploding .50 caliber machine gun rounds. He was charged with manslaughter, but finally acquitted of the offense.
Pensacola News Journal Article 3-9-1945