[troopie]

Ive just done a net search and discovered it ditched safely near the US fleet, but only the pilot Bob King was aboard. The other two crew members had bailed out after a midair collision with a 2nd Avenger took off part of the wing (flown by Bob Cosbie which spun into the sea killing all aboard) during a strike on Chichi Jima.

Source: 'Flyboys' by James Bradley (Little, Brown: Boston, 2003) pgs. 291-301-
Jesse Naul was flying a 3rd Avenger and said- "I was behind Cosbie's plane. Suddenly, antiaircraft fire shot Cosbie's right wing off.
His plane went into a clockwise spin, It slammed into King's plane and the propeller hit King's left wing and chewed off four feet of it.
King's plane then went into a spin."
King thought they would crash, so he told his crew to bail out. Jimmy and Grady bailed out (and were captured and killed by the Japs)
King had his seat belt off, fixing to bail out, and to his surprise, he got the plane straight, he kept flying, nursing his damaged Avenger back to his carrier (USS Bennington). He was accompanied by other planes from the squadron.
All who saw the torpedo bomber still airborne with most of its left wing missing were amazed.
"We told him his landing gear wouldn't work, that he shouldn't even try," Naul said. "We told him he'd have to make a water landing."
King ditched his plane near the fleet."
After his bad jolt, King spent the night in sick bay, but he was alive. He was also a changed man.
"King was the most heartbroken man I ever saw in my life," Sengewalt told Bradley. "He lost two men and lived. He didn't say much. I think he never really recovered from that flight, he was so moved. We knew what he went through; no one blamed him. What he did was almost miraculous."

Very sobering.