On January 14, 1942, World War II reached New Hampshire directly when a U.S. Army Air Corps B-18A bomber returning to base in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, from an antisubmarine patrol strayed off course in blizzard conditions and crashed into the snow-covered slope of Mount Waternomee in the White Mountains, killing Pvt. Raymond F. Lawrence and Pvt. Noah W. Phillips and severely injuring five other crewmen. Gale-force winds, blinding snow, freezing temperatures, iced windows, disabled instruments, and disrupted airspeed and altitude contributed to the disaster, and lights briefly seen through the clouds and mistaken for Providence, Rhode Island, were actually Concord, New Hampshire, before the crew suddenly saw evergreen trees and the plane struck the mountain. At 7:45 PM, residents of North Woodstock heard the aircraft flying dangerously low and then three explosions, after which searchers from Lincoln and Woodstock climbed the mountain through thigh-deep snow in minus 25 degree temperatures and encountered three injured airmen a mile from the wreck, then found two more survivors near the wreckage and the two dead in the rear section of the bomber. A larger rescue force soon joined them, including local volunteers, medical personnel, White Mountain National Forest personnel, and 30 lumbermen from a nearby camp who cleared a route for rescue toboggans. By 2 AM, the first three airmen had reached the highway, and twelve hours later the remaining two were brought out to waiting ambulances. The efforts of the community saved the lives of the five survivors, and the crash site is now a memorial and protected heritage site on the White Mountain National Forest through a partnership involving the U.S. Forest Service, the Kantner Foundation, and the Upper Pemigewasset Historical Society.