Operation: Mont-de-Marsan (Mission #248), France

Date: 5th March 1944 (Sunday)

Unit No: 565th Bomber Squadron (H), 389th Bombardment Group (H), 2nd Air Division, 8th Air Force

Type: B-24J

Serial No: 42-100421

Code: EE:Y

Location: Allons, 50 km (31 mls) NE of Mont-de-Marsan, France

Base: Hethel (Station #114), Norfolk, England

Pilot: 2nd Lt. Elbert Fowler Tucker O-742467 AAF Age 25. PoW * (1)

Co-Pilot: 2nd Lt. Carl Than Nall O-684032 AAF Age 23. Evd (2)

Navigator: 2nd Lt. Herman Isadore Seidel O-808155 AAF Age 23. Evd (3 & 10)

Bombardier: 2nd Lt. Arthur William Strahlendorff O-682592 AAF Age 20. PoW * (1)

Radio/Op: S/Sgt. James Joseph D’Amore 32438079 AAF Age 23. Killed (11)

Engineer: Sgt. William Joseph Gabonay 6889575 AAF Age 27. Evd (4)

Nose Gnr: Sgt. Michael Joseph Negro 13153392 AAF Age 19. Evd (5)

Ball Turret Gnr: S/Sgt. Kenneth Mortimer Walley 11113726 AAF Age 19. Evd (6)

Waist Gnr: S/Sgt. William Malasko 37161516 AAF Age 29. Evd (7)

Waist Gnr: S/Sgt. Richard Charles Weiss 36166448 AAF Age 24. Evd (8)

Tail Turret Gnr: S/Sgt. Travis Junior ‘TJ’ Ross 18131995 AAF Age 20. Evd (9)

The B-24 had 10 crew positions. Crew complements evolved during the war and generally comprised 9 personnel who were typically, but not always, Pilot, Co-Pilot, Bombardier, Navigator, Flight Engineer/Top Turret Gunner, Radio Operator/Waist Gunner, Nose Gunner, Ball Turret Gunner, Waist Gunner, Tail Gunner.

* Stalag Luft 1 Barth-Vogelsang, today situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.

Above left: 2nd Lt. Tucker - Military Year Book 1943, Class 43-D of the Merced Army Flying School, California, right: 2nd Lt. Nall - Military Year Book 1943, Class 43-E of the Aviation Flying School, Coffeyville, Kansas.

REASON FOR LOSS:

On the morning of the 5th March 1944 B-24J #42-100421 took off from Hethel (Station #114) at 07:30 hrs to join the mission to bomb Mont-de-Marsan in France.

The aircraft was attacked by three German fighters which knocked out #1 engine, set it and the wing on fire, and tore large holes in the fuselage. The aircraft lost altitude quickly and at 17,000 feet 2nd Lt. Tucker rang the alarm bell and gave the order to bale out.

The aircraft crashed at Allons, 50 km (31 mls) NE of Mont-de-Marsan at 11:45 hrs.

T/Sgt. Charles P. Quinlan 36320651 gave the following account describing the loss of B-24J 42-100421:

“I was in the lead ship of the second section and Y 42-100421 was in the low left section of our formation. Three enemy fighters came in from the tall. Y was hit in the No.1 engine and dropped out of the formation. The fighters did not follow the aircraft. Five (5) to eight (8) parachutes were seen emerging from the plane. The ship was in centrol after it left the formation and made slow 20 degree turns. It then crashed and blew up”.

(1)2nd Lt. Tucker and 2nd Lt. Strahlendorff were captured almost immediately after landing. After the statutory visit to Dulag Luft, Oberursel they were transferred to Stalag Luft 1, North 1 Compound.

On the 30th April 1945, the prisoners were ordered to evacuate the camp in the face of the advancing Soviet Red Army, but the Senior American Officer (SAO), Col. Hubert Zemke, refused to give the order. After negotiations between Zemke and Commandant Oberst (Col) Gustav Warnstedt, it was agreed that to avoid useless bloodshed the guards would go, leaving the PoWs behind. The next day, the first Soviet troops arrived.

The Western Allied prisoners took over the camp into self-administration on the 1st May 1945. After protracted negotiations between the Western Allies and the Soviet leadership, the evacuation of the 8,498 inmates of Stalag Luft 1 finally took place between the 12th and 14th May 1945. The former PoWs had repaired a runway at the Barth Air Base and aircraft of the 8th Air Force undertook a massive airlift called "Operation Revival". Hundreds of PoWs had meanwhile made their own way west.

RAF PoWs were flown back to England and the American PoWs were flown to Camp Lucky Strike in Le Havre, France, where they were processed and waited for a liberty ship to return to the United States.

(2)When the bale out bell was sounded 2nd Lt. Nall went back to the waist area and made sure that the men in the rear had baled out before he jumped out head first. In the excitement he forgot to take his GI shoes.

As he fell he remembered the lecture on parachuting, so he delayed opening his parachute until about 9000 feet, manoeuvred his parachute into the wind, and made an easy landing close to a house near Bergerac, although his parachute got caught in some telegraph wires.

A group of Frenchmen were waiting for him and some of them pulled his parachute down from the wires. One of the group took him to his house, gave him something to drink, and then hid him in a patch of woods near to the house. He lay there while a low flying Me110 [sic] circled above. Two hours later two men brought him some civilian clothes and after he had changed into them he was taken about 3¼ km (2 mls) away to the farm where he was fed and hidden in a straw-pile until nightfall.

2nd Lt. Nall was then taken to the home of a Butcher in a small town quite near where he spent the night and the next day. On the evening of the 6th March he was led on foot to the outskirts of Sainte-Bazeille, 6 km (3¾ mls) NW of Marmande, where a Vintner met the group and hid him in a tool-shed in the vineyard.

During the next day the Vintner, his wife and his daughters brought him food. That night a former French Lieutenant (Lt) of Intelligence, who had escaped from a PoW camp, brought S/Sgt. Negro to the tool-shed. The next day the French Lt. returned and led the two evaders to the apartment of a doctor in the town of Sainte-Bazeille.

Here they were interrogated during which they were told by the doctor that 2nd Lt. Tucker and S/Sgt. D’Amore had been shot by the Germans. The doctor then took them to an apartment two doors down on the same floor. They occupants were the owners of a trucking business. Here they found S/Sgt. Walley and S/Sgt. Ross. The four of them stayed in this apartment until the next night.

They were then taken to another apartment where they picked up S/Sgt. Gabon, S/Sgt. Malasko and S/Sgt. Weiss. The seven Americans were then led to the bistro of town where the French Lt. and the Vintner were waiting with a lorry.

The Americans were driven 50 km (31 mls) south to a farm and were there hidden in a barn. Here they met two French Captains from different organisations who left the next morning to make arrangements for the Americans, but nothing more was heard of them. That night two young Maquisards arrived and led the seven Americans to a Maquis group north of Allons, about 17 km (10½ mls) SW of Caseljaloux, where they spent a week.

A week later the chief of the resistance organisation in the region arrived in a truck in which he had FO. Yeager, collected the evaders and took them to another Maquis camp near Nerac. That evening the doctor brought 2nd Lt. Seidel to join the other Americans.

Flight Officer (FO) Charles Elwood ‘Chuck’ Yeager T-970. Pilot of P-51B 43-6763 'Glamorous Glen' from the 363rd Fighter Sqn, 357th Fighter Group shot down on the 5th March 1944. Successfully evaded and returned to the UK on the 21st May 1944. After the war he became a successful test pilot rising to the rank of Brigadier General.

From this point forward his story is the same and that of 2nd Lt. Seidel, see serial 3 below. He crossed into Gibraltar on the 15th May and left for the UK on the 16th May 1944.

(3) 2nd Lt. Seidel pulled the emergency handle, opened the outer door, and then hammered on the nose turret. Sgt. Negro who had not heard the bell or the orders to bale out, swung his turret around. When he saw him emerging from the turret he picked up his GI shoes, snapped on his parachute and followed 2nd Lt. Strahlendorff out of the aircraft.

He went out feet first and blacked out. When he regained consciousness his parachute was open and was clutching his shoes in one hand and the ripcord-handle in the other. Upon landing he had the wind knocked out of him and before he could get out of his harness a German Me110 dived in on him. He played dead but the German pilot opened fire and his bullets kicked up the earth within a foot of him.

He had landed in a field between two lone farmhouses, near Castelnau-sur-Gupie, and close to the one with a wooden barn and a stone wall about 3 feet high. No sooner had the German aircraft passed over him he ran for the wall and had flattened himself against it before the German returned and opened fire. This time one of his incendiary bullets scorched his sleeve.

He managed to get out of his Mae West and electric suit, and had just reached the barn when the German attacked for the third time. He ran through the barn and back to the field where he picked up his parachute. He reached a thicket across the field by the time the German fighter again returned. This time and on three subsequent attempts the German pilot failed to find him.

The experience of being strafed may either have indicated an end to the traditional chivalry of German airmen toward fellow aviators who had baled out or that this was the isolated actions of this pilot and crew.

Note: The 1923 Hague Rules of Air Warfare, which were never formally adopted, states in Article XX: 'When an aircraft has been disabled, the occupants when endeavouring to escape by means of parachute must not be attacked in the course of their descent'. However, there is nothing in the Hague Rules that covers conduct after the occupant has landed.

As soon as he had reached the cover of the thicket he covered his parachute with his jacket and buried it in the thicket. He then changed into his GI shoes and, dressed in just his Olive Drabs (ODs) and a flying vest, made his way deeper into the woods.

At one point he came out upon a road and started down it towards a civilian who immediately made violent gestures for him to get off the road. He had scarcely managed to take cover when a car passed him. During the next 2 hrs of walking through the woods he heard, on occasion, shouts and German voices off to one side, but he emerged from the woods without further incident.

He then hid until 20:00 hrs before setting off across country in a south-easterly direction intending to get out of the immediate area of his landing and also the forbidden zone. He later learned that the Germans had been patrolling the countryside around the woods through which he walked and had posted a guard inside every house in the vicinity in the expectation that an evader would approach one of these houses for help.

Forbidden zone is believed to refer to the ‘zone interdite’ (forbidden zone) which was the one of the two distinct territories established in German occupied France after the signature of the Second Armistice at Compiègne, namely, a coastal military zone running along the entire Atlantic coast of France from Spain to Belgium, and the ‘zone réservée’(zone reserved) in the northeast, intended for German settlement.

He walked until 03:00 hrs and then found a small storage building in which he rested until 05:00 hrs. Earlier at 01:00 hrs he had knocked at three separate isolated houses but at that hour could not arouse a response from any of them. Shortly after 05:00 hrs he knocked at another house, got no answer and had started down the road when he glanced back and saw that lights had been switched on.

He returned to the house and knocked again. A woman appeared and when he told her that he was an American she told him to go away or she would call the police. Just then a man passed the house, and she blurted out a flood of French which he could not understand. The man only laughed and continued on and the woman then rushed out of the house and banged on the shutters of a house a few yards away.

Almost at once a man came out and scarcely heeding the woman’s flood of French, asked him whether he was a parachutist. It had not occurred to him to describe himself as such, but said that he was, with which the man turned to the woman and told her that he was genuine. She changed her tune immediately and took him into her house, cooked breakfast for him whilst his clothes dried.

It then became clear that she had thought him to be a German who had been sent out to impersonate an Allied aviator and discover French helpers. After breakfast the man, who had vouched for him, took him to his house in Marmande. His host had the names and ASNs for S/Sgt. Walley, S/Sgt. Ross and S/Sgt. Malasko. He remained here from 6th to 9th March.

The man told him that he had seen one member of his crew eating with German officers the day after they had been shot down. Also that the Germans had shot another answering to the description of Sgt. D’Amore when he had continued running after a German had called to him to stop.

On the 9th March his host took him by bicycle to Sainte-Bazeille to a house on the edge of town where they stayed for the night and the next day. On the night of the 10th March he went to Lagupie to the house next to which he had landed and remained there until the 13th March.

On the 13th March his host returned and took him by bicycle through Sainte-Bazeille where two others Frenchmen on bicycles joined them and guided them to the farm just SW of Guignols Guérin where he remained until the 16th March. Then two of the Maquisards called for 2nd Lt. Seidal and took him to join 2nd Lt. Nall and other Americans at a nearby Maquis farmhouse.

On the 25th March a truck took 2nd Lt. Seidal, 2nd Lt. Nall and the six sergeants from the Maquis farmhouse where they had met a FO. Yeager and a Belgian Lt. named Vanderstock [sic]. They were transferred to a larger truck in which there was a Sgt. of the Gendarmes from Nerac with official papers identifying the evaders as Portuguese workers for the Organisation Todt (OT) going to work on German fortifications.

Lt. Van Der Stock - not identified.

Organisation Todt - This was as a civil and military engineering organisation in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, named for its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior member of the Nazi Party. The organisation was responsible for a huge range of engineering projects both in Nazi Germany and in occupied territories from France to the Soviet Union during the Second World War. The organisation became notorious for using forced labour. From 1943 until 1945 during the late phase of the Third Reich, OT administered all constructions of concentration camps to supply forced labour to industry.

The truck carried them to Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, 6 km (3¾ mls) south of Montréjeau, where they stopped at a shop where the Sgt. of the Gendarmes left them. After night fall two boys from the shop led the party down the road where they met another party consisting of Lts. Witt, Krengle, Patterson, Beck, Sgts Leach and Fernandez, Fg Off. John Watlington (RCAF), eleven dutchmen, and two Frenchmen.

• 1st Lt. Francis J. Witt Jr. O-665749,
• S/Sgt. Kenneth Leach 15339125,
• S/Sgt. Severino J. Fernandez 31110682. The Co-Pilot, Left and Right Waist Gunners respectively from B-24D 42-63789 of the 547th Bombardment Sqn (H), 384th Bombardment Grp (H), which was shot down on the 4th March 1944 on a 'Carpetbagger’ mission to Berlin. All three successfully evaded returning to the UK on the 18th and 27th May 1944. The other seven crew members became PoWs;

1st Lt. Robert V. Krengle O-668970 was the Bombardier from B-24D 42-63973 of the 564th Bombardment Sqn (H), 389th Bombardment Grp (H) which was shot down on the 30th December 1943 on a mission to Ludwigshafen. Successfully evaded returning to the UK on the 18th May 1944. He was one of five who evaded with four of the crew becoming PoWs;

• 2nd Lt. Jennings B. Beck O-673453,
• 2nd Lt. Omar M. Patterson Jr. O-739049. The Navigator and Bombardier respectively from B-17F 42-3545 of the 334th Bombardment Sqn (H), 95th Bombardment Grp (H) which was shot down on the 29th January 1944 on a mission to Frankfurt. They were two of the three who successfully evaded returning to the UK on the 18th and 19th May 1944. Five of the crew were KiA and two became PoWs;

Fg Off. John Hartley Watlington J8381 (RCAF), Pilot from 400 (Fighter Recce) Sqn, RCAF, whose Mustang I AG641 was hit by Flak and abandoned on the 22nd June 1943 during an Intruder mission. Successfully evaded and returned to the UK on the 23rd May 1944.

One of the boys from the shop collected what money the evaders had, supplemented it and gave the whole sum to the guides of the new party. This boy also gave 2nd Lt. Seidal and 2nd Lt. Nall a note to hand to the guide when they had crossed into Spain. The note should be returned to the boy in order to prove that the party had been safely delivered across the frontier.

The whole party then walked until 03:00 hrs, rested for the night in a barn and at 11:00 hrs the next morning walked to a bistro in Marignac where they waited until after dark. They then circled Marignac and at 03:00 hrs reached a barn in a forestry camp. There they rested until 20:00 hrs before crossing the frontier at 06:00 hrs just below Bossòst, Spain. The guides then left and the party spilt up.

2nd Lt. Seidel, 2nd Lt. Nall, S/Sgt. Ross and the Belgian Lt. remained together. They rested until the afternoon and then walked to Vielha e Mijaran where they were arrested by the Civil guards. They were first put into a hotel in Vielha e Mijaran for 2 days and found a number of armed German solders also in the town. They were spoken to by a Polish girl, who they later told was a German agent, who tried unsuccessfully to get military information from the evaders.

The party were then taken to Sort, some 79 km (49 mls) to the SE, and then by bus to Lerida, a further 98 km to the south, arriving there on the 1st April. On the 22nd April the Spanish Air Force took them to Alhama de Granda, some 43 km (26¾ mls) NE of Málaga where they stayed until the 14th May.

A Col. Clark from the US Consulate in Barcelona then called for them and took them to Madrid and a few hours later they crossed into Gibraltar. They left for the UK by air on the 16th May arriving the next day in Bristol, England.

(4)Sgt. Gabonay landed on the SE edge of Couthures-sur-Garonne, 3 km (1¾ mls) SSW of Sainte-Bazeille.

A farmer met him and warned him that Germans were encamped in the vicinity and provided him with some food. He hid until dusk and then set off in a southerly direction. After about 300 yards he was picked up by a farmer and his son who later that night took him across the river Garonne and handed him over to another farmer who hid him in his house until the following night. He provided him with a change of civilian clothes and then took him to Sainte-Bazeille. On the edge of the town he was met by a French Lt. of the Secret Service and led him to a house where a French captain took his name, rank and serial number.

S/Sgt. Ross, S/Sgt. Malasko and S/Sgt. Walley were already in the house when Sgt. Gabonay arrived. He and S/Sgt. Malasko were moved to the house next door and stayed with an elderly couple and their son for the next three days. On the second day S/Sgt. Weiss arrived and on the third day Sgt. Negro and 2nd Lt. Nall arrived.

From this point forward his story is the same and that of 2nd Lt. Seidel, see serial 3 above. He crossed into Gibraltar on the 15th May and left for the UK was on the 20th May 1944.

(5) Sgt. Negro was in the nose of the plane and did not know that the aircraft was hit until the Navigator started knocking on the turret door. He could see that something was wrong so he got out, clipped on his parachute and took off his oxygen mask. He was the next to last to bale out of the aircraft. As soon as he pulled his rip-cord he saw his aircraft dive, explode into pieces with flames 300 feet high.

He landed near Monségur, about 12 km (7½ mls) NE of La Réole and about 13 km (8 mls) north of Sainte-Bazeille, an open field but had suffered cuts to his hands and nose which were bleeding. As he was getting out of his parachute a father and a son approached him and took him to their house, along with his parachutes and flying kit. A German Me110 was looking for him as they went to his house.

His wife bathed his cut nose, and he was given man’s clothes right off his own body. A child ran in and said that Germans were coming, so they took him to a house about 3 houses away. He hid him into a kind of shed in a field with some food and wine. The wine sent him to sleep and he awoke when it was dark. A second man then took him into his house. There he explained his equipment and told them to bury the parachute. After about 2 hrs they went to another house 5 homes away. There he stayed for 4 days and 3 nights. His hands were treated by a local doctor who spoke a little English. The doctor then took him by car to a house on the other side of Monségur where he met a French secret service man. There was another man with him, who suspected that the doctor was Gestapo. After being interrogated he was taken to a wine cellar in a field and there he met 2nd Lt. Nall.

From this point forward his story is the same and that of 2nd Lt. Seidel, see serial 3 above. He crossed into Gibraltar on the 14th May and left for the UK was on the 24th May 1944.

(6) S/Sgt. Walley delayed opening his parachute and landed in a field at the back of a house on outskirts of Sainte-Bazeille. A group of Frenchmen were waiting for him to land. Four came to him whilst others went out to watch the roads. They asked him who he was and dragged him into a house. They changed his clothes for him in a hurry. One of the men then took him on a bicycle into Sainte-Bazeille to a café and dance hall where he was fed. Germans were coming so they hid him in the orchestra stand. Then he was taken by bicycle to a little shack in a field out of town where S/Sgt. Malasko was hiding.

From this point forward his story is the same and that of 2nd Lt. Nall, see serial 3 above. He crossed into Gibraltar on the 22nd May and left for the UK was on the 26th May 1944.

(7) As soon as S/Sgt. Malasko heard the bale out order he signalled to the others in the waist and then jumped. He delayed opening his parachute and when he landed he was met by a crowd who had gathered in the farmyard where he was about to land. As soon as he touched the ground he unbuckled his parachute and ran.

The farmers then sent a girl on a bicycle to head him off and when he came across her he stopped and turned around. He saw the group of farmers motioning for him to get into a house. No sooner had he done so a German aircraft flew over the farm looking for him and the other crew.

In the house he was fed and provided with a change of civilian clothes after which he was taken by the farmer to a wine cellar away from the house where he hid. Within the next 2 hours members from his crew were also brought to the cellar.

From this point forward his story is the same and that of 2nd Lt. Seidel, see serial 3 above. He crossed into Gibraltar on the 22nd May and left for the UK was on the 24th May 1944.

(8) S/Sgt. Weiss was the first to bale out and he landed near Cocumont about 6 feet from a farmhouse. The farmer came out and immediately took him into the house. He showed the farmer his ID tags and his flying equipment was hidden. French gendarmes arrived and took him by truck to their police station in Cocumont, about 12 km (7½ mls) SW of Marmande where he was fed and held for 4 hrs . They provided him with a change of civilian clothes and took a photograph of him. At about 18:00 hrs a young boy arrived and took him by bicycle 20 kms to farm a house. Here about 8 Frenchmen, all armed, took him across a bridge to east side of the river Garonne to another farmhouse where he slept and stayed for 2 days. On the 3rd night the boy took him to Sainte-Bazeille where he joined up with S/Sgt. Malasko and Sgt. Gabonay.

From this point forward his story is the same and that of 2nd Lt. Seidel, see serial 3 above. He crossed into Gibraltar on the 22nd May and left for the UK was on the 26th May 1944.

(9) S/Sgt. Ross delayed opening his parachute and landed in the back yard but no one was home in this house. He hid his parachute under the porch and then headed for a shack located in a field backing onto the house. There he took off his heavy flying clothes and remained there until the German planes looking for him and the others passed. He then left and crossed the field where he saw a group of Frenchmen. He told them that he was an American to which they asked for his ID tags. They then took him into a house and after 15 mins to a chicken house. He stayed hidden for the next 4 hours during which time he was brought food, drinks and a change of civilian clothes. He was then taken another cabin where S/Sgt. Walley and S/Sgt. Malasko were hiding.

From this point forward his story is the same and that of 2nd Lt. Nall see serial 3 above

(10) 2nd Lt. Seidel returned to the United States on the 6th September 1944. He was posted to the Navigation School based at Selman Army Field, Monroe, Louisiana.

On the 9th August 1945 he was killed in a flying accident at Greensboro, Alabama. His Beechcraft AT-7C Navigator #43-50061 from the 2530th AAF Base Unit at Selman Army Field crashed 5 miles east of Greensboro in Alabama.

The following crew of two and three Aviation Cadets, on a training flight, died in the crash.

• Pilot: 2nd Lt. James T. Quinn, O-2059602;
• Navigator: 1st Lt. Herman I. Seidel, O-808155;
• Aviation Cadet: Henry W. Herbert Jr., 33716864;
• Aviation Cadet: George A. Knudtzon, 36667825;
• Aviation Cadet: Thomas K. Zacher, 13189757.

The aircraft apparently entered a large cloud, the only one for miles around. The large cloud contained light rain showers and was about 10 miles across at its base. The pilot then made a wide turn to avoid flying through the cloud. The aircraft lost altitude in the turn and collided with the south slope of a hill while in a flying attitude with both engines producing power. The aircraft exploded into flames upon impact, scattering wreckage and dismembered bodies for over 150 yards up the slope. Investigators noted that the aircraft was about 20 miles north of its intended course.

(11) 2nd Lt. Tucker was told by other members of his crew that French civilians had informed them that S/Sgt. D’Amore had been shot by German soldiers whilst attempting to run near Marmande, SE of Bordeaux. Reportedly he had been shot twice in the back and variously described, once through the head or between the eyes after falling.

2nd Lt. Tucker was of the opinion that this was true because when he and 2nd Lt. Strahlendorff were being transported in a truck over a period of 6 hrs there were also two unidentified bodies aboard. In addition there were also a number of pieces of flying equipment.

Note: Three aircraft were lost on this mission from which there were two reported fatalities on mainland France. However, one of the fatalities was some 350 km (213 mls) to the north and he was buried on location the next day after succumbing to his injuries. Assuming one of the two was S/Sgt. D’Amore the second body remains unidentified.

2nd Lt. Carl Nall submitted the following statement concerning the death of S/Sgt. D’Amore which was given the case number 11-729:

'Statement of Kenneth M. Walley, formerly S/Sgt., re the matter of S/Sgt. James J. D'Amore who may have been killed by either hostile civilians or military personnel in the vicinity of St. Bazeille France on the 5 March 1944’.

The results of any subsequent investigation, if one had been carried out, are not known.

Burial Details

S/Sgt. James Joseph D’Amore. Purple Heart. His initial burial location is not recorded. He was recovered and interred at the US Military Cemetery Luymes in the Aix-en-Provence. He was repatriated on the 26th September 1950 and laid to rest in Plot N, Grave 27975 at the Long Island National Cemetery, Farmingdale, New York. Born on the 24th September 1920 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Son of Joseph D’Amore of New York City, New York, USA.

Researched by Traugott Vitz and Ralph Snape and dedicated to the relatives of this crew. Thanks also to Traugott Vitz for his work on the ‘VitzArchive’.

Other sources listed below:

Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them. Franklin Delano Roosevelt