AR banner
Search Tips Advanced Search
Back to Top

• Kracker Archive
• Allied Losses
• Archiwum Polish
• Paradie Canadian
• RCAF
• RAAF
• RNZAF
• USA
• Searchable Lists

Info LogoAdd to or correct this story with a few clicks.
Archive Report: US Forces
1941 - 1945

Compiled from official National Archive and Service sources, contemporary press reports, personal logbooks, diaries and correspondence, reference books, other sources, and interviews.

We seek additional information and photographs. Please contact us via Helpdesk
9th Air Force
26.12.1944 506th Fighter Squadron P-47D ‘Rae’, 42-26465 1st Lt. Clinton Winters Jr.

Operation: Armoured reconnaissance mission to Houffalize, Belgium

Date: 26th December 1944 (Tuesday)

Unit: 404th Fighter Group, 506th Fighter Squadron, 9th Air Force

Type: P-47D Rae

Serial: 42-26465

Code: 4K:R

Base: St. Trond (ALG-92), Belgium

Location: Gulpen area, Holland

Pilot: 1st Lt. Clinton Winters Jr. O-751514 AAF Age 23. Killed

Above: P-47D ‘Rae’, 42-26465 (Credit: American Air Museum in Britain)

REASON FOR LOSS:

1st Lt. Winters took off in a flight of four P-47s from St. Trond (ALG-92) (Sint-Truiden), Belgium on the morning of the 26th December 1944 tasked with an armoured reconnaissance mission to Houffalize, Belgium, which is about 16 km north of Bastogne.

ALG = Advanced Landing Ground.

The following is the after mission statement from 1st Lt. Carl S. Parsons:

“About 1300 hours on 26 December 1944 while on a Squadron mission we were circling a target in Germany in preparation for bombing. I was leading the flight in which Lt Winters was flying. Just before peeling off to make the run on the target I noticed that all my flight was intact. I was unable to locate Lt Winters after the bombing.”

No information has been found to indicate the reason for the loss of 1st Lt. Winters and his aircraft.

Later that day Capt. John B. O’Rouke, Jr. of the Operations section for the 404th Fighter Group received a telephone call from the Combat Operations Section of XXIX TAC. They reported that effects found on the bodies of two pilots recovered from crashed aircraft in the vicinity of their advanced command post had enabled them to identify them as Robert G. Fenstermacher, 1st Lt, AC, O-818531 and Clinton Winters Jr., 1st Lt, AC, O-751514.

1st Lt. Robert G. Fenstermacher was with a second flight of four P-47s from the 506th Fighter Squadron also on an armoured reconnaissance mission to Houffalize, Belgium. He was killed when his P-47D was shot down between Petergensfeld, Holland near Roetgen, Germany.

Burial Details

1st Lt. Clinton Winters Jr. Air Medal (6 Oak Leaf Clusters (=1 Silver)). Interred at the Netherlands American Cemetery, Plot O, Row 2, Grave 28. Relocated to Plot G, Row 12, Grave 11. Born on the 1st June 1921 in Missouri. Son of Clinton and Della E. (née Bostwick) Winters from Hayti, Missouri, USA.

Researched by Ralph Snape for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the relatives of this Pilot.

RS & TV 24.07.2021 - Initial upload

Pages of Outstanding Interest
History Airborne Forces •  Soviet Night Witches •  Bomber Command Memories •  Abbreviations •  Gardening Codenames
CWGC: Your Relative's Grave Explained •  USA Flygirls •  Axis Awards Descriptions •  'Lack Of Moral Fibre'
Concept of Colonial Discrimination  •  Unauthorised First Long Range Mustang Attack
RAAF Bomb Aimer Evades with Maquis •  SOE Heroine Nancy Wake •  Fane: Motor Racing PRU Legend
Acknowledgments: Sources used by us in compiling Archive Reports include: Bill Chorley - 'Bomber Command Losses Vols. 1-9, plus ongoing revisions', Dr. Theo E.W. Boiten and Mr. Roderick J. Mackenzie - 'Nightfighter War Diaries Vols. 1 and 2', Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt - 'Bomber Command War Diaries', Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Tom Kracker - Kracker Luftwaffe Archives, Michel Beckers, Major Fred Paradie (RCAF) and MWO François Dutil (RCAF) - Paradie Archive (on this site), Jean Schadskaje, Major Jack O'Connor USAF (Retd.), Robert Gretzyngier, Wojtek Matusiak, Waldemar Wójcik and Józef Zieliński - 'Ku Czci Połeglyçh Lotnikow 1939-1945', Archiwum - Polish Air Force Archive (on this site), Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek - 'Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii', Franek Grabowski, Norman L.R. Franks 'Fighter Command Losses', Stan D. Bishop, John A. Hey MBE, Gerrie Franken and Maco Cillessen - Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces, Vols 1-6, Dr. Theo E.W. Boiton - Nachtjagd Combat Archives, Vols 1-13. Aircrew Remembered Databases and our own archives. We are grateful for the support and encouragement of CWGC, UK Imperial War Museum, Australian War Memorial, Australian National Archives, New Zealand National Archives, UK National Archives and Fold3 and countless dedicated friends and researchers across the world.
Click any image to enlarge it
Click to add your info via ticket on Helpdesk •Click to let us know via ticket on Helpdesk• Click to explore the entire site

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

All site material (except as noted elsewhere) is owned or managed by Aircrew Remembered and should not be used without prior permission.
© 2012 - 2024 Aircrew Remembered
Last Modified: 07 March 2022, 10:12

If you would like to comment on this page, please do so via our Helpdesk. Use the Submit a Ticket option to send your comments. After review, our Editors will publish your comment below with your first name, but not your email address.