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.

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