Personnel

CREW



2nd Lt John H.Archer              P     FEH

2nd Lt Wiilliam Harrington       CP     FEH

2nd Lt Roy E.Kuykendall,Jr.  NAV     FEH

1st Lt Donald T.Farrell         BOM     FEH

Sgt  Ignacio J.Pina             TTE    FEH

   Sgt Urban J.D.Leavitt       ROG     FEH

   Sgt William C.Nelson         WG      FEH

   Cpl Roy J.Seematter         BTG     FEH

   Cpl Walter P.Valentine        TG     FEH



349th Sqdn.  Crew,as above,joined 100th Group on 6/4/45



Hi Mike; I'm enclosing some info on the John H. Archer crew, 349th BS with regard to what I have on them in my files with regard tor missions and aircraft flown…also on the bottom I've added a few lines from John H. Archer's Sept 23,1993 letter (s) to me…ONLY his remarks about his flying time,not other personnal correspondence to me…..Best as ever,Jack         



APRIL 13,1945  PRACTICE MISSION, ARCHER  602 P  16 , D-SQDN,  "GRUMBLIN GREMLIN II"

APRIL 18,1945 COMBAT MISSION TABOR/STRAUBING, ARCHER  841  H  16, A-SQDN.

APRIL 19,1945 PRACTICE MISSION, ARCHER  865  0  21,A-SQDN.



Chowhound: 

MAY 3,1945 CHOWHOUND MISSION, ARCHER  313  S  20, A SQDN…

MAY 5,1945 CHOWHOUND MISSION, ARCHER  313  S  20, C-SQDN.…



DP Ferry Missions:

MAY 19,1945  DP FERRY MISSION,ARCHER  865  0  21,A-SQDN.…

JUNE 3,1945  DP FERRY MISSION , ARCHER  545 V  21, D-SQDN.…

JUNE 9,1945, 357th FG FERRY TO MUNICH, ARCHER (no aircraft info currently available)…. 

JUNE 12,1945  GREEN SUPPORT MISSION-CASABLANCA, ARCHER  545  V  24,  "KIMBOLTON"…….(mike,some of his flown a/c names MIKE, GOIN' MY WAY,GRUMBLIN GREMLIN II ) ……….edited John H. Archer's comments in Sept 23,1993 to Jack O'Leary…."…..I was particularly interested in the formation listing you included for the April 18,1945 mission…This was the only actual combat mission I participated in (also my 22nd birthday)..My crew and I were scheduled for one or two additional combat missions,but they were "scrubbed"……..Looking over my records I see the following flight records that correspond with those you have listed for Gris (Smith) … 4/18,4/19,5/19,6/3,6/12,7/15  You obviously  have more information regarding individual flights than I do. My Form 5 flight records show only the type of aircraft ,duration of flight and other data pertinent to flight records. But they do not show destination  or nature of flight. Yes, I made a couple of "chow" runs to the Dutch…I also flew to Munich ferrying the Fighter Group in, also, trips into Austria to pick up DP's and a trip to Casa Blanca to carry personnel enroute to the CBI…."     





Subj: Fwd: Re: Fwd: 44-8545 GN-X 427thBS,303BG a/c  

Date: 3/10/2005 10:52:28 AM Pacific Standard Time 

From: john_oleary07@yahoo.com 

To: MPFaley@aol.com 

CC: fortress@nortexinfo.net, janr@cei.net, charlie@100thbg.com 

Sent from the Internet (Details) 

 

Mike; Here is some additional aircraft info I just got from Harry Gobrecht…RE: the aircraft John H Archer was assigned at Thorpe Abbotts from June,1945 until October,1945…..PLEASE tie in aircraft's combat history with the 303rd prior to being transferred to the 100th BG…..Best as ever, Jack

Note: forwarded message attached.



----------------------------------------------------



Received: from [4.154.219.96] by web52201.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Thu, 10 Mar 2005 10:36:09 PST

Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 10:36:08 -0800 (PST)

From: John Oleary 

Subject: Re: Fwd: 44-8545  GN-X  427thBS,303BG a/c

To: Pilot8thAF@aol.com

Cc: Hal Susskind , 

    Bill Heller , Gary Moncur , 

    t.e.clan@sbcglobal.net

In-Reply-To: <1a3.2f156f6e.2f61e1c8@aol.com>

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0-1982941584-1110479768=:13653"

Content-Length: 2203



Thank You very much Sir!     24 credited combat missions is sufficent for general aircraft info history of the John H Archer crew…Best Regards, Jack



Pilot8thAF@aol.com wrote: 

John O'Leary

44-8545 flew on twenty-one credited combat missions with the 427th BS/303rd BG(H) from our Molesworth, England airfield, viz

307-309-311-313-314-----315-317-318-319-320

321-322-338-347-349-----351-353-355-356-359-----362

for mission dates and targets see:

http://www.303rdbg.com/missions.html

 

Harry D. Gobrecht, Historian Emeritus, 303rd Bomb Group Association

Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 05:53:47 -0800 (PST)

From: John Oleary 

Subject: 44-8545 GN-X 427thBS,303BG a/c

To: "Harold A. Susskind" 

CC: William Heller ,

"Harry " D Gobrecht ,

Thomas Lardie 





Hi Hal; I'm in the process of putting together some aircraft flying time info for a 100th BG,349thBS Pilot, John H. Archer and his crew that arrived at Thorpe Abbotts on April 6th,1945…..At present the 100th BGF has nothing on John's crews webpage,just a crew photo and FEH…I've got quite abit in my project records,(also 1993 letters from John) that I will be sending to the 100th BG Historian to add to the page.…



However,before I do,I want to check on another  303rd Pathfinder aircraft records….I found 3 items doing a search on your website for 44-8545…2 missions,and "………4 Dec 44 to Walnut Ridge,AR  15 Oct 45   19 "     My question Hal is 19 the number of combat missions this a/c flew with the 303rd???      Roger Freeman's book The B-17 Flying Fortress Story has the following for this aircraft…."….Assigned Molesworth 1/17/45,427BS,303BG GN-X,ret to US RFC Walnut Ridge,Jan 4,1946………What I have in my records is this aitrcraft showing up sometime after June 3,1945 at Thorpe Abbotts…44-8545 XR-V 349th BS and flying in my dads squadron until ALL the 100th BG aircraft left the base in the second week of October,1945…this aircraft was flown back to the states via the southern route up through South America and PR before arriving in Florida…then to Walnut Ridge…..Could you please get back to me and confirm this a/c's flying history with the 303rd….I would like to just mention it's combat numbers briefly and want to be accurate……Thanks, so much…  Best  Regards,  Jack     p.s. I didn't find any full aircraft views on your website of the aircraft,but I have a great up close tight shot of it in 100th BG markings taken from my dads ship…



************************************************************************************************************

 

John H. Archer wrote to me to explain my confusion about John D. Lea and Urban J. D. Leavitt in the TAPS section of the Summer Splasher Six.  I mistakenly thought that they were the same person.  



            "John D. Lea (pronounced LEE, as John D. reminded us frequently) was the original ROG on my crew and trained with us at Gulfport, MS.  We all became close friends in a very short time.  However, John D. developed a serious facial infection which prevented him from wearing an oxygen mask, and this meant that he had to be dropped from the crew.  Urban J. D. Leavitt became our new ROG.  We eventually transitions to the UK and were assigned to the 100th.  



            "We flew one combat mission (Straubing, Czechoslovakia) and one "Chow Hound" missions to the Netherlands...and by then the war was over.



            "I still remain in contact with two of my crew: I. J. Pina, TTE, and Roy Seematter, BTG.  I J. lives in San Diego, retiring after 30+ years with Bell Telephone as Supervisor, and Roy lives in Frankfort, Kansas.  A farmer, he is semi-retired, leaving the heavy farming to several of his sons.  I am very fortunate to have friends like these two, and I miss the others: Roy Kuykendall (N), Don Farrell (B), Bill Herrington (CP), Bill Nelson (WG), and Jack Valentine (TG)." John H. Archer



************************************************************************************************************

JOHN H ARCHER TAPS DEC 12, 2010