Personnel

CREW



 A/C # 43-37882 Happy-Go-Lucky         MACR #9509, Micro-fiche #3486



2nd Lt Frederick G.Reed                  P       KIA  6/10/44 BERLIN

2nd Lt Edward .A. Hesse               CP       KIA  6/10/44 BERLIN

   F/0 John T.Carmichael              NAV      KIA   6/10/44 BERLIN

2nd Lt Edmund W.Rohde            BOM      KIA   6/10/44 BERLIN                   

   Sgt Roy F.Lomanno                TTE     P0W  6/10/44 BERLIN     Bailed out - captured at Finkenwerder

   Cpl Robert H. Bennett              ROG     KIA    6/10/44 BERLIN       

   Cpl Robert E.Jackson                BTG     KIA    6/10/44 BERLIN         

Sgt Joseph J.Burghardt                   WG    KIA    6/10/44 BERLIN   (became TG when crew reduced to 9 men)

Cpl Edward V.Ankli                       WG    KIA     6/10/44 BERLIN

   Cpl Leo A.Southard                    TG    NOC   (removed from crew when the reduction to 9 man crew was made and did not fly in 882

                                                                           on 6 Oct 1944)



350th Sqdn.  Crew joined the 100th Group on 12/9/44. This WAS  probably the 3rd or 4th mission for this crew.  Crew was flying a 418th a/c.  



EYEWITNESS  "A/C #882 received a direct flak burst between #2 & #1 engine. The wing burst into flame and the A/C pealed off spinning and burning. No chutes were seen.



MACR has Ankli as TTE, Jackson as BTG,  Burghardt as TG and Lomanno as WG.





Direct flak hit between the left engines - left formation and crashed at Ringstrasse 51-6, Finkenkrug, 10 km west of Spandau, Germany. After some minutes the bomb load exploded, killing a German woman who was attempting to assist the crew. The eight killed were buried as Unknowns in the Communal Cemetery at Falkensee, Germany. In August 1947 those interred in Mass Grave Row 2 Graves 5/7 at Falkensee were move to Ardennes. Cpl Robert H. Bennett, F/O John T. Carmichael, 2Lt. Edmund W. Rohde and S/Sgt Joseph J. Burghardt were individually identified by Graves Registration. At the request of next of kin the unidentified were buried in Ardennes in two adjoining graves.





Rosario F. "Roy" Lomanno of Richboro died peacefully on Saturday, July 11, 2009, at Renaissance Gardens at Ann's Choice in Warminster, surrounded by his family. He was 87.



He was the beloved husband of Margaret L. Petrucco Lomanno for 57 years.



Born in Philadelphia, he was the son of the late Leo and Rachel Stratoti Lomanno and brother of the late William Lomanno.



Mr. Lomanno was a resident of Richboro for the past nine years and formerly lived in Northeast Philadelphia for many years. 



He was a graduate of Girard College and was a member of their Hummers Club. He also was a 4th degree member of Knights of Columbus St. Katharine Drexel Council 3968 in the Somerton section of Philadelphia. 



Roy was a veteran of World War II having served in the U.S. Army Air Force. He enlisted in the Army shortly after Pearl Harbor, seeing service with the 100th Bomb Group of the 8th Air Force. Shot down over Berlin in October 1944, he was the only member of his bomber crew to escape the burning B-17 plane and was held as a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft IV. When the camp was evacuated ahead of the advancing Russians, he survived the 86 day, 600 mile forced march across Germany during which hundreds of allied prisoners of war died of exposure and starvation. Finally liberated by the British in May 1945, he was returned home to the United States in June.



 A message dated 7/22/2009 9:15:15 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, jlomanno@comcast.net writes:

Mike

SSGT Roy F Lomanno of the 350th bomb sqrn passed away peacefully surrounded by his family on Sat July 11, 2009.  He was 87.   Sgt Lomanno was the only member of the Fredrick Reed Crew to escape the B-17 Happy-Go-Lucky (43-37882) when it was shot down on 6 Oct 1944 over Berlin.   He became a guest of the German government in Stalag Luft IV.  He is survived by his wife of 57 years, 4 children and  9 grandchildren



Jim Lomanno (son) 

1543 Buck Rd

Feasterville Pa 19053

Sole survivor, crew was on its 3rd or 4th Mission.  Lamanno was flying as Waist Gunner