Personnel

CREW



DATE: 24 Sept.1943    349th Sqdn.       A/C #42-30259 Damifino II



TARGET: Practice Mission              MACR #778 (Micro-fiche #257)



2nd Lt John G.Gossage         P     Rescued & later a POW (3/3/44) Berlin

2nd Lt William S. Grier          CP    KIA

2nd Lt Walter Nichols Jr      NAV   POW  8/10/43 Bremen (with Lt Becktoft Crew)

2nd Lt Theodore J.Don      BOM   Rescued & CPT   sn# 0-676883

T/Sgt William S.Humphrey   TTE   Rescued & later a POW (3/3/44)

S/Sgt Ralph Schulte         RWG   KIA

T/Sgt Michael W.Gillen       ROG    Rescued & CPT

S/Sgt Francis J.DeCooman  BTG    KIA

S/Sgt Bruce E.Alshouse       TG    Rescued & CPT    (1994 President of the 100th BG Association)

 S/Sgt Clyde O.Lovell         LWG   KIA



This crew joined the 100th Group in August 1943 a few days after the Regensburg raid of 17/8/43.(17 Aug 43). Flying with the Crew on the Sept 24, 1943 mission was 2nd Lt Ward Dalton(Nav) in place of Lt Nichols and was KIA. 



On 24/9/43 a rather sudden en practice mission was scheduled and it was dis-covered that this crew's regularly assigned A/C was still loaded with bombs from a mission scrubbed earlier that day. Another A/C was assigned the crew and in the rush to take off at the proper time, it was not immediately discovered that the ten machine guns were stored in the nose compartment.



While over the North sea on the practice mission, about 10/15 enemy fighters jumped the formation and left Gossage's ship badly shot up and #3 engine and part of the right wing burning fiercely. Gossage ordered the crew to bail out but he rode the ship to a crash landing in the sea. After about an hour in the water, Gossage, Don, Humphrey, Gillen and Alshouse were picked up by Air-Sea Rescue. Bodies of Schulte & DeCooman were never recovered and their names are inscribed on the Wall Of The Missing at Cambridge, Eng. Bill Grier is buried in the Cambridge Cemetary.



On 3/3/44, Gossage flying with a new crew was shot down on a mission to Berlin and became a POW. Sgt.Humphrey, with the crew of R.D.Vollmer, went down on that same mission and became a POW. 



See Bruce Alshouse record for a description of the rescue, it was not Air Sea Rescue, rather a Royal Navy combat flottila.