Personnel

CREW

          A/C  #42-102959   MACR #12047, MICRO - FICHE #4418



2nd Lt Richard A.Beck                     P        KIA  3 FEB 45 BERLIN

2nd Lt Walter A.Rosenberger,Jr.      CP       KIA  3 FEB 45 BERLIN

F/0 Dale B.Snow                           NAV   POW 3 FEB 45 BERLIN

2nd Lt Robert D.Carpenter             BOM   POW 3 FEB 45 BERLIN

   Cpl Pedro A.Martinez                   TTE   KIA  3 FEB 45 BERLIN

   Cpl Lavelle E.Giles                       ROG   KIA  3 FEB 45 BERLIN

   Cpl Dudley S.Ingraham,Jr.            BTG   KIA  3 FEB 45 BERLIN

   Cpl Herald R.Boyd                 TOG/'NG  KIA  3 FEB 45 BERLIN             

S/Sgt Danial E. McTaggart                TG   KIA  3 FEB 45 BERLIN            



350th Sqdn. Crew,as above,joined the 100th Group on 24 DEC 1944.



Missions of Lt Richard A. Beck Crew from S/Sgt Danial McTaggart form 5's



1.    10/1/45 6:30,  COLOGNE (FLAK DAMAGE, HAD TO ABORT)

2.    17/1/45 7:30   HAMBURG 

3.    20/1/45 7:25   HEILBRONN 

4.    21/1/45 7:30   MANNHEIM 

       23/1/45 3:00   PRACTICE FLIGHT 

       31/1/45 6:15   BREMEN  (recall)

         1/2/45 1:00   training or abort

5.      3/2/45          BERLIN (SHOT DOWN, MISSING IN ACTION)



EYWITNESS: "A/C #42 102958 was hit by flak on the right wing, reported to have 

been a ground rocket,just after bombs away.  Starboard engines began to flame 

and A/C  was  nosed over in a steep dive apparently in an effort to extinguish 

the fire.  A few second& later, it pulled up in a half roll heading toward 100th C 

Squadron, then did a split S and went down. Two chutes were seen to come from 

the A/C as it fell away in a tight spin.  When last seen the A/C was nearly 

enveloped in fire."………Lt. R.L.Heironimus





Hi Michael,

 

Just to let you know my uncle and I spell our names DaniAl, not EL, even if the records have otherwise.  We both fought the army with that spelling.  I am attaching scans of my uncle's individual flight record for the months of January and February 1945, unfortunately I don't know how good they are. That is all I have showing his mission lists.

They show six flights in early January of about 2:30-2:40 duration, (training?).  The combat mission flights would be longer I expect.  The combat would be 

10/1/45 6:30,  17/1/45 7:30,  20/1/45 7:25, 21/1/45 7:30, 23/1/45 3:00 (training?), 31/1/45 6:15 for January

1/2/45 1:00 (training?), and the final mission of 3/2/45(missing in action) for February

 

I am also including a scan of his funeral notice in the Elgin, Nebraska paper of 15/09/49 after his body had been returned.  I was 7 months old and attended his funeral as the article states.  The news article also says that on his first mission his plane was shot down with no causualties, and all returned to base.  I am not sure of that but from what I remember,my Mom used to say that on one of his missions they had sustained heavy damage and had to jestison everything to get back to base.

 

Thank you so much for your time in doing this for all of these guys who are no longer here.

Dan Mortensen (Uncle was Danial McTaggart)

hdmortensen@hotmail.com



Michael, 

I am so sorry, I have never scanned anything before, in Fred Parley's for the 8th pictures, note he said I should scan the pictures at 600 dpi for a better picture.  I have rescanned the pictures and they do look better.  If it is OK I am resending the new scans along with a picture of Danial E McTaggart, S/Sgt, my uncle, I discovered he had been promoted.  I didn't know if you did individual pictures or not.  Also since I sent his flight logs I have found some letters my Mom had with the other families from when he was reported MIA in February until around November when they were fairly sure they had been KIA.



Their first flight of 10/01/45 they were supposed to bomb a bridge in Cologne, but accidentally bombed Düsseldorf.  On the way in they were hit by flak and no.2 engine would only pull 16' MP for about 10 minutes.  About a half a minute before they hit target no. 4 was hit and it wouldn't feather.  Ten minutes later no. 2 wouldn't feather because of flak in the gears. They dropped their bombs and got out of there. The ship was full of holes, two engines wind milling, no. 2 caught fire but went out.  No. 1 was causing problems, no compass, no trim tabs, no artificial horizon, out of range of the G box, bomb bay doors wouldn't close ball turret cables partially cut.  Snow dead reaconed to Brussels, they thought. They were getting ready to land in a field in France when they lost it in the fog.  They then got a tower at a P-51 field in Merville where they landed.  They had the left and tail wheels flat and managed to stay on the strip at only a 20 degree angle.  They counted the holes in the ship and there were 225, they figured the ship wouldn't fly again. I believe that the pilot Beck was awarded a situation for this. None of the crew were injured.

 

From the letters the rest of the missions are only listed as one of several sites bombed that day by the 8th.

17/01/45 Could have been one of the following - oil industry and U Boat sites at Hamburg, or Fhenania oil refinery at Hargurg, or rail yards at Paderborn.

21/01/45 Could have been rail yards at Aschaffenberg, Heilbronn or Mannheim.

The forth trip there was no record of.

 

The 5th and last here is what I have from a letter from Robert Carpenter, the bombardier. At about 11:25 AM on 2/1/45, at 27,000 feet we had just dropped our bombs.  We were in the lead squadron of the second wave over the target and I was closing the bomb bay doors when were hit.  We began falling out of formation immediately, I was dazed momentarily and then put on my parachute, I was out of communication with the rest of the ship.  By the time I had my chute on we were spinning so bad I couldn't climb to the escape hatch.  The last I remember is that I was being thrown all over the nose then went blank.  When I came to I was floating in the sky along with Snow the navigator.  We figured the plane exploded, the nose was blown off and the wind pulled us free.  Carpenter and Snow landed in the outskirts of Berlin and were immediately captured.  We were taken to the Luftwaffe base in Spadan West where we were held 4 days.  From Berlin we were sent to an interrogation center near Frankfurt, and from there to a POW camp at Nurmberg.  As the Americans approached were marched to a camp at Mooseburg(?) near Munich.  On April 29th they were liberated



 

Again the first picture back row left is of Cpl Dudley S Ingraham, Jr Ball turret gunner, , Cpl Herald R Boyd WG, Cpl Pedro A Martinez TTE(engineer), 2nd Lt Richard A Beck pilot, front row left is S/Sgt Danial E McTaggart tail gunner, 2nd Lt Robert D Carpenter bombadier, 2nd Lt Walter A Rosenberger, Jr co-pilot.

 

The second picture is from left Cpl Lavelle E Giles radio op/gunner, S/SGT Danial E McTaggart tail gunner, Cpl Dudle S Ingraham, Jr ball turret gunner, Cpl Herald R Boyd waist gunner.

 

The last picture is just S/Sgt Danial E McTaggart.

 

Thank you again for all of your help in this

Dan Mortensen

hdmortensen@hotmail.com

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



Perhaps you might be able to steer me on how to locate the post war history of Robert D Carpenter, the bombardier on my Uncle's aircraft #42 102958 which was shot down over Berlin on February 3 1945.  Mr. Carpenter and Dale Snow, the navigator, were the only two survivors of the mission.  Mr. Snow passed on back in 1975 but I have never been able to find info on what happened to Mr. Carpenter.  Through this great website, I was able to make contact with the nephew of Daniel McTaggart, tail gunner, who was friends with my uncle, Dudley Ingraham, Jr., ball turret gunner (both KIA).  He too could never find record of Mr. Carpenter.  Also, of perhaps interest to surviving members of the 100th, I have acquired a considerable collection of memorabilia from my uncle's time in Diss at Thorpe Abbots including his personal diaries which he kept until his death in 1945.  His report of missions including a crash lading in France and his confirmed belief that he would not make it through his 25 missions are among topics he wrote about while serving in the 100th.  I had the pleasure of traveling to Diss several years back to see the memorial and museum and followed this visit with a trip to my uncle's grave in the War cemetary just outside of Leige, Belgium.  In any event, if you have any info about Robert D. Carpenter, I'd appreciate help in contacting him should he still be amongst us (or his next of kin).

Sincerely, Dudley S I Samponaro, Sr.

Wakefield, RI USA

(401) 284-0874

ksamponaro@cox.net



Robert D. Carpenter passed away sometime ago in Texas.

 BORN 4 NOV 1917

DIED 3 FEB 1997, GALVESTON,TX