Date & Time:
Jan 3, 1943 at 1140 LT
Type of aircraft:
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
Operator:
Registration:
41-24620
Flight Phase:
Flight
Flight Type:
Bombing
Survivors:
Yes
Site:
Plain, Valley
Schedule:
Molesworth - Molesworth
MSN:
3305
YOM:
1942
Country:
France
Region:
Europe
Crew on board:
10
Crew fatalities:
7
Pax on board:
0
Pax fatalities:
0
Other fatalities:
0
Total fatalities:
7
Circumstances:
The airplane departed RAF Molesworth in the morning on an operation to Saint-Nazaire. Approaching the target area, it was shot down by a German fighter and crashed. Seven crew members were killed and three others became PoW. The ball turret gunner, though suffering shrapnel wounds, was thrown from the wreckage without his parachute at 20,000 feet, lost consciousness due to altitude, free fell and plunged through a glass roof of the Saint-Nazaire station. He was found alive but with serious injuries tangled in the steel roof girders of the railway station. Saved by German medical care, he spent the rest of war in prison camps.
Crew:
1st Lt Arthur Irwin Adams, pilot, †
2nd Lt Gene Adam Witterstetter, copilot, †
T/Sgt Dennis C. Hart, mechanic, †
T/Sgt Alfred Morris Union, radio operator, †
2nd Lt Glen Marshall Herrington, navigator,
2nd Lt Michael Lawrence Libonati Jr., bomb aimer, †
S/Sgt Edward William Durant, air gunner, †
Sgt Marvin L. Milam, air gunner, †
S/Sgt Alan Eugene Magee, air gunner,
S/Sgt James Ira Gordon, air gunner.
Crew:
1st Lt Arthur Irwin Adams, pilot, †
2nd Lt Gene Adam Witterstetter, copilot, †
T/Sgt Dennis C. Hart, mechanic, †
T/Sgt Alfred Morris Union, radio operator, †
2nd Lt Glen Marshall Herrington, navigator,
2nd Lt Michael Lawrence Libonati Jr., bomb aimer, †
S/Sgt Edward William Durant, air gunner, †
Sgt Marvin L. Milam, air gunner, †
S/Sgt Alan Eugene Magee, air gunner,
S/Sgt James Ira Gordon, air gunner.
