42-31565 Lassie Come Home
AAM DB Entry Correction.
Delivered Denver 21/11/43; Gr Island 7/12/43; Selfridge 14/12/43; Presque Is 15/12/43; Assigned 335BS/95BG [OE-U] Horham 26/12/43; 13m, Missing in Action Berlin 4/3/44 with Pilot Rodney P. Roehm; Co-pilot: David F. Wolter; Bombardier: Donald R. Egan; Ball turret gunner: Eugene S. Purnell; Left Waist gunner: Floyd C. Noullet; Tail gunner: Emory T. Kesterson (6 Prisoner of War); Right Waist gunner: John P. Wesp (Killed in Action); Navigator: Johnathan Pearson; Flight engineer/top turret gunner: Charles A. Strackbine; Radio Operator: Thomas L. Yankus (3 evaded capture). Hit by Flak in the nose cone after dropping its bombs, one of 42-31565's engines ran out of fuel. It was seen to turn slowly to the left and go into a steep dive, under control. No fire, smoke nor chutes were seen as the formation headed for its base. Missing Air Crew Report MACR 2795. Crew photo at http://95thbg.org/j3migr/crews-p-r/view-image/c8fb258c4811b32bc9de33222…
42-31565 crashed "on its own" near St Symphorien, three miles SE of Mons, Belgium. The pilot ordered to bail out and put the plane on auto-pilot with the aim of having it crashing in the North Sea. Due probably to tranfers of oil from one wing to the other, the plane banked and slowly lost altitude, nearing the ground and landed in a field in Saint-Symphorien, near Mons, Belgium. The surviving crew members knew nothing about the plane's crash location until 2004 when Belgian researchers found the real story. Missing Air Crew Report 2795. Yankus and Pearson were helped by the Belgian COMET Line in their evasion and were hidden in the secret camp in the Freteval Forest, near Châteaudun, France until Liberation in August 1944. (see www.evasioncomete.be). Strackbine was hidden elsewhere in France until also liberated.
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Missions
- Date: 3 February 1944
- Date: 30 January 1944
- Date: 29 January 1944
Events
Event | Location | Date | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Assigned |
26 December 1943 | 95BG 335BS | |
Crashed Failed to Return (FTR) |
4 March 1944 | Missing in Action Berlin 4/3/44. Hit by Flak in the nose cone after dropping its bombs, one of 42-31565's engines ran out of fuel. It was seen to turn slowly to the left and go into a steep dive, under control. No fire, smoke nor chutes were seen as the formation headed for its base. Missing Air Crew Report MACR 2795. | |
Delivered |
21 November 1944 |