Alfred D Benjamin
MilitaryBack Row L-R: Raymond A. Panici (FG), Roy E. Dobson (OBS/TG), Alfred D. Benjamin (NAV), George H. Koehne (AC), Tommy P. Bolger (NAV), Merle L. Gibson (NAV).
Front Row L-R: Samuel Markoff (FG), Joe R. Carnes (P), Charles W. Ford (ETTG), Daniel A. Walton (BOM), Albert K. Sherriff (ROG).
Alfred Benjamin was the Navigator on B-17 42-37982 shot down over Belgium on the Hamm mission of 19 September 1944, after the liberation of the area by American troops. In an April 2006 posting on the 8th AF Message Board, he relates that he and 3 other wounded crew members were taken to Hospital Saint-Joseph in Gilly (Charleroi), Belgium as there was no US Army hospital facility yet near the crash site. Ball Turret Gunner King was the most seriously injured. After about 4 days, Benjamin and Waist Gunner Raymond Panici, wounded but able to walk, traveled to Charleroi to find an US Army officer who could get them transported to an American facility. 2 days later, all four wounded were driven to a field hospital and then evacuated by train to the General Hospital in Paris. Benjamin doesn't mention Chanter nor Lucynski in his posting.
Connections
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: Trembling Gremlin
- Unit: 384th Bomb Group 544th Bomb Squadron
Events
Event | Location | Date | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Born |
Boston, Massachusetts | 31 March 1924 | Massachusetts |
Enlisted |
17 November 1942 | Boston, Massachusetts | |
Other wounded |
19 September 1944 | in the crash of B-17 42-37982 near Charleroi, Belgium. Cared for as well as 3 other wounded crew members, he was flown back to England from Paris |
Revisions
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / self, http://384thbombgroup.com/_content/_pages/PersonnelSearch.php?LastName=…