Walter Lyndol Brown
Military ROLL OF HONOURBack row - Left to right :
1st Lt. Selansky - Navigator
1st Lt. Reginald L Carpenter - Command Pilot;
1st Lt. Edwin L Rumsey Jr. - Copilot;
2nd Lt. Berthel Swensson - Bombardier;
SSgt. Frederick W Durand - Gunner - KIA - Ploesti
Front row, left to right :
SSgt. Walter L Brown - Gunner
TSgt. Joseph F Manquen - Radio Operator
SSgt. Glenn O Higley - Assisstant Flight Engineer
TSgt. Vincent E Huenerberg - Flight Engineer
SSgt. Rollin C Looker - Assisstent Radio Operator
Best Web - B-24 - 41-24024 - Bewitching Witch
Walter Lyndol Brown
DATE OF BIRTH : April 6, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH : Cooper, Texas
HOME OF RECORD : Cooper, Texas
A total of 5 Medals of Honor and 56 Distinguished Service Crosses, among numerous other awards, were awarded for the August 1, 1943 low-level bombing mission of the Ploesti Oil Refineries, ranking it as perhaps the single-most decorated combat air mission of World War II. Lieutenant Reginald Carpenter, pilot of Staff Sergeant Brown's bomber, Bewitching Witch, received the Distinguished Service Cross Medal for his valor and heroic skill as a pilot, that enabled him to stay in the air long enough to ditch his failing bomber in the sea, close to home base, where seven surviving crewmen were rescued. Gunners Staff Sergeant Frederick Durand and SSgt. Walter Lyndol Brown were killed in action on this mission, both, also receiving posthumous Distinguished Service Cross Medals. 1943
AWARDS BY DATE OF ACTION - Aircraft Waist Gunner Staff Sergeant Walter L. Brown took part in Operation Tidal Wave, the bombing mission to destroy the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania, August, 1943, flying in the B-24D Liberator, 41-24024, named the, Bewitching Witch. The aircraft was damaged by anti-aircraft fire over Ploesti and was limping home on three engines, when the bomber was caught and attacked by German fighters, and damaged further by the fighters' cannons, over the Ionian Sea. The pilot was finally forced to ditch, Bewitching Witch, 127 km North of Benghazi, Libya. SSgt. Walter Brown and his friend, and fellow gunner SSgt. Fred Duran, badly wounded by cannon shell hits in their bomber, died of their wounds, or drowned, when they were unable to escape their sinking airplane. 1 Aug 43.
For their bravery and valor in defending their B-24 bomber from attacking fighter planes, until fatally wounded by German aircraft cannon shells. As Gunners Sgt. Fred Duran and Sgt. Walter Brown approached their home base at Benghazi, Libya, wounded and dying, they were unable to escape their sinking bomber. They either had died from their injuries, or drowned after command pilot Lt. Reginald Carpenter ditched the, Bewitching Witch, in the Mediterranean Sea. All three men received The Distinguished Service Cross Medals, Sgt. Duran and Sgt. Brown, posthumously.
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-24 Liberator
- Nicknames: - Bewitching Witch
- Unit: 376th Bomb Group 44th Bomb Group 67th Bomb Squadron
Missions
- Date: 1 August 1943
- Official Description:
Places
Events
Event | Location | Date | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Other Killed in action |
1 August 1943 | ||
Born |
Cooper, Texas | ||
Buried |
Revisions
Removed extra info in the "Role/job" field.
Removed extra info in the "S/N" field.
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / MACR 15859, Losses of the 8th & 9th AFs Vol I by Bishop & Hey p. 218