B-24 #42-40598 failed to return from to St. Eval from 'Musketry' patrol. An SOS was received but searchers couldn't find crew or plane.



T/Sgt Carl E. Owen, Aerial Engineer, crew member of the "Sea Hawk", was lost along with all crew members on July 20, 1943 in the Bay of Biscay. The "Sea Hawk" was a B-24D, stationed at St. Eval and operating under the U.S. 479th Antisubmarine Group. The 479th served under the U.S. Eighth Army Air Corps for administrative purposes but was attached for operational purposes to the Royal Air Force's Coastal Command.



The "Sea Hawk", lost with all hands on July 20, 1943, was attacking U-558, which was transiting the Bay in route to the North Atlantic, having left the sub pens located near the border of France and Spain. Per later interrogation of U-558 survivors by the British, the sub was reported by surviving crew to have been sunk on 20 July 1943 in the Bay of Biscay by a plane with markings of the 19th ASW Squadron. Timing of the attack and the last known location of the Sea Hawk suggest it was the attacking B-24.



German U-boat records are consistent with this suggestion, recording that U-558 was sunk July 20, 1943 by a "Liberator" bearing tail markings of the 19th A/S Squadron, U.S. Army Air Corps.



This same air crew, flying a B-17 previously out of Newfoundland, Canada, had provided anti-submarine duty for Atlantic convoys. The crew transferred to a B-24D outfitted for ASW duty in late Winter of 1943 and transferred to England, St.Eval, with operations beginning there in June, 1943.



Carl E. Owen was born in Dekalb county, Alabama. He entered the Army Air Corps in September of 1940 and was the senior enlisted man of the Sea Hawk's crew, serving as Aerial Engineer and Top Turret gunner.