Robert Kenneth Johnson
Military
Fighter Pilot
404th FG - 508th FS - 9th AF
Object Number - UPL 38182 - CPT Robert Kenneth Johnson Fighter Pilot 404th FG - 508th FS - 9th AF
Connections
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Ninth Air Force
- Type Category: Fighter
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Ninth Air Force
- Type Category: Fighter
Places
- Site type: Airfield
- Known as: Brétigny-sur-Orge
- Site type: Airfield
- Site type: Airfield
- Site type: Airfield
- Site type: Airfield
Events
| Event | Location | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Born |
Illinois | 12 March 1919 | |
|
Other Combat Mission |
Bethune, France | 7 May 1944 | On the second Bethune attack, which the 508th Squadron insisted hit Arras, Major Moon and Lt. Bob Johnson of that squadron cleared the target area of flak by dropping clusters of 16 fragmentation bombs before the rest of the Group came in. They flew so low they had to break away sharply to miss a tall water-tower. |
|
Other Combat Mission |
Loire Valley, France | 30 June 1944 | The Group escorted C-47's to Normandy, took a third tour of beach patrol, or sat out the weather the next four days. The last day in June, each squadron ran a successful 12-ship reconnaissance across central Normandy to the Loire Valley, as usual hitting chiefly rail targets and some scattered road traffic. On the first, Bob "Senator" Johnson, now sprouting a handlebar moustache, got himself eight trucks with fragmentation bombs. |
|
Other Combat Mission/Shot Down |
near Montain, France | 9 August 1944 | The seventh mission of the day, about 10 o'clock at night, was a rough one for Bob Johnson, His plane was hit by flak while bombing a string of enemy tanks east of Montain His oil line was broken, and the plane burst into flames at about 3,500 feet. Major Leo Moon, the mission leader, said he ordered Johnson to bail out at about 2,500 feet, "I circled above while he dropped to 2,000 and then 1,000 feet," Moon said. "He was still in almost level flight, and no sign of a parachute. "The plane was at about 300 feet when it nosed over and dived toward the ground, and I saw the canopy fly off and the 'chute open. The 'chute almost collapsed, and swung Johnson in a wide arc as the plane crashed into a hill and exploded all over the place. I saw the flames leap out past the parachute. He swung back into a hedge-row and within seconds I saw a weapons carrier race up to him." We discovered later that Johnson intentionally had refused to quit his plane until the last minute, to keep it from crashing into an American bivouac area occupied by an ordnance company. His plane finally hit only the width of a road from the area. Ordnance men rushed Johnson to an evacuation hospital, where he had 17 stitches put in a head cut-his only injury. Within a day the ordinance company commander forwarded a message of gratitude and appreciation for Johnson's action to the 508th Squadron. |
|
Died |
Bergheim, Germany | 9 November 1944 | November 9th the 506th and 507th worked over a bridge across the Roer at Linnich, funnel for two main highways. The 508th off last, ran into low ceilings, rain, sleet and snow, but managed to unload its bombs on a marshalling yard at Bergheim, half way between Julich and Cologne. But the mission cost the squadron one of its finest veteran pilots, Bob "The Senator" Johnson, the man with the handle-bar mustache, who already had escaped death narrowly when he rode his plane down in a belly-landing in Normandy. The sleet and rain moved west over St. Trond, eliminating all missions for the rest of the day. During the storm there was a buzz-bomb explosion nearby an unusual occurrence, since most of them seemed headed for Brussels and Antwerp so Seba Eldridge of the 507th cracked: "Uh-oh-looks like the rain put the doodle-bug's fire out!" |
| Chicago, Illinois | 8037 S. Wolcott, Chicago, Ill. | ||
|
Buried |
No Known Grave Tablets of the Missing Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery Hombourg, Belgium |
