Killed in Action (KIA) 18 September 1944



DFC w/ Oak Leaf Cluster



78th FG 84th FS: 1st Lt John Fee, Beverley Hills, California, married to an English girl, had just returned from a 30 day leave in the states when he was part of Operation Market Garden. On the 17th September 1944 he had flown a successful mission with 84th FS where the group had bombed gun positions at either ends of a bridge at Haamstede. At least two direct hits were scored and there were several near misses. Fourteen bombs were dropped on these two targets. Four a/c bombed and strafed 40 mm gun emplacements. About five C-47s bellied in fields northeast of Best. One C-47 crashed and burned in the same area and one ditched mid-channel beside an Air/Sea Rescue launch.



“A flight went down to between 2,500 and 2,000 feet and ‘stooged’ about to draw ground fire, then the group went down and dive-bombed and strafed the guns. Fragmentation bombs (200 pounders) proved most effective in knocking out the guns. About ten to fifteen minutes after our attack began, all the German gun positions, with the exception of one battery just south of Nijmegen, stopped firing completely. After that, the group stayed in their area looking unsuccessfully for more ground gun targets. Then they returned to the coast and picked up the C-47’s and gliders and flew along with them until they were cut loose and landed. The group intention was to neutralize any incipient ground fire, but they reported no firing on any gliders or tugs. Several flights with C-47’s carrying paratroopers, and of these C-47’s some ten to twelve were knocked down by gun positions which could not be located by the group pilots.”



The following day he was on a combat mission led by Lt Col Jack J Oberhansley, providing fighter-bomber support to the Second Task Force, which arrived at Haamstede at 1536 hours at 3000 ft. Here the mission was to bomb gun and flak positions. Targets of opportunity were strafed, resulting in four box cars damaged, four trucks destroyed, three trucks damaged, one flak position destroyed and eleven damaged. Lt Fee’s aircraft was hit by light flak from a position at the north end of the bridge at 4QE 9717. He spun in from 2-3000 feet, hitting the water.



“I was flying Shampoo Blue Four. I observed Shampoo Blue Leader (Lt Fee) make a pass at flak positions near a bridge near Zaltbommel, Holland. In pulling up off the bridge, he broke to the right violently, and entered into a spin. At this time he was about 1,000 feet. He did not bale out. The plane crashed into the river about one hundred yards from the bridge and disappeared beneath the water. I did not see anyone come up afterwards. The time was about 1425 hours on 18th September 1944.



I was not close enough to notice whether or not he had been hit by flak, but it was intense at that spot, I believe he was hit.”