Shot down by 20mm cannon fire from fighers and crashed near Fulda, Germany on return from the mission to Gotha, Germany on 24 February 1944 in B-24J #42-100312. Killed in Action (KIA). His remains were never recovered and he is still listed as Missing In Action (MIA). 

 

 

From Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency

On February 24, 1944, a B-24J Liberator (serial number 42-100312) with nine crew members took off from its airbase in England, for a bombing mission against enemy targets near Gotha, Germany. During the mission, this aircraft sustained damage from enemy fighter attack and exploded in mid-air near Leimbach, Germany. Two crew members survived the explosion and parachuted to the ground safely. They were captured by German troops and returned to U.S. custody after the war; after which they reported that none of the other crew members would have survived the explosion and crash. One crew member's remains were found at the wreckage by German troops and reportedly buried in the cemetery at Tiefenort; however, the remains of the other six crew members were never located.

 

Technical Sergeant Donald V. Banta, who entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Nebraska, was a member of the 703rd Bombardment Squadron, 445th Bombardment Group (Heavy). He was a machine gunner aboard this B-24 at the time of its loss on February 24, 1944, and he was killed in the incident. His remains were not recovered, and he is still unaccounted-for. 

Today, Technical Sergeant Banta is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Hombourg, Belgium.