Bill Beigel's War Casualties Blog

 

A B-26 "Marauder" medium bomber left Chipping Ongar, England, the home field of the 387th Bomb Group, on a mission to Venlo, Holland, on February 25, 1944.  The targe was a Luftwaffe air field.

 

A witness in another aircraft made the following report, regarding the return flight of one of the planes of the 387th:

 

"The enemy fighters attacking from the rear at five o'clock hit LT Falls (pilot of the B-26), pieces of his (tail) elevator were seen to fly off.  The left engine was afire.  Lt Falls then pealed off, to the left and dived just before he entered the cloud bank in a steep dive; fire appeared to be catching on the tail.  The ship gave the impression that an attempt was being made to regain control".

 

Six flyers were aboard the downed B-26. and none were ever seen again.

 

A Board of Officers convened at the Astoria Hotel in Paris on June 24, 1947, to discuss the status of these six flyers, as well as the status of other "non-recoverables"lost in the North Sea area.  An SR&D was prepared to review the case.  Dental and medical records were pulled from the personnel files of the flyers, to be used to identify their remains, should they ever be located.

 

The file for the copilot of the plane, 2nd LT Robert E. Evans, of San Pedro, CA, revealed that he had suffered chicken pox in 1929, and the measles in 1930.  He had fractured three lower left ribs in 1938, but had made a full recovery.

 

The SR&D established that the six flyers had disappeared at the midway point over the North Sea between England and Holland, and that the remains would never be found.  The five officers on the Board signed the SR&D, and so the case was closed.  Closed, except for the families of the flyers, who would never see their loved ones again.