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The
always stressful and often tragic events and circumstances which surrounded
the 392 Group combat operations on a daily basis during the Second World
War, saw many individual fatalities in the planes of men coming home to
base with their crews; still others were lost during combat operational
maneuvering enroute, practice training missions or
in accidents while performing aircraft flight tests-all while still flying
within friendly English air space and not over enemy held areas.
B24 Liberator
5 JULY
1944
This day would see a
tragic airborne accident befall crews of the Group which occurred on a local
practice mission and involved a crew from the 579th and 576th Squadrons.
Little information is available from all records available to this research
effort on the exact circumstances surrounding the mid-air collision of the
two aircraft. Through a detailed examination of different source materials,
including crew loading lists before and after this mishap as well as cemetery
burial listings for the 392nd, the following accounting of crew member
fatalities was judged conclusively to be the most accurate and correct
assessment regarding these two crew losses on this date. Deaths involved were
eleven (11) crewmen, five (5) on the 576th crew and six (6) on the 579th’s,
as tabulated below.
1/LT Reese, R.L. (P)
576th KILD
2/LT lannotta,
J.S. (CP) 576th KILD
F/O Minzenberg,
W.O. (N) 576th KILD
S/S Thornton, M. (MNI) (G)
576th KILD
S/S Patzmann,
R.O.E. (G) 576th KILD
This aircrew was flying
B-24H Model #41-28731, Call Letter "V", no nickname of record,
which ship had completed (7) combat missions up to this local practice
sortie. The plane suffered a mid-air collision with the 579th aircraft while
returning from a Group practice mission around 1130 hours. Four (4) crew
members managed to safely bail out of this stricken Liberator (and would crew
up to fly again later on other 392nd crews): 2/Lt. J.E. Walters; Sgt. W.R. Blankham; Sgt. E. (NMI) Ellis; and Sgt. D.H. Schumaker. On burial information, Lt. Joseph S. Iannotta is interred at CAMBRIDGE, England
in Grave G-7-2 and was awarded an Air Medal but no Purple Heart is indicated.
The interments of the other deceased members is not
known from the records. Lt. lannotta’s home State
was New York.
2/LT Fidel, P.M. (P)
579th KILD
2/LT Fitzgerald, RM. (CP)
579th KILD
2/LT Levine, G.S. (N) 579th
KILD
S/S Rasmussen, M.D. (G)
579th KILD
S/S Causey, W.W. (G) 579th
KILD
SGT McCormick, S.G. (G)
579th KILD
Lt. Fidel’s
crew was flying B-24H Model #42-95092, Call Letter "Bar T" with no
nickname of record. This plane had completed a total of (4)
combat missions up to this accident. After the mid-air collision with
the Reese aircraft, it crashed and burned near the village
of Foxley, Norfolk. Three (3) crewmen survived
this mishap and bailed out safely: 2/Lt. Q.S. Fletcher, Sgt. S.J. Placht, and Sgt. RE. Zollinger.
Two (2) of the fatalities are buried in the U.S National (overseas) Cemetery
at CAMBRIDGE, England: Lt Paul M. Fidel in Grave
F-3-26 and Sgt. Warren W. Causey in Grave C-2-52. Lt. Fidel’s
awards were one Air Medal, but no Purple Heart citation is noted and Sgt. Causey’s citation also is an Air Medal with no indication
of a Purple Heart award. Lt. Fidel had a home State of record of California while Sgt. Causey’s
was Indiana.
More
B24 records can be found at www.b24.net
A note
from the Editor
Eyewitnesses
from Foxley today remember a crashing plane to the West of the village just
50yds north of the sharp bend in Mill Lane, and aircraft instruments and
ammunition have been dug up to the east near the edge of Foxley Wood.
Did the aircraft perhaps collide over the woods and come down to earth on
both sides of the village?
See also
the Norfolk Heritage website
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