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| Staff Sergeant Gerald Murphy was a waist gunner on the B-24 Vagabond King. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56292759/gerald-e_-murphy https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65291054 http://www.b24bestweb.com/vagabondking.htm http://acepilots.com/archives/Photos/b24-liberator.jpg |
Gerald Edwin Murphy never had a chance to reach 100 years old. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Last year I was not able to write a profile everyday from September to November because I was studying for the Certified Financial Planner test (I passed!). I feel my project to honor one U.S. serviceman for each day of the war would be incomplete if I left them off. As I have time, I am going back and adding profiles for the days I missed.
Gerald was born on October 4, 1918 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His parents born in Indiana and Iowa, respectively. His father was not listed on the 1920 census. His mother was living with her parents, but was listed as being married. Gerald had one older brother. By 1930 Gerald's mother had remarried. By 1940 Gerald had completed four years of high school. He was living as a lodger in Rochester, Indiana and worked for the Polar Ice Company.
He was drafted into the army on August 31, 1941. Later he volunteered for the Army Air Forces and became a staff sergeant in the 565th Bombardment Squadron, 389th Bombardment Group which was equipped with B-24 Liberators. Sgt. Murphy was trained as a waist gunner. The 389th BG was sent to England in June 1943. Shortly thereafter many of the planes in the 389th BG were sent to Libya. It flew missions over Crete, Sicily, Italy, Austria, and Romania.
On November 17, 1943, his hometown newspaper reported that Sgt. Murphy had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his action during the August low-level bombing attack of the Ploiesti refineries in Romania. Prior to that he had already earned two Bronze Stars and four Oak Leaf Clusters. In a letter home he wrote that on a recent mission he had shot down two German fighters, and maybe a third.
One day later, on November 18, 1943 Sgt. Murphy woke up with a cold. He hoped he could get a break on participating on the assigned mission to bomb targets in Oslo, Norway. His wishes were not granted and he was part of the crew flying a B-24 with the nickname Vagabond King which was shot down on its 21st mission over the North Sea by a German FW-190. It was the only bomber lost on the mission.
His cenotaph memorial is at Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial in Coton, England. There is also a cenotaph grave at Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Bruce Lake Station, Indiana.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
R.I.P.......SALUTE!!!
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ReplyDeleteMy mother's first husband, SSGT Lewis H. Raines, Chesson, Alabama, was on this flight with SSGT Murphy, he was the tail gunner. In the group picture, he is in the front row, last one on the right. I was told this wasn't his regular crew but the tail gunner on this mission was sick so SSGT. Raines took his place.
ReplyDeleteThanks for adding these comments about Sgt. Raines. Would you like to write his story as part of the WWII project to tell the stories of all the US WWII fallen? See www.storiesbehindthestars.org for details. It costs nothing to join and the experience is very enriching.
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