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| Lt. Laula Middleton was a B-25 pilot in the 310th Bombardment Group. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43617471/laula-matthew-middleton http://www.wikiwand.com/en/380th_Space_Control_Squadron |
Laula Matthew Middleton never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on August 29, 1918 in Alabama. His parents Wardlow and Evelyn were also both born in Alabama. His father worked as a farmer. He died in 1938. Laula had an older brother and sister and a younger brother and sister. By 1940 Laula had completed one year of college and was living at home with his widowed mother.
He enlisted in the Army Air Forces on November 8, 1941 and was trained to fly bombers. He became a first lieutenant and B-25 Mitchell pilot with the 428th Bombardment Squadron, 310th Bombardment Group, 12th Air Force.
The 310th BG began flying missions in North Africa in early December 1942. It focused on bombing ships and harbors to interrupt resupply to the Germans in Tunisia.
On April 4, 1943 eighteen B-25s took off for a sea search of German shipping. The planes approached their target in boxes of six from three different directions, so no matter the evasion maneuver of the target, it could not avoid all of the bombs. While attacking a group of seven ships the bombers were intercepted by German Me-109s. American gunners killed the pilot of one enemy fighter only to see his plane hit the tail of Lt. Middleton's plane causing it to go down in an uncontrollable spin. None of the crew of five survived.
His grave is at Belleville United Methodist Church Cemetery in Belleville, Alabama.
Last year on this date I profiled Stanley Forsythe, 1st Infantry Division. You can read about Stanley here.
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
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