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| Walter Piskor was the engineer on the B-24 Taloa on its final mission to bomb the battleship Haruna near Hiroshima. https://hiroshima-pows.org/taloa-crew/ https://hiroshima-pows.org/the-taloa/ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/127135045/walter-piskor |
Walter Piskor never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on August 11, 1918 in Michigan. His parents Stanley and Sophie were both born in Poland and came to America in 1911. His father worked as a thread mill laborer and later as a spinner. Walter had one younger sister. By 1940 Walter had completed four years of high school and was working as a machinist while living with his family.
He enlisted in the army on September 20, 1942 and volunteered for the Army Air Forces. He became a Tech Sergeant in the 866th Bombardment Squadron, 494th Bombardment Group, 7th Air Force, which was equipped with long range B-24 Liberators. It flew its first combat missions out of Saipan in October 1944. Early targets were in the Philippines. It moved its base to Okinawa in June 1945 and bombed targets in Japan, China, and Korea.
The mission for July 28, 1945 was to bomb the battleship Haruna in Kure Harbor near Hiroshima. Piskor was the engineer on the B-24 named Taloa. It was the crew's 39th mission, one short of the number needed before they could return home.
Right after releasing its bombs, Taloa was hit by flak and was seen diving to the ground below. The crew was originally listed as missing in action. It was later discovered that Sgt. Piskor fell out of the plane and was killed after a free fall of 10,000 feet. A couple of the crew survived, only to be sent to Hiroshima police headquarters where they were killed by the first atomic bomb one week later.
Sgt. Piskor's grave is at Saint Joseph Cemetery in Willimantic, Connecticut.
Last year on this date I profiled Taskel Evans, 9th Infantry Division. You can read about Taskel 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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