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| Lt. Winfred Russell was a B-24 pilot for the 763rd Bombardment Squadron in Italy. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14393078/winfred-ray-russell http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~webermd1/family/wwII.html |
Winfred Ray Russell never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on February 20, 1919 in Texas. His parents Charles and Lena were also both born in Texas. His father worked as a laborer and later as a county road man. Winfred had an older brother and two sisters. By 1940 Ray had completed four years of high school. He was still living with his parents, working as a truck driver.
He enlisted in the Army on April 4, 1941. He volunteered for the Army Air Forces and eventually became a second lieutenant and pilot in the 763rd Bombardment Squadron, 460th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force, which was equipped with B-24 Liberators. The 460th BG arrived in Italy in January 1944 and became operational in March.
Lt. Russell participated in the 460th BG's fifth mission on April 5, 1944. The target was the Nis Marshalling Yard in Yugoslavia. His plane never made it back to base.
His grave is at North Elm Cemetery in North Elm, Texas.
Last year on this date I profiled B-17 navigator Alfred Nichols. You can read about Alfred 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
sad face...
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