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| Sgt. Robert Boyd was killed when his B-24 exploded while flying in to England as a replacement. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19953255/robert-earl-boyd http://www.39-45war.com/liberator.html |
Robert Earl Boyd never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on April 26, 1919 in Missouri. His parents Frank and Merle were also both born in Missouri. His father worked as a barber. Robert had one older brother, one younger brother, and one younger sister. By 1940 Bob had completed one year of high school. He was living at home and working as a grocery clerk.
He volunteered for the Army Air Corps on July 14, 1941. He became a sergeant in 702nd Bombardment Squadron, 445th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force, which was equipped with B-24 Liberators. The 445th BG arrived in England in the fall of 1943. It flew its first bombing missions in December 1943. The actor James Stewart served as an officer in a different 445th BG squadron.
As with all of the 8th Air Force bombing groups at the time, casualties in the 445th BG were high. On September 27, 1944 their losses were particularly bad when 30 of 37 445th BG planes failed to return from a bombing mission to Kassel, Germany. The 702nd BS was in dire need for replacement crews.
On October 18, 1944 Ralph Stimmel flew the B-24 #42-50347 from the base at Tibenham to Greencastle, Ireland, to pick up replacement crews. The plane had seen a lot of action and had been retired from further bombing missions, but was still considered airworthy enough to ferry airmen. Stimmel noted the plane smelled of fumes during the flight to Ireland. Stimmel stayed behind to pick up a new plane - his role as the test pilot for the 445th BG required that he be the first to fly all planes.
For the flight back, the pilot was Captain William Driscall. There were 24 airmen on the plane, including Sgt. Boyd. The plane was flying back at an altitude of about 1,000 feet with cloud cover at 1,200 feet. While over Landican, England, the plane exploded in midair. Many of the doomed crew were ejected from the plane and dropped to their deaths. The others crashed with the main section of the fuselage. The official cause of the accident was never determined, but most researchers believe the explosion was caused by fumes being ignited, most likely by a cigarette. This was an all-too-common event in B-24s due to how the fuel lines passed over the fuselage.
An extensive analysis of the flight and crash can be found at http://www.39-45war.com/liberator.html.
His grave is at Kahoka Cemetery in Kahoka, Missouri.
Last year on this date I profiled Distinguished Flying Cross hero and B-17 pilot Clarence Aaberg. What he did is definitely worth learning about. You can read about Clarence 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
I was amazed to see this. I always wondered about this tragedy. In 1999 I interviewed George Noorigian, who had a chance to be on that flight but someone else took his place. I couldn't post the portion of the interview here because it's more than 4,096 characters but I'd be happy to share it.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an amazing interview. Feel free to share a link or post it in sections. Don Milne
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