WW2 Fallen - B-17 tail gunner John Dudley

Staff Sergeant John Dudley was a tail gunner with the 301st Bomb Group based in North Africa.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/123781648/john-holbrook-dudley
https://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=28570 

John Holbrook Dudley never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

If you have enjoyed reading the stories of the WW2 fallen, I invite you to help write some!  Announcing "The Stories Behind the Stars", see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org This crowd-sourced national project has the goal of compiling stories of all 400,000+ of the US World War 2 fallen in one free-to-access central database.  Anyone visiting a war memorial or gravesite will be able to scan the name of the fallen with a smartphone and his story will appear on the phone.

John was born on March 8, 1920 in Massachusetts. His parents John and Flora were also both born in Massachusetts. His father worked as a civil engineer. John was an only child. By 1940 John had completed two years of college and was still living at home.

After completing another year of college, John was drafted into the army on April 9, 1942. He volunteered to serve in the Army Air Forces and became a staff sergeant and tail gunner in the 352nd Bombardment Squadron, 301st Bombardment Group, which was equipped with B-17 Flying Fortresses. The 301st BG was originally based in England beginning in September 1942, but by November, it was transferred to North Africa. Its focus was stopping the German ability to support their troops in Tunisia. In April 1943 Sgt. Dudley was credited with shooting down a German fighter plane.

On May 10, 1943 Sgt. Dudley was the tail gunner on B-17 42-5217 which was the squadron's lead aircraft on a bombing mission to hit the Chinisia S. Giuseppe Airfield in Trapani, Sicily. While on the bomb run approach, other flyers in the squadron saw his bomber explode. Only one chute was observed escaping. One source says the cause of the explosion was a flak burst directly into the open bomb bay doors. Another source says the cause was being hit by errant bombs released from other B-17s in the formation.

His grave is at Old Howard Cemetery in Sutton, Massachusetts. 

Thank you Sgt. Dudley for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for John.

Last year on this date I profiled Okinawa fallen Anthony Fasino, 27th Infantry Division. You can read about Anthony 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.

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WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by

The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation

“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”

http://www.tggf.org