WW2 Fallen - B-17 navigator Leland Hendershot

2nd. Lt. Leland Hendershot was the navigator of the B-17 Buttercup, in the 306th Bombardment Group.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/107774029/leland-carl-hendershot
https://b17flyingfortress.de/en/b17/42-3142-buttercup/42-3142-photo/ 

Leland Carl Hendershot 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, Can you help write some stories? It's a big project. The more help, the better.  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. We are going to need a lot of volunteers. 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.

Leland was born on June 13, 1920 in Illinois. His parents Carl and Mary were born in Illinois and Missouri, respectively. His father worked as a farmer. Leland had an older brother and a younger brother. By 1940 Leland had completed one year of college while still working on the family farm.

He enlisted in the army in January 1942. He became a second lieutenant and navigator in the 368th Bombardment Squadron, 306th Bombardment Group which was equipped with B-17 Flying Fortresses. The 306th BG was sent to England in September 1942, the first American bomb group sent to Europe. Lt. Henderson probably joined it later.

On November 13, 1943 he was flying B-17 42-3142 nicknamed Buttercup near Oxford, England. It encountered severe turbulence which caused it to crash in a big explosion. All ten of the crew were killed.

His grave is at Newman Cemetery in Newman, Illinois.

Thank you Lt. Hendershot for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Leland.

This is one of the final 100 stories (82) to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.

Last year on this date I profiled Robert Fenn, 5th Armored Division. You can read about Robert 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