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| Sgt. Clifford Hurst was a B-24 gunner in the 44th Bombardment Group. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/107747584/clifford-charles-hurst https://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/usa/aircrafts-2-3/b-24-liberator/b-24-44th-bomb-group-3/ |
Clifford was born on June 26, 1920 in Youngstown, Ohio. His parents Clifford and Genevieve were born in Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively. His father was a WWI vet who worked as a steel plant pipe fitter. Clifford had on younger brother. By 1940 Clifford had completed one year of college and was still living at home.
He was drafted into the army in March 1942. He volunteered to serve in the Army Air Forces and ended up as a staff sergeant and gunner in the 506th Bombardment Squadron, 44th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force, which was equipped with B-24 Liberators. The 44th BG was the first B-24 Liberator heavy bombardment group to be stationed in England, and sustained the highest loss rate of any B-24 group in the 8th Air Force.
I am not sure when Sgt. Hurst joined his squadron but in late June 1943 a large detachment of the 44th BG was sent to North Africa to bomb targets in Sicily and Italy prior to the Allied invasion of Italy. It also took part in the fateful August 1, 1943 raid on Ploesti, Romania. In October these B-24s were called back to England.
Sgt. Hurst flew his twenty-third and final mission on November 13, 1943. The target that day was the important port of Breman. Sgt. Hurst was a gunner on B-24 42-7647. His bomber survived attacks by 50 enemy fighters that downed two bombers over Germany. Sgt. Hurst was only one of two men on his plane not injured by flak or gunfire. The wounded pilots managed to fly the plane back to England but crash landed near the base. Ironically, the two uninjured men, Sgt. Hurst and George Olsen were killed in the crash and the eight men wounded during the mission survived the crash.
His grave is at Calvary Cemetery in Youngstown, Ohio.
This is one of the final 100 stories (69) 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 John F. Kennedy (not the future president). You can read about John 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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