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Leaving the French coast at Veules des Roses




Field Orders

Missing Air Crew Reports, Aircraft Accident Reports, and other incidents

Date	Report		A/C Serial # Type	Mis- sion #	Bomb Sq	Location	Personnel (Status when available)
Mar 4, 1944 Saturday	AAR 44-3-4-522		43-9214 A-20G	2	669	13 Miles East of Clacton-On-Sea	Ostrander, William B. (Not Injured) Wilson, John E. (Not Injured) Binney, Irving NMI (Not Injured)

To view more information regarding an Incident/Report, click on the Report hyperlink.
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To view an individual's Memorial page, click on the "Name" hyperlink.

Included are Box, Flight and Position; Bomb Squadron; Aircraft Serial Number, Fuselage Code and Model; and Crew Members
transcribed from individual mission Loading List documents by Chris and Mary Adams and Carl Sgamboti.
Some information, such as Squadron, Serial Number, etc. has been expanded from other documents.

Group and Unit Histories

Mission # 2 -- March 4, 1944, Saturday AM
Bernay/St. Martin, France -- Airfield

"416th Bombardment Group (L) - Group History 1944"
Transcribed from USAF Archives

The second target, on 4 March, was the airdrome at Bernay St. Martins. Major Farmer led the formation of twenty-one planes but were recalled.

"Attack Bombers, We Need You! A History of the 416th Bomb Group"
Ralph Conte
Pages 41 - 42

Mission #2 - 4 March - Berney-St.Martin Airfield, France - Major Farmer led the formation of 21 aircraft. Major Meng with Lt. Powell as Bombardier-Navigator (BN) - Lt. Hulse with Lt. Conte BN - Captain Dunn with Lt. Royalty BN and Lt. Platter with Lt. Arrington led flights. A 100 percent (10/10) cloud cover prevented the sighting of the target, so no bombs were dropped. The formation returned to base. Returning over the channel, some of the pilots jettisoned their bombs, probably feeling that landing with live bombs could create risk. They later found this problem would not exist, so bombs were brought back to base on future missions, when weather or aborts of missions occurred.

One of the planes, piloted by Lt. Ostrander, lost its hydraulic fluid which would have prevented the pilot from lowering his landing gear. As he approached the base, he called the tower to report his problem. Group Commander, Colonel Mace, one of the tower spectators, instructed Ostrander to return to the channel, drop his bombs and return to base and crash land between the runways. Ostrander reported back to Colonel Mace he only had about 20 gallons of fuel left and wouldn't be able to fly to the channel and back to base.

Jimmy Wilson, one of Ostrander's gunners, said, "I heard the Colonel tell Ostrander that he was probably frightened and just go do as you were told. Before we got to the base, on the first run, the emergency gong was going and the pilot could not contact us in the back. I was in the turret, and in the excitement of what was going on, I hooked my chest chute on and noticed the pull cord was on the left side, and here I was, right handed. I managed to get the chute off, switched it around and got down from the turret.

"The other gunner, Sgt. Binney, was ready to jump, but he must have pulled his rip cord and the parachute came undone in the plane. I gathered up the shrounds of the chute, pointed Binney toward the opening on the bottom of the plane, and told Binney he had to go. I pushed him out and he came down on land near Ipswich. I jumped and landed on a haystack."

When Wilson hit the ground, a few English children ran toward him yelling, "Hi Yank, got any gum?" Wilson thought that was the last straw.

Ostrander jettisoned his canopy and jumped out over the channel when he ran out of gas. He had called Air-Sea Rescue and they picked him up in short order. He was returned to base, as were his two gunners.

For those not familiar with Air-Sea Rescue, a number of boats were constantly patrolling in the channel to assist downed air crew members who had to parachute from planes, or had to be rescued from splash-down planes. It was very successful, having saved many crewmen.

"670th Bombardment Squadron (L) History"
Transcription from USAF Archives

On March 4th came the excitement of getting the first mission prepared. Morale was at a high pitch. This was it! The following ten crews took off on our first visit over enemy territory to attack the Bernay-St Martin airfield:

PILOT          BOMBARDIER-NAVIGATOR              GUNNERS 



Capt Meng       Lt. Powell          S/Sgt Stobert  - Sgt   Glynn, F P 
Lt. Hulse       Lt. Conte           S/Sgt Donahue  - Sgt   Brayn 
Lt. Crispino                        S/Sgt Walsh    - S/Sgt Conopask 
Lt. Greene, W.J.                    Sgt   Ochaba   - Sgt   Colbert 
Lt. Shea                            S/Sgt Lee      - Sgt   Falk 
Lt. Monroe                          S/Sgt Kidd     - S/Sgt Risko 
Lt. Ostrander                       S/Sgt Wilson   - Sgt   Binney 
Lt. Rooney                          Sgt   McCleary - Sgt   DiNapoli 
Lt. Nordstrom                       Sgt   Miller   - S/Sgt Gossett 
Lt. Hillerman                       S/Sgt Frielob  - Sgt   Eutsler 



                  (Sgt Palmer, Sgt P.F. Glynn, and Cpl 
                   Swafford flew with pilots of other 
                   squadrons on this mission). 

Due to weather conditions no attack was made and no bombs were dropped. This mission almost proved a costly one to us. Lt Ostrander's ship, with S/Sgt Wilson and Sgt Binney aboard, came back with the hydraulic system out of order. The landing gear would not lower and there was a full load of bombs aboard. After unsuccessful attempts to bring the wheels down the decision was reached to ditch the plane in the English Channel. To make matters a little more complicated, Sgt Binney's chute had opened in the plane. The interphone was out so Lt Ostrander was not aware of this situation. S/Sgt Wilson gathered the open chute in his arms, booted Sgt Binney out the gunners hatch, and threw the chute out after him. After this he also jumped. Lt Ostrander then headed out over the Channel, and when he was sure the ship would go into the sea he jumped. While floating down he watched his airplane use up the last of its fuel and dive into the water. He hit the water and remained there only three minutes before the air-sea rescue boat picked him up. S/Sgt Wilson and Sgt Binney came down at Ipswich. When Wilson came down in a field near the town a group of small English boys ran up to him yelling "Hi, Yank, got any gum!!" This, as S/Sgt Wilson expressed it, "was the last straw."

"671st Bomb Squadron (L) Unit History"
Gordon Russell and Jim Kerns

Eight combat crews and six aircraft of the 671st Bombardment Squadron participated in the second operational mission on March 4, 1944. Taking off at 0830, Major Farmer led the 18-ship formation over the Channel and into France. There was a 10/10-cloud cover over the coastal area. The target was the St. Martin Airdrome at Bernay, but the formation passed the initial point and had to return without dropping the eggs on enemy territory. Through a misunderstanding, some of the planes dropped their bombs in the channel on the way back.

The formation was over enemy territory for 42 minutes and crews reported heavy but inaccurate flak two miles to the rear at various points.

The following crews took part in the three hour mission.

Capt. Lloyd F. Dunn		Lt. Stuart M. Hixon		Lt. Horace F. Pair
Lt. Peter G. Royalty		S/Sgt. Benjamin G. Fandre		S/Sgt. Herbert A. Marion
T/Sgt. Jean P.L. Tanner		Sgt. Franklin R. Chvatel		Sgt. Victor P. Adams
S/Sgt. William C. Russell
Lt. Richard V. Wheeler		Lt. Robert E. Stockwell		Lt. Richard E. Greenley
S/Sgt. Jack S. Brower		S/Sgt. Charles R. Henshaw		S/Sgt. Howard C. Worden
Sgt/ Earl C. Corrin		S/Sgt. Jack Steward		S/Sgt. Joseph J. Rzepka
Lt. Everett T. Platter		Lt. William E. Cramsie		Maj. Col. T.R.Aylesworth*
Lt. Henry T. Arrington		T/Sgt. Felix H. Larronde		S/Sgt. Robert R. Williamson
S/Sgt. Keith L. Johnson		S/Sgt. Henry A. Lempka		Cpl. Joseph E. Feistl
S/Sgt. Joseph L. Czech

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