Donny was the radio operator on a C-47, 75th Squadron, 435th Troop Carrier Group. He and his crew took the long and convoluted route to fly the C-47s across to England, which involved stops in Miami, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, British Guiana, Recife, Brazil. Then they crossed the Atlantic, stopping at Ascension Island, then on to Freetown, Sierra Leone, Marrakech, Morocco and then heading north to England. He was stationed at various bases in the UK, including for a time at RAF Welford in western Berkshire, which has a museum dedicated to WWII/D-Day.
Late on 5 June Donny and his crew took off that dropped paratroopers over Normandy in the early hours of 6 June. They flew south from England across the channel and approached the drop site from the West. His plane - and perhaps the entire squadron - overshot their landing site and had to circle back around from the east near Utah Beach. This alerted the Germans, who were ready for their second pass. A German anti-aircraft position on a rise a few hundred meters north of the crash site (along the D913) shot the plane down, but not before the C-47 crew successfully dropped all their paratroopers. The C-47 crashed in a fireball in a farm field at the coordinates below. There were no survivors. The pilot was Captain Seymour Malakoff (#56647199).
What remains that could be recovered of Donny and the rest of the crew were buried in the temporary cemetery at Blosville (actually Carquebut - the southwest corner of the intersection of the N13 and D70). A memorial marks the site. Due to the heat from the crash, there is a good chance they were unable to accurately match the remains with the correct crew member. Later when the American Cemetery at Normandy was established, families were given the choice to have their soldiers remains reinterred there or returned to the US. Donny's mother insisted he be returned to Saint Louis. He was buried at Jefferson Barracks on 2 Jul 1949 near his older brother Jerome, an Army Air Corps flight instructor, who was killed by a student in another plane in Feb 1944.
49.329716893789985, -1.2655760201650337 // 49°19'47.0"N 1°15'56.1"W
https://www.google.com/maps/place/49°19'47.0%22N+1°15'56.1%22W/@49.3297169,-1.2661695,190m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d49.3297169!4d-1.265576
SSGT, US ARMY AIR FORCES WORLD WAR II
Walsh, Staff SGT Robert Donald, 5515 Alaska, killed in action at Carentan, France, 6 June 1944, beloved son of Martin J. and Ella Walsh (nee Hendron), dear brother of Mrs. Helen Merkt, Mrs. Catherine Stacy, Mrs. Ann Hefele, Mrs. Dorothy Blank, Dr. William, Hugh G., J. Francis, and the late Jerry T. Walsh, husband of Harriett, now Mrs. John Rodgers, our dear brother-in-law, uncle, nephew, cousin, and son-in-law.
Staff Sgt. Walsh in parlors after 9:30AM Friday [1 July]. Funeral from Southern Funeral Home Saturday 2 July, 9AM to Saint Cecelia Catholic Church. Interment National Cemetery. Services by Eleventh District mortuary team, sponsored by Carondelet Memorial Post No. 2101, VFW at 8PM Friday.
[Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, Thu 30 Jun 1949, p16C]
Late on 5 June Donny and his crew took off that dropped paratroopers over Normandy in the early hours of 6 June. They flew south from England across the channel and approached the drop site from the West. His plane - and perhaps the entire squadron - overshot their landing site and had to circle back around from the east near Utah Beach. This alerted the Germans, who were ready for their second pass. A German anti-aircraft position on a rise a few hundred meters north of the crash site (along the D913) shot the plane down, but not before the C-47 crew successfully dropped all their paratroopers. The C-47 crashed in a fireball in a farm field at the coordinates below. There were no survivors. The pilot was Captain Seymour Malakoff (#56647199).
What remains that could be recovered of Donny and the rest of the crew were buried in the temporary cemetery at Blosville (actually Carquebut - the southwest corner of the intersection of the N13 and D70). A memorial marks the site. Due to the heat from the crash, there is a good chance they were unable to accurately match the remains with the correct crew member. Later when the American Cemetery at Normandy was established, families were given the choice to have their soldiers remains reinterred there or returned to the US. Donny's mother insisted he be returned to Saint Louis. He was buried at Jefferson Barracks on 2 Jul 1949 near his older brother Jerome, an Army Air Corps flight instructor, who was killed by a student in another plane in Feb 1944.
49.329716893789985, -1.2655760201650337 // 49°19'47.0"N 1°15'56.1"W
https://www.google.com/maps/place/49°19'47.0%22N+1°15'56.1%22W/@49.3297169,-1.2661695,190m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d49.3297169!4d-1.265576
SSGT, US ARMY AIR FORCES WORLD WAR II
Walsh, Staff SGT Robert Donald, 5515 Alaska, killed in action at Carentan, France, 6 June 1944, beloved son of Martin J. and Ella Walsh (nee Hendron), dear brother of Mrs. Helen Merkt, Mrs. Catherine Stacy, Mrs. Ann Hefele, Mrs. Dorothy Blank, Dr. William, Hugh G., J. Francis, and the late Jerry T. Walsh, husband of Harriett, now Mrs. John Rodgers, our dear brother-in-law, uncle, nephew, cousin, and son-in-law.
Staff Sgt. Walsh in parlors after 9:30AM Friday [1 July]. Funeral from Southern Funeral Home Saturday 2 July, 9AM to Saint Cecelia Catholic Church. Interment National Cemetery. Services by Eleventh District mortuary team, sponsored by Carondelet Memorial Post No. 2101, VFW at 8PM Friday.
[Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, Thu 30 Jun 1949, p16C]
Donny was the radio operator on a C-47, 75th Squadron, 435th Troop Carrier Group. He and his crew took the long and convoluted route to fly the C-47s across to England, which involved stops in Miami, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, British Guiana, Recife, Brazil. Then they crossed the Atlantic, stopping at Ascension Island, then on to Freetown, Sierra Leone, Marrakech, Morocco and then heading north to England. He was stationed at various bases in the UK, including for a time at RAF Welford in western Berkshire, which has a museum dedicated to WWII/D-Day.
Late on 5 June Donny and his crew took off that dropped paratroopers over Normandy in the early hours of 6 June. They flew south from England across the channel and approached the drop site from the West. His plane - and perhaps the entire squadron - overshot their landing site and had to circle back around from the east near Utah Beach. This alerted the Germans, who were ready for their second pass. A German anti-aircraft position on a rise a few hundred meters north of the crash site (along the D913) shot the plane down, but not before the C-47 crew successfully dropped all their paratroopers. The C-47 crashed in a fireball in a farm field at the coordinates below. There were no survivors. The pilot was Captain Seymour Malakoff (#56647199).
What remains that could be recovered of Donny and the rest of the crew were buried in the temporary cemetery at Blosville (actually Carquebut - the southwest corner of the intersection of the N13 and D70). A memorial marks the site. Due to the heat from the crash, there is a good chance they were unable to accurately match the remains with the correct crew member. Later when the American Cemetery at Normandy was established, families were given the choice to have their soldiers remains reinterred there or returned to the US. Donny's mother insisted he be returned to Saint Louis. He was buried at Jefferson Barracks on 2 Jul 1949 near his older brother Jerome, an Army Air Corps flight instructor, who was killed by a student in another plane in Feb 1944.
49.329716893789985, -1.2655760201650337 // 49°19'47.0"N 1°15'56.1"W
https://www.google.com/maps/place/49°19'47.0%22N+1°15'56.1%22W/@49.3297169,-1.2661695,190m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d49.3297169!4d-1.265576
SSGT, US ARMY AIR FORCES WORLD WAR II
Walsh, Staff SGT Robert Donald, 5515 Alaska, killed in action at Carentan, France, 6 June 1944, beloved son of Martin J. and Ella Walsh (nee Hendron), dear brother of Mrs. Helen Merkt, Mrs. Catherine Stacy, Mrs. Ann Hefele, Mrs. Dorothy Blank, Dr. William, Hugh G., J. Francis, and the late Jerry T. Walsh, husband of Harriett, now Mrs. John Rodgers, our dear brother-in-law, uncle, nephew, cousin, and son-in-law.
Staff Sgt. Walsh in parlors after 9:30AM Friday [1 July]. Funeral from Southern Funeral Home Saturday 2 July, 9AM to Saint Cecelia Catholic Church. Interment National Cemetery. Services by Eleventh District mortuary team, sponsored by Carondelet Memorial Post No. 2101, VFW at 8PM Friday.
[Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, Thu 30 Jun 1949, p16C]
Late on 5 June Donny and his crew took off that dropped paratroopers over Normandy in the early hours of 6 June. They flew south from England across the channel and approached the drop site from the West. His plane - and perhaps the entire squadron - overshot their landing site and had to circle back around from the east near Utah Beach. This alerted the Germans, who were ready for their second pass. A German anti-aircraft position on a rise a few hundred meters north of the crash site (along the D913) shot the plane down, but not before the C-47 crew successfully dropped all their paratroopers. The C-47 crashed in a fireball in a farm field at the coordinates below. There were no survivors. The pilot was Captain Seymour Malakoff (#56647199).
What remains that could be recovered of Donny and the rest of the crew were buried in the temporary cemetery at Blosville (actually Carquebut - the southwest corner of the intersection of the N13 and D70). A memorial marks the site. Due to the heat from the crash, there is a good chance they were unable to accurately match the remains with the correct crew member. Later when the American Cemetery at Normandy was established, families were given the choice to have their soldiers remains reinterred there or returned to the US. Donny's mother insisted he be returned to Saint Louis. He was buried at Jefferson Barracks on 2 Jul 1949 near his older brother Jerome, an Army Air Corps flight instructor, who was killed by a student in another plane in Feb 1944.
49.329716893789985, -1.2655760201650337 // 49°19'47.0"N 1°15'56.1"W
https://www.google.com/maps/place/49°19'47.0%22N+1°15'56.1%22W/@49.3297169,-1.2661695,190m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d49.3297169!4d-1.265576
SSGT, US ARMY AIR FORCES WORLD WAR II
Walsh, Staff SGT Robert Donald, 5515 Alaska, killed in action at Carentan, France, 6 June 1944, beloved son of Martin J. and Ella Walsh (nee Hendron), dear brother of Mrs. Helen Merkt, Mrs. Catherine Stacy, Mrs. Ann Hefele, Mrs. Dorothy Blank, Dr. William, Hugh G., J. Francis, and the late Jerry T. Walsh, husband of Harriett, now Mrs. John Rodgers, our dear brother-in-law, uncle, nephew, cousin, and son-in-law.
Staff Sgt. Walsh in parlors after 9:30AM Friday [1 July]. Funeral from Southern Funeral Home Saturday 2 July, 9AM to Saint Cecelia Catholic Church. Interment National Cemetery. Services by Eleventh District mortuary team, sponsored by Carondelet Memorial Post No. 2101, VFW at 8PM Friday.
[Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, Thu 30 Jun 1949, p16C]
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SSGT, US ARMY AIR FORCES WORLD WAR II
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