First Lieutenant John H Miller was stationed at Bassingbourn, England and was a member of the Eighth Air Force, 91st Bombardment Group, 324th Squadron, known as "The Ragged Irregulars of Bassingbourn".
On May 21, 1943, ninety-eight B-17 bombers were dispatched on a mission over Wilhelmshaven, Germany, a submarine base on the North Sea. First Lieutenant John H Miller was part of the ten member crew on Aircraft No. 857 which was hit by machine gun fire from German fighter planes, setting fire to both left wing engines. Four of the crewmembers were able to bail out and were captured. Apparently the fire melted the left wing, which fell off, causing the plane to flip upside down, trapping six of the crewmembers in the aircraft. As it descended, the aircraft exploded and crashed near Schortens, seven miles west of Wilhelmshaven.
None of these six crewmembers survived and were originally buried in Wittmund Cemetery in Wittmund, Germany. After the war, the bodies of the six could not be individually identified and on May 10, 1950, they received a group burial in Plot 84-0-97-99 in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Crewmembers:
2nd LT Roscoe V Black Jr
1st LT John H Miller
SSgt Curtiss B Pope
2nd LT John P Ragsdale Jr
TSgt Oscar Lee Stuart
SSgt Ronald Taylor
Additional information available:
www.8thafhs.org
www.91stbomb group.com www.interment.net/data/us/mo/stlouis/Jeffbarr/index
(Above information published in the May 20, 2015 edition of the Montgomery Herald newspaper, Troy, North Carolina.)
First Lieutenant John H Miller was stationed at Bassingbourn, England and was a member of the Eighth Air Force, 91st Bombardment Group, 324th Squadron, known as "The Ragged Irregulars of Bassingbourn".
On May 21, 1943, ninety-eight B-17 bombers were dispatched on a mission over Wilhelmshaven, Germany, a submarine base on the North Sea. First Lieutenant John H Miller was part of the ten member crew on Aircraft No. 857 which was hit by machine gun fire from German fighter planes, setting fire to both left wing engines. Four of the crewmembers were able to bail out and were captured. Apparently the fire melted the left wing, which fell off, causing the plane to flip upside down, trapping six of the crewmembers in the aircraft. As it descended, the aircraft exploded and crashed near Schortens, seven miles west of Wilhelmshaven.
None of these six crewmembers survived and were originally buried in Wittmund Cemetery in Wittmund, Germany. After the war, the bodies of the six could not be individually identified and on May 10, 1950, they received a group burial in Plot 84-0-97-99 in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Crewmembers:
2nd LT Roscoe V Black Jr
1st LT John H Miller
SSgt Curtiss B Pope
2nd LT John P Ragsdale Jr
TSgt Oscar Lee Stuart
SSgt Ronald Taylor
Additional information available:
www.8thafhs.org
www.91stbomb group.com www.interment.net/data/us/mo/stlouis/Jeffbarr/index
(Above information published in the May 20, 2015 edition of the Montgomery Herald newspaper, Troy, North Carolina.)
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1LT, US ARMY AIR FORCES WORLD WAR II
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