Killed in Action during World War II. Staff Sergeant, 838 Army Air Force Bomb Squadron, 8th Air Force. Entered service from Texas. Service No. 38426805

Son of Herbert and Claudia E Lumpkin
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Staff Sergeant Claude Lindsey Lumpkin, Army serial number 38426805, was born at Handley, Tarrant County, Texas on January 11, 1924. He was one of five children of Herbert Lindsey Lumpkin (25 Aug 1886 – 1 Sep 1954), who was born at Rockdale, Milam County, Texas; and Claudia Ella 'Claudie' (Sewell) Lumpkin (6 Jan 1890 – 14 Jan 1972), who was born in Texas. His parents married about 1909.

His siblings were Alton Wilson Lumpkin (1913 – 1984), Carroll Lumpkin (1915 – 1937), Stanley Sewell Lumpkin (1925 – 2002), and Edward William Lumpkin (1927 – 1962). By 1924 the family lived at Handley, Tarrant County, Texas, an eastern suburb of Fort Worth. His father was a tailor who became an electric railway operator for Northern Texas Traction Company on the route between Fort Worth and Dallas; and was later a bus driver for Fort Worth Transit Company.

He completed elementary school, and registered for the draft at Fort Worth, Texas on June 30, 1942. He was 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighed 140 pounds, and had blue eyes and brown hair. At that time he lived with his parents and was employed by Gillespie Engineering Company, a petroleum engineering company in Handley, Texas.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army by 1943 and completed Army Air Forces aerial gunner training. He was assigned to the heavy bomber crew of 2/Lt Thomas Womer. In December 1943 the Womer crew began B-24 crew training at Davis-Monthan Field in Tucson, Arizona. In January 1944 the Womer crew was assigned to the 838th Bomb Squadron, 487th Bomb Group, at Alamogordo Army Air Base, New Mexico. There they completed B-24 crew training, and deployed with the Group to England in March 1944. Claude Lumpkin is not listed on Lt Womer's aircrew roster during the deployment. He probably traveled overseas with the 487th Bomb Group ground echelon, which crossed the Atlantic aboard the troop ship Duchess of Bedford. The 487th Bomb Group was based at Army Air Forces Station 137 near Lavenham, Suffolk, England, and was part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in Europe.

After arrival at Station 137, S/Sgt Lumpkin and four of his original crewmates (Musser, Boyd, Kussy, and Rosenberger) were reassigned to the crew of Lt Arthur D. Erwin in the 838th Bomb Squadron. Here is Lt Erwin's crew roster on June 20, 1944:

B-24H 42-95217 – 838th Bomb Squadron
• Erwin, Arthur D – 2/Lt – Pilot – KIA
• Mass, Rubie R – 2/Lt – Copilot – KIA
• Mackie, Thomas S – 2/Lt – Bombardier – KIA
• Musser, Elmer G – S/Sgt – Engineer – KIA
• Boyd, Leslie L – S/Sgt – Radio Operator – KIA
• Lumpkin, Claude L – S/Sgt – Nose Turret Gunner – KIA
• Kussy Jr, Leroy S – Sgt – Top Turret Gunner – KIA
• Rosenberger, Jearold F – S/Sgt – Ball Turret Gunner – KIA
• Ross, Albert L – S/Sgt – Tail Turret Gunner – POW

S/Sgt Lumkin and seven of his crewmates were killed in action on June 20, 1944 when their aircraft, B-24H 42-95217, was shot down by flak on the mission to bomb an oil refinery at Misburg near Hannover, Germany. Just after bombs away, the aircraft received a direct flak hit which tore off the tail. The aircraft spun to the ground in flames and crashed five kilometers north of Hannover. The bodies of eight crew members were found in the wreckage. The dead were buried initially at the military cemetery in Hannover-Limmer. S/Sgt Ross, the tail gunner, was able to bail out and landed at Mecklenheide near Hannover. He was captured there and became a prisoner of war.

S/Sgt Lumkin's remains were returned to the United States and reinterred with military honors at Rose Hill Burial Park, Fort Worth, Texas in July 1949.

His crewmate S/Sgt Albert Louis Ross survived captivity and returned to Chico, Butte County, California after the war. He was lost at sea in 1979 while working as a commercial fisherman off the Mendocino coast near Fort Bragg, Mendocino County, California.

Sources:
1. 487th Bomb Group Association
2. 1910 US Census; Texas; Runnels County; Miles Town. Lumpkin, Herbert. 15 Apr 1910 (his father)
3. 1930 US Census; Texas; Tarrant County; Handley. Lumpkin, Herbert L. 10 Apr 1930 (his father)
4. 1940 US Census; Texas; Tarrant County; South Handley. Lumpkin, Hubert L [sic]. 3 May 1940 (his father)
5. American Battle Monuments Commission
6. Claude L. Lumpkin (1924 – 1944) in Gammans-Klingenberg family tree (ancestry.com)
7. de Jong, Ivo. 'The History of the 487th Bomb Group (H)'. Paducah KY: Turner Publishing, Oct 2004
8. HQ, 359th Combat Crew Training School, Alamogordo Army Air Base, New Mexico. 'Special Orders Number 71'. 11 Mar 1944 (487th Bomb Group flight echelon order to proceed from Alamogordo, New Mexico to Herington, Kansas during the deployment to England; Claude Lumpkin is not listed in this order.)
9. History of Handley, Texas
10. Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Obituary of Claude L. Lumpkin. Fort Worth TX, Sat, 25 Jun 1949
11. U.S. Army Air Forces Missing Air Crew Report 5935
12. U.S. Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925–1970 (ancestry.com)
13. U.S. Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939–1945
14. U.S. War Department. 'World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing Army and Army Air Forces Personnel'. Washington, D.C., June 1946
15. U.S. World War II Draft Cards, Young Men, 1940–1947 (ancestry.com)
16. World War I Draft Registration of Herbert Lindsey Lumpkin. 5 Jun 1917 (his father)
17. World War II Draft Registration of Herbert Lindsey Lumpkin. 27 Apr 1942 (his father)
Research by:
Contributor: Paul Webber (47577572)
Secretary, 487th Bomb Group Association