LarkHistory
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- May 1, 2016
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I just stumbled upon this post trying to research my grandfather's military service. His name was Henry Lerche and he was a ball turret gunner with the 741st. I was wondering if you could forward me the information you have about this so I could share it with the rest of the family. Unfortunately he passed away 2 years ago but I know he would be proud that we are researching his service.On this day 67 years ago my Grandfather, 1st Lt. Donald Bone and his crew went down while on a mission to Skoda Works, Pilsen Germany. This is the plane he flew that day.
He's in the middle of the back row.
The crew lost control of the #4 engine when the prop governor stopped working. They turned back to base but were unable to maintain altitude with only three engines and had to bail out.
The Co-Pilot, Lt. Batham was captured by a Nazi patrol and I have the actual translated report of that. It basically reads like this; "American Flyer, captured near the town of (something). Refuses to say anything but his serial number". That always chokes me up when I read that. He spent the rest of the war in a Nazi prison camp. The rest of the crew made it back to their base in Italy 8 days later with the help of people, mostly farmers, on the ground in the occupied territories. All ten crew members surviving a bailout of any bomber was a very rare occurrence during the war.
My Grandfather flew B-24's for the 304th Bomb Wing, 455th Bomb Group, 741st Squadron "Vulgar Vultures" out of San Giovanni Italy from August of 1944 to February of 1945. He flew 38 missions in total and was awarded the Air Medal 4 times and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
I contacted the tail gunner on that mission about a year ago, he said I was the only person to contact him about that mission in the last 66 years! He said that was only his second mission and was his 19th birthday! Amazingly, he said he never had to fire a single shot from his tail gunner position on any mission! He stayed in the service and retired from the A.F. in 1966 as a MSgt.
This is the B-24 my Grandfather trained in while stateside. That's my Grandmother immortalized on the side in all her natural glory. She was really angry when she found out about this but as her grand children say when they see this; "Wow! Grandma was hot!".
"Miss-I-Hope" was assigned to a different Squadron than my Grandfather was and interestingly, made it all the was through the war in one piece only to be ferried back to the states and scrapped in Arizona.
My Grandmother died in 1984 and is buried in California, my Grandfather passed way in 1987 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
