The Richard A Beck Crew (left to right)
Standing: Dudley S Ingraham, Jr, Herald R
Boyd, Pedro A Martinez, Richard A Beck
Kneeling: Danial E McTaggart, Robert D Carpenter, Walter A Rosenberger
Photo Courtesy of Danial Mortensen, Nephew of Danial
McTaggart 9/02/2007
|
 Left to
Right
Lavelle E Giles, Danial E McTaggart, Dudley S Ingraham, Herald R Boyd
Photo Courtesy of Danial Mortensen, Nephew of Danial
McTaggart 9/02/2007
|
| 2nd Lt Richard A.
Beck |
P |
KIA |
3 FEB 45 |
BERLIN |
| 2nd Lt Walter A.
Rosenberger,Jr. |
CP |
KIA |
3 FEB 45 |
BERLIN |
| F/0 Dale B. Snow |
NAV |
POW |
3 FEB 45 |
BERLIN |
| 2nd Lt Robert D. Carpenter |
BOM |
POW |
3 FEB 45 |
BERLIN |
| Cpl Pedro A.
Martinez |
TTE |
KIA |
3 FEB 45 |
BERLIN |
| Cpl Lavelle E.
Giles |
ROG |
KIA |
3 FEB 45 |
BERLIN |
| Cpl Dudley S.
Ingraham, Jr |
BTG |
KIA |
3 FEB 45 |
BERLIN |
| Cpl Herald R.
Boyd |
WG |
KIA |
3 FEB 45 |
BERLIN |
| Cpl Daniel E.
McTaggart |
TG |
KIA |
3 FEB 45 |
BERLIN |
350th Sqdn. Crew, as above, joined the 100th Group on 24 DEC 1944.
A/C #42-102959 MACR #12047, MICRO - FICHE #4418
Missions of Lt Richard A. Beck Crew from S/Sgt Danial McTaggart form 5's
| # |
DATE |
TIME |
TARGET |
COMMENT |
| 1. |
10/1/45 |
6:30 |
COLOGNE |
(FLAK DAMAGE, HAD TO ABORT) |
| 2. |
17/1/45 |
7:30 |
HAMBURG |
|
| 3. |
20/1/45 |
7:25 |
HEILBRONN |
|
| 4. |
21/1/45 |
7:30 |
MANNHEIM |
|
| |
23/1/45 |
3:00 |
|
PRACTICE FLIGHT |
| |
31/1/45 |
6:15 |
BREMEN |
RECALL |
| |
1/2/45 |
1:00 |
|
TRAINING |
| 5. |
3/2/45 |
|
BERLIN |
SHOT DOWN, MISSING IN ACTION) |
EYWITNESS: "A/C #42 102958 was hit by flak on the
right wing, reported to have
been a ground rocket, just after bombs away.
Starboard engines began to flame
and A/C was nosed over in a steep dive apparently in
an effort to extinguish
the fire. A few second& later, it pulled up in a half
roll heading toward 100th C
Squadron, then did a split S and went down. Two
chutes were seen to come from
the A/C as it fell away in a tight spin. When last
seen the A/C was nearly
enveloped in fire. "………Lt. R. L. Heironimus
Their first flight of 10/01/45 they were supposed to
bomb a bridge in Cologne, but accidentally bombed Düsseldorf. On the way
in they were hit by flak and no. 2 engine would only pull 16' MP for
about 10 minutes. About a half a minute before they hit target no. 4 was
hit and it wouldn't feather. Ten minutes later no. 2 wouldn't feather
because of flak in the gears. They dropped their bombs and got out of
there. The ship was full of holes, two engines wind milling, No. 2
caught fire but went out. No. 1 was causing problems, no compass, no
trim tabs, no artificial horizon, out of range of the G box, bomb bay
doors wouldn't close ball turret cables partially cut. Snow dead
reaconed to Brussels, they thought. They were getting ready to land in a
field in France when they lost it in the fog. They then got a tower at a
P-51 field in Merville where they landed. They had the left and tail
wheels flat and managed to stay on the strip at only a 20 degree angle.
They counted the holes in the ship and there were 225, they figured the
ship wouldn't fly again. I believe that the pilot Beck was awarded a
citation for this. None of the crew were injured.
The 5th and last here is what I have from a letter from Robert
Carpenter, the bombardier. At about 11:25 AM on 2/1/45, at 27, 000 feet
we had just dropped our bombs. We were in the lead squadron of the
second wave over the target and I was closing the bomb bay doors when
were hit. We began falling out of formation immediately, I was dazed
momentarily and then put on my parachute, I was out of communication
with the rest of the ship. By the time I had my chute on we were
spinning so bad I couldn't climb to the escape hatch. The last I
remember is that I was being thrown all over the nose then
went blank. When I came to I was floating in the sky
along with Snow the navigator. We figured the plane exploded, the nose
was blown off and the wind pulled us free. Carpenter and Snow landed in
the outskirts of Berlin and were immediately
captured. We were taken to the Luftwaffe base in
Spadan West where we were held 4 days. From Berlin we were sent to an
interrogation center near Frankfurt, and from there to a POW camp at
Nurnberg. As the Americans approached were marched to a camp at
Mooseburg(?) near Munich. On April 29th they were liberated
Thank you again for all of your help in this
Dan Mortensen (Uncle was S/Sgt McTaggart)
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