Loading List 1, Box I




Loading List 2, Box II




Loading List 3, Box III
(Window Mission)

Missing Air Crew Reports, Aircraft Accident Reports, and other incidents

Date	Report		A/C Serial # Type	Mis- sion #	Bomb Sq	Location	Personnel (Status when available)
Jul 5, 1944 Wednesday	No_Report		43-9455 A-20J	90	670	Abandoned RAF field, England	Jackson, Chester Ronald (Not Injured) Maltby, Alfred H. (WIA) Burns, Donald E. (Not Injured) Allen, Byron Kidd (KIA)
Jul 5, 1944 Wednesday	No_Report		43-9217 A-20G	90	670		Leonard, Thomas J. (WIA) Evans, O. D. (Not Injured) Palmer, Thomas A. (Not Injured)

To view more information regarding an Incident/Report, click on the Report hyperlink.
( = Entries having actual Reports available for review.   = Entries having additional Images or Photos.)
To view an individual's Memorial page, click on the "Name" hyperlink.

Included are Box, Flight and Position; Bomb Squadron; Aircraft Serial Number, Fuselage Code and Model; and Crew Members
transcribed from individual mission Loading List documents by Chris and Mary Adams and Carl Sgamboti.
Some information, such as Squadron, Serial Number, etc. has been expanded from other documents.

Group and Unit Histories

Mission # 90 -- July 5, 1944, Wednesday PM
Merlemont, France -- NOBALL "E" Headquarters - Chateau (XI/E/3)

"416th Bombardment Group (L) - Group History 1944"
Transcribed from USAF Archives

A day later, 37 aircraft were dispatched to destroy the Noball headquarters housed in a chateau at Merlemont. The flak encountered was extremely accurate and 23 aircraft suffered battle damage. Captain Jackson nursed his badly damaged plane back to Southern England where he crash landed. One of his gunners, Private First Class Byron K. Allen, bailed out of the stricken plane over the U.K; he was killed when his parachute failed to open from 1,000 feet. He was buried in the Cambridge American Military Cemetery in Cambridge, England. Although the weather over the target began to clear up, PFF, it was decided, would be used. The first box, led by Captain Jackson with Lt Maltby, B-N, scored excellent results. The bombs fell in a loose pattern 210 feet southwest of the M.P.I. One or two probable hits and near misses on the chateau may have caused its destruction or severe damage. Several hits were scored on unidentified buildings in the target area. At the last minute, a PFF failure forced Lt McQuade, B-N for Captain Sommers, leader of the second box, to bomb visually. His bombs fell southwest of the aiming point.

"Attack Bombers, We Need You! A History of the 416th Bomb Group"
Ralph Conte
Pages 105 - 106

Mission #90 - 5 July - Merlemont Headquarters Buildings. Captain Jackson and Lt. Maltby, BN led Box I with Captain Prentiss and Lt. McBrien, BN as deputy. Lts. Sommers and McQuade led Box II with Captain McNulty and Lt. Burseil as deputy. Captain Huff and Lt. Kupits led a flight. This was an unusual arrangements of flights and boxes. Only four planes to a flight and four flights to a box. Bombing was by box, so 16 planes had to drop when the lead bombardier of each box sighted and released his bombs.

This target was the German Noball Headquarters which means it had to be heavily defended, as our pilots soon found out. The first box zeroed in on the target for an excellent rating, while the second box earned a "poor" score. Captain Jackson took a flak hit which killed his left engine, damaging it to the extent he could not feather the prop, which remained flat, causing a difficult flying status. Speed was lost and the plane always wanted to turn to the left, so the pilot had to fight that continuously. He had to leave the formation, dropping altitude fast, so much so that he could barely make the English coast. His bombardier, Maltby was wounded. Before Jackson attempted a crash landing, he gave the bail-out signal to the crew to bail out. Only one man riding with him, a photographer PFC Byron K. Allen, from the 4th Combat Camera Unit, decided to jump. He did, but his chute did not open, resulting in his demise. Jackson sought any place to land and saw an abandoned RAF field so he crash landed successfully, with no further injury to his bombardier and remaining gunner. When the crew exited the ship, they found themselves being peppered by bullet shells falling out of the sky. It appeared a Spitfire was gunning at a Buzz-Bomb flying overhead. Many other planes in the formation suffered flak damage, but all were able to return to base.

"669th Bombardment Squadron (L) History"
Transcription from USAF Archives

On the fifth, Captain Sommers, with Lt. McQuade, B-N, led the second box of planes on a mission to destroy a Noball headquarters housed in a chateau at Merlemont. It was a flak-filled mission in which 23 planes received battle damage. When PFF equipment failed, Lt. McQuade had to bomb visually. The results of the mission were very satisfactory causing severe damage or possible destruction to the chateau.

"670th Bombardment Squadron (L) History"
Transcription from USAF Archives

A busy day was in store on July 5th, with the day being occupied with showdown inspections, innoculations and missions. The morning was taken up with a complete check on the clothing of enlisted men and officers, and a catching up on required shots, in preparation for the trip we hoped to take in the near future. The afternoon saw a mission depart to attack the Merlemont noball headquarters, which resulted in the second heaviest battle damage to our squadrons planes to date. Thirteen of our crews took part in a rough mission, with two crews directly feeling the brunt of the enemy anti aircraft fire. Lts Leonard and Maltby sustained wounds for which they received the Purple Heart.

The left engine of Capt Jackson's ship was hit by flak as the plane turned off the target, and it was put out of commission. The damage was such that feathering the left propeller was impossible, and the engine finally "froze" due to loss of oil. With the propeller frozen in a flat position, Capt Jackson experienced difficulty controlling the aircraft and lost approximately 30 miles per hour speed. Approaching Lydd, Kent, England the ship was down to an altitude of 1,000 feet. Capt Jackson gave the crew the warning that they could bail out, as he was going to crash land the ship. Only one member decided not to ride out the ship, PFC Byron K. Allen, a member of the 4th Combat Camera Unit riding with the crew to take pictures of the mission, left the ship, but his parachute failed to open sufficiently at such a low altitude, and he was instantly killed upon striking the ground. The aircraft was losing altitude at an extremely fast rate and it became necessary to put it down on the first available resemblance of an airfield. With exceptional skill Capt Jackson crashlanded on an abandoned RAF field without further injury to his crew. The ship came to a stop and the crew got out, only to be greeted by a hail of 50 calibre bullets from a Spitfire overhead shooting at a passing buzz bomb.

"671st Bomb Squadron (L) Unit History"
Gordon Russell and Jim Kerns

June 26th û July 6th , 1944

Typical English weather, complete with clouds, rain and mist, confined the 416th Bomb Group to just five missions during this period. Formations went over France once on the 29th of June, the 30th of June and the 4th of July; and finally twice on July 6th . The two June missions were cake runs, but the ships ran into a little trouble in the last three. On July 4th Captain Jackman of the 670th Squadron made a single engine hop back across the channel. He was carrying a cameraman from the 4th Combat Camera Unit assigned to this Group, and, upon reaching England, Captain Jackman ordered the man to jump, which he did. However, for some reason which will never be known, the chute fail to open until it reached the ground, enough said.

[July 5, 1944], HQ Twelfth Army Group situation map Map showing Western Allies and Axis troop position details in Western Europe as of approximately 1200 hours, July 5, 1944 World War II Military Situation Maps Collection Library of Congress

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