[RSwank]

The second plane crashed and burned. There were no survivors. 8 of the crew were:


2nd Lt. Clair F Mullin
2nd Lt. Elmer R Morgan
2nd Lt. Mario R Giusti
Staff Sgt James R Picard
Sgt. Claude L Johns
Sgt Leroy Miller
Sgt Delmont Strait
S/Sgt Milton Underahl

With only 3 officers listed, I assume they are Pilot, Co-Pilot and Navigator. One of the Sgts was
probably a toggler. (Miller, as we will see below was probably not the toggler).

The MACR is 9661. It does not appear on the footnote.com website. However, I was able
to find pieces of it misfiled with 41-29773. There is an interesting description of the crash
site written by a R A Pelletier, a Captain in the Canadian Army. He was apparently one of the first
on the scene and investigated both crash sites. He reports that all the crew was killed in the 2nd
plane. The plane burned on the ground and several bombs went off in the fire. He could see the “nose gunner” still in the ship. Sgt Miller fell or jumped from the ship and crashed through a barn roof. Pellitier went to the funerals of the all crewmen (the 8 from the 2nd ship and those KIA from the first ship) and took some pictures which are included in the MACR.

There are also in the MACR, 2 pages of an obviously much longer letter written to one of the relatives
of a crew member from the 2nd ship. The letter appears to be written by a another member of the Squadron who may have witnessed the crash. In the letter, he tries to explain why no-one was able to get out of the ship and why the the Air Force might still have the relative listed as missing instead of dead. Too bad the whole letter is not included.