Hello,
1st Lt Gordon Leroy Ryerson of 64th FS, 57th FG died on November 7, 1942 in Egypt.
According to the book MAW2, he was KIA that day, but there is no detail on this loss and the official US casualty list show he died of wounds.
On 30 October 1942, Ryerson was involved in air combat and claimed a Bf 109 damaged, but his P-40 was also hit and he crash-landed on return to LG 174.
Press articles available on findagrave (
https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/1...-leroy-ryerson and
https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/5..._leroy-ryerson) say that he was wounded in the arm (a picture seems to confirm that) and that he made a broadcast on November 1 about this battle.
http://raf-112-squadron.org/57thfghonor_roll42-43.html has the following text: "Wounded he was able to bring his plane back, ground looped on landing, died a few days after this while being operated on for his wounds."
I also note that he had only one Purple Heart medal, so probably was hit by enemy fire only once.
From all the above, it seems to be that a possibility to explain all the above is that 1st Lt Gordon Leroy Ryerson was slighty wounded in the air battle or the crash landing following it on 30 October. The wound was not serious at first but, maybe due to desert condition or to another medical reason, turned for the worse and complications killed him on 7 November.
Has someone more details about what happened to this pilot ? Thanks in advance