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Old 8th May 2019, 22:21
Kurtl12 Kurtl12 is offline
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Re: 2Lt. Cornelius DONOGHUE and the fate of B-24G "FERTILE MYRTLE"

Gentlemen,

thank you very much for your efforts!
Especially the link to the book of Louis Head "Dancing in the Dark - Escape and Evasion during the Second World War" has drawn my attention to it. Some details of the crash only can be found there - not in the MACR!

I ordered the IDPF of the Copilot 2Lt. George HOGAN via http://www.mymilitaryservicerecords....n-a-wwii-idpf/ but did not receice any response so far. If anyone has any IDPF of that case and is willing to share - please let me know.

If you study the MACR 7966 and look carefully at the picture seen at reddit you might find the following details interesting:
2Lt Bitzinger, the ships Navigator reported that all crew members aft of the bomb bay bailed out of the camera hatch (aft escape hatch). He was pounding at the Emerson Nose Turret to warn Sgt. Black inside. Bitzinger helped Black out of his turret and opened the Nose Wheel Hatch while the forward gunner put on his parachute. Sgt. Black remembers that the Bombardier 2Lt. Roettger was already gone - probably towards the flight deck or bomb bay. Bitzinger also remembers that he saw the Bombardier Roettger and the Engineer SSgt. Ranville "crouced on the catwalk over the open bomb bay". This latter information is rather interesting because one eyewitness of the crash told me that one guy just left the plane short before the impact. He was found dead hanging on his chute on a large tree just 50 - 70 meters away of the impact zone...
Please find attached my analysis of the last picture of Fertily Myrtle.
Could it be that this picture was shot by SSgt. Leo Stoutsenberger out of the lead ship flown by 1Lt. Gomer E. Tudor? He also did the famous last pics of Extra Joker that day: http://451st.org/Aircraft/Aircraft.html

I believe that Fertile Myrtle was an aircraft without camouflage.
@ Nick: Thanks a lot for your input! I was not aware that the change over from camouflage to non camouflage can be tracked down that precisely. Is that only known for North American Dallas - built B-24 or also for Consolidated and Ford?
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