Hello, I am searching more information about a pilot lost off California in 1945. Here is what I have.
On 13 June 1945 27-year old Capt Alfonso G Seagraves of 440th Base Unit took off at 1520 from Santa Maria Army Air Field, Santa Maria, California, on an aerial gunnery mission. He was leading the four-ship flight, which had rendezvoused with a target ship at 10,000 feet about ten miles out to sea. The flight had made two firing passes at the target ship when members of the flight observed thick white smoke trailing the port engine of Capt. Seagrave's P-38L 44-23892. Capt. Seagrave turned to the left and broke formation, stating over the radio that he was going to bail out. The pilot was seen to bail out on the starboard side. The pilot successfully parachuted to safety and the airplane spun into the sea 30 miles west of Oceana, California. The pilot apparently drowned while waiting to be rescued. Investigators noted that the sea was rough, hampering rescue vessels and crews in their effort to find the downed pilot. The pilot's body remained missing.
Seagraves was a former RAF pilot. He tranferred to the US Army Air Force in 1942 and flew with 48th FS, 14th FG in Tunisia in 1943, claiming a Bf 109 damaged in the battle of 23 January 1943 against II./JG 51 where six of the 16 P-38s of the 48th FS were shot down. Shortly after all original pilots of 48th FS were sent back to USA.
Source:
"Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents in the United States, 1941-1945. Volume 3, August 1944-December 1945", by Anthony J. Mireles. ISBN 0-7864-2790-6
http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/s...y/Jun1945S.htm
Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona, 15 June 1945 (available online on
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/117354181/)
Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona, 5 February 1943 (available online on
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/116633474/)
"A history of the Mediterranean Air War 1940-1945. Volume Three: Tunisia and the End in Africa November 1942 – May 1943", by Christopher Shores and Giovanni Massimello with Russel Guest, Frank Olynyk and Winfried Bock. ISBN 978-1-910690-00-0
http://www.usaafdata.com/?q=search
Some comments:
_ both
www.aviationarchaeology.com and the MAW book has the name as Segraves, without a, but
www.usaafdata.com, Mireles and all newspapers articles (I found some more) write it as Seagraves.
_
www.aviationarchaeology.com has the plane as P-38L 44-23394. This is the serial number of a P-38J. Mireles and
www.usaafdata.com both have the serial as 44-23892, a good serial for a P-38L.
_ according to both articles cited above, a 2Lt Alfonso G Seagraves from Tucson, Arizona, was decorated in North Africa in January/early february 1943, and a Capt Alfonso G Seagraves from Tucson, Arizona drowned off California on 13 June 1945. The name is not very common, so I feel safe to say that both P-38 pilots were the same guy.
_ The sentence "The pilot's body remained missing" is from the Mireles book. In this case, my guess was that the pilot's name will be on the West Coast Memorial, but he is not there (121 other USAAF are commemorated on the memorial). It is not on the findgrave site either.
My questions:
1) has someone a trace of RAF or RCAF service of Alfonso G Seagraves ?
2) was his body found and buried ?
Thanks in advance