USAAF loses on September 9, 1944

I'm trying to find information on a great uncle who was KIA while serving the USAAF on September 9, 1944. Does anyone know of loses suffered by the 8th AAF 491st BG-H 854th BS on that day? Additionally, while I know that BG-H is bomb group heavy (or something like that), what exactly does BS stand for? Bomber squadron? Please excuse my ignorance, and any help you can offer would be appreciated.

[John Beaman]

Yes, BS is Bomb Squadron. Generally, there were 3 Bomb Squadrons per Bomb Group. Officially, it was the "xxx Bomb Squadron" of the "xxx Bomb Group, Heavy."

The Squadron numbers most often had little to do with the BG number in terms of sequencing or correlation of numbers.

[Leendert]

To narrow down a search for you, it would (also) be helpful if you can give us the name of your great uncle and where he was from. In this way it is not unlikely to find many more details.


Regards,

Leendert

[Revi16]

It's possible that your Uncle could have been killed in combat and the aircraft returned safely and landed without incident. If this was the case, there would not be a MACR (Missing Air Crew Report) or an Accident Report.

Here is a reported crash of a 491st BG aircraft on Sept. 09, 1944. I haven't found any other losses for that day so far.

09-09-44
"Bad weather restricted 8th AF operations during the first seven days of September although the 491st visited Karlsruhe on the 5th. It returned to the same target on the 8th, again without loss. Then it was Saturday, the 9th, and these entries were made in the Control Tower Log:
0400 Briefing.
0800 36 A/C on ops. 264 -K aborted.
0805 Crash 2 miles south of field. All notified.
0830 Notified by Bodney Flight Control that there were 3 survivors from crashed A/C.
0840 Notified by Capt. Barns at Station Hospital that A/C was ours. Survivors were Lt. Warczak (pilot), S/Sgt. Chaves and S/Sgt. Boling. A/C was #489 F. Notified by Watch officer that 489 crashlanded after #1 and #4 caught fire at 900 ft. Survivors escaped through slit in fuselage. Load of incendiaries exploded."

http://www.491st.org/491hist3.html



B-24 44-10489
http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/s...t2=Go&offset=0

http://www.8thafhs.com/db/get_one_ac...?acgroup_id=16

[Laurent Rizzotti]

According to http://www.usaafdata.com/search, five men died in this crash:

ASN First Name Last Name Rank State Day Mth Year Details
14184562 Mason C Carr TS AL 9 9 1944 44-10489
O-706300 Nicholas A Melnikoff 2L CA 9 9 1944 44-10489
O-768164 Jerry R Miller 2L IL 9 9 1944 44-10489
11998168 Walter B Peterson TS MI 9 9 1944 44-10489
15097758 Robert L Watkins SS KY 9 9 1944 44-10489

Is you great uncle one of them ?