Medivac C-47 shoot down

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Closer to the subject, two US nurses killed in air crashes:

27 July 1943:

The C-47 41-38643 of 54th TCS, PTCG, crashed 12 miles NE of Naknek Army Air Base, Alaska. Among the killed were the pilot, Carl T Moore, and a nurse and a technicien of Flight A, 805th Medical Air Evacuation Squadron, that were flying medical air evacuation in the area. The nurse, Lt Ruth L Gardiner, was said to have been the first American nurse to have died in the line of duty during WWII.

Source:
http://www.au.af.mil/au/afhra/wwwroot/numbered_studies/467615.pdf
http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/AARmonthly/Jul1943S.htm

24 February 1944:

The C-47 41-7725 of 12th TCS, 60th TCG carried to their death its aircrew (including Robert S Smith (pilot) and Cpl John H Arp) and their 18 passengers (a nurse, 2nd Lt Elizabeth J Howren, and a technician from 807th Medical Air Evacuation Squadron and their 16 patients) when it crashed into the side of a mountain during an aerial evacuation. Apart form this accident, no deaths or harmful effect were noted among the 51 419 patients evacuated by auir in the MTO between September 1943 and May 1944.

Source:
http://www.au.af.mil/au/afhra/wwwroot/numbered_studies/467615.pdf
http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/AARmonthly/Feb1944O.htm
http://www.abmc.gov/search/wwii_unit.php