56th FG 29 Apr 1943 Lt Winston S. Garth (POW)

[Leendert]

On 29 Apr 1943 56th FG lost two pilots (POW) when their P-47s were shot down over the Scheldt estuary.

Capt John C. McClure was in 41-6394, but has the serial of Lt Winston S. Garth's P-47 ever come to light?

Thanks for any lead.

Regards,

Leendert

[Stig Jarlevik]

Leendert

I have an added note is was P-47C 41-6397. No individual code I'm afraid.

Cheers
Stig

[KM1957]

41-6397 was involved in an accident on May 15, 1943 with Lt. Wayne E. Peterson, so Garth wasn't flying it on April 29.

Kent

[Stig Jarlevik]

I see Kent (thanks!)

Someone updated that loss with faulty information.
Sorry Leendert

Cheers
Stig

[Peter Randall]

McClure's 41-6394 LM-M was named "Lonesome Polecat". I had been searching for a photo of this for a very long time and finally found one. Thought you might like to see it.
Peter

[Leendert]

A little musing. I assume that the serial of Lt. Garth's P-47 must not have been that far off from Capt McClure's (41-6394). Joe Baugher's website mentions that the latter was only condemned on 31 Oct 1944.
Looking up and down the list in the upper 41-63XX and lower 41-64XX range, I see only 41-6371 without loss and/or assignment details, but also condemned on 31 Oct 1944.
Number is skipped at all in Didier's P-47 database in mentioned serial range...

Looks like I have to apply for an Individual Aircraft Record Card for 41-6371 and hope it gives just that little more info.

Regards,
Leendert

[Ted51abcdk]

Leendert and all:
Kent is correct about 41-6397. The 62nd FS Mission schedules are exclusively codes only beginning on April 17th, no serial numbers except for the April 13th Mission which is serial numbers only.
I am sad to say that the IARc will not be of any help to you as the last penciled in line records the date of 31 October 1944 with the only preceding date beginning the Depart US date. There are a total of 37 P-47Cs and 21 P-47D-1s that have this end date of 31 October 1944. It is my belief, and I have nothing to back it up, that this was a "catch all" date used to get airframes off inventory that could not be accounted for from any records.
The only potential sources for these early s/ns would be:
Cumulative Losses Listing which started showing P-47 losses in July 1943
Missing Air Crew Reports which also start in July 1943 for ETO P-47 losses
RALDA (Report of Aircraft Lost Damaged Aborting) which starts with ETO P-47 losses in August of 1943
Sadly, all these dates are post April 1943. It would be my opinion that unless there is some undiscovered documentation out there somewhere that you may be out of luck trying to 'discover' what LM-Gs serial number was for 29 April 1943, that day it was lost.
On the upside, your question did cause me to review and correct that error as well as Kent's comments. Hope that this helps a bit. Ted51

[Leendert]

Ted,


Thanks for this very useful piece of info. Will be on the lookout for a picture with an early P-47C coded LM-G...


Regards,
Leendert