John E. Russell U.S.A.A.F.

Originally Posted by Tony Kambic

Maybe it's not the same person:

In my copy of Eighth AF Bomber Stories by Russell J. Zorn and Ian McLachlan, the co-pilot's name of B-17 42-5793 was Lt. John K. Russell. Russell Zorn was an 8th AF photographer assigned to document crashes (damage assessment ) in the UK during the war. He saved photographs and crew lists from every crash that he investigated, which is at least 45 between Nov. 1943 and June 1945.

Oh dear that's not good to see. From what I got elsewhere and as I posted at the beginning of the post could it be a typo?

John E. Russell
Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces
Service # O-885981
813th Bomber Squadron, 482nd Bomber Group, Pursuit


It made sense as Russell's USAAF unit was a Pathfinder unit as was 97 Squadron. The time frame is right as is the proximity of two units to one another.

Is there anyway of checking if these people were USAAF personnel?

2nd Lt J.E.Russell 2nd Lt R.Wright 2nd Lt W.S.Treacy