2Lt. Cornelius DONOGHUE and the fate of B-24G "FERTILE MYRTLE"

[RSwank]

41 page MACR is here:

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/91044981

The MACR has the story that two men (possibly Hogan and Roettger) were shot after they killed civilians to avoid capture.

Fold3 also has some photos of the plane in the "free" section, including this one taken as it left the formation on its final mission.

https://www.fold3.com/image/29021405?terms=42-78471

Same photo appears here with the story of Hogan and Roettger being shot:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Warplanesnu...ertile_myrtle/


Story of the loss also appears here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=Wu...471%22&f=false

But this write up seems to imply that the four men who died were "all" found in the plane. Three of them, Donoghue, Hogan and Roettger are in this common grave:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...nce-o-roettger

while Ranville is buried in Michigan: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...ond-a-ranville

Note: common graves were often used when men were recovered from a crash and could not be identified, so that may (or may not) be significant. German records show the plane did burn on the ground.

The IDPF files for them, (particularly for Hogan and Roettger) may have information about exactly how they died. The file for Hogan could probably be ordered now. Roettger's file is in the last half of the alphabet (L-Z) that may be available next year.