1st Walter J. Goodman - DNB 9 May 1945

[RSwank]

Leendert,

The prior (original 2007) thread you mentioned also had another name, "J L Acton". I think it is possible that the name was actually Ivan Lee Acton, a Lt in the 9th Air Force who was injured near Frankfurt and died in Paris a few days later, on 2 May, 1945.

He body was returned to the US and his funeral was Oct 31, 1948. The Oklahoma newspapers don't give any details of how he was injured.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...ivan-lee-acton

So both Acton and Goodman were most likely buried originally in the same French cemetery in May 1945.

If you search for 'Lancaster RF230' now you get several sites which describe the crash and give complete lists of those killed. None of them mention anything about an unlisted American. I think it most likely the "original" (2007) reference was in error.


This link https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/cras...roye-30-killed
gives a possible cause for the accident.

"It appears that several of the passengers moved from their allotted places in the aircraft, causing center of gravity problems and the pilot had already used 8 divisions of elevator trim to keep the aircraft in balance. However, the application of full flap caused loss of control."