Gerald Grove reports that according to 95th BG mission reports, 1st Lt William McPherson, Jr was flying the high squadron lead a/c, as a volunteer, on his 26th mission, with a mixed-experience crew (from 1 mission up to Lt McPherson's 26 missions); all 10 crewmen became POW's. McPherson is the only one in the photo that was with the Trouble Shooter on Black Thursday. Other crew were: Co-pilot: George Byrnes, Navigator: Bill Prochaska, Bombardier: Austin Pritchard, Flight engineer/top turret gunner: Leon Ciaccia, Radio Operator: Tony Kosmala, Waist gunner: Morris Eckard, Waist gunner: Henry Rhodes (9 Prisoner of War);Tail gunner: Fred Nunnold (EVD-and returned); #3 feathered, gear down, then crashed between Rheims & Sedan, Fr. Missing Air Crew Report 855
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Thank you Norbert. It is so important that we try to sort out discrepancies in these reports. The more research I do the more inaccuracies I find. The report I read from the 95th site had parachutes sited in the location I wrote, but that still could not be correct. I know you probably have seen the MACR. Is the map included there that I share here close to being correct? As always thank you for helping us get things sorted out.
A/C 42-30135 crashlanded not in France between Rheims and Sedan and not according to other sources between Mainz and Wuerzburg and also definitively not in the target area around Schweinfurt, but elsewhere in Germany on the return flight, there's no doubt.
Tail gunner Fred Nunnold was no Evader, but a POW as the entire crew of ten. He was exchanged in September 1944 due to severity of the wounds and returned to the United States after spending 11 months in POW hospitals in Germany. Fred Nunnold died in June 2010, age 89.
Norbert Vollmann (Germany, I'm living 12 miles south of Schweinfurt)
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Thank you Norbert. It is so important that we try to sort out discrepancies in these reports. The more research I do the more inaccuracies I find. The report I read from the 95th site had parachutes sited in the location I wrote, but that still could not be correct. I know you probably have seen the MACR. Is the map included there that I share here close to being correct? As always thank you for helping us get things sorted out.
Hi Sue, Robert, Patti and all!
A/C 42-30135 crashlanded not in France between Rheims and Sedan and not according to other sources between Mainz and Wuerzburg and also definitively not in the target area around Schweinfurt, but elsewhere in Germany on the return flight, there's no doubt.
Tail gunner Fred Nunnold was no Evader, but a POW as the entire crew of ten. He was exchanged in September 1944 due to severity of the wounds and returned to the United States after spending 11 months in POW hospitals in Germany. Fred Nunnold died in June 2010, age 89.
Norbert Vollmann (Germany, I'm living 12 miles south of Schweinfurt)
E-Mail: norbertvollmann@t-online.de