Air Force Index

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15th Air Force, USAAF If you can provide any additional information, please add it here. Logbooks Do you have a WW2 Flying Log Book in your possession? If so it would be a huge help if you could add logbook entries to our new database. Thank you. View Logbook entries Those known to have served with 15th Air Force, USAAF during the Second World War 1939-1945. Hatcher Lewis Terry. Pettit Richard Frank . Cpl. The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List Records of 15th Air Force, USAAF from other sources. The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website. Announcements The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 24 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web. 22nd April 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 263973 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible. Looking for help with Family History Research?   Please read our Family History FAQ's The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation. Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. We are now on Facebook. Like this page to receive our updates. If you have a general question please post it on our Facebook page. Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted. World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations. Want to know more about 15th Air Force, USAAF? There are:-1 items tagged 15th Air Force, USAAF available in our Library   These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. Cpl. Richard Frank "RF" Pettit 778th Sqdn. 464th Bombardment Group He was the top turret gunner in a B-24 Liberator bomber when the aircraft was shot down over Vienna, Austria on March 22, 1945 during his 13th bombing mission. After parachuting down into the middle of town, he was captured, taken to Graz, Austria, and imprisoned. Later, he was lined up with 12 other prisoners in front of a firing squad. They were then dismissed and told that they would be shot the next morning. He was force-marched and eventually ended up in Stalag 7a. Brenda Pettit Silva Add to this record. Lewis Terry Hatcher 15th Air Force Terry Hatcher enlisted in November 1942 and trained as a B-17 pilot. He served with the 15th Air force, at one point from a base in Foggia, Italy. He and his fellow airmen completed 24 bombing missions over Germany, Austria, Poland, Yugoslavia and Italy. but it was the 19th mission, on March 16, 1945, in which he bombed the Schwechat oil refinery in Austria, that he called his "longest day". The plane took off early that morning with a 6,000-pound payload. It rendez-voused over the Adriatic Sea with hundreds of other planes. The B-17 dropped its bombs on the target and was turning to head back to base when two of the four engines quit, hit by enemy fire. Flak had stripped through the right wing and parts of the instrument panel - and oil and gas streamed out, washing into the rear gunner's position," Mr. Hatcher told a veterans' group on 7th Feb. 1991. "The Decision was made not to bail out, but to make a go for it, out of enemy territory. Shortly afterward, a third engine quit, and the plane started losing altitude at the rate of 1,500 feet a minute. Notwithstanding all of this, the Hungarian border was reached, and a belly landing ensued on a hilly piece of farmland. Miraculously, the entire crew got out without injury. Local farm folk appeared, including one old farmer, who stepped out of the crowd flourishing a bottle of vodka and shouting, 'Do you want a drink, comrade?' The answer, 'Why not?'" The airmen were handed over to the Russians, who in turn led them to safety with American combat troops. Mr. Hatcher told the Military Order of the World Wars. The story was chronicled by Ken Burns in his documentary "The War". S. Flynn Add to this record. Recomended Reading. Available at discounted prices.

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