Harold A. KINSEY

 B-17 Fortress - type F-25-BO - s/n 41-24566 BN*W "Zombie"

Macr: 15708

Mission: Romilly-sur-Seine (10)

Takeoff Station 107 Molesworth, Cambridgeshire UK 

Shot by fighter probably Maj Walter OESAU

Map of Normandy American Cemetery

Sergeant Harold Allford Kinsey, born 3 Sep 1922 in Wanamaker, Marion County, Indiana, was the son of Cecil J. and Flossie Fern (Allford) Kinsey from Franklin, Marion County, Indiana. Franklin is 21 miles south of Indianapolis.
In the 1930 census 7-year-old Harold is living with his parents and brother Forest 2, as lodgers in the household of Daniel Caldwell in Franklin, Marion County, Indiana. His father is a laborer for a steam railway.In the 1940 census 17-year-old Harold is living with his parents and brother Robert 3, still in Franklin. Forest is not listed in the household. Forest died in 1934 at the age of 6.

His father is now a farm manager.Harold enlisted 2 Jan 1942 at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. He’d had 4 years of high school and was single without dependents.

His occupation was listed under semiskilled mechanics and repairmen. He was assigned to the 359th Bomb Squadron of the 303rd Bomb Group. The 303rd flew out of RAF Molesworth, 69 miles north of London.Sergeant Kinsey was the right waist gunner on B17F 41-24566 “Zombie”. On only its fourth mission, Zombie was shot down on 20 Dec 1942 on a mission to bomb the German air depot at Romilly-sur-Seine, France.

Romilly-sur-Seine is 74 miles east southeast of Paris. B-17F #41-24566, Zombie, piloted by Lt. O.S.

Witt, was shot down by enemy fighters and ditched in the English Channel. All crew members were lost. T/Sgt. L.C. Woods is buried in Ardennes American Cemetery near Liege, Belgium. Sgt. H.A. Kinsey is buried in Normandy American Cemetery near Coleville-sur-Mer, France. The body of S/Sgt. W.R. Renner washed ashore near Dieppe, France 1 Feb 1943. Lt. O.S. Witt, Lt. F.M. McMurtry, Jr., T/Sgt. T.F. Bachom and S/Sgt. L.W. Thomas are on the Wall of Missing at Ardennes, Belgium. Lt. W.E. Dyar and Sgt B.W. Millett are on the Wall of Missing at Cambridge, England.The NARA WWII casualty listings by state and county show Kinsey, Harold A., 15084364, Sgt from Marion County, Indiana as FOD (Finding of Death). An FOD was determined at least one year and one day after a soldier, sailor of airman went missing in action. Sgt. Kinsey went missing in action on 20 Dec 1942. His body was recovered later.A cenotaph marker in memory of Sgt. Kinsey was placed in the Kinsey family plot at the Orchard Hill Cemetery in Wanamaker, Marion County, Indiana. Another marker at Orchard Hill lists Harold Kinsey and 9 other WWII casualties from Wanamaker in the order they fell.

The Vidette-messenger of Port County (Valparaiso, Indiana) – 11 May 1943 – Page 8 – DeMotte Man On U.S. List of Missing – WASHINGTON, May 11. – (UP) – The War department announced today the names of 766 United States soldiers who are missing in action, some of them carried on the lists as missing since last December. The announcement included casualties in the Alaskan, Asiatic, European, North African, South Pacific and Southwest Pacific areas.

The men included: From Indiana: Sgt. Harold A. Kinsey, Mrs. Flossie Kinsey, mother, Route 5, Greenfield.

A cenotaph marker in memory of Sgt. Kinsey was placed in the Kinsey family plot at the Orchard Hill Cemetery in Wanamaker, Marion County, INDIANA

Equipage du B-17 Fortress - type F-25-BO - s/n 41-24566 BN*W

"Zombie"