Charles Andrews Mc WILLIAMS
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Source : Paul Webber
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NUMBER OF SERVICE | 17069170 | ||||||
AGE | 22 yo | ||||||
DATE OF BIRTH | 13 May 1922 | ||||||
ENLISTMENT STATE | IOWA | ||||||
FAMILY | Parents : Verne R. & Velma M. Siblings : Donald C, Virginia M, Raymond D, Charles A. & Robert G. | ||||||
RANK | Sergeant | ||||||
FONCTION | Nose gunner | ||||||
JOB BEFORE ENLISTEMENT | |||||||
DATE of ENLISTEMENT | 8 October 1942 | ||||||
SQUADRON | 838th Bomber Squadron | ||||||
GROUP | 487th Bomber Group, Heavy | ||||||
ARMY | 8th US Air Force | ||||||
DATE OF DEATH | 6 June 1944 |
Source : F Lavernhe | |||||
STATUS | KIA | ||||||
PLACE OF DEATH | In sea | ||||||
DATA PLAN |
Bombardier B-24H 42-52629 "Sweatin' It Out" Macr: 6484 Take off: Station 137 near Lavenham, Suffolk | ||||||
CEMETERY | NORMANDY AMERICAN CEMETERY of Colleville | ||||||
GRAVE |
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DECORATION |
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STORY | |||||||
Charles was born in Iowa, he is one of seven children of Verne and Velma Mc WILLIAMS. The family has always lived in Iowa in Columbus Junction and then in Bloomfield. After his four years of High School, he worked as a mechanic. He left civilian life to join the US Army Air Corps in October 1942 and enlisted at Camp Dodge in Iowa. He spent several phases of training and finished his training with those of flight engineer and anti-aircraft fire and was assigned as a crew member to B-24 "SWEATIN 'IT OUT" of Lieutenant GROSS. He began his crew training on B-24 in December 1943 at Davis Monthan, Arizona. On January 3, 1944, the crew under the command of Lieutenant GROSS was assigned to the 838th Bomb Group of the 487th Bomb Group on the Alamogordo base in New Mexico in order to finalize the training of the B-24 crews until March 16, 1944 . |
Source : Bruno Cadeville
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Source : Paul Webber
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It is then the deployment to Great Britain at Lavenham where the 487th arrives on April 5, 1944. The 487th Bomb Group is based at station 137 north of the village of Sudbury in Suffolk. The history of B-24 42-52629 "SWEATIN 'IT OUT" begins in May 1944 with its first missions. On June 6, 1944, the 487th Bomb Group sent two squadrons on the first of three DDAY missions. The mission is to bomb an important crossing of Caen in order to prevent or disrupt the German reinforcements following the landing, but a cloud cover blocks the visibility and they do not find their target, preferring to spare civilian lives they will try to find that target and a lot of time will be wasted finding it. They then take the return route following the heavy bombers affected area which passes to the west of the islands of Jersey and Guernsey. Bombers will drop their bombs into the sea. At 8:42 am, Saffron Walden station received a distress call from "SWEATIN 'IT OUT", it was located 25 miles from Aldernay Island with its four engines stopped. The crew was never found. | ||||||
Equipage du B-24H 42-52629 "Sweatin'It Out"
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SOURCE INFORMATION & SOURCE PHOTO | Bruno Cadeville Findagrave.com - Abmc.gov |
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PROGRAMMER | Henri, Garrett, Clive, Frédéric & Renaud |