The lonely B-24

After putting up the post yesterday on the B-17 "Casper Kid", I realized I hadn't posted these photos of the marker for the B-24 that went down in Natrona County in 1945.  I took the photos a year ago.

I've been aware of this wreck my entire life, although apparently the location was regarded as lost.  Only recently has this memorial been put up.

As with the Casper Kid, it's good to see the plane and its crew remembered.  Men who gave their lives for their country, but not in the way the expected.  In this case, they went down in the dead of winter and the conditions were so severe that there was little that could be done to attempt to rescue them. All perished.

 

The Crew of the B-17F, "The Casper Kid".

 

This is a new memorial in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, dedicated to the crew of the "Casper Kid", a B-17F that went down in what would have been an incredibly remote lonely spot on February 25, 1943.

In recent years, there's been a dedicated effort in Central Wyoming to memorialize the crews who did in aviation accidents during the Second World War. This is the second such memorial I'm aware of (there may be more) which is dedicated to the crew of an airplane that was flying out of the Casper Air Base, which is now the Natrona County International Airport. Both accidents memorialized so far were winter accidents which resulted in the loss of an aircraft in remote country.

We don't tend to think of those lost in training accidents as war dead, but they were.  And there are a lot of them.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, June 25, 1943. Murder in Ukraine, tragedy in Nova Scotia, race riot in UK.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, June 25, 1943. Murder in Ukraine, tragedy...: 

Friday, June 25, 1943. Murder in Ukraine, tragedy in Nova Scotia, race riot in UK.

The Germans completed the eradication of the Jewish population of Stanislav (Ivano-Frankivsk) in Ukraine.

The "Battle of Bamber Bridge" occurred in the UK when white Military Police intervened in a pub which had stretched out drinking hours for black US troops and then attempted to cite one for improper uniform.  Shots were ultimately fired and one of the soldiers was killed.

The Smith-Connoally Act was passed, which allowed the government to seize industries threated by strikes.  It went into law over President Roosevelt's veto.

 No. 21 Squadron RAF Ventura attacking IJmuiden, February 1943.

A Ventura AJ186 crashed in Summerville, Nova Scotia, killing P/O John C. Loucks, air gunner, Bracebridge, Ont., P/O George W. Cowie, pilot, Wellington, New Zealand., P/O Clifford A. Griffiths, navigator, Auckland, New Zealand., Sgt. Arthur Cornelius Mulcahy, wireless air gunner, Sydney, Australia.

The men were undergoing training.  A memorial service will be held for them today in Summerville.

Classified as a medium bomber, the Ventura is one of the numerous Allied warbirds that are now basically forgotten, in spite of having received widespread use.  It was an adaptation of a civilian airliner.

Sarah Sundin notes, on her blog:

Today in World War II History—June 25, 1943: 80 Years Ago—June 25, 1943: Bob Hope begins his first major USO tour; he will spend 11 weeks touring England, North Africa, and Sicily.

Ft. Bragg renamed Ft. Liberty

 

This one leaves me wondering. Surely somebody could have been found to honor in place of Confederate General Braxton Bragg for this North Carolina post?

The post was renamed yesterday.

Bragg was a West Point graduate from North Carolina who had a career in the U.S. Army as an artilleryman, a branch that generally went to those graduating in the upper ends of their class.  His career was mixed as a Confederate general, many would say poor, and he was ultimately relegated to advisory positions after the middle of the war.  He died in 1876 at age 59, walking down a sidewalk in Galveston, Texas.  His famously argumentative personality meant that after the war he occupied a string of occupations from which he resigned.

He'd been an opponent of succession personally.

Ft. Benning renamed Ft. Moore.

 

This will be the first in a series of such name changes.

Ft. Benning was named for Henry L. Benning, a Georgia lawyer who had served as a Confederate General during the Civil War.  Benning was a lifelong Georgia resident who died in the state at age 61 in 1875.  He was an ardent secessionist and opponent of emancipation, who nonetheless had the fort and a Liberty Ship named for him.

Lt. Gen. Hal Moore was a legendary Vietnam War commander who served as the first air cavalry commander in the war.    Julia Moore was his wife, who was born of a military family, and who is closely associated with supporting the family members of the unit when it was deployed.  Their relationship is portrayed in the film version of the general's book, We Were Soldiers Once, And Young.

The forst was renamed yesterday.