36th BS
Pratt Crew
Picture Credit:
Rene Londoz
Picture taken at
Harrington, names and faces have not yet been matched up. Names below
are those who were in the incident on the night of 5/6 June 1944.
Os:
Kenneth Pratt -
Pilot ASN 0738024 (EVR)
Ralph Leindorf - Copilot
ASN 0806997 (POW)
Russell J. Byrne,Jr. - Navigator
ASN T-122081 (KIA)
Carlo C. Starkovich - Bombardier
ASN T-121795 (KIA)
EMs:
Joseph A. Caron
- R.O. ASN 11031480 (DOW)
Roy C. Koons -
Engineer ASN
13135663 (KIA)
Ollie W. Warren - Dispatcher
ASN
38060592 (POW)
James A. Wagner - Tailgunner
ASN
13091630 (KIA)
Others who flew with the crew before the
incident:
Verne R. Jacobs
- Engineer ASN
39613607
Joseph P. Johnson
- Engineer ASN
12151940
Presley W. Smith
- Engineer ASN
18036184
ASNs so-colored for EMs link to their NARA Enlistment Records.
Further details are on the Honor Roll page. Pratt evaded successfully and returned to the UK on 10 September 1944. Leindorf and Warren were captured and held in Stalag Luft IV for the duration. The plane was brought down by flak, other Carpetbagger crews saw the ground explosion of the plane, near Wavre,Belgium.
An original member of the crew, Presley W. Smith, was not on this flight. He flew as a substitute afterwards and later went to Cheddington with the Bronar Crew to fly with the 406th Night Leaflet Squadron.
Incident Aircraft: B24D 42-63784
Above:
Telex to 8th AF HQ requesting
a replacement aircraft for Pratt's lost plane. An ex-479th ASW plane, it was
modified to Carpetbagger specs beginning 24 Nov 43 at Burtonwood Air Depot.
Crew Details:
From various primary sources. An augmentation crew, they
probably came into the Group around mid-February of 1944 at Alconbury. Pratt
logs his first combat mission on the night of 7/8 March 1944 to Norway as
Copilot to Fenster. His first appearance in Special Orders occurs in
SO #11, dtd
15 March 1944 and issued from Watton (Station 376), when he and his fellow
crew-officers were granted leave.
The crew flew their first combat mission on 11 April 1944, with Presley Smith as Engineer. But on the fatal night Roy C. Koons from the Ellis crew subbed for Smith, and paid for it with his life. There may have been orphaned crew members, but the microfilm record is incomplete for the 15 Feb-31 Mar period of the Group. Unlike the majority of the downed crews in the first half of 1944 for the Group, the Pratt crew went down relatively late in their tour (15th mission) and their misfortune can only be attributed to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Additional Data Sources:
Pratt
Crew Personnel Files
Pratt Crew Mission
Reports
Pratt Crew NARA Honor Roll Cards
Group-Related Downloads:
AAFRH-21 "AAF Aid to
European Resistance"
Allied Leaflets Index
"Carpetbaggers" by Parnell
"They Flew by Night" editor Robert Fish
Serial Number Index of B24s
Station 179 Operations Log (handwritten
Apr44-Jul45)
Station 179 Operations
Log (transcribed
Sep44-Jul45)
Available on Request:
Group Mission Reports Jan-Sep44 (On
disk $12ea - $10ea via Paypal)
"Chronology of SOE
Operations with the Resistance In France During WWII" by
Foot & Boxhall
"Spies,Supplies &
Moonlit Skies Vols 1&2" by Ensminger (On
disk $12ea - $10ea via Paypal)