Mission: Marquise/Mimoyecques France.
Date: 19th March 1944.
Unit: 350th Bomber Squadron, 100th Bomber Group.
Type: B-17G.
Serial: 42-31968 ('Miss Irish')
Coded: LN-D
Base: Thorpe Abbots.
Location: Emergency landing at Raydon.
Pilot: Major John Gibbons (Squadron Commander)
Co-pilot: First Lieutenant Robert Dykeman.
Navigator: First Lieutenant Everett Johnson
Radio/Op/Gunner: Technical Sergeant Edward Walker Jr (Killed)
Engineer/Top Turret Gunner: Technical Sergeant Ira Arnold.
Bombardier: First Lieutenant Sterling Blakeman.
Ball Turret Gunner: Staff Sergeant Bernard Spragg.
Right Waist Gunner: Staff Sergeant Frank Buschmeier.
Left Waist Gunner: Staff Sergeant Myron Ettus.
Tail Gunner: Staff Sergeant Archie Bunting.
Date: 19th March 1944.
Unit: 350th Bomber Squadron, 100th Bomber Group.
Type: B-17G.
Serial: 42-31968 ('Miss Irish')
Coded: LN-D
Base: Thorpe Abbots.
Location: Emergency landing at Raydon.
Pilot: Major John Gibbons (Squadron Commander)
Co-pilot: First Lieutenant Robert Dykeman.
Navigator: First Lieutenant Everett Johnson
Radio/Op/Gunner: Technical Sergeant Edward Walker Jr (Killed)
Engineer/Top Turret Gunner: Technical Sergeant Ira Arnold.
Bombardier: First Lieutenant Sterling Blakeman.
Ball Turret Gunner: Staff Sergeant Bernard Spragg.
Right Waist Gunner: Staff Sergeant Frank Buschmeier.
Left Waist Gunner: Staff Sergeant Myron Ettus.
Tail Gunner: Staff Sergeant Archie Bunting.
Reason for loss:
100th Bomb Group entering Flak over the target.
B-17G 42-31968 'Miss Irish' photographed after landing at Raydon.
B-17G 42-31968 'Miss Irish' returned from a mission to Marquise/Mimoyecques, France and made an emergency landing at Raydon after taking a direct hit from an 88mm in the radio room on. Edward Walker, the ROG was killed and his body fell from the large hole where the radio section had been. His body was never found.
A battle damaged radio room position on a B-17 Flying Fortress of 100th BG. A direct hit by an 88mm killed the radio operator in Miss Irish , flown by John P "49 Missions" Gibbons.
Edward Walker Entered service from Oklahoma.
Status: Missing In Action
Memorialized: Tablets of the Missing. Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery Hombourg, Belgium.
Research and page construction by David King & Alexander King, Aircrew Remembrance Society, Further credits. The late Roger Freeman, American Battle Monuments Commision.