My name is Ryan, and I'm doing research into my great uncle's plane. He was Capt. Charles H. Foote and was the copilot on the Black Nan. So far I have the MACR, the MR, and have ten photos of the Black Nan from the day it went down. I have also located the graves of six of the deceased in the Florence cemetery (my uncle is one of them) and the stateside graves of two other crew members.
An old friend of the family, John McKiernan, was my uncle's former copilot. According to John, he was the pilot of that crew. But the 779th squadron commanding officer, Lt. Col. James Gilson, was just one mission shy of the required 35 needed to go home. So John was bumped from the flight, and my Uncle Charles (779th executive officer) came along for the run to earn points for his ticket home as well. It was supposed to be a milk run. It was the start of the spring 1945 offensive to take northern Italy, and the 464th was dropping bombs over enemy troops to pave the way for the British 8th Infantry. The "Black Nan" (aka Stevenovitch II) was leading the second wave. After dropping their payload, they flew through a relatively light amount of flack, but were hit in the left wing. The left wing exploded, and the plane spiraled about seven times before another explosion that ejected 1st Lt Edward Walsh. The plane crashed about 5 miles NW of Lugo, Italy about 20 seconds after it was hit.
Lt. Walsh was shot at by the Germans on his descent. So much so that his parachute must have been hit as he broke both legs on landing. In his report after being rescued by the allies, Lt. Walsh says that he was brought the clean dog tags, or ID tags of Lt. Col. Gilson (pilot), Capt. George Wall (bombardier), and S. Sgt. Melvin Thomason (gunner). He was also told by his german captures that they had these three bodies and were going to bury them. Lt. Walsh believed that they too must have gotten out of the plane, or the germans would not have clean tags to show him, or bodies to bury.
Any additional information or pictures would be greatly appreciated. John McKiernan has more pictures from that day, but he hid them away when my grandparents visited after the war, that to this day he still cannot find them.
Here is a picture of my uncle and John from earlier in the war. My uncle is in the back row, first on the left. And John McKiernan is in the back row, second on the left. I'm awaiting a better resolution file of this picture from my brother. Thanks for having this great forum!
-Ryan