36th/856th and 406th NL BSs

Lemke Crew

Picture Location: Unknown but probably Harrington

Picture Date: Unknown but probably July-September '44 period

From the Ben Parnell collection, believed to be from Jim Albright.  Names given were:

Standing L-R:
Dan Bradley             -    Bombardier
Henry Bofink            -    Copilot          (DNB)
Fred Lemke              -    Pilot            (DNB)
Henry Salmons           -    Navigator        (DNB)

Front row, L-R:
Leslie Cazzell          -    Engineer         (DNB)
Jim Albright            -    Dispatcher       
John Koliada            -    Tail Gunner
Garrett C. Parnell, Jr. -    Extra Gunner     (DNB)
Gordon Elmore           -    Radio Operator   (DNB)

They arrived at Harrington in mid-June '44 at the earliest, and flew only 3 combat missions in July of 1944.  By close of operations to the Resistance on 17 September '44 they had 17 combat missions and were put on loan to Cheddington, flying with the 406th Night Leaflet Squadron.

Crashes on British soil were usually classified as non-combat flights, thus the men killed were classified as "Died Non-Battle" by the World War II Honor Roll administrators.  Further details are available on the Honor Roll page of the web site.  Briefly, the crew returned from their eighth leaflet mission but Cheddington was socked in, they landed at Oulton. In the afternoon takeoff to return to Cheddington, the plane smacked a tree with one wing, and crashed and burned in a woods before making it back to the base runway.

Parnell's younger brother Ben wrote the first history of the Carpetbaggers to be published, titled "Carpetbaggers: America's Secret War In Europe", ISBN: 0890155925.

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