850th BS
Meade Crew
Picture courtesy of Frank Hines.
The Meade crew is shown here at Mountain Home in early 1944, Frank Hines has identified the men in this picture as:
Back Row, L-R:
Bernard Niemann - Gunner (Orphaned)
Gerald Mitchell - Navigator (EVR/POW)
John Bonnin - Bombardier (EVR)
James Lovelace - Copilot (EVR)
John Meade - Pilot (KIA)
Frank Hines - Engineer (EVR)Front Row, L-R:
William Dubois - Gunner (EVR)
Ellis Syra - Gunner (KIA)
Roy Simmons - Gunner (Orphaned)
Edward Jones - Radio Operator (EVR)
Niemann and Simmons were released at Cheddington. The crew flew three combat missions in June of 1944 and a fourth on the night of 3/4 July 1944, but their fifth mission on the night of 4/5 July ran into trouble and they were shot down in B24H 42-95317 by a German night fighter. Lovelace and Syra were killed; Bonnin, Meade, Hines, Dubois, and Jones were all Evaders. Mitchell was captured after a few weeks in evasion and was interned in Buchenwald with 167 other Allied Airmen, including the four captured members of the Carscaddon crew, also there. They were removed to Stalag III in October of 1944 and eventually marched westward again as the Russians approached in the spring of 1945. Late in life, those held in Buchenwald were paid a settlement from the German government.
Photo courtesy of R. Chandelier via Serge Blandin.
Aircraft Details Credit: Tom Brittan
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