Jump to content

Help needed solving mystery


thewoodyuk
 Share

Recommended Posts

I recently obtained from a uk auction a fragment of a USAAF flying jacket. On it is painted the nose art of the zodiac liberator Scorpio. A member of the crew, I thought, but this is where it gets interesting. The panel has been roughly hacked with a knife from the back of the jacket. Attached to it was a lapel pin for The Reichsluftschutzbund (RLB) (National Air Raid Protection League), and an old German printed label on war quality paper that reads Amerikanischer terrorflieger. Although Scorpio crashed in March 1945 the crew all evaded capture. March in Austria is not the time to abandon your jacket so I’m guessing it belonged to the original crew (certainly looks like Brinkman’s hand) who was shot down later in the war (and from the way it was cut, possibly didn’t survive the crash or had a rough reception). I know the first crew completed their first tour intact and consisted of P 1Lt Robert E French, Co 2Lt Kenneth L Parkhurst, Nav F/O David L Bowman, Eng Sgt William B Briggs, RO Pvt Frederick P Wagner, Ball Sgt Francis M Donohue, Nose Sgt Denny W Horton, TT Sgt Harold F Quagan, Tail Sgt Lehman V Wood. 9 x RTD so may have kept their Scorpio jackets for their next tour. Any ideas who it could have been? My access to US records is somewhat limited.

post-217105-0-26074700-1555506565_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...