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Lt William E Massey 8th AF Pilot, Caterpillar


Steve Brannan
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Steve Brannan

I have had this small Caterpillar group for a few years but bored with staying home, Ive been taking a closer look at my collection. I found a surprise. Lt Massey was a Pilot in the 8Th AF and was shot down over Jauldes, France on about June 19, 1944. post-1848-0-88221500-1586818797_thumb.jpeg

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Steve Brannan

The surprise I found was the serial number of his AAF issue M1911A1. I believe this would have been a Remington Rand. He wrote the serial number on the back of his Pilot ID. I think the pistol would probably been made in early 1944. post-1848-0-90774000-1586819655_thumb.jpeg

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This is your guy for sure and the picture of the small ribbon bar looked like two silver oak leaf clusters, but they are bright bronze oak leaf clusters. That's a nice caterpillar club pin and card.

post-634-0-11286400-1586822160_thumb.jpgpost-634-0-95574600-1586822189_thumb.jpg

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Steve Brannan

The newspaper article is from 1961 and says Lt Massey flew back to Jauldes, France for a ceremony by the local French people to honor his B-17 crew. The plane was hit by AA and broke in two and only 3 crewmen survived. The locals buried the dead. Lt Massey and the other two survivors fought with French Underground for 76 days according to the article before getting back to Allied lines.

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Steve Brannan

Thanks for the kind comments. Another story told in the 1961 newspaper article: when his B-17 was hit over France, they were at 27000 feet. He ordered Bail Out and before he could get out of the Pilots seat, the Oxygen tank exploded breaking the plane into two pieces. His chest parachute was not hooked on but he grabbed it and jumped. He tried two times to hook onto his parachute unsuccessfully but was successful on the third try. When he deployed the parachute he was at about 4000 feet. Wow. Would make a movie.

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Steve Brannan

EF53C5B0-5C9D-4296-8749-45B84C926891.jpeg.4405bb2746ec0c8e204c026bc099fd31.jpegHe’s still alive. His picture was in the local paper last Sunday. The greatest generation. Still going strong. 

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Sign up on the CMP Forum and / or Gunboards and post the serial number of the 1911 he had. Who knows, maybe someone has it in their collection? Stranger things have happened. 

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