Pilot of P47D Thunderbolt crashed in San Benedetto Po

[Guest Stefano Piccagli]

Hello, 

My name is Stefano Piccagli, I live in northern Italy. 

I made some investigation about a P47D Thunderbolt that crashed in my family farmland on 04/22/1945 and I'm confident that the pilot was one of the following two:  

2nd Lt. Charles Richmond Perryman, 345th fighter squadron , 350th fighter group, Macr-14062.
44-33099

 F/O Royce L. McCleskey 345th fighter squadron , 350th fighter group, Macr-14063,
44-33553

I found some parts of the plane and some pilot belongings that I would like to return to family.

I was able to find One of the Browning cal.05 M2 machine guns installed on the P47D. Hopefully from the gun serial number and pilot's MACR I should have been able to identify with no doubt the aircraft.

Unfortunately I realized that none of the Brownings installed in either Perryman and McCleskey P47D had the serial Number of mine (SN 1664763).

Can anybody help me out to link the serial Number to the proper P47D Thunderbolt? 

Thank you

Stefano 

[BigJohn#3RD]

Stefano

Welcome to this forum. WOW, that is some find you have on your family's property. It looks like you have a lot of information about the two pilots. Here is a link to 2LT Charles Richmond Perryman's Find a Grave posting. I will check to dig a little deeper to see if any other relatives may be alive.

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/34961286/charles-richmond-perryman/photo

 

 

Thank you for bringing your find to this forum. Best regards, John

[prmccoy]

On 5/2/2023 at 7:41 PM, BigJohn#3RD said:

Stefano

Welcome to this forum. WOW, that is some find you have on your family's property. It looks like you have a lot of information about the two pilots. Here is a link to 2LT Charles Richmond Perryman's Find a Grave posting. I will check to dig a little deeper to see if any other relatives may be alive.

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/34961286/charles-richmond-perryman/photo

 

 

Thank you for bringing your find to this forum. Best regards, John

There is a way to contact someone in the Perryman family I looked on ancestry, the problem is, is he mentions the SN doesn't match 2Lt plane. Somehow someone with the know would have to be able to search the SN for the plane/airmen who were in the plane when it was downed. 

[ludwigh1980]

Nothing to add for research, however that is one amazing relic to find. 

[janielanell]

Hi Stefano and all! I found my way to this forum in researching the Perryman brothers-Frank and Charlie. For reasons I haven't figured out (yet), I inherited a stack of letters from Frank Perryman to his mother, back at home in Tyler, Texas, in my grandmother's things. To the best of my research so far, both brothers died without having been married or having any children. One of the letters even mentions not having heard from Charlie, dated about 4 months before the crash on your farmland. I am utterly fascinated by the whole story now, and would love to locate any possible heirs myself, but no such luck. I live in Tyler, and Rose Hill Cemetery is right around the corner from me. I plan on paying my respects to the family's plot this weekend.  I can also be reached at teamkrakowski at gmail dot com if anyone has any info. Thanks!

[GWS]

Looking at the MACR for both men, Royce McCleskey is listed as crashing in San Benedicto N/R and Charles Perryman in San Benedetto N/R.  I have to wonder if this is two different locations or that a spelling error occurred and they are in fact the same general location.  A goggle map shows multiple San Benedetto locations in Italy but the only San Benedicto I could find on google is a tiny island west of Mexico, obviously that's not the correct location.  I will attempt to contact Mr. Piccagli , but I don't hold out much hope there.

 

Janielanell-- Very interesting that you have found letters from Frank Perryman, are there any from Charles Perryman?  Have you reasearched any of the other Perryman's descendants in Rose Hill Cemetery? They may be related.   Thanks for your addition to this post.

 

 

Steve