Warbird Information Exchange

My friend posted this picture on Facebook yesterday, showing his great uncle John Senter, who was KIA with some of this crew on October 5, 1944. I am hoping to find more pics of the plane as well as it's serial number. Also, does anyone have more info on the loss? I was able to figure out that they were in the 38th BS, 405th squadron.



I found this link:
http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?pa ... i=95836215

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Official squadron documents online http://www.sunsetters38bg.com/index.php ... -documents
look for file for Oct 1944

Page 7 (as seen on left column)
"Shortly, thereafter another airplane and crew failed to return from a successful barge sweep over the coast of CERAM on the 5th and were reported as missing in action. The three (3) officers aboard were 2nd Lt. William E Kirk, pilot, of Amarillo, TX; 2nd Lt. William E. Guyer, co-pilot, of Riverside, CA; and 2nd Lt. Jack (NMI) Walfish, bombardier-navigator, of Brooklyn, NY; while the three (3) enlisted men lost were Staff Sgt. Samuel A. Boccelli, engineer gunner, of Philadelphia, PA; Staff Sgt. John P. Senter, radio gunner, of Bristol, TN; and Staff Sgt. Anthony P. Zingaro, aerial gunner, of Mount Morris, NJ. The loss of two (2) complete crews in a single month was our greatest loss in combat personnel due to enemy action in several months and was deeply felt by all members of the Squadron., as all men lost had been in the unit for at least six (6) months and had completed up to twenty-five (25) missions."

Pages 27-28
mission description same info as below refers to Plane 009, says another plane took photos of the believed crash site area of burning grass.

Appendix I. of the morning report has the crew listed as MIA on the 5th.
Appendix V. lists loss of 2 planes to enemy air action, loss of 12 crew.
Appendix VI. has serial numbers of all aircraft and engines as of Oct 1, 1944
Appendix VII. maps of the target areas including Ceram
Appendix XII. final mission report 10/5/44: "Plane 009 is missing and believed to have crashed near Paoni Village on the north coast of CERAM. A large column of black smoke followed by two columns of white explosions were observed at 0715m in this vicinity and the plane was last seen headed in that direction.
Appendix XVI. operational photographs including those from the 10/5/44 mission

Sorry, this was best I could come up with BK.

More documents from HQ basically repeat what Squadron docs report: http://www.sunsetters38bg.com/index.php ... p?start=80

Pretty sure "plane 009" refers to 43-28009 given in the list of planes in the squadron. Joe Baugher has the plane listed as
B-25J 43- "28099 (38th BG) lost Oct 5, 1944, SW Pacific."

Squadron newsletter most recent Sep. 2012: http://www.sunsetters38bg.com/index.php ... e?start=60

Each squadron has reps with contact info. Also, states the 38th BG had just published "limited edition book" (500) available to vets, family members, and members of the 38th BG assoc. Info to obtain book given.

Dave, his loss is recorded on MACR 13997; he was the radio-gunner aboard B-25J 43-28099, and that was not the same ship as shown in the attached photo (that one's a C or D model). I'm downloading the MACR pages now and will post them here for you to send to your friend... 13 pages total. Not terribly informative, but it's better than nothing.

Cheers,

Lynn

(Skipping the cover page - 12 pages total, this will be pages 2 through 6)

Pages 7 through 13 (end of report)























Hope this helps...

Lynn

wow...thanks, fellas! That's great.

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