Recently Rated:
Stats
Appeal For Information: Can You Help Us Find The Descendants Of These US WWII Airmen?
Please email americymru@gmail.com if you have any information, diolch.
The Plane: B-24 Liberator
The Crew
A Message From David Bathers
"In May this year ( 70 years after the Air Crash) I will be privliged to guide some primary schoolchildren to the Crash Site of the American B-24 Liberator Bomber. As you know I am a member of the Committee of the local museum in New York Cottages http://www.penmaenmawrmuseum/
I understand that the children might like to contact relatives of the American crew ---for example the Pilot was 2nd Lt Adrian Shultz who was born in OmahaNebraska. He was 26 yearsold in 1944 andwas one of the surviving crew of 10 brave young men.He returned to the site in 1978. Did he have grandchildren who live in U.S.A?"
The local primary school Ysgol Pencae Penmaenmawr asked me to lead about 40 children up the nearby hills and show them places of interest. We normally walk up the steep road to about 1,000 feet to the mountain overlooking the Irish Sea . We visit the Druids Circle the Bronze Age Stone Circle which is 3,500 years old--after a well earned break and some refreshment we move on, to the foot of the next hill --to the crash site.On the 21st May --some 70 years after the event-- we will be visiting the crash site and the children, teachers and parents will be asked to stand in silence for a short time to remember the young airmen that flew in that plane and crashed on that barren hillside.
The brand new B24JLiberator Bomber was nicknamed "Bachelors Baby because all the US Airmen were single young men some is their early twenties. They had a mascot called Booster--he was a fox terrier named after the sound of the engine superchargers. This six week old puppy was a tonic to these brave young crew--they even kitted the dog out in a warm flighsuit, an oxygen mask and a parachute--the dog was killed in the crash and found lying near a Bible . 5 of the young crew did not survive but 5 other members returned eventually to US Military Hospitals . The Pilot 2nd Lt. A.J Shultz survived and has visited the site in 1978, ( Hebacame a Colonel and retired in 1962.) Sergeant Harold Alexander was last heard of working television in New York . The navigator Jules Ertz became an Attorney in Los Angeles .
Harold Alexander before he got into the ambulance after the crash gave a local rescuer some money to bury the little terrier dog booster.So we hope that the descendants of these fine young American airmen can be found via your magazine and website and I am sure they will be proud that our young school children will remember then with their prayers and respectful silence"
*Memorial plaque photo above reproduced by kind permission of David Bathers
Peak District Air Accident Research
How wonderful that these men and their little dog will be remembered. I hope that all family members can be found.
It IS the same Julian Ertz, he became a real estate lawyer in Orange County, California, near LA:
http://ezinearticles.com/?WWII-Veterans---3-Stories-From-This-Vanishing-Breed&id=3961020
WWII Veterans - 3 Stories From This Vanishing Breed
"Tragedy struck for Julian and his crew when his B-24 J Liberator - named "Bachelors' Baby" on account of the single status of its crew - crashed on take off in Wales. As he tells in his veteran's video, the plane was loaded with 50 caliber shells. Julian suffered a broken back, and walks with some difficulty to this day, but still counts himself lucky. He was able to shelter from the exploding bullets behind the plane's engine, which had become detached. Five of his 10 crew, and a sixth man - an unlucky hitch hiker - were killed. Booster, the mascot dog, was also killed in the crash."
This article is likely about 2nd Lt Julian Ertz, still alive and in the Orange County area of California:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/high-269141-football-ertz.html
Looks like Sgt. Joseph Nieglos just passed away in January. Enough of the details seem to match and the age is in the correct range. No children mentioned, but a surviving brother and sister.
http://www.meaningfulfunerals.net/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=2387106&fh_id=10580&s_id=
Gwych ....diolch. Will email contacts in MA
Staff Sgt. Samuel Louis Offut was born in Baltimore, Maryland, 20 May 1920 to Mabel Urbana Brown and Lawrence Henry Offut of Maryland. They had a large family, including Samuel's siblings Ruth Offut (b. 1915), Margaret A. Offut (b. 1916), Lawrence Henry Offutt (1917 - 2003), Mabel Offutt (b. 1922), Mary Rhea Offutt Birmingham (1923 - 2004), Gladys Helen Offutt Mullin (1924 - 2007), Ima Loretta Offutt Rehling (1927 - 1989), Harry Hoover Offutt (1928 - 1979), and Helen M. Offutt (b. 1932). They were all born in Maryland, likely Baltimore. I believe Samuel was single at the time of his death. He is buried in Baltimore National Cemetery, and many of his siblings seemed to have remained in the Baltimore area. Unknown if any nephews or nieces are around.
Diolch for posting Gregg. It would be great to find the descendants and tell them about this
I think 2nd Lt. Arthur Davis was single.Not confirmed but I think he was buried in Northfield, Vermont. Based on census records I believe he was the son of Perley William Davis and Florence R. Latham of Vermont. Florence died before 1920, and Perley married her younger sister Edna Clara Latham in 1921. Arthur W. Davis was born 31 Jul 1918 in Worcester, Massachusetts. He had two older brothers, Robert H. Davis born about 1914 in Massachusetts, and Raymond F. Davis born about 1916 in Massachusetts. Unfortunately unable to confirm what became of his brothers. His aunt/stepmother Edith was living in Auburn, Massachusetts in 1948 when Arthur was received a marker in Mount Hope Cemetery in Northfield, Vermont.