Delmar Bonham
MilitaryPersonal searching and https://sites.google.com/site/379thbgnoseart/home
Shot down by fighters on mission to Frankfurt on 29 Jan 1944 in B-17 #42-29886 'Scheherazade. ' Prisoner of War (POW).
POW
Connections
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: Scheherazade
- Unit: 379th Bomb Group 525th Bomb Squadron
Events
Event | Location | Date | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Born |
Texas, USA | 26 December 1919 | Texas |
Enlisted |
San Antonio, TX, USA | 27 March 1942 | Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law. San Antonio, Texas, United States |
Died |
Bellvue, CO 80512, USA | 17 December 1983 | |
Other Prisoner of War (POW) |
Germany | 29 January 1944 | |
Other https://sites.google.com/site/379thbgnoseart/home |
Debriefing and excerpts from the MACR- Lt. Delmar Bonham We had just reached the IP and was ready to make our run for the Target when we lurched and was shaken violently. We were losing speed and altitude and losing the formation. It wasn't long before their fighters were upon us attacking in waves. there was fire on our port side just behind me and our interphones must have been shot out because there was no contact throughout the ship. I bailed with our navigator and Top Turret Gunner & I thought Sam our Co-Pilot was coming after me; while Harry stayed at the controls trying to keep the ship flying. Sam Had gone back to help Harry who was badly burned. They bailed after us but I didn't see them until later. You couldn't see back into the rear areas because of the flames. I thought I could see one of our waist gunners slumped over his gun. No one left the plane after we went and she crashed. Just outside of a small town near the Rhine. |
Revisions
POW records +macr from plane records
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29D-MZ2B
from pow records and enlistment records show name is "Delmar" not Dalmar.
+ personal knowledge of Del Bonham from working with him in 1963-1966 era
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J5QD-94H
United States Social Security Death Index
Debriefing and excerpts from the MACR- Lt. Delmar Bonham
We had just reached the IP and was ready to make our run for the Target when we lurched and was shaken violently. We were losing speed and altitude and losing the formation.
It wasn't long before their fighters were upon us attacking in waves. there was fire on our port side just behind me and our interphones must have been shot out because there was no contact throughout the ship.
I bailed with our navigator and Top Turret Gunner & I thought Sam our Co-Pilot was coming after me; while Harry stayed at the controls trying to keep the ship flying. Sam Had gone back to help Harry who was badly burned. They bailed after us but I didn't see them until later. You couldn't see back into the rear areas because of the flames. I thought I could see one of our waist gunners slumped over his gun. No one left the plane after we went and she crashed. Just outside of a small town near the Rhine.
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / MACR 2871 / MACR 2871, 8th AF Losses / Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database