John J Lawlor

Military

Shot down by flak and crashed near Caen on 8/8/44 in B-17 #42-102669, Prisoner of War (POW).



Flew on Lt. Richard Vogel crew on B-17 'How Soon'. Completed 34 missions from April 1944-08 August 1944. He was shot down on his 35th mission flying as tail gunner on Lt. Kata's crew. Lt. Kata gave a 'prepare to bail out' warning after the Flak hit and subsequent fire in our #3 engine. He left his combat position behind the twin '50's' to put on a chest parachute and then pulled the latch on the tail release escape hatch. In doing this he lost intercom communication. However, immediately upon releasing the hatch door 'bodies' went flying by the open hatch. Seeing the entire waist section evacuated he followed them out of the plane. He landed in a hedge row clearing with his chute draped over a Lombardy poplar tree. Before he was able to clear himself from the chute strapping and reached the ground a German Officer holding a P-38 machine gun 'covered him' and greeted him with the English words 'For you the war is over'.



POW

Connections

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Units served with

Official insignia of the 306th Bomb Group, approved 6 January 1943, and updated 2 October 1951.
  • Unit Hierarchy: Group
  • Air Force: Eighth Air Force
  • Type Category: Bombardment

Aircraft

Damyankee
  • Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
  • Nicknames: Damyankee
  • Unit: 306th Bomb Group

Events

Event Location Date Description

Other

Prisoner of War (POW)

8 August 1944 - 24 July 1945

Born

Revisions

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Contributorjmoore43
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Capitalized the words in the "Role/job" field to aid readability.

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Contributorjmoore43
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Removed redundant data from Role field.

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Contributorjmoore43
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Updated POW event per WW2 POW records at the National Archives (NARA).

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Contributorjmoore43
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Added a "-" to the A/C serial number in the "Summary biography" to aid clarity & consistency.

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ContributorAAM
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Sources

306th BG Association Directory, 1 September 1999 Edition    MACR 8434; Combat Crews page 117. / Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / MACR 8434 / Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database