Bernard Thomas Holmes
Military ROLL OF HONOURAssigned to 731st BS, 452BG, 8AF USAAF. 9 x combat missions. Continuous attacks by fighters on the return from a mission to Erkner, Berlin on 8-Mar-44, forced B-17G 42-31354 to make a forced landing SE of Magdeburg. Killed in Action (KIA).
S/Sgt Holmes last communication with the crew was that he had downed a Fw190, but it had got him. A crew member tried to extract him from the ball turret before the forced landing, but he was dead from multiple 20mm cannon shells.
Awards: PH.
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
People
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 452nd Bomb Group 731st Bomb Squadron
- Service Numbers: 36107992 / O-747352
- Highest Rank: Captain
- Role/Job: Pilot
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: Lounge Lizard, Dixie Jane
- Unit: 385th Bomb Group 452nd Bomb Group 731st Bomb Squadron
Missions
![A bomber crew of the 381st Bomb Group return to base after a mission in their B-17 Flying Fortress (serial number 42-31761) nicknamed "Rotherhithe's Revenge". Image stamped on reverse: 'Sunday Pictorial for Censor.' [stamp], 'Passed for publication 10 Mar 1944.' [stamp] and '310673.' [Censor no.] Printed caption on reverse: 'BACK FROM BERLIN. Scenes this week at a Bomber station of the U.S. Air Force , somewhere in England. The crew of the Flying Fortress "Rotherhithe's Revenge", a British subscribed ship](https://assets.americanairmuseum.com/s3fs-public/styles/teaser_thumb_x2/public/freeman/media-380068.jpg.webp?itok=3h76SN3N)
- Date: 8 March 1944
Places
- Site type: Airfield
Events
| Event | Location | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Born |
Opheim, MT | 15 November 1917 | Son of Signe B and Tillie L Holmes. |
| Opheim, MT | 16 October 1940 | Draft registration. NoK mother Tillie Holmes. Employed by O. A. Bick, Opheim, Valley County, Montana 5' 9'' tall, 155lb brown hair, blue eyes. | |
|
Enlisted |
Missoula, MT | 2 January 1942 | Missoula, Montana |
|
Died |
Madgeburg, Germany | 8 March 1944 | |
|
Buried |
Conrad Memorial Cemetery, Kalisell, MT | Re-Interred Conrad Memorial Cemetery Kalispell, Flathead County, MT | |
|
Based Killed in Action (KIA) |
Deopham Green | 8 March 1944 | Assigned to 731st BS, 452BG, 8AF USAAF. |
| Kalispell, N |
Revisions
https://www.fold3.com/image/37108837
https://www.fold3.com/image/637642992
https://www.fold3.com/image/319587148
https://www.fold3.com/image/310763222?rec=299374016
https://www.fold3.com/image/209358584?rec=209358616
https://www.fold3.com/record/84965368-bernhard-t-holmes
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17727762/bernhard-t_-holmes
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / MACR 3191 / MACR 3191, Losses of the 8th & 9th Air Forces / Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database