Lt. Walter Erness was the bombardier of his a B-24D Liberator, Ambrose II, #41-23909, detached (TDY) to the 9th Air Force based in North Africa, when his plane took a hit to one of the gas lines, on a mission to Bizerte, Tunisia. Pilot Lt. John "Packy" Roche made a dead stick landing in the desert, stranding them in the Algerian desert. The crew spent a long night protecting their plane from Algerian natives with their side arms.



Lt. Walter Erness, on the, Ambrose II, was killed in action (KIA) on 13 Dec 43, 1942, when, Ambrose II, was attacked by FW-190s just after they had dropped their bomb load on the docks and harbor at Bizerte, Tunisia. One of the plane’s gas lines was hit by the fighters' guns rounds, as were several of the crew. According to accounts from the surviving crew, Pilot "Packy" Roche gave the crew the option, to bail out because of the wounded, or he would try to bring the ship in for a wheels up landing. The crew elected to stay on board. Roche was able to get the plane back as far as Bône Art, Algeria, before all of the engines quit out of fuel. He was able to make a dead stick landing in a field. The plane hit a gulley in the middle of the field, reared up on its nose when the nose wheel snapped, and broke its back. The pilots, Lt. Roche, Walter R. Erness, Lt. Estell A. Martin, and Sgt. Henry M. Elder were part of, Ambrose II's, crew. Three crewmen were reported killed (KIA). The Algerian natives came out that night and would have stripped the plane of its parts, but Lt. Roche and seven living crewmen kept them at bay with their pistols. It was a bad night for the survivors guarding their dead and the wreckage.” Aircraft Failed to Return (FTR). 3 KIA. 12/13/42.



The dead were buried at the El Elia Cemetery at Algiers, Algeria. After the war, the body of 2Lt. Erness, 1941, was repatriated to his hometown in the United States. He rests in peace at Riverside Cemetery, Section S, Vet. Plot, Grave 123, Rochester, New York.