Wesley Marion Tibbetts

Military ROLL OF HONOUR
media-23696.jpeg UPL 23696 Capt. Wesley Marion Tibbetts

Ancestry.com

Object Number - UPL 23696 - Capt. Wesley Marion Tibbetts

Capt. Tibbetts was born in Montana but entered service at Chanute Field in Illinois as an aviation cadet. Upon completion of his training, he was assigned to the 338th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group flying a Republic P-43 Lancer. Upon arriving at Nuthampstead, England in October 1943, the unit transition to Lockheed's P-38 Lightning ( the 'Forked Tail Devil').



On February 24, 1944, he was flying his 51st mission escorting B-24 bombers that were carrying experimental "non-defusable" bombs when he disappeared. His wingman later stated that he could not remember if they were engaged by enemy aircraft or experienced flak. Luftwaffe records, however, state that the P-38 (42-67752) was shot down by Stabsfelwebel (Sergeant Major) Krausse of 4/JG 11 on this date.



In a letter to Tibbetts' aunt in 1949, a German priest named Heber Kosak stated that he watched an American aircraft get cut-off by a German fighter. In the chase that followed, he said that the P-38 lost its tail rudder, a propeller, and then crashed on a farm near Sondra. Munitions on the plane exploded, and the aircraft took 2 days to completely burn.

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Units served with

Aircraft

  • Aircraft Type: P-38 Lightning
  • Unit: 55th Fighter Group 338th Fighter Squadron

Places

Events

Event Location Date Description

Other

Killed in action

24 February 1944 Crashed into the River Rhine on a bomber escort mission to Gotha, GR on 24 Feb 1944 in P-38J 42-67752.

Revisions

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Contributorjmoore43
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Sources

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

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Sources

Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia ;
MACR 2682;
Losses of the 8th & 9th Air Forces;
Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces;
, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database;
Ted Damick, VIII Fighter Command pilots list

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Contributormillebr
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Sources

spell check

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Contributormillebr
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Sources

Fold3.com; TogetherWeServed.com; U.S. Roster of World War II Dead; Ancestry.com

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