Eugene Scott Bush
MilitaryRemoved association not depicted in image. Associated person.
Eugene Scott Bush was the second son and youngest child of Kansas farmers, Robert T Bush and Ola M (Osborn) Bush. He enlisted in the US Army Air Corps on 04 Aug 1943.
Eugene served as the Tail Gunner on the B-17G, #446140 'Miss Lace,' on 30 Nov 1944 when it encountered heavy flak over the target, the Brabag Synthetic Oil Plant just northeast of Zeitz, Germany. After a near explosion of flak, the plane lost its right wing and entered a vertical spiral while ablaze. Bush escaped the burning plane, deployed his parachute, and floated down to the ground.
From his vantage point suspended beneath an open chute, Eugene was the nearest of two witnesses to view the demise of his plane. He testified to the events that he witnessed after he was released from a German POW camp in 1945. He stated that about three minutes after the bomb drop over the mission's target, the plane was hit, went into a spin, and he jumped. Once he got his bearings, he saw that his plane was ablaze and in a dive. Small pieces of debris were braking away from the plane and raining down upon him. The plane's tail and waist broke away from the fuselage as a unit, but he noted no other parachutes in the sky.
Upon reaching solid ground, he set out across country in an attempt to evade capture. He made it to within 59 miles of the Czech border when he was picked up at the Altenburg Rail Station in Altenburg, Thurindia, Germany. Held as a Prisoner of War, he was returned to the States and discharged from the US Army Air Corps on 07 Nov 1945.
After the War, Eugene graduated from Kansas State College of Agricultural and Applied Sciences in Manhattan, KS, married, and established a family.
Sole survivor of the crash of the B-17G "Miss Lace." German POW -- Survivor
Connections
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Units served with
People
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 379th Bomb Group 527th Bomb Squadron
- Service Numbers: O-822790
- Highest Rank: Lieutenant
- Role/Job: Pilot
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 379th Bomb Group 527th Bomb Squadron
- Service Numbers: 33758785
- Highest Rank: Staff Sergeant
- Role/Job: Waist Gunner
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 379th Bomb Group 527th Bomb Squadron
- Service Numbers: O-772108
- Highest Rank: Second Lieutenant
- Role/Job: Bombardier
Aircraft
Events
Event | Location | Date | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Born |
Douglas, Kansas, USA | 26 March 1925 | |
Died |
Wichita, KS, USA | 16 May 1991 | |
Other Prisoner of War (POW) |
Germany | 30 November 1944 | Captured at the Altenburg Rail Station, Altenburg, Thuringia, Germany. Survived the War. |
Revisions
General Order 582 from Headquarters 1st Bombardment Division, Office of the Commanding General, by Command of Brigadier General Turner, dated 4 December 1944.
Missing Air Crew Report #11126; German "Report of Downed Enemy Aircraft -- KU 3401;" ancestry.com research of Janine Hunter, Reagan, TN.
Missing Aircrew Report #11126; ancestry.com research of Janine Hunter, Reagan, TN; US Department of Veterans Affairs BIRL Death File for Eugene Bush; US Social Security Death Index; Kansas State College Yearbook, Manhattan, KS, 1947.
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / MACR 11126 / MACR 11126; 379th Bombardment Group Anthology, pg 326 / Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database