Francis John Witt Jr
MilitaryFamily collection of Joseph P. Lowry
Assigned to the 384th BG on Gowen Field (Boise, Idaho) Special Orders #70 dated 11-Mar-43, as crew pilot.
On 12-Jun-43, involved in an accident on a formation training flight in B-17 42-30131.
Shot down by flak and crashed NW of Amiens, FR on a mission to Berlin on 4-Mar-44 in B-17 42-31606. Evaded. Returned to England by 18-May-44. 11 x combat missions.
Escape and Evasion Report Number 647.
In 1992 an eye-witness report of the accident of 12-Jun-43 was recorded in the Daily Telegraph Supplement, "The Yanks" as follows:
“It was a mission like any other from Grafton Underwood and Bob Hawkes, working on the base below, looked up to count the B-17s as they got into formation.
Seconds later the carpenter rubbed his eyes in amazement as the tail plane from one of the Flying Fortresses came away from the body and fell to the ground.
“I couldn’t believe it,” recalled Bob, [aged 80 in 1992] and living in Station Road, Finedon, “It was customary practice to fire the guns as they went off on a mission and I assumed they had hit one of their own planes!
“I watched the tail come down rather like a giant leaf in the distance.”
It would seem likely that the accident Bob Hawkes witnessed was the mid-air collision between two newly arrived B-17s which were on a local formation training flight on 12-Jun-43. The account as recorded in Gibson’s Aviation – Northamptonshire is as follows:
“Grafton Underwood was not to stand empty again, for the first Fortresses of the 384th Bomb Group began to arrive on 25-May, as the 96th was leaving. A pattern repeated itself once more for the new Group, the bombers arrived before the ground echelon, one of the Fortresses failed to make the Atlantic crossing safely, and there was a crash during the period of waiting and familiarization.
The accident happened on the Saturday of the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend, when two fortresses approached the runway on converging tracks, each in the blind spot of the other, and collided. The tail section of one was destroyed, the crew of five having no chance to escape, though the other managed to land safely. Corporal Jerry Botero, recently arrived with the ground echelon, was walking near the scene of the crash. His brief description of the event still conveys his anguish:
‘The two B-17s were landing together. Neither pilot saw the other plane. One came down on the other, it chewed up the tail and they stuck together. The one without the tail fell nose down, the other shook off the tail section and landed. …’”
The aircraft that crashed was 42-30036 and the official account reads, “The pilot [2nd Lt Ellwood D Kowalski] executed a pull-up manoeuvre upon observing a red light from the control tower and struck 42-30131 [piloted by 2nd Lt Francis J Witt]. All five aboard were killed. The crew aboard Lt Witt’s aircraft were uninjured. 42-30036 was not following an established flight pattern.”
The aircraft were assigned to Grafton Underwood on 1-Jun-43 and the accident report states that the tail plane was chewed off over the base during a training operation."
Lt Witt remained in the USAAF and flew in the Berlin Airlift for approximately six months. Later to become Lt Colonel Francis Witt, he retired from active service in 1956 having served in both the Korean and Vietnam conflicts and continued giving lectures until 1964.
Connections
See how this entry relates to other items in the archive by exploring the connections below.
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: 384th Bomb Group 547th Bomb Squadron
- Service Numbers: T-120976 / O-2044841
- Highest Rank: Captain
- Role/Job: Co-Pilot
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 384th Bomb Group 545th Bomb Squadron
- Service Numbers: 16059532 / O-731364
- Highest Rank: Second Lieutenant
- Role/Job: Bombardier
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 384th Bomb Group 547th Bomb Squadron
- Service Numbers: 12013980
- Highest Rank: Staff Sergeant
- Role/Job: Tail Gunner / Non-flying duty
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 384th Bomb Group 547th Bomb Squadron
- Service Numbers: O-670732
- Highest Rank: First Lieutenant
- Role/Job: Navigator
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 384th Bomb Group 547th Bomb Squadron
- Highest Rank: Staff Sergeant
- Role/Job: Ball Turret Gunner
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: What's Cookin' Doc
- Unit: 384th Bomb Group 547th Bomb Squadron 305th Bomb Group 422nd Bomb Squadron
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: Little Audrey
- Unit: 306th Bomb Group 384th Bomb Group Base Air Depot 1 368th Bomb Squadron 544th Bomb Squadron
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Unit: 384th Bomb Group 547th Bomb Squadron 305th Bomb Group 366th Bomb Squadron
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: Battle Wagon
- Unit: 381st Bomb Group 384th Bomb Group 546th Bomb Squadron
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Unit: No 1 Combat Crew Replacement Center 384th Bomb Group 547th Bomb Squadron
Missions
- Date: 4 March 1944
- Date: 3 March 1944
- Date: 2 March 1944
- Date: 25 February 1944
- Date: 22 February 1944
Places
- Site type: Cemetery
- Site type: Airfield
- Known as: Grafton Undermud
Events
Event | Location | Date | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Born |
Youngstown, Ohio | 15 November 1920 | Son of Francis J Sr and Helen Witt. |
Enlisted |
Fort Hayes, Columbus, OH | 29 October 1941 | Fort Hayes, Columbus, Ohio |
Other Evaded |
Amiens, France | 4 March 1944 - 18 May 1944 | |
Other Discharged USAF |
15 November 1980 | Honourable discharge. | |
Died |
Decatur, GA | 22 April 2002 | |
Buried |
Arlington National Cemetery | 23 May 2002 | Arlington National Cemetery Arlington, Virginia Section 68 Site 1935 |
Revisions
https://www.fold3.com/image/135608402
https://www.fold3.com/record/34415024/francis-j-witt-social-security-de…
https://www.fold3.com/record/84165659/francis-j-witt-jr-wwii-army-enlis…
https://www.fold3.com/record/711853193/witt-francis-j-us-veterans-grave…
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49367751/francis-j-witt
Addition of birth, death, and burial information from Francis J. Witt entry in U.S., Veterans' Gravesites, ca.1775-2019, on Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/3416333:8750
Added a "-" to the A/C type in the "Summary biography" to aid clarity & consistency.
Daily Telegraph Supplement - The Yanks
Gibson's Aviation -Northamptonshire
Crew 18 - 2nd Lt Francis J Witt
Merged with duplicate entries to include details from:
http://384thbombgroup.com/_content/_pages/person.php?PersonKey=4742;
Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database;
MACR 2739
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / MACR 2739; Mighty Eighth Air Force Heritage Museum Membership List, July 2000, Losses of the 8th & 9th Air Forces, Losses of the 8th & 9th AFs Vol. I by Bishop & Hey p. 147, http://384thbombgroup.com/_content/_pages/PersonnelSearch.php?LastName=…