Lt. David P. Dunmire, from Niagara Falls, NY, flew with the 368th Fighter Squadron, 359th Fighter Group, from October 1944 through 22 February 1945 when he was KIA on his 30th combat mission. The Lieutenant is buried in the Ardennes American Cemetery.



On February 22nd [1945] Capt. George A, Doersch our new operations officer, led the squadron, furnishing support to the 2nd Force, 1st Air Division, hitting targets at Perleberg. In vicinity North of Gardelegen, 6 Me 262s (Jetties) attacked the bomber formation and shot down a B-17. We tried to engage them but they turned away and quickly out distanced us. We were unable to observe bombing results due to poor visibility. After breaking off escort, strafing attacks were made on ground targets in N/W Germany. Lt. David P. Dunmire failed to return from this mission, his ship had been hit by flak on the route in and he was attempting to get back to friendly territory before bailing out. An eye witness account of this action follows in a statement by Lt. James W. McCormack, who was acting as escort to Lt. Dunmire.



"On the mission of February 22nd, Lt. Dunmire was flying No. 3, and I was flying No. 4, in 368th white flight. A little past the Zuider Zee, Lt. Dunmire called and said that his engine was cutting out and that he wanted to return to base. He took me with him and after we dropped down to about 10,000 feet he said his engine was alright and for us to join up again with the squadron, which we did. After we had just joined up. Lt. Dunmire saw a loco downstairs and signalled for me to follow him and we went down and strafed the loco. After pulling up and flying a few minutes we stumbled on to an airfield, where they hit us with everything they had. Lt. Dunmire’s right wing was shot badly and so was his tail surfaces. Also a big hole was in the left wing next to the cockpit. He also believed that he was hit in the engine. He asked me to climb up and get a fix as he couldn’t gain altitude. I did and in the process of going up to 20,000 feet, I lost sight of him. We had radio contact and I told him to fly a heading while I got a fix. “Roselee” fixed me and gave me a steer to friendly territory. I relayed this to Lt. Dunmire and he flew it. This heading took him across Dusseldorf where he was hit once more with flak. All this time he didn’t have but 500 feet of altitude or thereabouts. The last I heard from him was after he crossed the Rheine and was about ten minutes flying from friendly territory. He said that he was hit in the coolant and that there was smoke in the cockpit.”