John Bermingham was born on March 25th, 1917, to Loyd and Elizabeth Bermingham. He would become the second child out of four brothers and one sister, one of which, Ensign Francis Charles Bermingham, would be killed November 21st, 1943, while flying in the South Pacific. He would meet his wife, Mary, in their native Butte, and would be married sometime in 1941. Sometime after that he would be called for military service, and following his training he would receive his orders overseas, joining the 92nd Bomb Group's 407th Bomb Squadron, flying the B-17. The 92nd initially flew B-17Fs in combat operations, starting in September of 1942. At some point before August 25th of 1944, Lt. Bermingham would fly at least 15 missions, and up to 18, presumably all in 1944.



On August 25th, the 407th BS dispatched six B-17s to attack, along with 12 other bomb groups, the experimental station at Peenemunde. Unit records indicate that photographic evidence is "inadequate", but that "some I.B.'s can be seen bursting on the roof of our assigned target". On this day, now 1st Lt. Bermingham was flying as the Bombardier in B-17 42-97985, the only B-17 of the 407th to go down during the mission.



The Missing Air Crew Report (#8277) states that the plane took a hit to the nose section of the aircraft and descended to 10,000 feet in a flat spin. The Co-Pilot, Flight Officer Joel W. Anderson, reported in a statement that the pilot gave the visual signal to bail out. F/O Anderson moved to the escape hatch to retrieve a parachute, and then moved back to the nose to assist the pilot, 1st Lt. Lloyd J. Triche. He reported that the nose of the aircraft was too hot to further move into due to a fire. He also reported seeing no movement from the area occupied by 1st Lt. Bermingham, or 2nd Lt. William H. Cutter, the Navigator. Moving back to the escape hatch, he noticed that the Flight Engineer/Top Turret Gunner, Sgt. Leland Schlobohm, was slumped over. He had difficulty bailing out due to the spin the aircraft was in at that time. He landed in a cove and walked to shore, where he was immediately captured. He was then informed that nobody else had bailed out, and the aircraft was pointed out to him, "where it was burning in shallow water" approximately two miles off the German mainland. F/O Anderson surmises that the order was not received by the rest of the crew in the middle and rear sections of the B-17 due to the interplane communications being damaged by the nose hit.



It is assumed by the author of this article that 1st Lt. Bermingham was killed when the aircraft received the hit to the nose area. Along with his wife, he left behind an infant son.