Joseph C Joyce Jr
Military ROLL OF HONOUR
Fighter Pilot
404th FG - 506th FS - 9th AF
KIA - 9 May 1944
Photo is from his high school yearbook when he was about 17 years old.
Object Number - UPL 38092 - Joseph C. Joyce, Jr. Fighter Pilot 404th FG - 506th FS - 9th AF KIA - 9 May 1944 Photo is from his high school yearbook when he was about 17...
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Ninth Air Force
- Type Category: Fighter
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Ninth Air Force
- Type Category: Fighter
Places
- Site type: Airfield
Events
| Event | Location | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Born |
Stuart, Virginia | 3 April 1921 | |
|
Enlisted |
Charleston, West Virginia | 3 April 1942 | 5'11" 146 lbs |
|
Died |
Serquex, France | 9 May 1944 | All three squadrons were airborne, each with a separate site in the triangle Dieppe-Rouen-Neufchatel, 20 miles in from the Channel coast. The 507th and 508th Squadrons reported good hits in and around the "ski-sites" with 500-pound semi-armor piercing bombs, carried with delayed-action fuses to pierce the heavy concrete of the target buildings. But because of an error by the briefing officers in reading a geographical co-ordinate, the 506th searched in vain for its target 15 miles east of its true location, finally dive-bombing the railroad yard at Serqueux, 20 miles northeast of Rouen. Flak was intense over the yard, and Lieut. Joseph C. Joyce Jr., received heavy damage on his plane. According to Capt. Harold W. Freemantle, leading a flight behind Lieut. Joyce, the latter's plane began to lose altitude and throw black smoke. Capt. Freemantle kept his flight over the smoking plane until Lieut. Joyce announced that his engine had cut out completely and he was going to jump. At the interrogation everyone was confident that Joyce was safe; if not in the hands of the French, nothing worse than in a German "stalag luft". Three days later came a reassuring report from the 50th Fighter Group, flying fighter cover in the target area, that an opened parachute had been sighted. Eight months later a letter from higher headquarters, without details and in cold statistical language, announced a change in Lieut. Joyce's status from "Missing in Action" to "Killed in Action". |
|
Buried |
Plot D Row 8 Grave 39 Normandy American Cemetery Colleville-sur-Mer, France |
Revisions
Contributor466thHistorian
Changes
