Russell Stuart Fredendall
Military
404th FG - 506th FS
KIA - 25 June 1944
Photo from his HS yearbook.
Object Number - UPL 38075 - 1LT Russell S. Fredendall 404th FG - 506th FS KIA - 25 June 1944 Photo from his HS yearbook.
Fredendall in the 507th - the friendliest, happiest, most good-natured boy in the squadron. He was a good pilot, too; before his promotion during the month, he was leading flights as a second lieutenant, with first lieutenants flying his wing. ("Freddie's got a pretty good dive-bombing flight; we'll put him on that pinpoint," the Major would say). He had a young wife, whom we all had seen at Myrtle Beach; we all knew her name was Joan because he had it painted in big letters on the side of his ship. On the cowling he had a new insignia designed by her: the words "Freddy-Hopper", with a happy grasshopper firing a machine-gun. We thought of her and "Freddy-Hopper" when they picked up his effects to send home - his footlocker, his uniforms, his wallet (filed away when he picked up his escape-kit), all his little odds and ends.
Connections
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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
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: P-47 Thunderbolt
- Nicknames: Joan - The Happy Hopper
- Unit: 404th Fighter Group 506th Fighter Squadron
Places
- Site type: Airfield
Events
| Event | Location | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Born |
Jamesville, Wisconsin | 1 February 1922 | |
|
Enlisted |
Chicago, Illinois | 9 July 1940 | |
|
Died |
Foret de Cinglais, France | 25 June 1944 | Shot down by flak over France flying P-47D 42-25893 The 507th Squadron arrived at the 25th of June with 57 missions and not a man lost. After the morning mission, the squadron intelligence officer started wading through the normal confusion of interrogation, extracting details from one pilot, then another; pinning down the facts that first; a huge supply depot south of Le Mans was left in flames; second: there was nothing moving on the roads between Le Mans and Tours; third: intense flak was received from the Foret de Cinglais, south of Caen. He reached First Lieutenant Buford "Steve" Courtney, checking on the location of the flak. "It was right here;" Steve pointed to the map. "I was following Freddie down when it came up around us and hit him." "Hit him? How bad - is he all right?" "He didn't come back." Courtney described what had happened: "We were coming back from Le Mans, when Freddie asked the Major if he could go down and get a truck he'd spotted in a town south of Caen. He got an okay, and dove down, with me on his wing. Then he lost the truck. 'I'm going to make another circle and come back over the town again.' He was down to 300 feet by this time, with me behind him at 1000 feet, and all these tracers were up at us. The Major called him, 'come back up out of that flak!' but Freddie kept cruising in a gradual turn. I saw hits on his cockpit, and followed him down as his ship hit in a field and exploded." |
|
Buried |
Oak Hill Cemetery, Janesville, Wisconsin | Oak Hill Cemetery Janesville, Rock County, Wisconsin, USA Plot block 311, lot 13, grave 8 |
