Claude H Bogert
Military ROLL OF HONOURObtained photos of F/O Claude H. Bogert from next of kin, 3/2023
Shot down 20 January 1945 in AC #44-6601. Killed in Action (KIA).
MACR 11796:- T/O Deopham Green on mission to M/Y at Rheine, Germany. Flak over the target had damaged No. 2 engine, its prop could not be feathered. Flak fragments had also cut the hydraulic lines, so fluid was leaking. The B-17 fell out of the formation and flew home alone, loosing altitude. When a fire started in the cockpit the pilot gave the bale-out order, but immediately there was a terrific explosion which must have blown off part of the cockpit. The a/c plummeted down out of control and crashed in meadows north of the village Midwoud in Holland, about 28 miles north of Amsterdam. Parts of the B-17 and bodies were widely scattered.
Two chutes were seen from the ground, one of them became entangled in the tail section. Lt Belton survived because he must have been blown out in the explosion, he could not recall that he pulled the ripcord. Men of the Dutch Resistance took care of him. Lt Belton could not believe that the rest of the crew perished. Dutchmen guided him through the frozen fields to the church at Midwoud where the bodies of the crew were lying in state, this happened during the night of 20/21 January 1945. He paid his respects full of emotions.
In March the Resistance transferred him via Amsterdam to the Biesbosch, a marshy area with hundreds of small waterways south of Rotterdam and rowed him in a boat to the Allied lines.
8 KIA I EVD. Note:- All casualties were buried in the General Cemetery, Midwoud. They were reinterred in Netherlands Cemetery on 21 January 1946, Plots BBB-8-190 to BBB-8-193 (BTG, E, WG and TG respectively), BBB-8-181 (CP), BBB-8-183 (N). BBB-8-184 (B) and BBB-8-171 (RO). Five remain in Netherlands Cemetery, Plots 1-17-8 (CP), H-14-2 (RO), H-8-18 (E), H-12-6 (BTG) and H-8-19 (TG). Three were returned to Illinois (N), Camp Douglas City Cemetery, Camp Douglas, Wisconsin on 18 May 1949 (B) and Plot J-886, Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, Elmwood Cemetery and Mausoleum, Rive Grove, California (WG).
Connections
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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
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: Lucky lady
- Unit: 452nd Bomb Group 728th Bomb Squadron
Events
Event | Location | Date | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Died |
Crash site of B-17G #44-6601, Lucky Lady | 20 January 1945 | |
Born |
Wausau, Wisconsin, USA | ||
Other Killed in Action (KIA) |
Hollland | 20 January 1945 |
Revisions
Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces - Vol. 6: ETO-Area 1st January 1945 - 31st March 1945.
1999 Unit Roster, MACR 11796 / Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / MACR 11796 / Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database