From Princeton, KY, Lt. Clifton Enoch Jr. flew with the 368th Fighter Squadron, 359th Fighter Group, from 15 February 1945 until 19 March 1945, when he was KIA. The Lieutenant is remembered on the Wall of the Missing in the Henri-Chapelle Cemetery.



On March 19th we furnished support for the 1st Force, 3rd Air Division hitting targets at Halle. Major Cranfill leading. Over the target 13 to 15 Me 262s flying in flights of 2 to 4 aircraft attacked an unidentified formation of bombers. Three of our flights engaged these enemy aircraft but the jets evaded by their superior speed. Major Cranfill engaged two of these Me 262s and succeeded in destroying one of them and damaging the other. While making the attack on these enemy aircraft Major Cranfill’s wingman 2nd Lt. Clifton Enoch Jr., was last seen to crash at 1415 hours in the vicinity of Halle. Major Cranfill gives the following account of this incident:



“On 19 March, 1945, I was leading white flight on an area support mission to Halle. 2nd Lt. Clifton Enoch was flying my wing. He was flying about 500 yards behind me and a little to the left, when we engaged an enemy aircraft. As the enemy aircraft went into a dive to the left I pulled up at 5,000 feet to watch him crash. Immediately after the enemy aircraft crashed I saw another explosion about a quarter of a mile away. I looked around for Lt. Enoch but could not see him, nor could I get an answer on the radio. I can only assume that Lt. Enoch was so absorbed in watching the enemy aircraft that he did not realize how low he was until it was too late to pull up. I did not actually see his airplane in a dive previous to seeing the explosion. The time was between 1410 and 1415, and the vicinity East of Leipzig, Germany.”





Feb. -March 19, 1945, Pilot on P51D Mustang. Crashed east of Leipzig after failing to pull out of a dive. Killed in Action (KIA). Memorialized on Tablets of the Missing, at Henri-Chapelle Cemetery, Henri-Chapelle, Belgium. After 63 years, Lt. Enoch's body has been recovered from the crash site in East Germany and is being returned to his son, Howard Enoch III, who was born 3 months after his father's death. The US Government's Research and Recovery Team is still at work trying to find all WW II remains. See article on story in 359th FG file in Library Reference Drawer. His remains have finally been identified and Lt. Enoch will be buried on 22 Spet 2008 at Arlington. Plane name was 'Happy'



Air Medal, Purple Heart