George Islwyn Stanford Jr | American Air Museum in Britain

1st Lt. George I. Stanford of the 335th Fighter Squadron with his Crew Chief S/Sgt Joe M Keefhaver.

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Assigned to 335FS, 4FG, 8AF USAAF. On bomber escort to Budapest, shot down in the Budapest area after squadron engaged by 20+ Bf109’s. Lt Stanford Jr POW. 2-Jul-44. MACR 6799.

Awards: AM, DFC, POW, WWII Victory, EAME.

Service

People

Joe Keefhaver

Military | Staff Sergeant | Crew chief | 4th Fighter Group
Assigned to 335FS, 4FG, 8AF USAAF. Awards: AM, Bronze Star, WWII Victory, EAME(6 battle satrs), Good Conduct.

Units served with

4th Fighter Group

Group
Some of the pilots of the 4th Fighter Group had seen many hours of combat by the time they joined the 4th Fighter Group as they had volunteered with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Air Force. The three 'Eagle Squadrons' of RAF Fighter...
335th Fighter Squadron

Squadron
The 335th Fighter Squadron was the offspring of No. 121 (Eagle) Squadron RAF. Formed on 21 May 1941, No. 121 was the second of the three Eagle Squadrons composed of American volunteers flying out of England. They were known as the "Chiefs" and were...

Aircraft

42-106786

P-51 Mustang
Assigned to 335FS, 4FG, 8AF USAAF. Shot down, whilst strafing a train, when section bounced by mixed group of Bf109 and Fw190's Le Neubourg, France. Pilot Lt Harold L Ross Jr KIA. 6-Jun-44. MACR 5612.
43-7032

P-51 Mustang
Assigned to 335FS, 4FG, 8AF USAAF. Failed to Return (FTR), lost contact with section in climbing turn in cloud, aircraft crashed Onkerzele, Belgium. German records indicate aircraft had been struck by lightning. Pilot Lt Killed in Action KIA. MACR 5669.
44-13402

P-51 Mustang
Assigned to 335FS, 4FG, 8AF USAAF. On bomber escort to Budapest, shot down in the Budapest area after squadron engaged by 20+ Bf109’s. Pilot Lt George I Stanford Jr POW. 2-Jul-44. MACR 6799.

Missions

428

21 June 1944
Ruhland, Germany - The target, south of Berlin, bombed by 114 fortresses with an escort of 70 Mustangs went off as planned but not before the Germans destroyed 43 B-17's and damaged 26. Landed in Russia.

Associated Place

Debden

Military site : airfield
RAF Debden, construction of which began in 1935, is perhaps most famous as a Battle of Britain fighter airfield, partly responsible for the defence of London in 1940. In 1942 it was also home to three RAF 'Eagle Squadrons’ of volunteer American pilots...

Events

Event	Location	Date
Born	Miford, CT	12 December 1916
Son of George Islwyn Sr and Grace Adelia [Merwin] Stanford.
Lived in	Southport, Fairfield, CT 06890, USA	1940
Enlisted		29 November 1942
Assigned	Debden, Saffron Walden, Essex CB11, UK	25 March 1944 – 2 July 1944
Assigned to 335FS, 4FG, 8AF USAAF.
Promotion	Debden, Saffron Walden, Essex CB11, UK	17 June 1944
Promoted to Captain.
Prisoner of War (POW)	Zagan, Poland	2 July 1944 – May 1945
Captain Sanford was unable to release his drop tanks which he suspected that after an argument with his crew chief he had done something to prevent him from dropping them. Instead of aborting he attempted to keep up and threw a rod on his new P-51D. He put his plane into a spin to keep enemy fighters off of him and in addition his wingman Kidd Hofer followed him down. He landed in a cornfield by Csobankai road near Pilisvorosvar. There is a picture of his airplane in the field still smoking. A Hungarian Pilot was given credit, however a Hungarian researcher claimed the if there was an allied aircraft down in Hungary they would claim it as in this claim. He became a POW MACR 6799
Discharged USAAF		17 November 1945
Honourable discharge.
Died	Santa Barbara, CA, USA	10 September 1991
Buried	Milford Cemetery Milford New Haven County CT	13 September 1991
Milford Cemetery Milford New Haven County Connecticut, USA.

Date	Contributor	Update
16 March 2021 20:20:08	Al_Skiff	Changes to middlename, biography, events and unit associations
Sources
https://www.fold3.com/image/606928402 https://www.fold3.com/record/629466798/george-stanford-1916-veterans-aff... https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/76301117/george-i-stanford
Date	Contributor	Update
05 October 2018 03:53:01	N625CC	Changes to events
Sources
Kidd Hofer: The last of the Screwball Aces by Troy L. White, Debden Warbirds: Chuck Knowler
Date	Contributor	Update
18 October 2017 11:08:50	general ira snapsorter	Changes to person associations
Sources
Merged with duplicate entry to include details from: - Personal research & 'The Debden Warbirds' by Frank Speer. (user : apollo11); - the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia ; - MACR 6799; - Losses of the Eighth and Ninth Air Forces Vol. IV by Bishop & Hey, p. 24 / Ted Damick, VIII Fighter Command pilots list
Date	Contributor	Update
04 May 2016 21:01:09	Al_Skiff	Changes to surname, middlename, suffix, service number, biography, awards, events, unit associations, place associations, aircraft associations and mission associations
Sources
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=STANFORD&GSfn=Geor... https://www.fold3.com/page/4598162_george_i%20stanford/details/
Date	Contributor	Update
27 September 2014 18:10:58	AAM	AAM ingest
Sources
MACR 6799 / Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database