|
|
Delbert W. Trueman
721st Squadron
Photographs courtesy of Kim Clarke, granddaughter of Cpl. Delbert W. Trueman, 721st
Squadron
Delbert W. Trueman was born in Danville, Ill., on Valentine's Day, 1917.
He grew up in Marion, Ind., the oldest of Paul and Nellie Trueman's four
children.
He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in December 1943, six months after his
younger brother was killed in a B-24 training flight in Salinas, California.
Second Lt. Dale J. Trueman, who was 24 when he died, was a pilot with the 34th
Bomb Group, 4th Bomb Squadron.
Delbert Trueman underwent basic training in Greensboro, N.C., with the Army Air
Forces 302nd Wing, 1179th Training Group.
He then went to Flexible Gunnery School at Harlingen Army Air Field in Texas.
After receiving his
wings in May 1944, he shipped to Westover Field in Massachusetts, where he
met his crewmates for the first time and was named the assistant radio
operator.
The pilot of his crew was Lt. Lloyd White.
Other crew members were:
Co-pilot, Richard Kitzman
Bombardier, 2nd Lt. Byron Fish
Engineer Cpl. Lloyd E. Greene
Assistant engineer Cpl. Robert W. Warner
Radio operator Cpl. Thaddeus Guzan
Armorer/gunner Cpl. Charlie Ward
Assistant armorer/gunner Cpl. Charles S. Kleinhenz
The navigator was a second lieutenant by the name of Fredericks.
The crew spent the summer of 1944 training at Chatham Field in Savannah,
Georgia. They departed for Europe in mid-September 1944 and, after a series of
stops in northern Africa, settled in at the 450th Bomb Group headquarters in
Manduria,
Italy, in early October. They were members of the 721st Squadron.
Delbert was assigned to fly his first combat mission on Oct. 17, 1944.
Given that he and other members of
Crew 272
were a "green" replacement crew,
they were split up and assigned to fly their first few missions with more
seasoned crews.
Trueman and Kleinhenz were set to fly in B-24J #42-51566 with 1st Lt. Leonard
Mojica, pilot, and 2nd Lt. Marvin G. Niederjohn, co-pilot.
Trueman would be the tailgunner.
The day's target was the Vienna Saurerwerke. Planes of the 721st Bomb
Squadron left Manduria at 8:15 a.m. and reached Vienna shortly after noon.
After successfully dropping its bombs, ship 42-51566 was hit in the right
wing by flak and went into a flat spin east of Vienna. The aircraft
crashed
near Leopoldsdorf.
Four men were able to jump from the burning aircraft before its crash
landing.
T/Sgt. Joseph J. Marallo, T/Sgt. Robert A. Davis, S/Sgt. Richard
L. Conkle and Cpl. Richard J. Pinardi all parachuted to the ground, where
they were captured and made prisoners of war.
Killed in the crash were 2nd Lt. George E. Webb,
S/Sgt. Elvin R. Killingsworth
, Mojica, Niederjohn, Kleinhenz and Trueman.
The German Army buried the airmen's bodies in the Vienna Central Cemetery, where they remained
until the end of the war and the liberation of Vienna.
U.S. troops disinterred the bodies of the dead airmen in August 1946 and moved them to a U.S. military cemetery in St.
Avold, France.
Cpl. Delbert Trueman's body was then moved from St. Avold to Marion, Ind.,
for permanent burial in Grant Memorial Park.
He is buried next to his
brother, Dale.
|
If any information is being used out of context or if you would like to use some of this information, please contact the Webmasters
Terms of Use and Disclaimer Statement
Copyright © 2001 - 2008, Mark Worthington, Craig Linn & the 450th Association
|
