Frederick Osborn Lorimor

Assigned to 94TCS, 439TCG, 9AF USAAF. 7 x missions [Normandy 6, 7 June. 2 x missions August Toulon, France. Nimjwegen, Holland 16, 17, 18 Sept]. Failed to Return (FTR) glider tow mission to Groesbeck, Holland. Hit by flak, glider released, A/C put down in successful forced landing Schouwen Island, Holland. Came under fire from nearby bunker, hit by mortar explosion which ripped off his leg below the knee, subsequently fatally hit by rifle fire. Killed in Action (KIA).

18 September 1944 C-47 42-93098, 94th Troop Carrier Sqn, 439th Troop Carrier Group, USAAF.

Take off RAF Balderton on Mission Market Garden. Hit by Flak, losing an engine in the target area the glider was released. Turning back for base they realised they would not make it and attempted to land on the grass runway at Haamstede airbase. The landing gear was ripped off but the fuselage stayed intact. The crew came under small arms and mortar fire from German troops after leaving the aircraft.
Maj Joseph Beck DSC, DFC, AM, Croix de Guerre - POW Stalag Luft III. After the war worked for 19yrs in South America in Uruguay, Venezuela and Argentina for a series of companies including Coca Cola, US Steel Corp and H B Maynard Co. Returned to Pittsburgh in 1966, working for the K K Porter Company Inc., then joined Keystone Metal Company 1971, to manage its plant in Newark, N.J. Moved to Westfield, N.J. and finally retired from Keystone in 1985. Died 2008
Capt Fred Lorimor - From Fremont, Iowa, hit by a mortar shell that blew off his right leg below the knee, killed by rifle fire from German troops. Buried Burgh-Haamstede, reinterred at Farragut, Iowa in 1948.
Lt Vincent Paterno - POW Stalag Luft I. Died 1986
Sgt Vernon Gillespie - Wounded by small arms fire in the right side of torso. Initially hospitalised at Schouwen Island taken POW, Stalag XIB work camp53. Died 1994
T/Sgt Charles Patterson - From Malden, Missouri, wounded by small arms fire taken POW. Died 2003.

Attached Waco Glider released, coming down on sand dunes near Haamstede.
2nd Lt G Hall
Capt Arthur Kroos Jr - From Wisconsin. POW Stalag Luft I. CO 'B' Battery 80th AT/AA Battalion
Recon Sgt John Bonk - From Pennsylvania, POW Stalag Luft IIIC
Driver / RO Corp William Smurr - From Indiana, POW Stalag IIIB
The glider carried a jeep, two radios, 47 mm anti - tank ammunition and equipment of the crew. After a day of skirmishing with German troops of which they killed and captured several they were forced due to lack of supplies to surrender.

C-47 42-93098 had been the USAAF lead aircraft of the Normandy Invasion, dropping US
Pathfinders of the 101st Airborne Division at 00.06, 6/6/1944. Piloted by Lt Col Joel Crouch. 42- 93098 had also been used during the Salerno landings in 1943.