Photos and
History of the 446th Bomb Squadron from Lt. John Fitzgerald
Provided by his son, John T. Fitzgerald
Left Image: "My favorite photo of Dad. We refer to it as 'Baby Face in a Flight Suit.'"
Right Image: John Fitzgerald's main plane - Lil Butch.
"My dad was in the 446th Bombardment Squadron.
1st Lt. John (NMI, No Middle Initial) Fitzgerald,
serial # 0-691179, arrived in MTO January 1944,
departed Late November, 1944, 60 combat missions.
He arrived in the 321st Bombardment Group while
they were stationed at Pompeii, Italy.
I was going through some of my dad’s travel orders, and ran across something
interesting. Before he got to Africa, most of dad’s flying time was on B-26s.
When he left the States, for the Mediterranean on December 29, 1943, he was in a flight
of 5 B-26s.
Dad’s ship was lead plane. B-26: 42-95880:
Pilot...........................Capt. Paul T. Cooper
Captain Cooper was Flight Leader, for the trip to Africa.
Co-Pilot........................1st Lt. John Fitzgerald (dad)
Bombardier......................2nd Lt. Jack D. Mayo
Radio...........................S/Sgt. Walter J. Miles
Engineer........................S/Sgt. Albert H. Clickner
Gunner..........................S/Sgt. Robert L. Sharen
But when they got to Algeria, the crews were trained on B-25s, and sent
to the 321st Bomb Group.
Captain Cooper and his crew along with my dad went to the 446th BS.
Cooper’s name is all over the 321st histories
and he ended up being the 446th Squadron Commander.
I don’t know where the B-26’s ended up, but all 5 crews
wound up on B-25’s in the 321st BG:
Crew of 42-95884 ended up in the 445th BS.
Crew of 42-95881 went to 447th BS.
Crew of 42-95937 went to 448th BS.
The crew of 42-95886 was split up amongst all 4 squadrons.
I also discovered that one of my uncles was a B-26 gunner stationed
on Corsica about the same time as my dad which probably accounts
for the pictures of him in my dad’s scrap book. Funny, I thought
I recognized him in the photos, but I didn’t make the connection."
This remarkable photo is of King George VI of England while visiting the MTO.
More Photos from pilot John Fitzgerald provided by his son, John T. Fitzgerald:
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