Wednesday, July 26, 1944. The Merriam Bomber Crash of 1944

Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, July 26, 1944. Cobra advances.: 

The Merriam Bomber Crash of 1944

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, June 17, 1944. A stateside tragedy.

Lex Anteinternet: Saturday, June 17, 1944. A stateside tragedy.: 

Saturday, June 17, 1944. A stateside tragedy.

B-24J 42-100023 piloted by 2nd. Lt. Richard Zorn of Connecticut crashed on top of Casper Mountain, south of Casper, Wyoming, at about midnight, killing all on board.

Some Gave All: The Crew of the B-17F, "The Casper Kid".

Some Gave All: The Crew of the B-17F, "The Casper Kid".:   

The Crew of the B-17F, "The Casper Kid".

 

This is a new memorial in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, dedicated to the crew of the "Casper Kid", a B-17F that went down in what would have been an incredibly remote lonely spot on February 25, 1943.

In recent years, there's been a dedicated effort in Central Wyoming to memorialize the crews who did in aviation accidents during the Second World War. This is the second such memorial I'm aware of (there may be more) which is dedicated to the crew of an airplane that was flying out of the Casper Air Base, which is now the Natrona County International Airport. Both accidents memorialized so far were winter accidents which resulted in the loss of an aircraft in remote country.

We don't tend to think of those lost in training accidents as war dead, but they were.  And there are a lot of them.