If you could meet one WWII KIA....

Hey guys,

I was asking myself this question earlier today. If you could meet one person from WWII that was killed in action, who would it be?

I'd have liked to meet Art Donahue, American pilot for the RAF who served in the Battle of Britain and North Africa out of Malta and refused to join the Eagle Squadron. He was an ace with an interesting personality.

And while we're on the topic, are there any veterans you'd like to meet or wished you could have met before they passed on?

I'll shoot the moon on this one - I would liked to have met Peter Townsend, Stanford Tuck, Hugh Dowding, and Winston Churchill.

That's easy for me . . . Glenn Miller.

For me, it would have to be Emmanuel B.'Manny' Klette, C.O. of the 324th BS, 91st BG, who flew 90 missions-more than any other flier in the 8thAAF.

IJN Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. I think he'd be most instructive to converse with...

I'll have to go with Richard Bong, even though he was not KIA, he was killed in the line of duty testing early jets. Highest scoring American ace and a Wisconsin boy.

I'd love to meet Richard Winters, commander of Easy company--not a KIA and still very much alive, but he was the first that came to mind. Strikes me, from what I've read, he was a very down to earth guy with a great sense of right and wrong and how to lead men. My kind of guy.

And, while rumor has it he was a bit of a 'character', shall we say, and while not technically a KIA, I'd love to meet George Patton. He's one of my personal heros, a man I respect greatly.

Regards,

Craig

Dudley "Mush" Morton, commanding officer of the submarine USS Wahoo. One of the best sub skippers of the war. Overdue and presumed lost, in the Sea of Japan, in 1943.

Orde Charles Wingate
Major General, British Army

Seems to my mind, the very archetype of the eccentric, brilliant british Officer/ Soldier

(Following stolen from the Arlington Cemetary site)

With a background in exploration, guerilla fighting in Palestine and intelligence operations. He was sent by General Wavell (commanding in the Middle East) to Sudan in 1940 to help the Ethiopian nationalists and direct their revolt against the Italians. As the unrelenting leader of Gideon Force, he made use of bluff, maneuver and unorthodox tactics. Following the liberation of Ethopia, he was seriously ill and made an attempt at suicide, but after a convalescence he was called to India by Wavell, who appreciated his unconventional approaches.

For Burma, he proposed Long Range Penetration Groups to conduct guerilla operations behind the Japanese lines. A five-month test of this Chindit Concept in 1943 earned him a second bar to his Distinguished Service Order, though his losses in men and equipment were high. Churchill, ever delighted by imaginative fighters, took Wingate with him to the Quebec Conference in 1943. Although some opposed the idea, he went back to India with authorization to conduct long-range offensives under Lord Mountbatten, the Supreme Commander in Southeast Asia, as part of a campaign to recapture Burma.

In February 1944, his Chindits were dropped deep in Burma, but Wingate himself was killed in an aircrash in India in March. He was a controversial figure, an intense, mercurial man who loved to innovate and lead but who resented higher authority. He held a deep religious conviction that he was an instrument of a greater power, and he seemed infused with a mythical, almost fanatical quality. General Sir William Slim, who knew him both in Africa and in India, described him as "strange, excitable, moody creature, but he had a fire in him. He coul ignite other men."

He was one of nine men who died in the crash of a U.S. Army Air Corps transport plane in India on March 25, 1944. They were originally buried in India, but moved to a common grave in Section 12 of Arlington National Cemetery on November 10, 1950.

The KIA members of Easy Co, 506th, 101st!

I'll second Glenn Miller, my dad played with him in England.

I would like to meet Caporal Emile Bouetard, who was part of an insertion team of French S.A.S. troopers that landed on the night of 6 June 44 in the Breton peninsula. He was killed in a gunbattle upon landing. He is reputed to be the first Allied soldier killed in action on D-Day.

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/stephane.delogu/saint-marcel.html

Website en francaise ... but tells the story of this incredible soldier.

Another person would be General Le Clerc ... to hear about that march up from Chad during the war.

Ernie Pyle

BD Jones said:

That's easy for me . . . Glenn Miller.

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Same here.

Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson VC, DFC, DSO 1 bar. CO 617 SQN and while not KIA. Group Captain Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire, VC, OM, DSO and Two Bars, DFC

Being an Aussie I can't go past CPL John Metson 2/14th Bn, 2nd AIF, who is the epitomy of the Digger spirit.

The party was slowed down by a group of wounded – four stretcher cases, three walking wounded and the remarkable Corporal John Metson.

“He’d been shot in both ankles but he refused to let his mates carry him. He knew how much energy was needed to carry stretchers through the thick jungle, a task made even more onerous because Buckler’s party had to avoid the Track and travel through the jungle for fear of running into the enemy. So John Metson wrapped a torn blanket around his knees and hands and he crawled. For three weeks he cheerfully crawled through the jungle, ignoring the growing pain in his shattered ankles and the damage to his hands, knees and legs as he kept up with his mates in the cloying mud and torrential rain. He was a constant inspiration to the others in the party as they lived off the land and avoided Japanese patrols before reaching a friendly village called Sangai on September 20 1942.” ( from The Spirit of The Digger)

Unfortunately, when a rescue party returned to Sangai village for the wounded, they found they’d been betrayed and massacred. John Metson won him the British Empire Medal – and a place in the annals of the Digger.

I would pick any of the 5-6 who died from my High School. They were just average Joes. I would like to ask them about growing up here where I live. What it was like here 60+ years ago their dreams of what they wanted to do. Who knows we could have been buddies. Maybe one day soon I will.

Because my Dad was a crew chief and a magneto specialist on P-38's in the 5th Air Force in WW II I'd like to meet Richard Bong. The P-38 is my favorite WW II fighter because of its looks and its sound and FYI was voted the most romantic fighter of WW II.

BD Jones said:

That's easy for me . . . Glenn Miller.

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I met someone who had served with the USAAF, and he swore that when Miller died, the word out was that Miller had actually fallen out of his plane while in a drunken stupor. He claimed that Miller was drunk half the time he was in the air. Anybody else hear of this claim?

rmrdaddy said:

Ernie Pyle

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Same.

Not KIA, but he's been gone a few years, Mitchel Page, USMC, MOH on Guadalcanal.