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Fort Madison Daily Democrat
CITY & REGION
www.dailydem.com
Tuesday, June 2,2020 3A
The Story Now Told
77 Years Later
Fort Madison man lost in World War II
MICHAEL K1LLOREN
for the Daily Democrat
THE LETTER
A 1943 letter from European Headquarters Twelfth Air Force read:
"It is with profound regret that I confirm the recent telegram informing you of
the death of your son, First Lieutenant William C. Brown, 0-707, 163, Air Corps,
who was previously reported missing in action on 22 August 1943 over Italy."
The letter from the War Department's Adjutant General's Office dated 17 March
1944, signed by Major General James Ulio, was addressed to Brown's mother.
Lieutenant William Charles Brown was a bomber pilot. The tall, slightly built
young man (six-foot one inch 180 pounds), with movie star looks was born June 1,
1919 in Fort Madison to Frank Russell and Concepcion Morales Brown. The youngest
of six children, the 24 year-old entered the service in Fort Madison on October
16, 1940. He registered at the Lee County Local Board No. 2, which was then
located in the Hesse Building at the corner of 7th Street and Avenue G. At the
time, William was attending Burlington Junior College (now Southeastern
Community College) and working at the American Fork & Hoe Company (a.k.a. True
Temper Corp.). Most of the products manufactured by the company were spades,
shovels, forks, hoes, rakes, axes, picks, mauls and other such hand tools. His
supervisor was Tanjore T. Hitch.
HE ANSWERED THE CALL
After William entered the Army, he became a member of a class of student
officers and aviation cadets that graduated from the Air Force Advanced Flying
School at Stockton Field in California, and was commissioned as a Second
Lieutenant upon graduation. It was there he earned the coveted silver wings,
symbolic of the aeronautical rating of Pilot. Prior to entering the final and
advanced course at Stockton Field, Aviation Cadet Brown completed 20 weeks of
primary and basic training at Thunderbird Field in Glendale, Arizona and Gardner
Field in Taft, California. He also took additional aircraft training at
Barksdale Air Force Base at Bossier City, Louisiana just prior to heading to
Europe.
THAT FATEFUL DAY
The pilot, now 1st Lt. Brown and his co-pilot, 2nd Lt. Richard W. Lobdell, took
off from the Djedeida (ja DIE' da) North Airfield and headed toward Salerno,
Italy, on a bombardment mission. Salerno is a port city southeast of Naples, on
the Tyrrhenian Sea, whose history dates to the 6th century BC. The plane, a
B-26-C16 Marauder (serial number 41-34936) was a cigarshaped plane capable of
speeds up to 315 miles per hour had a crew of six. The other crew members were:
2nd Lt. Charles F. McVaughn, Staff Sergeants Frank W. Clauser, Alfred H. Cenz,
and Sidney J. Gibbs. Lieutenant Me Vaughn was the navigator; the three sergeants
were gunners positioned at strategic locations about the aircraft. These
positions were a dorsal turret, waist and tail guns and an additional gun in the
nose. Brown's Marauder was a twin-engine medium bomber that carried seven
weapons (bombs) aboard. Marauders were built by the Glenn L. Martin Company in
one of two locations: Baltimore, Maryland, and Omaha, Nebraska. Over 5,200 such
planes were built for the war effort.
According to an eye witness, 2nd Lt. Clarence A. Kozelski, who authored the
account as part of the official record, the men were last seen at ten minutes
past noon and 30 miles off Salerno, and had been engaged by enemy aircraft.
"After we were attacked by the enemy fighters we went into a steep dive. I
observed B-26 No. 936, which was piloted by Lt. Brown, on our right side at
about 4 o'clock. His left engine was burning a little from the back end of the
nacelle. His rudder was shredded slightly so that one could count the ribs. He
slid over on our left side to about 9 o'clock. All the time losing altitude, and
his left engine was burning more and more. At about this time he feathered the
engine. All the fabric started to rip off piece by piece from the tail. Large
pieces started to fly back from the burning section of the wing. He keeled over
to the left slightly and kept on losing altitude."
Kozelski further reported that the plane continued to lose altitude then slid
into the water with the left wing hitting first at a 45-degree angle. Kozelski
also stated he witnessed the loss while his own plane was at 1000 to 1500 feet.
"I did not see any chutes, nor did I see any of the hatches open. I looked away
before the aircraft actually sank."
According to the previously classified report, the incident lasted about 15
minutes. Besides Brown, his crew members were from Washington, New Jersey,
Illinois, Massachusetts, and Kansas. All were presumed dead. The following
month, the Fort Madison Evening Democrat carried a basic report story that Brown
was 'Missing in Action'.
It was a standard operating procedure that all returning crew members record any
significant activities (SIGACTS) observed. This normally occurred no later than
the following day and after a formal debriefing took place with command
superiors. There was no mention of a search party having been conducted.
THE TWELFTH
The Twelfth Air Force, to which Brown's 438th Squadron was attached, was
originally established 20 August 1942 at Bolling Field, District of Columbia,
and was a combat air force that was deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of
World War II. It was based in Tunisia following the defeat of Germany's General
Erwin Rommel in North Africa. It engaged in operations in North Africa, the
Mediterranean, and Western Europe. The wartime operation in which Lieutenant
Brown and his crew participated was the final phase leading up to what was named
Operation Avalanche. That was a code-named for the Allied landings near the port
of Salerno to begin 9 September 1943 as part of the invasion of the Italian
mainland. Their flight mission was to destroy lines of communication, factory
buildings, and electrical substations.
Six weeks earlier, on 9 July, 1943, Brown had been quoted in the Corsicana Daily
Sun newspaper about the island:
"It is small and has a mountain sticking out of it and on a clear day you can
see it from the Tunisian coast".
The mountain he referred to is Monte Stella. It rises over 3,000 feet above the
ancient city of Salerno. By the end of the war the Airmen of the Twelfth Air
Force had flown 21 different types of aircraft and developed close air support,
completed over 430,000 sorties, dropped 217,156 tons of bombs and destroyed
2,857 enemy aircrafts, while losing 2,667 of their own aircraft. The following
year, 1945, a young new pilot by the name of Deke Slayton, would also fly a B-26
in Europe, later in Okinawa. Slayton is best remembered as one of America's
original seven astronauts.
AFTERMATH
Following the end of the war, 1st Lt. William Charles Brown of Fort Madison was
memorialized at the North Africa American Cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia. Another
memorial marker is in the Sacred Heart Cemetery here. The Army's Air Medal with
2 Oak Leaf Clusters was eventually presented to William's mother at a reception
held at Sacred Heart Hall (now Roling Hall) in Fort Madison.
So closes the chapter on a member of America's "Greatest Generation", a
Madisonian who made the ultimate sacrifice long ago. For over three-quarters of
a century the details of his loss could only best be listed as "KIA." Until now.
Although he will always be listed as "MIA" he is now, in a sense, returned to us
with details of his brave actions thus assuredly to never be forgotten.
MICHAEL KILLOREN is a historian, genealogical researcher and videographer. His
next video documentary, 'Tie Building of Fort Madison: America's First Fort on
the Upper Mississippi River" is expected to be completed this summer.
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