Soldier News continued, 1944

S/Sgt. Chandler Spoor Killed in Action

Bainbridge News & Republican,  August 17, 1944

Staff Sergeant Chandler Spoor, son of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Spoor, of Laurens, Otsego County, was kille din action in France on June 23.  He was 36 years of age.  He had been overseas since April.

 

S/Sgt. Stuart Leonard Killed in Action

Bainbridge News & Republican, August 17, 1944

 

Staff Sgt. Stuart L. Leonard, son of Mr. and Mrs. Louis W. Leonard, of Lanesboro, Pa., and Miami, Fla., was killed in action in France on June 6, according to word received by his parents.  Called to service Jan. 31, 1942, Sergeant Leonard was sent to Fort Meade, Baltimore, Md., where he was assigned to an infantry division which spearheaded the invasion on D-Day, the day of his death.

 

The Seabees

Bainbridge News & Republican, August 27, 1944

 

The Seabees are rapidly becoming the legendary heroes of the war.  At Salerno, unloading 10,000 pieces of equipment, they turned a blood-red beach into a base of operations within two days.  In the Sicily invasion, they saved 90 men on a bombed transport by jamming a causeway between their own and the damaged ship.  At one South Pacific base, while wharves were being built, they formed a human chain two miles into the ocean to unload waiting ships.  These men of the Navy's construction battalion, 262,000-strong, are former workers in steel mills, shipyards and factories who work under fire, gripping wrenches in one hand and grenades in the other.  Yes, the Seabees can do anything.  Famed for their miracles of construction, they were revealed by the Navy recently to have added another accomplishment.  A French couple fleeing the battle area took refuge with a Seabee battalion in Normandy.  The wife was about to give birth to a baby--a civilian doctor was not available--so they called Seabee Lt. Comdr. Richard D. Anderson to help.  Comdr. Anderson delivered a girl--she was named Seabee Paula.  Contributed by Mrs. Milton Simonds, whose son, Milton R. Simonds, Jr., is a Seabee in Hawaii.

Lt. Howard Phelps Receives Distinguished Flying Cross

Bainbridge News & Republican, August 24, 1944

16th A.A.F. in Italy:  Life is moving rapidly at an air base overseas these days for First Lt. Howard W. Phelps, 26, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Phelps, 7 Medford street, Binghamton (former Bainbridge residents).  Lieutenant Phelps, pilot of an Italy-based A.A.F. B-17 Flying Fortress flew his 51st combat mission in the Mediterranean theatre of operations, July 8, 1944 when heavy bombers in his group blasted German operated synthetic oil refineries at Vienna, Austria.  Several days later he was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross for his achievement on a bombing mission against enemy railroad yards at Treviso, Italy, Apr. 7, 1944.  the decoration came almost simultaneously with the announcement that he had been promoted from second lieutenant to the rank of first lieutenant.

Flak was heavy and intense on Lieutenant Phelps 51st mission, but neither anti-aircraft ground defense nor attacking squadrons of enemy fighter planes could stop the big bombers form reaching the target and completing a successful bomb run in which the target was destroyed and several fighters shot down.

Brig-Gen. Charles Lawrence, commanding general of a wing in the 15th Air Force, presented Lieutenant Phelps with his D.F.C. during ceremonies at an air field in Italy and highly commended the group. 

 

On the Apr. 7 Treviso mission, heavy, concentrated flak bursts from enemy anti-aircraft ground defenses knocked out one engine on Lieutenant Phelps' plane.  Upon completion of the run, another badly damaged engine failed, causing Lieutenant Phelps to drop out of formation whereupon six German fighter planes trailing the formation pounced on the crippled ship.  The left waist gunner shot down one enemy craft while other crew members forced the remaining fighter planes to break off the attack.  It was necessary for the crew to throw every movable object out of the plane to prevent losing altitude too rapidly on the trip home.  Finally, Lieutenant Phelps, still fighting the big plane's controls, arrived at his home base where he effected a perfect landing as another engine gave out.

 

In addition to receiving the D.F.C., the lieutenant was decorated with the Purple Heart for wounds received on a bombing mission over Gyor, Hungary, June 27.  Later he was awarded the Air Medal for "meritorious achievement while participating in sustained aerial operations against the enemy."

 

Since flying his first mission over railroad yards at Brod, Yugoslavia, Apr. 2, 1944, Lieutenant Phelps has participated in missions against enemy installations at Ploesti, Romania; Gyor, Hungary; Wiener-Neustadt, Austria; Varese, Italy; Munich, Germany, and Toulon, France.

 

He was employed by the Kroehler Manufacturing co., of Binghamton, previous to his induction into the armed forces Nov. 25, 1940.  He served a year and a half in the demolition branch of the Army before transferring into the Air Corps.  He won his pilot's wings upon graduation from advanced flight training at Stockton, Calif.  June 22, 1943.  Later he was assigned to the combat crew of one of the big four-engine bombers and at the completion of advanced training with heavy bombardment aircraft at McDill Field, Fla., and Lakeland, Fla., was transferred overseas to the Mediterranean theatre with a bomb group.