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Personal info

Full name
DIGGS, Graham Wall Jr
Date of birth
21 March 1921
Age
22
Place of birth
Black Hawk, Carroll County, Mississippi
Hometown
Wetumka, Hughes County, Oklahoma

Military service

Service number
38130313
Rank
Technical Sergeant
Function
Engineer/Top Turret Gunner
Unit
367th Bombardment Squadron,
306th Bombardment Group, Heavy
Awards
Purple Heart,
Air Medal

Death

Status
Missing in Action
Date of death
29 July 1943
Place of death
Baltic sea, 30 miles north of Kiel, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
Walls of the Missing

Immediate family

Members
Graham W. Diggs (father)
Marnie B. (Howard) Diggs (mother)
Dorris M. Diggs (sister)

Plane data

Serial number
42-3084
Data
Type: B-17F
Destination: Kiel, Germany
Mission: Bombing of the Germaniawerft U-boat yards
MACR: 121

More information

T/Sgt Graham W. Diggs Jr. graduated from Wetumka High School in 1938 and attended the University of Oklahoma. He worked in an automobile factory.

He enlisted in Tulsa, Oklahoma on 29 June 1942.

Enemy fighters were first encountered 10 minutes before the target at 0901 hrs. and continued 25 minutes out to sea at 1000 hrs. Enemy aircraft attacked head on or at the tail. The aircraft was assumed lost as a result of these attacks.

The aircraft was going down with the wheels down, with one engine on fire.

Nine crew members were killed, one was taken prisoner.

Crew members of other aircraft in the formation reported after the mission that they believed the aircraft had been shot down by fighters shortly after the bomb drop at about 9:15 hrs. The information reported at the time was not clear however and it would be many months later before the full story was known. It was only after the war and the liberation of Europe that his surviving bombardier Robert L Alexander could report the fate that befell the crew of 42-3084. In his post war additions to the Missing Air Crew Report he advised that the aircraft had been swarmed by fighter aircraft after dropping its bombs and after suffering heavy damage, one wing having been taken off, the aircraft entered a violent spin.

Graham Diggs is remembered at the Wetumka Cemetery in Hughes County, Oklahoma.

Source of information: Peter Schouteten, Raf Dyckmans, Terry Hirsch, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov, www.findagrave.com, www.fold3.com - MACR / WWII Draft Card, IDPF

Photo source: www.findagrave.com - Danny Chancellor, Peter Schouteten, Melissa Caperton - The University of Oklahoma