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Biography

303rd Bomber Group Heavy

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Sgt James R. Van Etten worked on a farm before he joined the Regular Army in East St. Louis, Illinois on 8 August 1940.

Mission for the day (all Bombardment Groups combined) was to bomb the railway assembly yards at Hamm and Osnabrück. If that was not possible due to cloud cover, and as last resort, the 303BG had as AT (Alternative Target) the port and ship building yards in Emden.

Before Cap Cole arrived at Hamm-Osnabrück, he received message that all was obscured by clouds and he should divert to Emden. Halfway to Emden they were attacked by German fighters, damaged and had to leave formation. This was "NE of Zwolle near the Dutch German border", wrote Lt. Bryant. Before arriving at Emden, they set an emergency course due west to England. Emden was not bombed by them.

Over the north of the Netherlands in direction of Leeuwarden, they were harassed by fighters again and lost altitude. Co-pilot Robert McCune was shot dead in his seat by 20mm rounds. Pilot Cole was shot in the hip by 20mm, badly wounded him. Most of the crew were wounded. They had to make an emergency landing north of the Zuyder Sea in the Wadden Sea under Texel Island.

Bombardier Lt. Bryant and navigator Lt. Robert P. Driggs used their parachute. Where they landed and taken prisoner is not known. Bryant declared that just before jumping he saw Pilot, Co-Pilot and engineer Purinton in the cockpit. In the radio room were the radio operator, tail gunner, ball turret gunner and both waist gunners, "Two waist gunners were dead". Bryant: "T/Sgt David Purinton declared he removed James R. van Etten's dead body from the plane after it hit the ground". The belly landing was seen from shore and a boat picked up six of the ten men crew. They were arrested and taken prisoner.

Apparently waist gunner Sgt. van Etten's body floated along with the current and is missing since then.

The other waist gunner S/Sgt. James L. Pennington body was brought in port of Den Oever, 2,5 months later on 19 April 1943. Buried initially in Den Helder, Huisduinen Cemetery, Allied plot grave 178. Because his name, rank and number were on the grave marker, he was reburied after the war at Margraten.

It seems the wreck obstructed a shipping route and the Germans blew-up during low tide with explosives the cockpit, middle section and wings of the aircraft and left the remains (tail section). Probably the cockpit was broken-off during the landing and had embedded itself deep in the seabed, under water at high tide, forming an obstacle. During the demolition, the body Co-Pilot 2Lt. Robert N. McCune was still inside the cockpit, unaccessible or unknown to the Germans. He is MIA since then.