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Personal info

Full name
SMITTLE, Floyd Donald
Date of birth
14 September 1917
Age
26
Place of birth
Peebles, Admas County, Ohio
Hometown
Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio

Military service

Service number
O-736733
Rank
Second Lieutenant
Function
Bombardier
Unit
579th Bombardment Squadron,
392nd Bombardment Group, Heavy
Awards
Purple Heart,
Air Medal

Death

Status
Missing in Action
Date of death
4 October 1943
Place of death
North Sea, 60 miles north of the West-Frisian Islands

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
Walls of the Missing

Immediate family

Members
Rodney E. Smittle (father)
Zelma I. (Flaugher) Smittle (mother)
Anna L. Smittle (sister)
Ruth E. Smittle (sister)

Plane data

Serial number
42-7481
Data
Type: B-24H
Nickname: Whiskers
Destination: Frisian Islands
Mission: Diversion
MACR: 892

More information

2nd Lt Floyd D. Smittle graduated from Portsmouth High School where he was a member of the basketball and track teams. He was a structural and ornamental metal worker.

He joined Air Corps of the Regular Army in Portsmouth, Ohio on 23 January 1943. He received his commission as second lieutenant and the wings of an aerial bombardier after graduation from the Army Air Force Advanced Flying School at Kirland Field in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The mission's objective was to deconcentrate German defenses, primarily fighter units, and draw them away from the main bomber routes across the continent.

The aircraft was last observed with at least one and possibly both wings torn off after a collision with an enemy fighter which had been badly damaged. The collision was followed by a violent explosion at about 10,000 feet of. No parachutes were observed as the aircraft disappeared into the clouds at 1026 hours.

It is also believed that, according to eyewitness statements, during the incident the aircraft also collided with another B-24 (42-7471) as it fell out of formation.

The entire crew of eleven men was killed. Nine are remembered at the Walls of the Missing at Margraten. Michael Kvorjak and Carey Bratcher are remembered at the Tablets of the Missing at Cambridge Cemetery.

Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Peter Schouteten, www.b24.net, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov, www.ancestry.com, www.newspapers.com - Portsmouth Daily Times

Photo source: Peter Schouteten, www.findagrave.com, www.ancestry.com - Portsmouth High School Yearbook 1936