Missing information?

Do you have any additional information you would like to share about a soldier?

Submit

Personal info

Full name
JONES, Blain Ellsworth
Date of birth
26 April 1920
Age
24
Place of birth
Milroy, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania
Hometown
Armagh, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania

Military service

Service number
O1645703
Rank
First Lieutenant
Function
unknown
Unit
Office of Strategic Services
Awards
Bronze Star,
Purple Heart

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
7 April 1945
Place of death
Mount Plukketjern-sasen
Mount Plukketjern-sasen, south of Gressamoen, Norway

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Ardennes
Plot Row Grave
B 36 20

Immediate family

Members
Warren J. Jones (father)
Mary E. Jones (mother)
Nora E. Jones (sister)
Elva B. Jones (sister)
Warren W. Jones (brother)
Blair J. Jones (brother)
Louise A. (Esh) Jones (wife)

Plane data

Serial number
42-40549
Data
Type: B-24D
Destination: Jevsjoen Lake area DZ 468, NW of Trondheim, Norway
Mission: Dropping 4 Norwegian Special Operations Group personnel

More information

1st Lt Blain E. Jones graduated from Lewistown High School in 1940.

On 7 April 1945, a B-24D # 42-40549 took off from Harington, England, to carry out a mission in support of the OSS Mission RYPE. It included the dropping of 4 NSOG personnel at DZ 468 in the Jevsjoen Lake area northwest of Trondheim, Norway. During a blizzard the plane crashed into Mount Plukketjern-sasen. The whole crew and the OSS personnel were killed. They were buried under a rock cairn nearby the crash site of the plane by a detachment of American OSS NORSO para-ski-troops on 29 April. The bodies were recovered after the war by the Norwegian Air Force.


1st Lt Blain E. Jones is remembered with a memorial marker at Birch Hill Cemetery in Burnham, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania.

Actually his name is Blaine but for some unknown reason it was misspelled in his military records.

Source of information: Leo Minne, Terry Hirsch, www.abmc.gov, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.ancestry.com - 1930 Census / Headstone and Interment Record, www.med-dept.com, www.cia.gov

Photo source: Jac Engels, www.findagrave.com