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Personal info

Full name
MACNAB, William Goldie
Date of birth
7 October 1923
Age
21
Place of birth
Sherman County, Oregon
Hometown
Sherman County, Oregon

Military service

Service number
O-766005
Rank
First Lieutenant
Function
Pilot
Unit
350th Bombardment Squadron,
100th Bombardment Group, Heavy
Awards
Purple Heart,
Air Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
31 December 1944
Place of death
Horumersiel, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
Plot Row Grave
O 21 15

Immediate family

Members
Ronald S. Macnab (father)
Wilhelmina (Beechey) Macnab (mother)
Margaret E. Macnab (sister)
Wilhelmina A. Macnab (sister)
Jean Macnab (sister)
Stuart Macnab (brother)

Plane data

Serial number
43-38457
Data
Type: B-17G
Nickname: Nine Lives
Destination: Hamburg Germany
Mission: Bombing of the Rheunania Ossag oil refinery
MACR: 11359

More information

1st Lt William G. Macnab graduated from St. Francis Academy and was a farmer.

He volunteered for the Air Corps of the Army of the United States in Portland, Oregon on 24 November 1942.

The airplane pancaked together with another B-17 (42-31987). They circled and crash landed still attached to each other. There was no fire from the planes with in the air or on the ground although there was some smoke.

Four crew members were taken prisoner, five were killed. According to statements of surviving crew men after the war, their comrades all bailed out but it is supposed they all landed in the water.

Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Terry Hirsch, www.100thbg.com, www.ancestry.com - U.S., Headstone and Interment Records for U.S. Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, www.fold3.com - MACR, www.8thafhs.com

Photo source: Michel Beckers, www.100thbg.com, Ferry Harreman, www.findagrave.com - Phyllis (Porter) Zegers