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Personal info

Full name
CARROLL, Darwin J
Date of birth
25 July 1921
Age
22
Place of birth
Waterville, Pepin County, Wisconsin
Hometown
Pullman, Whitman County, Washington

Military service

Service number
O-745235
Rank
Second Lieutenant
Function
Pilot
Unit
364th Fighter Squadron,
357th Fighter Group
Awards
Purple Heart

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
22 February 1944
Place of death
Köthen, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
unknown

Immediate family

Members
Joseph D. Carroll (father)
Edith E. (Shirk) Carroll (mother)
Alice E. Carroll (sister)
Mary Ann Carroll (sister)
Betty E. Carroll (sister)

Plane data

Serial number
43-6576
Data
Type: P-51
Destination: Bernburg, Germany
Mission: Bomber escort
MACR: 2677

More information

2nd Lt Carroll J. Darwin joined the infantry of the National Guard in Pullman, Washington on 16 September 1940 and later transferred to the Air Corps.

Statement from Captain John A. Storch, who flew in the same mission: "I was flying in a flight composed of Col Graham as no.1 and Lt Carroll as no.2 or on the Colonel's wing. Near the target area at approximately 1430 our flight was jumped by a FW190. We broke in to him and followed him down several thousand feet and as Col Graham broke back up I cut across and joined him and saw Lt Carroll start to do the same. When we came back up to about 23,000 feet and were flying straight and level Lt Carroll had not rejoined us yet. At this point I heard him call Col Graham and say he was going to have to bail out. I heard someone answered him and assumed it was Col Graham although I couldn't make out enough of the conversation to tell what was said. In checking with Col Graham on the ground afterwards I found he did not receive or answer this call. About two or three minutes after the last call I saw a P-51 pull up to about 500 yards behind us and assumed it was Lt Carroll and that he had gotten the plane started again and was rejoining us. I looked away and then back again and the plane was not there. A little late I noted a P-51 several thousand feat below me upside down and apparently out of control as it was doing an inverted falling leaf. It went thus into a split S straight down. I did not observe a chute but with the snow on the ground and all the activity it would have been very possible to have missed it."

Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, www.cebudanderson.com, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.fold3.com, www.ancestry.com - 1930 Census

Photo source: Merle Olmsted