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Personal info

Full name
HOLMES, Clifford Raymond
Date of birth
28 May 1918
Age
25
Place of birth
Mansfield, Bristol County, Massachusetts
Hometown
Norfolk County, Massachusetts

Military service

Service number
O-789471
Rank
Captain
Function
Navigator
Unit
763rd Bombardment Squadron,
460th Bombardment Group, Heavy
Awards
Purple Heart,
Air Medal

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
15 April 1944
Place of death
Zadariciu, Rumania

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Ardennes
Plot Row Grave
A 22 10

Immediate family

Members
Leon C. Holmes (father)
Nellie F. (Fisher) Holmes (mother)
Ruth M. Holmes (sister)
Helen G. Holmes (sister)
Albert F. Holmes (brother)

Plane data

Serial number
42-64380
Data
Type: B-24J
Destination: Bucharest, Rumania
Mission: Bombing of the marshalling yard
MACR: 4099

More information

Capt Clifford R. Holmes attended Hampden-Sidney College where he was a football star and was an actor. He joined the Air Corps of the Regular Army in Boston, Massachusetts on 4 September 1941.

About 10 minutes after bombing the target, the airplane was attacked by a ME 109 which caused a fire in the bomb-bay.

Two crew members survived and were taken prisoner. They sustained multiple burns and stayed in the hospital for a month. the other nine crew members were killed.

Source of information: Peter Schouteten, Raf Dyckmans, Terry Hirsch, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov, www.ancestry.com - U.S., Headstone and Interment Records for U.S. Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil / 1920/1930 Census / Family Tree, The Record of the Hampden-Sydney Alumni Association - April 1945, WWII Draft Card

Photo source: Peter Schouteten, The Record of the Hampden-Sydney Alumni Association