Memorial

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F/O Benjamin J. Bushey grew up in Hampden County, Massachusetts. He loved the family dog Ginger, played sports, ran track in high school and was interested in aviation. His father was a math teacher and ran a club in school for students interested in airplanes. Benjamin and his brother Donald were members of that club. Right after he graduated from high school in 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was sent to the University of Cincinnati to take classes in English and French, which he found pretty tough, but he mainly liked the math classes. He studied hard and was qualified to be a pilot but decided he would rather navigate an airplane. After this, he was sent to airbases in Louisiana and Texas for flight training to prepare to be sent over to England. During this time, he missed his family and girlfriend very much. In November 1944, he went home to see his family and say goodbye, because he would be shipping out just after Christmas. That was his last visit home. In December, he sailed to England, where he was stationed in Peterborough. This was where he trained with his flight crew. He spent January 1945 in training exercises and began real flights and missions in February. In March of 1945 he learned that he would be promoted to captain for his service so far. Unfortunately, he never got his captain bars.

His aircraft was apparently hit directly by a shell, which did not burst on contact. About 8 or 9 feet of the right wing was cut off. There was a flash where the flak hit but no fire visible thereafter. After being hit, the aircraft peeled to the right, turned over on its back and went down out of control. It was in a sort of spin. It appeared to break apart at the wings, the fuselage separating from the wings. When it was last seen, the wings were still in a sort of spin. The aircraft was not seen to catch on fire.

One parachute was reported coming from the aircraft, but what part of the aircraft it came from was not reported.

According to Sgt Klimoski, who was one of the surviving crew members, F/O Bushey probably couldn't get out of the aircraft because of the centrifugal force or because of injuries.

Three crew members survived and were taken prisoner, six were killed.

The bodies of the deceased crew members were disinterred from a common grave at or near Ladbergen, Germany and evacuated to Margraten on 2 June 1945. All identification and personal effects were removed by personnel of the German army and sent to Frankfurt-am-Main.

F/O Bushey's remains arrived at Margraten as Unknown X-909 and initially buried in a temporary grave. He was disinterred on 6 August 1948 and given his final resting place on 12 May 1949.