63SQ 56FG casualties in France

Who could help me with finding information about 63SQ from 63FG based in BOXTED (England)in 1944? Information regarding Robert E. JENKINGS would be especially welcome. He crashed in the forest of Blois on July 15th 1944.
P-47D UN-O serial 42-76578. MACR 6715.

 

On July 15th, 1944 Colonel 'Hub' Zemke led 48 P-47s off from Boxted starting at 17:27 hrs. Arriving over their ground-attack target area ( Blois ) at 18:50 they found the area to be obscured by clouds and decided to attack targets of opportunity at La Chapelle airfield and Vendome marshalling yard.

2nd Lt Robert Jenkins flying 'White Two' in the 63rd FS was preparing to roll in at 8,000ft for a dive-bombing run over La Chapelle but white smoke could be seen coming from his supercharger duct. Jenkins' wingman believed this may have been due to Jenkins retarding his throttle before starting to dive. As Jenkins completed his attack and pulled up to 2,000ft thick grey smoke and flames could be seen coming from the Thunderbolt.

When contacted by White Three, Lt Marvin Becker, to query the problem Jenkins replied : ' I don't know - my carburettor air temperature is 150 '.

Jenkins was advised to check the position of his intercooler doors, and was then told by Major Goodfleisch to head for home. Jenkins was then heard to transmit : ' I am at 1,500 feet and will have to bail out'.

Moments later, the P-47 was seen to go into a steep dive, trailing flames and it crashed into woods, taking Lt Jenkins with it.

It was believed at the time that the flames had burnt through the Thunderbolt's control cables before Jenkins could abandon the aircraft.

The above information is extracted from 'Beware The Thunderbolt - The 56th FG In WWII' by David R MacLaren.

 

Thank you for this Martin. I will forward the info to Blois. On June 22nd 2000 the locals have inaugurated a memorial on the crash site and paid a tribute to Jenkins. It was quite a big cerremony. The U.S. were represented by a delegation from the Ramstein Base (Germany) and personnal from the Embassy. The exact crash site is called "Tertre du Billeux" near Molineux, just west of Blois. Jenkins rests in Colleville Military cemetery, near the D-Day Beaches.

 

I'm glad you found the information of interest, Skipper67 - and also that the unfortunate pilot has been commemorated in this way.

 

Thank you again. I was wondering whether someone had a picture of Robert E. Jenkins or maybe an aircraft from his unit that could be posted here.

 

Hello I'm french and i live near the crash site.
The place straffed by the Plane was the airfield of "Le breuil" near La Chapelle Vendomoise, between Blois and Vendôme. These airfield still existe today.

I have taken some picts last we.

 

Here is a photo of 2nd Lt. Robert E. Jenkins, from The 56th Fighter Group in World War II (Infantry Journal Press 1948) - the poor quality is due to the original portrait from the book being not much larger than a postage stamp.

 

Thank you for these elements gentlemen.

Hi Fred, we are almost neigbours. I live near Orleans. I appreciate the pictures.

 

Fsbos: thanx for phe pict of Jenkins.
Skipper: i live near Vendôme ... ;-). Tu as participé à l'identification ?

 

Bonjour, Fred. Considering I have the Macr at home I knew who he was, but I did not belong to the team who inaugurated the monument. I was not aware of the inauguration until I read the newspaper article.
However I wrote a small article about this crash some years ago but never published it, just personnal files.

Are you far from the Freteval Forest ? I will speak to you in English so that others may understand, but you can send me a pm if you wish to talk in French.

 

Hello,

I make a research on this pilot, I would like know a birth date and other on this pilot. These researches are for a database site french for the cemetery Colleville-sur-Mer

Thanks so much

Sincerely,
Bruno

 

I don't have his date of birth but Macr numbers with details are 6707+ 6715

 

Hello,
thanks for your answer, if you have other and more details on this crash, I'll thanks by advance.
Sincerely,
Bruno

 

I have located the Missing Air Crew Report on Fold3.com. There are a few pages that have some info that may be of interest.

 

hello Tommy,

Yes I am interested by the MACR and these infos , can you scanned ?

Thanks by advance,
Sincerely,
Bruno

 

There are 5 documents that are useful. Here are the Missing Air Crew Report and a map showing the approximate location where his plane went down.


View attachment 20683 View attachment 20684

 

The remaining three documents are the Report of Capture and two eyewitness accounts. There were other pages to the file, but they were either duplicates of these documents or they had no useful information.


View attachment 20686 View attachment 20685 View attachment 20687

 

Thanks Tommy for your cooperation !

Sincerely,
Bruno

 

You're welcome, Bruno.