4th May 1942. A USAAF Liaison Officer is killed while flying with a British Royal Air Force Coastal Command unit.
2 Lt Charles Luther Summers, Killed in Action 4th of May 1942.
On the 4th of May the Dutch commemorate their war dead. In addition to joining in these commemoration, the 4th of May has always had another significance for me. The 4th of May (1942) is the day that USAAF 2nd Lieutenant Charles L. Summers would become the first American to be killed in action in the 'European Theater of Operations'.
The fact that Charles Summers was the first American to be killed over Dutch territory (more specifically the North Sea) has always triggered me to find out more about his life and the circumstances of his tragic death.
Charles Luther Summers was born on 23rd March 1918 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At a young age Charles and his parents moved to Pasadena, California. In 1938 Charles was a Senior at Pasadena Junior College.
Source of the above Class Book photographs: Ancestry.com / Pasadena Junior College 1938.
I have not been able to find out (yet) which additional studies he took on. Most likely a university study in electrical engineering or physics at Berkeley University, Alameda, California. The 'Draft Card' pictured below states 'Pi Beta Phi' as his 'employer' before joining the military.
Source: Ancestry.com.
Charles entered the military service on the 1st of August 1941, joining the Signals Corps where he was attached to the Electronics Training Group. The Signals Corps selected candidates for this program from college seniors and graduates in electrical engineering or physics. Those selected received commissions as 2nd Lieutenants in the Reserve. After a number of weeks training at the Signals School they went to England to work as student observers at radar stations. In addition to this they spent three months training at British Air Warning Schools followed by a posting at defense stations in the British Isles.
Charles transferred from the US Signals Corps to the US Army Air Force on the 23rd of September 1941 and was soon sent to the UK “to be trained on maintenance of certain equipment” (radar).
Late 1941/early 1942 Charles was sent to Prestwick, Scotland, where he followed a course at the AI/ASV (Airborne Interception/Air to Surface Vessel) School.
On the 1st of April 1942 he was transferred to No.53 Squadron of RAF Coastal Command based at RAF Station North Coates, Lincolnshire, “assigned to the RAF for practical experience”.
Left: the unit crest of RAF Coastal Command No.53 Squadron. Right: a Lockheed Hudson.
A Lockheed Hudson of RAF Coastal Command. Note the AI/ASV (Airborne Interception/Air to Surface Vessel) radar antennas.
As a Liaison Officer it was the intention that Charles Summers would gain experience in ‘hunting’ surface vessels and U-boats by means of the AI/ASV radar. His experience was to be taken back to the USA, where near the east coast allied convoys en route to the UK were constantly being attacked and sunk by German U-boats.
On the 4th of May 1942, 2nd Lieutenant Charles L. Summers took off from North Coates aerodrome in a Lockheed Hudson (Serial # AM530 / PZ-‘Q’) of 53 Squadron, piloted by Flight Sergeant Nichols. The other RAF crew members were Sergeants Smith, Pottas and Newhouse.
In formation with 5 other aircraft at 11.44 hours the formation sighted an enemy convoy. At 11.50 this convoy was attacked and several vessels were hit. PZ-Q was apparently hit by anti-aircraft fire as it was seen making a forced landing in the sea with starboard engine smoking. The Hudson landed in the cold water of the North Sea about 20 miles west of Egmond aan Zee. All five men perished.
Courtesy of my Dutch friend Theo Boiten I am able to include this after action report by one of the air crew members who participated in the sortie of 4th May 1942: "On 4 May 1942. At 10.30, six Hudson’s of 53 and 59 Squadrons left North Coates for a follow-up strike against a west-bound convoy, which had already been attacked off Ameland by one Hudson crew during the previous night. The almost stationary convoy consisting of eight merchantmen with an escort of four ‘Vorposten’ boats of the 13th flotilla was spotted off Egmond by four of the crews, and they went into the attack at 11.46 with bombs and machine guns. As a result, the 1,494 tons Danish merchantman 'Taarnholm' received damage in the engine room and had to be towed into port by Vp1304. This ship was credited to 53 Squadron. Additionally, the German merchant ship 'Jantje Fritzen' of 6,582 tons received a similar hit from a 59 Squadron crew in the engine room, and was towed into port at Hook of Holland during the following night. The usual heavy barrage of flak sent up against the shipping raiders destroyed two Hudson’s, but a Bf109 escort to the convoy failed to wreak further havoc amongst the attackers. The German defences actually submitted claims for three aircraft destroyed, but PZ-'X' of 53 Squadron managed to regain base with flak damage and flying on one engine".
Thus No.53 Squadron lost two aircraft (PZ-'Q' and PZ-'W').
Two crew members were made Prisoners of War, two are still Missing in Action and five were Killed in Action.
The RAF No.53 Squadron 'Operation Record Book' with the 'Details of Sortie or Flight' of 4th May 1942.
Note how 2Lt Charles Summers' name was added to the names of the Royal Air Force crew. Source: National Archives UK.
One of the other aircraft lost on this 4th of May 1942 sortie was Lockheed Hudson PZ-'W' flown by Pilot Officer Gummer.
One of the No.53 Squadron aircraft carried a camera to bring back evidence of the sortie. The cameraman photographed PZ-'W' after being hit by flak and forced to ditch in the North Sea. In the photograph three survivors are seen on the wing and a dinghy has automatically inflated. Regrettably two of the survivors did not survive their ordeal in the sea and their bodies were lost. They are commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Runnymede Memorial in Surrey, UK. Pilot Officer Gummer and Sergeant McCann ended up as prisoners of war.
Lockheed Hudson PZ-'W' "In the drink". Source: IWM via Hans Nauta / Study Group Air War 1939-1945.
Source of the text info: RAF No.53 Sqn 'Operation Record Book' with the 'Details of Sortie or Flight' of 4th May 1942. National Archives UK.
The so-called 'Loss Chart' for Pilot Officer Gummer's aircraft.
Source: https://www.verliesregister.studiegroepluchtoorlog.nl/ahome/lossregister/results?sglo=T1499
On the 5th of May 1942 the RAF Coastal Command Wing Commander James Reginald Leggate wrote the following to Charles’ parents:
“I have difficulty in expressing properly the sorrow in this Squadron, and the sympathy we all have for you at the loss of your son. “Shorty” came to this Squadron on the 1st of April, 1942. By the 3rd of April, 1942, everybody in the Squadron knew him and liked him, and the longer he stayed with us the better we all came to like him for his cheerfulness, honesty, and outstanding keenness. As you may know, he came to our Squadron to gain air experience with us and from the very first day, he never lost an opportunity of flying with any of our crews. He was most efficient at his job, and whenever he went flying all the Captains of the aircraft were keen that he should fly with them. “Shorty’s” example, efficiency and cheerfulness are a heavy loss to the Squadron”.
On the 8th of May the Commanding Officer of the HQ Electronics Training Group sent the below letter to Charles' parents. (Collection AJvH)
Charles' body washed ashore near Egmond aan Zee on the 27th of June 1942.
Above: the German Registration Card with details of the body that washed ashore on the Dutch coast. Charles Summers' name is in the red square. In the blue square the 'Ort des Todes' (Location of dead body found) is marked in blue: 'Am Strand von Egmond an See' (on the beach of Egmond aan Zee). Source: Individual Deceased Personnel File of Charles Summers.
Charles Luther Summers was interred in the Egmond General Cemetery in row 3, grave 75.
On his cross the Germans put following inscription: “Hier ruht Ch. L Summers No.427219. Die See Gab ihn frei am 27-6-1942”.
(“Here rests Ch. L Summers No.427219. The sea released him on 27-6-1942”).
Source: Individual Deceased Personnel File of Charles Summers.
On the 21st of September Charles' family was informed with the below telegram about the fact that his body had washed ashore and that his status was no longer Missing in Action but Killed in Action.
On the 15th of August 1945 2nd Lieutenant Charles Luther Summers was reinterred at Margraten Cemetery in Plot PP, Row 8, Grave 197. According to the Disinterment Directive he received his final resting place in Plot B, Row 2, Grave 16 on the 15th of April 1948.
His four British crew member colleagues were also killed in action. All four washed ashore on the Dutch coast and have their final resting places at the New Eastern Cemetery at Amsterdam.
The grave markers of Charles' RAF crew. All are buried at the Nieuw Ooster Begraafplaats in Amsterdam.
On 23 July 1942 No.53 Squadron became one of the few British units to operate directly from American soil, when it began flying anti-submarine patrols off the Eastern seaboard in an attempt to halt the second ‘German happy time’, a period of renewed success for the U-boats. After spending a month operating from Rhode Island, the Squadron moved south to Trinidad, where it remained until the end of November 1942.
If Charles Summers would not have been killed on May 4th 1942, he would probably have returned home to the USA with above mentioned move of 53 Squadron...
Reactie plaatsen
Reacties