Nathan H Greenwood

Nat's full name was Nathaniel Henderson Greenwood, but he was mostly called "Nat" or "Nathan." His father was Alexander Henderson Greenwood and his mother was Adelheid Starcke.

Nathan is being honored by Thomas C Greenwood, (Quote) "Nathan, my cousin, was a Co-Pilot of a B-25 that was shot-down on 5 July, 1943 over Gerbini, Sicily.  All 5 Crew members were killed"  Thomas wishes to share his information and hopefully photo's... so ?  More to come !  Barbi Ennis Connolly, 321st BG Historian.

Nathan H Greenwood was born 17 Apr. 1922 in Guadalupe Co. Texas to Alex H and Adelheid Greenwood, the 4 Children born to then were Alex, Helen, Nathan and Ida.

Nathan joined the Army 25 March, 1942 at San Antonio, TX,  was selected for the Air Corp and qualified for Cadet Training.  He had completed 1 year of college (Chiropractic) and was still single.

 Nathan is INCORRECTLY INDEXED AS "NATIAN H. GREENWOOD" at NARA

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 
GREENWOOD, NATHAN H    
2LT   US ARMY AIR FORCES  
WORLD WAR II  
DATE OF DEATH: 07/05/1943  
BURIED at  ZACHARY TAYLOR NATIONAL CEMETERY  
4701 BROWNSBORO ROAD LOUISVILLE, KY 40207 

 National WWII Memorial, Washington, D.C.
 Registry~NARA~War Department Files
 Honoree Hometown Service Source  
 Nathan H. Greenwood Guadalupe County, TX U.S. Army  National Archives  
 2 LT Nathan H. Greenwood   ID: O-672075
 Branch of Service: U.S. Army
 Hometown: Guadalupe County, TX
Status: FOD (Finding of death) KIA
(Barbi Ennis Connolly) 321stBG Historian  12 Dec. 2009

Greenwood, Nathan Henderson, 2Lt., Pilot, Enlistment Service # : 10113030
Officer's Service # : O-672075
KILLED IN ACTION on 05 July 1943 on Bombing Mission on the Gerbini Main Satellite #1.  The Plane Took a Direct Hit by Enemy Flak, and Went Down in Flames, ALL 5 Crew Members Were Killed, As Well As Special Assistant, "PFC Scrappy", The Pilot's (Lt. Shapiro's) Little Dog.

447th BS:  Extracts from Missing Air Crew Report # 71:  Started over field at 1055.  Flew 84° for 193 miles to Bianco point at 37° 12 minutes N., 13° 40 minutes N.  Started letting down 5 miles from coast at 1115 and hit the deck at 1125.  Started climb at 1146 and reached 10000 feet at 1202.  Reached Bianco point at 1208 then at 68°  63 miles to Catenanuova and 127° for 10 miles to target.  Made bomb run at 9000 feet then left turn and retraced course.

A/C No.   41-64657 (MACR-71 - shot down – direct hit)
P Shapiro, Leonard L. “Shap”, 1Lt - KIA - DED
CP Greenwood, Nathan H., 2Lt - KIA - DED
N None
B Schulze, George F., S/Sgt - KIA - DED
E None listed
R Waldrip, Robert L., T/Sgt - KIA - DED
G Rider, Lawrence E., S/Sgt - KIA - DED
F PFC Scrappy (Lt Shapiro’s “little dog”) - KIA - DED

Eyewitness Account:  DeMoss, Jack M., 1Lt, pilot, 447th BS

447th BOMBARDMENT SQUADRON (M) AAF
321st BOMBARDMENT GROUP (M) AAF
A.P.O. # 520
July 6, 1943
Monday, 5 July 1943 (continued)

SUBJECT:  Eye Witness Account.
TO           :  All Concerned.

1.  While leaving the target of the combat mission on July 5, 1943 a B-25 in an element of three planes in front of me started smoking and pulled out of the formation apparently in distress.  It appeared that this plane had been hit by flak in the left engine, as the smoke streaming from the left engine steadily became worse and the plane continued to lose altitude rapidly.

2.  After this ship had lost several thousand feet of altitude (still smoking) I decided to follow it down in order to cover it.  When we reached a position approximately 500 feet above and slightly to the rear right hand side the black smoke stopped and white smoke lasting about 10 seconds appeared from the left engine nacelle.  At this point the smoke stopped.

3.  About one minute later the plane seemed to stall-out and flip over to the left on its back, tail-high, at an altitude of approximately 100 feet and dive into the ground.  Upon hitting the ground it immediately burst into flame.  No one on my crew saw occupants of the distressed plane bail out at any time or any sign of life after the crash.  The crash occurred at 1240.
JACK M. DEMOSS,
1st Lieut., A. C.,
Pilot.

Monday, 5 July 1943

447th BS Special Account:  The report submitted by Group to Higher Headquarters regarding the bombing raid on Gerbini L/G was as follows:  At 10:15 36 B-25s took off to bomb Gerbini Satellite #1.  None returned early.  36 dropped 265 x 300 bombs from 8400-9500 at 12:30.  Due to haze and poor visibility, target was seen too late so main A/D was bombed.  Hits seen on runway, revetments, taxi strip, and hangar.  Planes on field hit:  4 fires seen.  35 planes down at 14:30.  1 plane sent down in flames over Sicily.  1 plane went down in the sea (crew was seen to board life rafts).  1 plane landed at Tunis to discharge wounded man.
Ten 447th planes participated in the raid and most of those were part of the third and last flight in the formation.  Pilots were as follows:  Capt. Seel, Capt. Morton, Lt. Cohagan, Lt. Nixon, Lt. Grantham, Lt. Brinkley, Lt. McGowan, Lt. Hengel, Lt. DeMoss, and Lt. Shapiro.
Brinkley, Hamilton M., 1Lt, pilot Cohagan, McKinley B. “Kin”, 2Lt, pilot
DeMoss, Jack M., 1Lt, pilot             Grantham, Charles H. “Granny”, 1Lt, pilot
Hengel, Edward D., 2Lt, pilot McGowan, Francis E., 2Lt, pilot
Morton, William H. "Mort", Capt, pilot Nixon, Donald O., 2Lt, pilot
Seel, Peter B., Jr., Capt, pilot Shapiro, Leonard L. "Shap", 1Lt, pilot
Heavy, intense, and accurate flak was encountered from Porto Empedocle while approaching the target area.  Within a ten mile radius of the target proper the flak was also heavy, intense, and accurate.  Of the ten planes (447), three received sufficiently serious hits by flak to wound members of the crews and a fourth crashed in flames as the result of flak hit.
The plane which crashed in flames was piloted by 1st Lt. Leonard L. Shapiro.  As related by Lt. DeMoss who followed the ship down, it appeared that one engine had been hit and was on fire.  He believes that Lt. Shapiro put the plane into a dive in an effort to put the fire out.  The plane was not brought out of the dive and was seen by Lt. DeMoss to crash to the ground, go over on its back and continue to burn.  Capt. Seel saw the plane at 2000 ft. headed downward.  2nd Lt. Nathan H. Greenwood was co-pilot on the ship.  The bombardier was S/Sgt. George F., Schulze, the radio operator was T/Sgt. Robert L. Waldrip and the Gunner was S/Sgt. Lawrence Rider.  The plane, #42-64657, had not been modified.  None of the crew was seen to bail out before the plane crashed.
DeMoss, Jack M., 1Lt, pilot          Greenwood, Nathan H., 2Lt, pilot
Rider, Lawrence E., S/Sgt, gunner          Schulze, George F., S/Sgt, bombardier
Seel, Peter B., Jr., Capt, pilot          Shapiro, Leonard L. "Shap", 1Lt, pilot
Waldrip, Robert L., T/Sgt, radio-gunner
Capt. Seel’s plane was hit in the left engine and the engine cut out over Beja on the return trip.  He landed safely on one engine.  The plexiglass on the turret was shattered by flak.  S/Sgt. Jenson, the turret gunner, suffered lacerations of the face.  Lt. Garrett, bombardier in Lt. DeMoss’s ship suffered laceration of the elbow from flak which came through the plexiglass in the nose of the ship.  A flak burst near the nose of Lt. Cohagan’s ship injured him, his bombardier, Lt. Hartis, and his observer, Capt. Manly, who was in the nose of the ship with Lt. Hartis.  Lt. Cohagan suffered laceration of the face, Lt. Hartis contusion of the hip and laceration of the leg, Capt. Manly lacerations of the finger and leg.  Lt. Cohagan landed at Tunis where Capt. Manly was left for medical treatment.  The rest of the crew returned to their home base the same afternoon.
Cohagan, McKinley B. “Kin”, 2Lt, pilot DeMoss, Jack M., 1Lt, pilot
Garrett, Andy K., 2Lt, bombardier, navigator Hartis, John G., 2Lt, bombardier
Jensen, Aage E., S/Sgt, gunner          
Manly, Robert W. "Horse", Capt, intelligence Seel, Peter B., Jr., Capt, pilot

447th BS:  War Diary of:  McDuff, Daniel R. “Ruff Stuff”, 1Lt, pilot
“July 5th was my day off and I recon I’m kind of glad it was.  The boys had a very tough mission, raiding the Gerbini Airfields.  Some big shot somewhere had his head up and locked and “ordered” that they follow the course he prescribed.  It was a honey.  They were to approach the target area from the south, going west of it so that, when they got well north of it, a turn to the right would bring them southwest to the target.  They were to make a 270° turn to the left after dropping their bombs, fly west a way, then go back off the island to the south the same way they had come in.  And it was a long way from the target to the coast!  It would be just begging for trouble.
And they got it.  Shapiro was shot down and crashed on the island---DeMoss, who followed him down to give him what protection he could, said Shap crashed and burned—not a chance to live through it.  Bradley, of the 446th, was shot down abut 8 or 10 miles off the coast of Sicily, and several others were shot up pretty bad.  Cohagan and his crew took a beating---as did his passenger, Capt. R.W. Manly, who got various and sundry pieces of flak here and there and nearly had the top of one of his fingers torn off.  Cohagan landed at Tunis and left him in the hospital there.  He is not back yet, but should be in a few days.  Apparently there was nothing really serious.”
Bradley, James L., Jr., 1Lt, pilot, 446th BS          
Cohagan, McKinley B. “Kin”, 2Lt, pilot
DeMoss, Jack M., 1Lt, pilot
Manly, Robert W. “Horse”, Capt, intelligence
Shapiro, Leonard L. "Shap", 1Lt, pilot

447th BS:  War Diary of:  Stephenson, Henry W. "Steve", 2Lt, pilot (mission 1)
TARGET:  Gerbini Satellite   3:55   300 lbs
Plane 925 (41-12925 “Huckelberry Duck”): Lt. Grantham, Lt. Stephenson, Lt. McCone, S/Sgt Kramer, T/Sgt, Anderson, S/Sgt Draper
“One A/C landed at Tunis.  One landed in Sicily and broke into flame.  One A/C landed 3 miles off Bianco H. and crew seen in dinghy.  Hits seen on runway taxi strips & hangars.  Flak heavy accurate.  Lt. Shapiro and crew forced down over target.  Capt. Manly an observer was hospitalized.”
Manly, Robert W. “Horse”, Capt, intelligence          Shapiro, Leonard L., 1Lt, pilot

Nathan

Monday, 5 July 1943

Heavy, intense, and accurate flak was encountered from Porto Empedocle while

approaching the target area. Within a ten mile radius of the target proper the flak was

also heavy, intense, and accurate. Of the ten planes (447), three received sufficiently

serious hits by flak to wound members of the crews and a fourth crashed in flames as the

result of flak hit.

The plane which crashed in flames was piloted by 1st Lt. Leonard L. Shapiro. As

related by Lt. DeMoss who followed the ship down, it appeared that one engine had been

hit and was on fire. He believes that Lt. Shapiro put the plane into a dive in an effort to

put the fire out. The plane was not brought out of the dive and was seen by Lt. DeMoss

to crash to the ground, go over on its back and continue to burn. Capt. Seel saw the plane

nd Lt. Nathan H. Greenwood was co-pilot on the ship.

The bombardier was S/Sgt. George F., Schulze, the radio operator was T/Sgt. Robert L.

Waldrip and the Gunner was S/Sgt. Lawrence Rider. The plane, #42-64657, had not been

modified. None of the crew was seen to bail out before the plane crashed.