My Great Uncle "Yank" Griffith Morgan Eldridge was a tail gunner on a B-24 in World War II. He flew many missions.

His last missions he was not really suppose to be on but sat in for a tail gunner that was sick, as did a few other crewmen. Having achieved their missions they were returning back to base when they recieved heavy fire. My Great Uncle stayed on the tail gun to draw fire away while the rest of the crew jumped safely from the plane. He waited till the plane was at a low altitude and then tried to jump as there was not a parachute for him.

His body was found a year later with a badly broken leg, ribs and so forth a mile from a village under the mountain Balon in Zederhaus. He was buried in Saint Avoids, Lorrraine France.

The Captain and other crew members reported this information as soon as they were liberated from the prisoner camps to both their commanding officers and My Great Grandmother and family.

His plane was the CITADEL, he was with the 725th. To my Father and to me he was and always will be a Hero, thank you Footnote for this page to him.

Griffith M Eldridge