S SGT Harry Joseph Allen (39621301), U.S. Army Air Forces

Harry Joseph Allen was born 22 August 1918 at Parker Hospital in the western Montana town of Missoula. The town was just over 60 years old at that time, but growing in the heart of Montana’s timber country. The logging industry needed the railroad to grow, and the Northern Pacific Railroad answered the call. The railroad arrived in 1883; most jobs in the area were related to those two industries.

Harry’s father, Joseph (Joe) Hampton Allen, was a railroader, like his father. Joe was a young man--23 years old—when his first son was born and given the family names of Harry Joseph. Harry’s mother, Hildagarde (Hilda) Violette Allen was also young, 20 years old when her son was born. Another son, William Elden (Bill), was born in 1920.

The two young boys lost their mother in January 1930 due to complications from surgery, and life was challenging. Bill’s obituary in 2007 stated that the two boys lived a nomadic lifestyle with their father on the railroad. Records also show that they lived with relatives for a time; Bill’s obituary states that they also boarded with nuns in Missoula for a time.

By the time Harry registered for the draft at age 22 on 16 October 1940, he was living in Livingston, MT and working for the railroad himself. At the time he is described as 5 ft. 10-1/2 inches tall, 170 lbs, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He was inducted into the service on 2 December 1943.

S SGT Allen trained to be a gunnery crew member on the B-24, a four-engine heavy bomber. Nicknamed “The Great Liberator,” the B-24 bombers were mammoth airplanes. The Liberator could reach an airspeed of nearly 300 mph while carrying a 5,000-lb. bomb load with a range of 1,700 miles. They were a workhorse aircraft, and no other U.S. combat plane was produced in such great numbers as the Liberator.

S SGT Allen was assigned to the 8th Air Forces 448th Bomber Group, and trained with the 10-member crew of pilot 1LT Robert Mains, at Gowen Field in Boise, ID. Aerial gunnery was a specialized skill. Waist gunners, like S SGT Allen, were shooting from the side of the bomber. Bullets ended up being sprayed sideways. The gunner had to instantly consider several variables including the speed of their bomber, the speed and movement of an attacking fighter, and basic ballistics like leading a target, range and drop.

A six-week accelerated gunnery training course began with firing pivoting pellet guns, progressed to skeet shooting at moving targets with shotguns, and finally to the use of .30 and .50 caliber machine guns. There was also training in range estimation and airplane identification.

S SGT Allen and the crew of the B-24M Liberator they flew (SN 44-50838, nicknamed “Red Bow”), arrived at Seething Field, England in September 1944. The bomber and crew were replacements in the 448th Bomb Group/714th Bomb Squadron. The group had lost 79 bombers prior to their arrival.

Bombers from the Group performed heavy bombing on Axis war production facilities, chemical plants, and oil refineries. During the Battle of the Bulge, bombers of the 448th struck communications and transportation facilities in the combat zone.

Red Bow’s crew on 4 April 1945 was:

2LT George S. Alexander, Top Turret Gunner/Observer

S/SGT Harry J. Allen, Waist Gunner

T/SGT Charles E. Cupp, Radio Operator

SGT Charles H. Daman, Nose Gunner

1LT Allan L. Lake, Navigator

1LT John E. LaRiviere, Co-Pilot

1LT Robert L. Mains, Pilot

T/SGT Frank S. Merkovich, Flight Engineer

SGT Stuart D. Van Deventer, Tail Gunner

SGT Anthony C. Villari, Waist Gunner

On 4 April 1945, the B-24 Liberator “Red Bow” and her crew were part of a wave of 1,431 bombers sent from the 8th Air Forces over German airfields and shipyards. S SGT Allen was the left waist gunner on this mission. They were accompanied by 866 fighters. The Red Bow’s formation was targeting airbases in Wesendorf, Germany.

At approximately 0920 the bomb bay doors were just opened when Red Bow was attacked by a German Messerschmitt Me262 fighter jet, piloted by Luftwaffe “Ace” Rudolph Rademacher. The twin engine fighter fired an air-to-air rocket with an explosive warhead that struck Red Bow in the midsection near the waist gunners’ positions.

In a startling photograph taken by a crewmember of an accompanying bomber, the doomed B-24 Liberator is hurtling toward the ground and breaking up. The tail section is spinning beside her. Amazingly, one crewmember, radio operator T SGT Charles E. Cupp, was able to find a parachute and plunge out the open bomb bay doors. He deployed his chute close to the ground, and reported hearing a loud explosion as the bomber hit the ground near Ludwigslust, Germany. He was taken prisoner, and stated that German authorities told him that his fellow crew members were all killed in the crash, and showed him dog tags and personal effects from all but one of the men.

The U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency reports that in 2007 a U.S. investigative team traveled to Ludwigslust and found aircraft pieces correlating to the B-24M Red Bow. In 2014 and 2015, teams returned to crash site, re-excavated the site and recovered human remains. Two of Red Bow’s crewmembers were identified from among recovered bone fragments. As of today, the remains of S SGT Harry Joseph Allen remain unidentified. He is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

If you noticed anything that I missed in this profile, you can contact me at wesgibbs53@gmail.com

SOURCES

U.S. Federal Census: 1920, 1930, 1940

Draft Card: https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/24895321:2238

Montana Military Record: https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/47929:62068

Findagrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56296280/harry-joseph-allen

Headstone and Interment Records for U.S., Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942-1949:

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/30184578:9170

Personnel Profile, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency: https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000XfEmEAK

Information on this bomber and photo of plane breaking up:

https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/aircraft/44-50838

Detailed history of this bomber and fighter that shot it down:

https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/44-50838/

Harry J Allen