LeRoy A Dryer

A Story of LeRoy “Lee” Arthur Dyer

LeRoy “Lee” Arthur Dyer was born on Christmas day, Saturday December 25th, 1920 in Lansing Michigan. Lee was the only child to his father Arthur, who was a Carpenter, and his mother, Florence Mae “Flossie”, who was a home maker.

Lee grew up going to Lansing public schools and graduated from Central High School in 1939. In the description next to his senior photo it states, “Big things come in little packages”, which was likely a reference to Lee’s five-foot two-inch height. It also lists Lee as a member of the cross-country track team, the president of the model airplane and yacht club, the outdoor sportsman club, and the radio club. His senior photo shows a confident young man that had the world at his fingertips and ready to take the tiger by the tail.

After high school, Lee worked at the Consumers Power company in Lansing, which is still in business at the time of this writing. I am sure that lee was enjoying the youthful life of a 21-year-old when he heard the news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked and that America was at war. In February of 1942, Lee registered for the draft, but could not wait unit his number was called, so he enlisted into the United States Army Airforce as a flying cadet on March 13th, 1942.

Lee’s first went to Pre-flight training at Santa Ana Airfield in California. Lee next went to Williams Field in Arizona, where Lee obtained his commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Force and an even prouder moment was when they pinned the silver wings of a Bombardier on him. Le went to Barksdale Field Louisiana for additional training and then went to Carlsbad New Mexico for his final training and assignment before being shipped overseas.

Lee was assigned to the 587th Bomber Squadron of the 394th Bomb Group. Lee flew in B-26 Marauder, which was a medium bomber with two engines. Lee and his unit made the move overseas in July of 1943 and were stationed at an airfield near Chelmsford, England.

Lee was assigned as the Bombardier on a B-26, with the tail number of 42-107592. His crew mates were:

Lt Tommie Potts- Pilot

Lt Christian Burger-Co-Pilot

Sgt George J Kyle- Radio Operator

Sgt James M Long- Engineer

Sgt George W Williams- Gunner

The B-26 bomber that Lee and his crewmates flew on was proudly named “Stinky”.

Over the course of the next several months, Lee flew many missions over enemy territory. He and his crew gained valuable experience and Lee was promoted to First Lieutenant and he received several Air Medals for his actions in combat.

In March of 1944, Lee was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions in a series of missions over enemy territory. An article was published in the March 12th, 1944 edition of the Lansing State Journal, which quotes Lee describing one of these missions:

“The most exciting of these missions, was an attack against an airdrome in Holland. The flak was extremely heavy and accurate. Some of it peppered our ship and when the plexi-glass nose was hit, with what we call ‘plexi-flak’. Luckily, I escaped injury.”

At that point, Lee had flown 33 combat missions and on everyone, “Stinky” brought him and his crewmates safely back to base. In April and May of 1944, Lee and his unit focused on bombing targets that would be in support of the upcoming invasion of France. Some of the targets were transport areas, lines of communication and fortifications. By the end of May 1944, Lee had flown over 50 combat missions.

On the morning of June 6th, 1944 Lee would have been awoken at 3 or 4 in the morning. A quick breakfast and then into the briefing room where Lee would have learned that the mission for that day was to bomb areas in direct support of the landings in Normandy France. Although the weather was poor around their base, clouds and fog reduced visibility quite a bit, because the mission had to do with the invasion it must have been somewhat exciting.

Around 0530 hrs., Lee and his crew took up their positions in their plane “Stinky”. Tommy Potts, Stinky’s pilot, taxied the plane into position and they waited their turn for takeoff. When it was their turn, Lee would have been in the nose of the plane and would have felt the familiar vibration of the plane’s engines as the pilot pushed them to full power. The plane rolled down the runway and lifted off, slowly disappearing into the low clouds and fog. The crew of Stinky flew a southeasterly course and towards the coastal English village of Hastings. There they would form up with the other B-26s and fly towards the Normandy coast and their targets.

At 0600 hrs., the crew of Stinky approached the area over the village of Battle in Sussex County and collided with another B-26 in the low visibility conditions. What happened during this time is best described by the only survivor of the two B-26 bombers, Stinky’s Pilot, Tommy Potts in an article posted on http://gillinghambattleb26crash.weebly.com/ :

“The bad weather had caused icing up of the planes. Pilots of both planes were flying on instruments at the time of the accident. Weather at the time was noted to be: Vis 7mi, wind 8 mi, 7/10 Stata Cumulus. Tommie Potts, the only person to survive either crash, had felt no distinct jar as would be in a collision. He had stated that his aircraft kept veering to the left and at one point was on its back. He instructed the Bombardier to jettison bombs and then gave the signal to abandon the aircraft. The crew had gone to the bomb bay and Lt Potts, assuming that the Bombardier had left the doors opened, waited for a minute, lowered the nose wheel and bailed out. The crew had worked feverishly to dump the high-altitude bombs so that they would fall unexploded as the plane neared its crash landing. The 592 (Lee’s plane Stinky) crashed at Watlington Level (English village) and the 249 crashed at Asbumham Place.”

An English Civil Defense worker witnessed the crash and described it:

“Standing below in Whatlingon Level was a young teenage, Ian Cheveralls, a messenger for the Civil Defense Air Warden. He was watching the planes flying through the clouds above when the crash occurred about 500 yards from where he stood. Upon the crash he ran towards the planes and could hear Lt Potts calling out for his crew. Ian aided in the rescue of Lt Potts the lone survivor, the bodies of his crew were found in the bomb bay.”

The article also describes the valor of the crews of the doomed B-26s:

“It should be recognized that by the quick and professional actions of Lt Tommie Potts and Lt Witcher Berger (Pilot of the other B-26) who both gave orders to jettison the bombs and the crew members who followed out these orders, civilian casualties could have been considerable in both cases. These men gave their lives and in doing so prevented this from happening. There was considerable damage suffered at Ashburnham place and the surrounding property when the bombs on board exploded. The crater this explosion left was so large that is beyond doubt if a similar incident had taken place at Watlington Level, Battle or Gillingham the results would have been catastrophic.”

On Tuesday, June 6th, 1944 Leroy A, Dyer gave his life for our country and in an effort to save the countless of civilians in the English villages below his doomed aircraft. He was 23 years old.

On Wednesday June 21st, 1944, Lee’s mother, Florence Mae received a telegram that would have broken her heart. It would have informed her, with deepest sympathy, that her only child had given his life for his country.

Lee was temporarily interned in a military cemetery in England. In December of 1948, Lee’s parents received news that Lee’s body would be returned to Lansing for his Funeral and final burial. On February 19th, 1949, Funeral services for First Lieutenant Leroy A. Dyer were held at the Estes-Leadley Colonial chapel. Reverend J. Clyde Lawder officiated and military services were rendered by the W.R. Johnson Post No. 205 of the American Legion. Lee’s final resting place was in the Pioneer Cemetery.

Rest easy soldier, you are honored by a grateful nation and you will not be forgotten.

Story by Troy Burnett 4-27-2021

This brief biography was written for the Stories Behind the Stars Project which is a national group of volunteers with the goal to preserve a written memorial on Fold3.com for all 400,000+ soldiers that were fallen during WWII. The hope is that eventually a smartphone app will be developed that will allow people to scan a soldier's gravestone and be able to access his/her story.

References:

http://gillinghambattleb26crash.weebly.com/42-107592-crew-sheet.html

https://www.ancestry.com/search/?name=Leroy_Dyer&birth=1920_lansing-eaton-michigan-usa_43887&death=1944

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/94960114/leroy-arthur-dyer

http://gillinghambattleb26crash.weebly.com/

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=468846.0

http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=8935.0;wap2

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/109724

unnamed (1).jpg

High School.png

LeRoy A Dyer