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Submit- Full
name
COLLINSWORTH, Lacy - Date of
birth
3 October 1921 -
Age
21 - Place of
birth
Magoffin County, Kentucky -
Hometown
Starke County, Indiana
Personal info
Military service
- Service
number
35361967 -
Rank
Staff Sergeant -
Function
Ball Turret Gunner -
Unit
563rd Bombardment Squadron,
388th Bombardment Group, Heavy
-
Awards
Purple Heart,
Air Medal
Death
-
Status
Missing in Action - Date of
death
25 July 1943 - Place of
death
North Sea, west of Denmark
Grave
-
Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten - Walls of the Missing
Immediate family
-
Members
Walter Collinsworth (father)
Myrtle M. (Marshall) Collinsworth (mother)
Roy E. Collinsworth (brother)
Haywood Collinsworth (brother)
Chester D. Collinsworth (brother)
Wannie M. Collinsworth (sister)
Waneta D. Collinsworth (sister)
Dallsa D. Collinsworth (brother)
Geneva Collinsworth (sister)
Plane data
- Serial
number
42-5907 -
Data
Type: B-17G
Nickname: Wing and a Prayer
Destination: Hamburg, Germany
Mission: Bombing of the diesel engine works
MACR: 3120
More information
S/Sgt Lacy Collinsworth enlisted in Indianapolis, Indiana in August 1942.The mission of the day was bombing the diesel engine works in Hamburg, but due to cloud cover the airfield of Rerik-Zweedorf was bombed.
The precise details as to the manner in which this airplane was lost are not very clear. No one of the returning crew members on the other aircraft in the group were certain of the last time they saw it. The only thing that is certainis that it bombed the target together with the rest of the formation. One crew reported it missing shortly after the formation had left the target. Another crew seemed to have felt that it broke away from the group as it passed the Danish west coast and headed to join a larger group. At that time it didn't seem to be in any particular trouble. However this airplane was last seen being attacked by enemy fighters. It is thought that the airplane must have went down in the North Sea somewhere west of the Danish peninsula. The fact that the remains of two crew members washed ashore makes it certain it crashed into the sea.
The entire crew of ten men was killed. Eight of them are still unaccounted for.
Source of information: Peter Schouteten, Raf Dyckmans, Noël Claessens, www.388bg.org, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov, www.ancestry.com - Tinals Family Tree
Photo source: Jac Engels, www.b17flyingfortress.de, www.388thbga.org