LT. GUY JOHNSON ON MISSING LIST.
Liberator Bomber Pilot Was on Raid of Germany.
Mrs. Arthur Harrison, 415 ½ East First street, learned Wednesday of the official notification from the War Department that her brother, Lt. Guy W. Johnson, 27, son of Mrs. C. E. Johnson, Parkersburg, Ia., has been missing on a bombing mission over Germany since April 8.
According to an Associated Press story of April 9, a total of 30 bombers were lost in a raid over Brunswick, Germany, on April 8.
Lieutenant Johnson was first pilot on a Liberator bomber and had been based in England since last December. He wrote on March 28 that he had successfully completed 10 missions over Germany.
Johnson worked five years for the Rock Island Argus, Rock Island, Ill., as a linotype operator before enlisting for army service in March, 1942. Called to active duty the following August, he was graduated from bomber school at Lubbock, Tex., on May 21, 1943.
He completed his crew training and was made first pilot at Clovis, N.M. before being sent overseas, and had been promoted from second to first lieutenant since his arrival in England.
A brother, Dan J. P. Ryan, is editor of the Parkersburg Eclipse, Parkersburg, Ia., and a sister, Miss Eva Johnson, is with the American Red Cross in England. She wrote recently that her brother had spent two leaves with her during the last two months.
Telegrams from wives of two other crew members, one in Baltimore, Md., and the other from Houston, Tex., told Lieutenant Johnson’s mother of similar messages they had received.
Source: The Courier, Waterloo IA – Wednesday, April 26, 1944 (photo included)
Guy William Johnson was born Apr. 7, 1917 to Clarence E. and Bertha A. Melter Johnson. He died Apr. 8, 1944 and is buried in Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial, Neuville-en-Condroz, Liege, Belgium.
Lt. Johnson served in World War II with the U.S. Army Air Corps 44th Bomb Group, 506th Bomb Squadron based in Shipdham, UK. He was the pilot of B-24J #42-73506 ‘Black Jack’ and was KIA on a mission to attack the Airdrome, Langhagen, Germany. He received the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster and Purple Heart.
Source: ancestry.com
