Gen. Nathan Bedord Forrest III, the great grandson of the Civil War (and Ku Klux Klan) leader was killed in a bombing raid against the German submarine base at Kiel on July 13, 1943. Some say he was the first American general to die in combat in World War II but that’s parsing things.
Brigadier General Guy O. Fort of the 81st Philippine Division was captured, tortured and executed by the Japanese in January 1942, while Brigadier Gen. Charles L. Keerans Jr., assistant division commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, went missing in action on June 11, 1943 due to a friendly fire incident and was later declared dead.
Nathan Bedord Forrest III William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 7-13-19
USAAF Major General Clarence Tinker died in combat, at the end of the Battle of Midway, a year before Forrest. Tinker led a flight of B-24s to from California to Midway, arriving after the naval battle had completed. He wanted to use the long-range bombers to attack Wake Island. On June 7th, he led his four bombers off, but the flight was threatened by heavy storms. Tinker’s plane was seen dropping and crashing into the ocean. It’s thought that he and his co-pilot had become disoriented or suffered vertigo in the storm. The other three planes turned back and aborted the mission.
He was an Osage Indian, too, the first Indian to make general.
Good stuff Brad, thanks
I learned about General Tinker because I want to build a model of his aircraft. I’ve got a 1/48 scale B-24 kit set aside.
Scale modeling is an educational hobby 😉