JOHNSON MEMORIAL HAMSTREET - Kent Fallen

1st Lt. William H. Johnson
Memorial - Hamstreet
The memorial and the surrounding as shown in the photograph above, was
erected and established to honour the memory of 23 year old 1st Lieutenant
William H. Johnson of the U.S.A.A.F. who sacrificed his life on Thursday 13
April 1944. William was the pilot of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, serial
number 42-31719 of the 711th Bombardment Squadron, 447th Bombardment
Group, United States Army Air Force. At the time of his death William’s
squadron was based at U.S.A.A.F. Station No.125, Rattlesden, Bury St.
Edmunds, Suffolk. Following the crew briefing which had been at 0800 hours,
William’s aircraft was one of 243 B-17’s which were taking part in a raid to
bomb the Messerschmitt aircraft plant at Augsburg in Bavaria southern
Germany. The American bombers taking part in the raid were loaded with
170 General Purpose and 226 incendiary bombs. The bombing altitude of
22,000 feet was reached as the Group crossed the French coast.
Approximately 100 miles from the French coast the bombers came under
heavy, accurate flak fire which caused a number of planes to abort and head
home, including William’s aircraft having suffered heavy damage. Once the
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Flying Fortress was over the Kent coast at Hythe, William ordered his crew
to bale out from their stricken aircraft, but he took decision to attempt to
crash land his aircraft. As he crossed the Romney Marsh and approaching the
village of Hamstreet, William realised that his B-17 was going to crash into
the village, and in order to avoid the inevitable loss of life amongst the local
population, he sacrificed his own life by crashing the huge bomber to the
south of the village. During the raid, 18 B-17s were lost, 2 damaged beyond
repair and 178 damaged. The initial U.S.A.A.F. casualties for the Augsburg
raid were recorded as 3 killed, 16 wounded and 170 missing, the number of
fatalities increased when recorded on later data. William and all of those lost
on the same raid are commemorated in the illuminated American Roll of
Honour Book 1941-1946 in St. Pauls Cathedral, London, in which is inscribed
the names of those Americans serving with the Canadian, British and United
States Armed Forces, who gave their lives while en-route to or while
stationed in the United Kingdom. It also includes those members of units
permanently based in the United Kingdom who made the supreme sacrifice
between D-Day and VE-Day. At the time of his death William and his crew
who are named below, had flown together on 20 bombing raids to Germany:-
2nd Lieutenant Harold W. Whitely Co-Pilot, of Limerick, Maine, U.S.A.
2nd Lieutenant William S. Fancher Navigator, of Walton, New York, U.S.A.
2nd Lieutenant George H. Ney, Bombadier,
Technical Staff Sergeant John A. Higgins, Radio Operator, of Kew Gardens,
Long Island, New York, U.S.A.
Technical Staff Sergeant Kenneth L. Zieger, Ball Turret Gunner, of
Mishawaka, Indiana, U.S.A.
Technical Sergeant Elbert J. Williams, Left Waist Gunner, of Kansas City,
Montana, U.S.A.
Technical Sergeant Paul E. Simpson, Right Waist Gunner.
Technical Staff Sergeant Peter Bartkus, Tail Gunner, of Lowell,
Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Technical Sergeant Frank J. Hazzard, Top Turret Gunner.
The latter member of the crew, Technical Sergeant Frank J. Hazzard, of 2541
Belden Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., submitted the following report. “For
about twenty minutes after we hit the French coast and were well on our way
to Augsburg everything went along smoothly but then suddenly all hell began
to break loose. A terrific explosion sounded directly beneath my turret, I
knew we had been hit pretty badly because I heard the co-pilot saying that he
was going to feather number four engine and that number three was out also.
The power line in my top turret was hit also, rendering my guns useless. All
four officers had been wounded by the flak so I proceeded to the cockpit to see
if there were anything I could do. The co-pilot had been hit in the arm rather
badly; I cut his sleeve open and bandaged his wrist and arm. The pilot had
been hit also in the back of the neck but he told me to take care of the
navigator first. I then went to the nose of the ship and saw that the navigator
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had been hit in the leg. I slit open his trouser leg; the wound was bleeding
very badly and I knew he must have been in great pain but all the time I was
working on his leg he stood up and continued to navigate the ship. The
bombardier had also been hit in the arm but the cut was not bleeding so I
figured that he would be OK. About this time the co-pilot called and asked me
to transfer the fuel from number four to number one engine. This done I
proceeded to throw all my ammunition and ammunition boxes, flak helmet,
and other moveable equipment out of the plane in order to lighten the load. I
went to the nose and did the same thing there. About this time we were hit
again and number one engine went out. We were flying on one engine and
losing altitude and flying speed all the time. I guess we were in a pretty bad
spot but I was too busy running from my turret to the nose to the cockpit and
back again to think too much about it. "Down in the nose I put another
bandage on the navigator's leg. By this time I knew the leg must have been
paining him horribly but he still continued to navigate the ship. He did a
wonderful job, in my opinion he deserves a lot of the credit for getting us
home. When we hit the channel we were flying at 8,000 feet, when we finally
reached the English coat we were at 1500 feet. Just as I was thinking that we
were going to make it back home in one piece, I felt the ship vibrating
something awful, looking out of my window I saw that she was on fire. I was
in the nose at the time, tapping the navigator on the shoulder I showed him
the fire. He nodded his assent. I then went back to the pilot's compartment, I
saw the Bombardier on the catwalk of the bomb bay looking for his chute. I
remembered that he had left it in my turret position so I immediately went
there and got the chute since the Bombardier because of his wounded arm
couldn't get the chute on I snapped it on for him and assisted him in getting
out of the plane through the open bomb bay. By this time I thought everyone
outside of the pilot and myself had left the ship, I looked towards his seat and
saw him getting up preparing to jump. Later on I found out that he had never
gotten out of the plane but had been killed when it crashed about a half mile
from where I jumped. We were now at 800 feet so I figured it was high time
for me to get the hell out of the plane. I went out through the bomb bay.
When I landed I saw the co-pilot a few feet away. The first thing he said to
me was, 'Combat's rough, you can get hurt at this sort of thing.' It struck me
very funny at the moment but I guess there's nothing very humorous about
what we went through. If it hadn't been for the courage and skill of our pilot
in bringing the ship home the wreck it was on one engine; and for the
wonderful job done by our navigator even though he was in constant pain and
weak through loss of blood, we never could have made it back.” During the
mid 1990’s the village of Hamstreet finally got a bypass, during the
construction of which a new road junction was formed on land owned by J.W.
Goddard & Sons of Ham Mill Farm, Hamstreet, who also owned the ground
where William had died on Thursday 13 April 1944. The above road junction
was named “Johnsons Corner” in rememberance of William H. Johnson.
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1st LIEUTENANT WILLIAM H. JOHNSON U.S.A.A.F.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.
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Memorial Plaque at the centre of the William H. Johnson Memorial.
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