Putnam, Connecticut – November 29, 1944
On the morning of November 29, 1944, a flight of four P-47 fighter aircraft took off from Hillsgrove Army Air Field in Warwick, Rhode Island, for a training flight. While flying in formation over northern Rhode Island and into eastern Connecticut the flight encountered some clouds at their altitude and briefly flew threw them. When the flight emerged from the scud they discovered one aircraft was missing.
The missing P-47, (Ser. No. 42-8665), was piloted by 1st Lt. Robert W. Anderson, 27. Lt. Anderson’s plane was seen by people on the ground to come diving out of the clouds before it crashed and exploded into a brook next to a house on School Street in Putnam. (Nobody in the house was injured.)
When military personnel arrived on scene and began recovery operations they discovered the pilot’s body missing. A search was undertaken, and the pilot’s body was found in a wooded area on the Apley Farm in Putnam – his parachute unopened.
Lt. Anderson is buried in Irving Park Cemetery in Chicago.
Sources
U. S, Army Air Forces Accident Report #45-11-29-16.
Providence Journal, “Army Digs In Vain To Find Pilot Who Dived Into Brook At Putnam”, November 30, 1944, pg. 1.
The Putnam Patriot, “Tri-State Search For Missing Army Pilot”, November 30, 1944, page 1.
www.findagrave.com