Bob Farrar Injured in Kamikaze Attack on USS Intrepid
Robert Burnham Farrar
By late 1944, Raleigh Mae Farrar would have more than one son in the war to worry about. George Edwin Farrar’s younger brother, Robert Burnham Farrar, known as Bob, had enlisted in the Navy on May 8 the year before, just a few months after turning eighteen. His parents were against it, thinking him too young to go to war, but he had made his mind up that he was going to serve his country like his older brothers Carroll and Ed.
Bob was serving on the USS Intrepid when it was attacked by two Japanese kamikaze pilots within five minutes on November 25, 1944, the day after Thanksgiving. Six officers and fifty-nine crew were killed, while about a hundred men were wounded. Bob survived the attack, but was injured, possibly from smoke inhalation from the resulting fire. He required later hospitalization.
The fire was reportedly extinguished in two hours. Still able to sail, Intrepid headed to San Francisco the next day, November 26, for repairs and arrived there on December 20.
A slide show of photos of the attack on the USS Intrepid on November 25, 1944 can be seen on YouTube.
Bob and older brother Ed as children in Atlanta, Georgia:
Left to right, George Edwin (Ed) Farrar and younger brother Robert Burnham (Bob) Farrar
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
Harry Liniger, Waist Gunner for the Brodie Crew
Harry Allen Liniger, Waist/Flexible Gunner on the James J. Brodie Crew
Harry Allen Liniger was born on August 9, 1924 in Steubenville, Ohio to Paul W. and Estella P. Liniger. Harry was named for an uncle, his father’s brother Harry, a WWI veteran.
Friends and schoolmates, left to right, Dink Bishop and Harry Liniger
Standing in front of Carrie Belle Carter’s mother’s house in Gatesville, NC
Harry and his friend, Dink, both graduated from the Edwards Military Institute.
Left to right: Harry Allen Liniger and Dink Bishop
Edwards Military Institute Graduation
At the age of 18, Harry – the Brodie crew waist gunner – enlisted in the Army Air Corps on March 24, 1943 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The courthouse where he enlisted was the very same courthouse at which his future wife’s great-grandfather enlisted in the Confederate States Army.
Harry trained at eight duty stations in the U.S. prior to going overseas:
- Fort Bragg, North Carolina
- 613 Training Group, St. Petersburg, Florida
- 403 Training Group, Miami Beach, Florida
- Academic Squadron 1, Scott Field, Illinois
- 4th Training Detachment, Harlingen, Texas
- Prov. Squadron, Lincoln, Nebraska
- Combat Crew Detachment, Ardmore, Oklahoma
- 23rd Prov. Squadron, Kearney, Nebraska
While Harry was serving his country in the Army Air Forces, his sweetheart, Carrie Belle Carter, waited for him here at home. During the war, Carrie worked at a German POW processing center in Newport News, Virginia.
Far left: Harry Allen Liniger, Waist/Flexible Gunner on the James J. Brodie Crew
After his training in the states, Harry was sent to the air station at Grafton Underwood, England. There he was part of the Eighth Air Force, 384th bomb group, 545th bomber squadron, a waist gunner on the John Joseph Brodie crew. Harry flew his first mission on August 7, 1944.
Far left: Harry Allen Liniger, Waist/Flexible Gunner on the James J. Brodie Crew
Flying his 16th mission with the James J. Brodie crew on September 28, 1944, Harry Liniger was aboard the Lazy Daisy. Harry and his crewmates were involved in a mid-air collision with the Lead Banana coming off the target at Magdeburg, Germany. With the Lazy Daisy going down, as Harry attempted to escape through the waist door, an explosion threw him from the ship. Harry survived the collision and became a prisoner of war, one of only three men from the Lazy Daisy to survive.
Far left: Harry Allen Liniger, Waist/Flexible Gunner on the James J. Brodie Crew
Second from right: Robert Doyle Crumpton, Engineer/Top Turret Gunner on the James J. Brodie Crew
Harry Liniger was held prisoner at Stalag Luft IV and was part of the Black March that started on February 6, 1945. He was eventually liberated in late April or early May, 1945 and returned to the states.
Notes:
- The other man identified in the above photo, Robert Doyle Crumpton, was the engineer/top turret gunner for the Brodie crew. He was aboard Lazy Daisy on September 28, and did not survive the mid-air collision.
- The unidentified men in the photographs may have been other Brodie crew members assuming the photos were taken at Grafton Underwood.
Harry was highly decorated during his military career, earning the following medals:
- Bronze Star
- Air Medal w/Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster
- Purple Heart
- European Campaign Medal
- WWII Victory Medal
- Good Conduct Medal
- American Campaign Medal
- Prisoner of War Medal
After returning to the states, while still on active duty, Harry and Carrie Belle married on July 26, 1945.
Harry Allen and Carrie Belle Carter Liniger on the far right, in Miami Beach just after their marriage
Harry Liniger was discharged from the Army Air Forces on October 31, 1945.
Thank you to Harry Liniger, Jr., Harry’s son, for supplying the photos and information presented in this post.
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
Second Letter Home from Prison Camp
On November 7, 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President of the United States, an unprecedented fourth term in office.
Two days later, on November 9, and far away from home and family in the states, George Edwin Farrar was still a patient in the hospital of Stalag Luft IV, a subsidiary camp of Stalag Luft III. It was now forty-two days after the mid-air collision between the Lead Banana and Lazy Daisy. This day, Farrar wrote his second letter home. This letter was postmarked January 17, 1945, and was marked with the date when the Farrar family in Atlanta, Georgia received it – March 23, 1945.
From the time of its writing, this letter took 134 days to reach its destination. Farrar’s situation by that time was much different from the day he penned that letter. In late November 1944, he had been moved from the hospital into a barracks in the prison camp. In his own words, Farrar described his condition at the time of his placement in the barracks as “I could only walk by shuffling my feet as I could not lift either leg to walk.”
Farrar must have worked very hard to regain his ability to walk. He could not have known at the time that in a few months he and all the other prisoners at Stalag Luft IV would be forced to march out of the camp and begin an 86-day journey across Germany to their final liberation on May 2, 1945. By the time of the Farrar family’s receipt of this letter on March 23, George Edwin Farrar had been marching for forty-five days. He was not, as it seemed from his letter, sitting in a German prison camp and “feeling fine.” He was tired and hungry to the point of starving.
This letter also indicates that by November 9, he had been told that he was the only survivor on the Lead Banana.
November 9, 1944
Kriegsgefangenenpost
Gefangenennummer 3885
Lager-Bezeichnung: Stalag Luft 3
Postmarked January 17, 1945
Marked Received March 23, 1945
Dearest Mother:
In a few more months I should be hearing from you and it will sure be nice. I think this is the longest I have ever gone without hearing from you. I hope you and Dad, and the rest of the family are getting along fine. As for myself, I am feeling fine, but miss that good cooking of yours. I’ll really keep you busy when I get home. I guess I have more luck than anyone to still be here, and not a thing wrong with me. Your prayers came in good. I still can’t believe I am alive. They said I was the only one out of my ship that is alive. Write often. Love, George
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
First Letter Home from Prison Camp
Twenty-six days after the mid-air collision between the Lazy Daisy and Lead Banana over Magdeburg, Germany, George Edwin Farrar (my dad) was allowed to write his first letter home. At the time, he was in a prison camp hospital, unable to walk from injuries suffered in the collision.
Farrar was also treated for wounds possibly sustained from the collision and/or perhaps during his capture. In a letter to his mother after he was liberated in May of 1945, he wrote, “When I hit the ground I received a little rough treatment from the Germans, but I expected it.” The “rough treatment” could have been anything from my recollection of what he described as being beaten with a stick to my Aunt Beverly’s recollection of his telling of being attacked with farm implements, like pitchforks and hoes. She also recalled his telling of the German soldiers saving him from being killed by the German peasants, and carrying him to a house where he was held until the next POW transport train took him to the interrogation center.
Aunt Beverly is my dad’s youngest sister, who was eight years old when my dad returned from the war. She also recalls him telling her that his wounds were treated with what she remembered as “gen-gen violet”, a liquid medicine that turned his skin purple. This must have been the antiseptic used by the Germans in WWII, gentian violet. Beverly is the only one of my dad’s siblings still alive today, and whose memory of the events of 1944 and 1945 in the Farrar household are helping me put together this history.
Farrar was held at Stalag Luft IV in Gross-Tychow, Poland, which was a subsidiary camp of Stalag Luft III. Even though this letter is dated October 24, 1944, it was not postmarked until December 15, 1944, and was not received by the Farrar family until January 18, 1945, exactly one week before his mother’s fifty-fifth birthday.
October 24, 1944
Kriegsgefangenenpost
Gefangenennummer 3885
Lager-Bezeichnung: Stalag Luft 3
[Postmarked December 15, 1944]
Dearest Mother: I find it rather hard to write even a letter as small as this. Of course, we can’t say much, but are being treated O.K. We have plenty books and I spend most of my time reading. I hope you will have plenty chicken when I get there. I think I could eat a couple all alone. I guess Gene is doing good in school by now. Tell him to study hard, and make good grades. How is Martha getting along with her new job. I hope she likes it. I’ll bet by now she is having a hard time with her boyfriends. I wish you would send me some candy. Be sure it is something that will keep until it gets here, because it is a long trip. I’ll make up for these letters when I get home. Love to all, George
Was Farrar telling his mother that the small letter was “hard to write” a way to tell her that he was injured? The reference to being able to “eat a couple [chickens] all alone” was probably a way to tell her he was not being fed much and was starving. Martha and Gene were a younger sister and brother. Martha would have been 16 and Gene would have been 13 years old at the time of the letter.
George Edwin Farrar’s POW ID Tag
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
Lenard Leroy Bryant, Top Turret Gunner for the Buslee Crew
Lenard Leroy Bryant
Lenard Leroy Bryant, the top turret gunner on the Buslee crew, was born March 7, 1919 in Alex, Oklahoma. Lenard was the youngest of the ten children of Fannie and John Gilbert Bryant. Lenard’s family moved to a farm in Whitharral, Texas when he was only five.
John and Fannie Bryant, 1927
Lenard’s father died on January 7, 1938, only one day after contracting influenza, and two months before Lenard’s 19th birthday. The Bryant family on January 8, 1938, the day of John Gilbert Bryant’s funeral:
Lenard Bryant’s family after Lenard’s father’s funeral on January 8, 1938
Back row, left to right: Lenard, Chief, Booster, Coot, Dick, Red, Jack & Buck
Front row, left to right: Lettie, Fannie (Lenard’s Mother) & Letha
Most of the boys in the Bryant family went by nicknames. Lenard Bryant and his brothers and brothers-in-law…
Lenard Bryant’s brothers and brothers-in-law, left to right: Lenard, Booster, Coot, Chief, Red, Dick, Buck, Jack, Monroe Whittington (Letha’s husband), and Raymond Burch (Lettie’s husband)
The next year, Lenard married Maudene on October 21, 1939. They lived in Littlefield, Texas after their marriage, perhaps on Maudene’s parents’ farm.
Lenard and Maudene Bryant 1939
A little over two years later, on February 28, 1942, Lenard enlisted in the Army Air Corps in Dallas, Texas.
In the letters that follow, Lenard wrote to his brother Buck and family, which included Buck’s wife Edith (the former Edith Orringderff), their son Ralph, Jr., and sons Calvin Louis (Stump) and Gilbert from Buck’s first marriage to Lula Strain. Lula was five months pregnant at the time of her death in 1934.
On July 3, 1943, Lenard wrote home from Amarillo Air Field in Amarillo, Texas. In WWII, Amarillo Air Field was a site for basic training, and training of air crew and ground mechanics to service the B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft. Lenard was apparently laid up in the hospital, reason unknown, but later letters indicate he might have had an injury to his left leg or foot.
Hi Folks,
How is everything down there by now. Is it as wet down there as it is up here. It rained all night last night, but it is clear this morning. I am feeling fine, would like to get up, but they won’t let me yet, although it won’t be long, I hope. Sure wish I was down there now. Maudene wrote and said the crops was looking good.
Tell Buck he ought to come up here and get sick. The nurses sure take good care of you. Ha. I guess I will have to come home and have to make some money. No, I have a good excuse, I am not supposed to do anything, Goody.
I can eat twice as much as Buck now. I am about to starve to death. Ha. All I have got to do is lay here and think of something mean to do. How is Mom. Tell her to take care of herself. Well dam this mess. Anyhow, I write so answer soon.
As ever, Lenard
Lenard apparently had a good sense of humor as he included this drawing with his signature on the letter…
A week later, on July 10, 1943, Lenard, still in the hospital, wrote home again…
How is everything down there. I got that $15.00. Sure was proud of it, but you shouldn’t have sent it. Maybe I can repay you someday though.
Well Buck they stopped my furlough so if you come to Amarillo after a load of oil stop by and get Maudene and come see me. Wish you could make it some Sunday. You could visit all day then. Sure made me mad when they stopped furloughs but I guess I will get over it.
How is that “big Boy.” Has he ever give you a whipping yet. Ha. They say I will have to spend my furlough and about a month more here at the hospital. If I do I will go crazy. Well better close and get this mailed so answer soon.
Lenard’s injury must have been pretty serious as he was still in the hospital four weeks later as he writes home again on August 5, 1943…
How is everybody down there. I guess you think I died by not writing, but I haven’t wrote anybody in two weeks but Mom and Maudene’s folks. I have got the blues again but have got 13 more days in the horse-pistol. Haven’t had a letter in a week and half so thought I had better write one or two. How is the watermelons down there sure would like to have one. Well can’t think of anything to write so answer soon and tell ‘Stump’ hello.
My dad, George Edwin Farrar, often used the same term, “horse-pistol” for “hospital.” I supposed he might have picked up that particular terminology from his crewmate, Lenard Bryant.
By September 2, 1943, Lenard was finally out of the hospital but his military future was uncertain. He wrote home…
…all I do is sit or run around. I don’t know what they are going to do with me. I was released the other day, I am a truck driver now, that is if I ever get out of here to go to school.
I am supposed to go before the medical board pretty soon, to either be discharged or get back in full duty, but I never will be able to take full duty. I was down at the hospital the other day and the doc said they wouldn’t do anything to my foot here, but when I get back home I could have it done, but I don’t know when that will be.
On September 13, 1943, Lenard wrote that…
I am going to try to get a three day pass next week. I think I can get it. Some of the boys are getting theirs. I would try this week but there is too many put in already.
Two days later, on September 15, 1943, Lenard wrote that he was unable to get his three-day pass because…
I am on shipping orders now. I will ship out in a day or so, to where I don’t know. Today is my day off but I can’t go to see Maudene because I am on shipping. I was glad Mom didn’t come up here to catch the train because she might not of got one there is so many troop trains. If I had got my weekend pass last night I was coming home anyway but I didn’t get nothing but a pass until 11:30 o’clock. Had to tell a lie to get that. I told them I had to get my laundry up at town.
One month later, on October 15, 1943, Lenard wrote home from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Sioux Falls was the site of a WWII Army Air Corps Radio and Communications School. Apparently Lenard, a farm boy from Texas, and radio, didn’t get along too well.
How’s everything, is it cold there yet, it sure is here. There was ice this morning and the frost was a half inch thick. It’s sure hard on my bad leg. I guess I’ve got rheumatic the way my joints ache in my left leg…
…Looks like I won’t get to see Maudene for a long time, sure wish she was here, or I was there. Ha. How is cotton pulling this year. If I was there I bet I could beat Buck pulling bolls. I don’t think me and radio is getting along too well together. I wish they would stick a radio up their rear for a change…
…If it gets much colder here I guess I will just about freeze out. Well I can’t think of any more to say, except I wish I was further south for the winter. If you are ever in a mile of So. Dakota drop in to see me. Ha. Answer soon.
By December 2, Christmas was not too far away and Lenard was struggling with radio school in Sioux Falls. It must have been a bad year for the flu, but Lenard was avoiding it. He wrote home…
How’s everything, a lot of colds I suppose, just think yourselves lucky to be there instead of here. This whole country is down with flu. I’m afraid they will quarantine this camp in a few days it’s getting so bad. The hosp. is full and are sending some to the town hospitals. I almost had the flu but I took about a box of aspirins and half tube of “Ben Gay” balm and got over it. The most of the boys don’t try to doctor themselves. I wouldn’t trust these doctors here at all. Well I’m going to town today for the first time in nine weeks. I’m going to get Maudene a good wrist watch if I can find one. It’s time for P.T. I will finish this after I get back.
Here I am back from P.T. Had to walk all the way around the post and it sure was cold too. I sure wish I could be there Xmas but guess I can’t. About this school here I don’t like it worth a dam.
And think I will wash out, maybe I will get sent somewhere so I can do some good. This is just a boy scout outfit here. If I do wash out I may get to come home for a few days.
I would like to get in a.m. if I can. I would get to go back to Amarillo then. The doctors, nurses and all here are falling out with colds and flu. It’s getting pretty serious here, but I think I can dodge the flu, I hope. Well I can’t think of any more to say, so answer soon. I hope you all have a good Xmas, if I don’t hear from you before Xmas.
Lenard’s reference to “a.m.” probably stood for aircraft maintenance or aircraft mechanics school.
The day after Christmas, December 26, 1943, Lenard learned he had washed out of radio school. He was homesick and wrote this letter home…
Well I’m out of school now. I washed out today. I will go to gunnery school when I ship out of here and I guess it will be at Yuma Arizona.
I just hope I get to come home before I start that school. Did you all have a good Xmas dinner. I sure did. It was better than the one we had at Thanksgiving. And all the boys that was lucky enough to have their wives here brought them out to the mess halls to have Xmas dinner with them. It sure made me homesick too. Maybe I will get to fly some at gunnery school. I’ll be “Tail Gun Tommy.” Ha. … I don’t know when I will ship. I may be on K.P. here for a month. Ha. I will close. Hoping you all had a good Xmas, and hope the next one will be different.
The last letter I have from Lenard Bryant is dated January 17, 1944. He wasn’t sent to Yuma, Arizona as he had thought. He wrote home from his new location in Las Vegas, Nevada. He wrote…
…Thought I would write a line or two to let you know where I’m at. I haven’t got too much time to write much. I got here last Thurs. night the 13th but won’t get to start to school until next Monday a week from today. This is a pretty place here and the weather is perfect, but I don’t like the idea of being a gunner, but there’s not much I have to say about. I will get a fifteen day furlough when I finish this school, then it’s good-bye to the good old U.S.A. if I don’t get to go to another school. They have a lot of B-17 here, that’s all they use, and I’m glad of that. I’d rather go up in one of those than any other kind.
Lenard mentioned in his letter written the day after Christmas 1943 that he hoped the next Christmas would be different. The next Christmas was different for the Bryant family.
Lenard had been sent to the air station at Grafton Underwood, England. Here he was part of the Eighth Air Force, 384th bomb group, 544th bomber squadron, a gunner on the John Oliver Buslee crew. He started out as a waist gunner. My dad, George Edwin Farrar, was the other waist gunner on the ten-man crew. By the time they got to England, the crews of ten, with two waist gunners – one for each waist window – had been downsized to nine, with only one waist gunner manning both waist windows, and now called a flexible gunner. Lenard flew his first mission on August 4, 1944 as waist/flexible gunner, but on his second mission on August 9, and all his subsequent missions, he flew as the engineer/top turret gunner.
On his 16th mission on September 28, 1944, Lenard Leroy Bryant was on the Lead Banana and was involved in a mid-air collision with the Lazy Daisy coming off the target in Magdeburg, Germany. Bryant was killed in the collision. In mid-October, his family was notified that he was missing, but they spent Christmas not knowing if he was dead, or alive and a prisoner of war, as did all the other families of the boys on the two planes.
By February 1945, the Bryant family had learned the sad news that Lenard had died in the mid-air collision. He was originally buried in the Ostingersleben Cemetery near the crash site. Bryant was later interred in the Netherlands American Cemetery in the village of Margraten, where he remains today in Plot G, Row 7, Grave 22.
Heartbroken over the loss of her husband, Lenard’s wife, Maudene, never remarried. She remained in Littlefield, Texas until she passed away at the age of 80 on February 16, 2004.
Thank you to Lenard Leroy Bryant’s great-nephew, Derral Bryant, for providing the photos, identifications, and other information in this post. Derral is the grandson of Lenard’s brother, Earl (Red) Bryant. Derral obtained this material from Lenard’s brother, Ralph Hubert (Buck) Bryant’s widow, Edith.
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
October 21, 1944 Telegram Form
Twenty-three days after the mid-air collision between the Lazy Daisy and Lead Banana, a Telegram Form dated October 21, 1944 reported the fate of one more of the crew from the two planes, and provided the identification of four of the previously unidentified. It reported “one more dead has been found: Byron L. Atkins.” The newly identified men were identified as:
- John Buslee (identified on the form as Jon Busslee)
- David F. Albrecht
- Lloyd Vevle (identified on the form as LLoyd Ovevle)
- Lenard Bryant (identified on the form as Lenhard J. Eyret)
Atkins and Vevle were from the Brodie crew aboard Lazy Daisy. Buslee, Albrecht, and Bryant were from the Buslee crew aboard Lead Banana. Atkins was probably located away from both crash sites as he was carried away with the nose of the Lazy Daisy during the initial impact of the collision.
In determination of the fate of the two crews, eighteen total men, this report updates the count to fourteen (14) recovered dead, with twelve (12) identified, and four (4) P.O.W.s.
MACR9753 does not include any more Telegram Forms or Reports of Captured Aircraft and does not provide any information on the identifications of Sebastiano Joseph Peluso aboard Lead Banana or James Joseph Brodie aboard Lazy Daisy.
Buslee Crew List:
- Pilot – John Oliver Buslee Reported dead on October 21, 1944 Telegram Form
- Co-Pilot – David Franklin Albrecht Reported dead on October 21, 1944 Telegram Form
- Navigator – William Alvin Henson II Reported dead on September 30, 1944 Telegram Form
- Bombardier – Robert Sumner Stearns Reported dead on September 30, 1944 Telegram Form
- Radio Operator/Gunner – Sebastiano Joseph Peluso
- Engineer/Top Turret Gunner – Lenard Leroy Bryant Reported dead on October 21, 1944 Telegram Form
- Ball Turret Gunner – George Francis McMann, Jr. Reported dead on October 1, 1944 Telegram Form
- Tail Gunner – Gerald Lee Andersen Reported dead on October 1, 1944 Telegram Form
- Waist Gunner – George Edwin Farrar (my dad) Reported P.O.W. on October 1, 1944 Telegram Form
Brodie Crew List:
- Pilot – James Joseph Brodie
- Co-Pilot – Lloyd Oliver Vevle Reported dead on October 21, 1944 Telegram Form
- Navigator – George Marshall Hawkins, Jr. Reported P.O.W. on October 6, 1944 Report on Captured Aircraft
- Togglier – Byron Laverne Atkins Reported dead on October 21, 1944 Telegram Form
- Radio Operator/Gunner – Donald William Dooley Reported dead on October 1, 1944 Telegram Form
- Engineer/Top Turret Gunner – Robert Doyle Crumpton Reported dead on September 30, 1944 Telegram Form
- Ball Turret Gunner – Gordon Eugene Hetu Reported dead on September 30, 1944 Telegram Form
- Tail Gunner – Wilfred Frank Miller Reported P.O.W. on October 4, 1944 Telegram Form
- Waist Gunner – Harry Allen Liniger Reported P.O.W. on October 4, 1944 Telegram Form
The October 21 Telegram Form notes also:
- Time: 0925
- From: L L E N
- Remarks: SSD L B K M 157 19 Oct.44 -1740-
This information can be found on pages 18 of MACR9753. MACR stands for Missing Air Crew Report.
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
Sympathy from the Red Cross
On October 20, 1944, Oby T. Brewer, the chairman of the Atlanta Chapter of the American Red Cross, sent a letter to Raleigh Mae and Carroll J. Farrar, Sr. expressing sympathy.
October 20, 1944
The American National Red Cross
Atlanta Chapter
848 Peachtree Street, N.E.
Atlanta, Ga.
Mr. and Mrs. Carroll J. Farrar
79 EastLake Terrace
Atlanta, Georgia
Dear Mrs. Farrar:
The Atlanta Chapter of the American Red Cross learns with regret through the casualty list of the newspaper that your son Sergeant George Farrar has been reported missing.
We join your many friends in extending our sympathy to you and hope that the War Department will soon be able to send you some reassuring news regarding his safety.
During these months of anxiety, we feel sure that you are comforted by a feeling of pride in knowing that your son has rendered a wonderful service to his country.
Sincerely,
Oby T. Brewer
Chairman Atlanta Chapter
American Red Cross
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
Sympathy and Prayers from the Salvation Army
On October 18, 1944, Mrs. Emily Tyler of the Salvation Army sent a letter of sympathy and prayers to George Edwin Farrar’s mother, Raleigh Mae Farrar.
October 18, 1944
The Salvation Army
Dear Mrs. Farrar
I learned through the paper that your son George is reported missing in action.
I want to assure you of my sympathy and prayers during these difficult and trying days.
May our heavenly Father comfort and strengthen your heart.
God is our Refuge and Strength, a very present help in time of trouble, “Psalms” 46-1.
God bless you,
Yours sincerely,
Mrs. Emily Tyler
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
Letter from the Adjutant General
On October 17, 1944, 19 days after the mid-air collision between the Lead Banana and Lazy Daisy, Major General J. A. Ulio sent the following letter to the parents of George Edwin Farrar:
October 17, 1944
War Department
The Adjutant General’s Office
Washington 25, D.C.
In Reply Refer To:
AG 201 Farrar, George E.
PC- N ET0214
Mrs. Raleigh Mae Farrar
79 EastLake Terrace, Northeast
Atlanta, Georgia
Dear Mrs. Farrar:
This letter is to confirm my recent telegram in which you were regretfully informed that your son, Staff Sergeant George E. Farrar, 14,119,873, Air Corps, has been reported missing in action over Germany since 28 September 1944.
I know that added distress is caused by failure to receive more information or details. Therefore, I wish to assure you that at any time additional information is received it will be transmitted to you without delay, and, if in the meantime no additional information is received I will again communicate with you at the expiration of three months. Also, it is the policy of the Commanding General of the Army Air Forces upon receipt of the “Missing Air Crew Report” to convey to you any details that might be contained in that report.
The term “missing in action” is used only to indicate that the whereabouts or status of an individual is not immediately known. It is not intended to convey the impression that the case is closed. I wish to emphasize that every effort is exerted continuously to clear up the status of our personnel. Under war conditions this is a difficult task as you must readily realize. Experience has shown that many persons reported missing in action are subsequently reported as prisoners of war, but as this information is furnished by countries with which we are at war, the War Department is helpless to expedite such reports. However, to relieve financial worry, Congress has enacted legislation which continues in force the pay, allowances and allotments to dependents of personnel being carried in a missing status.
Permit me to extend to you my heartfelt sympathy during this period of uncertainty.
Sincerely yours,
J. A. Ulio
Major General
The Adjutant General
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
Newspapers Report the Missing in Action
In October 1944, the Atlanta Constitution reported two local boys missing in action in Germany. They were both on the Lead Banana on September 28 and were involved in the mid-air collision with Lazy Daisy.
Farrar was a regular member of the Buslee crew. Septemer 28 was his 16th mission.
Sgt. George Farrar Missing Over Reich
Staff Sergeant George Edwin Farrar, 22, of the Air Corps, has been missing in action over Germany since September 28, the War Department has advised his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Carroll J. Farrar, 79 East Lake Terrace.
Sergeant Farrar joined the Air Corps in 1942, and won his wings at Kingman, Ariz. He was a gunnery instructor at Kingman until going overseas this June.
He has two brothers in the armed forces, Robert B. Farrar, in the Pacific, and Sergeant Carroll J. Farrar, of Greensboro, N.C.
It was only the third time Henson had flown with the Buslee crew and he was getting close to the end of his service. September 28 was his 26th mission.
Lt. Willliam Henson Missing Over Reich
First Lieutenant William A. Henson II, 21-year-old Conyers navigator, is missing in action over Germany, according to a War Department telegram received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Henson, of Conyers, and his wife, the former Miss Harriett Whisnant, of Summerville.
Winner of the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Clusters for “meritorious achievement” while serving as bombardier on an Eighth Air Force B-17 Fortress, he was flying as lead navigator when his plane was shot down September 28. He has flown 26 combat missions over enemy territory.
A graduate of Conyers High School, Lieutenant Henson had completed two years at the Citadel when he enlisted in the Air Corps. He had served overseas since April, 1944.
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
The Arrowhead Club 