USAAF
5th AF
475th FG
431st FS
via
Ken Peters
Pilot Lt.
Lowell C. Lutton (MIA / KIA) Danforth, IL
MIA November 2, 1943
Mission History
Took off from Dobobura, on an escort mission to Rabaul.
Lost on the return flight,
Lt. Lutton was singled out for attack by two or three enemy fighters
at a
time, and he was saved from destruction
only
by the valiant efforts of other members of the squadron. Despite
this, Lt. Lutton continued to lead his men in passes at the enemy
aircraft attacking the bombers having his squadron focus and
cohesion throughout the action. On the return to base Lt.
Lutton lost his squadron in the overcast and storm area which
barred the way. Unable to reach Kiriwina, Lt. Lutton crashed
in the ocean south of Wide Bay. A search was made, but no trace of
him was found.
Ken Peters adds:
"Lowell was born March 18. 1918 and was only 25 when he was killed. To the
best of Lt. Wenige's knowledge three years later, he believes Lt. Lutton was
hit repeatedly by enemy fire over Wide Bay,
went into
an extremely shallow dive, struck the surface of the water,
and sank about fifty to one-hundred miles south west of Rabaul. He did
not answer his radio calls and his flying was erratic. Lowell
made no attempt to bail out of his plane and crashed with
the canopy closed.
Marion Kirby, who flew with
Lowell on this raid:
"The way we exited Simpson Harbor (Rabaul)
we flew right over one of the enemies largest airfields and from
what I could gather, they were waiting on us. Lt. Weinege should know
because he was in Lowell's flight. Our losses were relatively
light until we were jumped as we were leaving. Like I mentioned
earlier, I became separated as we were leaving the harbor. I
arrived at Kiriwina Island, where we always gassed up, and counting
the planes as they landed. That was the time I learned our losses
had been heavy. We only had 9 planes that day, ( the
431st FS) , on the mission, lost three of them."
References
Thanks to Ken Peters for this information
P-38
MIA
