The airplane was seen by another aircraft to go down after bombing, passing the target, hitting the water with engine #4 and possibly #3 on fire. This was at 11:34am, off St. Brevin, Bay of Biscay, France. Two parachutes were thought to be seen, persons as MIA but later changed to KIA. This was the third bombing mission, the second to St. Nazaire, that 2LT Paul Bouton, Jr. had participated in, plus another mission in December that had been aborted due to “Leapin Liz” having a mechanical failure along with heavy cloud cover on the target.
2LT Paul Bouton, Jr. was known to be a star athlete at Lakeland High School in Polk County and Rollins College in Winter Park. He was an assistant coach and teacher at Orlando High School. His younger brothers also served in the war effort: brother John “Jack” P. Bouton also piloted B-17’s with the 390th Bomb Group, 1944-1945 in England. He flew 35 combat missions over Germany and authored a book of his service, "The Lucky Bastard". Youngest brother William “Billy” P. Bouman served in the Merchant Marines during the war.
Extracted from “Missing Air Crew Reports, WWII”, 1943, 41-24526, accessed through Fold3 database; American Air Museum in Britain database; The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Florida) 19 Jan 1943, The Tampa Times (Tampa, Florida) 14 Jan 1943; family obituaries and Arlington National Cemetery.
CH 6/12/2019
Contributor: Cathy Haynes (47584026) • [email protected]
The airplane was seen by another aircraft to go down after bombing, passing the target, hitting the water with engine #4 and possibly #3 on fire. This was at 11:34am, off St. Brevin, Bay of Biscay, France. Two parachutes were thought to be seen, persons as MIA but later changed to KIA. This was the third bombing mission, the second to St. Nazaire, that 2LT Paul Bouton, Jr. had participated in, plus another mission in December that had been aborted due to “Leapin Liz” having a mechanical failure along with heavy cloud cover on the target.
2LT Paul Bouton, Jr. was known to be a star athlete at Lakeland High School in Polk County and Rollins College in Winter Park. He was an assistant coach and teacher at Orlando High School. His younger brothers also served in the war effort: brother John “Jack” P. Bouton also piloted B-17’s with the 390th Bomb Group, 1944-1945 in England. He flew 35 combat missions over Germany and authored a book of his service, "The Lucky Bastard". Youngest brother William “Billy” P. Bouman served in the Merchant Marines during the war.
Extracted from “Missing Air Crew Reports, WWII”, 1943, 41-24526, accessed through Fold3 database; American Air Museum in Britain database; The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Florida) 19 Jan 1943, The Tampa Times (Tampa, Florida) 14 Jan 1943; family obituaries and Arlington National Cemetery.
CH 6/12/2019
Contributor: Cathy Haynes (47584026) • [email protected]
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