Name: William B “Bill” Foster Jr.
First Name(s): William B “Bill”
Last Name: Foster Jr.
Place of birth: Pennsylvania,
Rank: 2 Lt Pilot
ASN: O-714902
Company: 378th F Sqdrn
Unit: 362nd Fighter Grp 9th USAAF
Reported as: POW
Date of incident: 23-12-1944
Place of incident: Burnon area
His story: Aircraft Republic THUNDERBOLT “Street Cleaner“ type P-47D-20-RE #42-76437 took off from Rouvres, France, on December 23, 1944 for escorting C-47 supply.
2Lt William B Foster flew in position #4 in Blue Flight during mission W-51-1. Those of the Blue Flight were carrying 3 cluster bombs and bombed some German vehicles and armored vehicles in the vicinity of Bastogne. They made 3 passes over the column and, coming up from the last pass Lt Foster signaled that his engine had failed. A brief moment later, he signaled that everything was okay again.
When we had already resumed his flight for two minutes, Lt Foster signaled that he had to make an emergency landing on his stomach. Lt Richard D Law immediately asked RIP3, their controller, to give the position who gave the coordinates P-5046 (corresponding to 49.53.43 N – 5.38.52 E). Lt Foster landed well, jumped out of the plane, waved and then disappeared. Lt Law could observe 3 vehicles in the crash zone: an ambulance moving away from the crash site, a passing vehicle nearby, and another which stopped at the bottom of the road. The vehicles did not bear any distinguishing mark, but did not show any hostile attitude.
Although Lt Foster ran for some woods for shelter, he soon was taken POW and until the end of WWII imprisoned in Germany
Destination: Bastogne area, Belgium
Mission: Escorting C-47 supply and Dive Bombing, strafing
MACR: 11435
Unit history of 362nd Fighter Group
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