MSG John McCarthy’s Road to Lecaudey Farm (Part II)

As discussed in my February 9th post above, the recent discovery of two new lines of research information points to the need to reopen the discussion on the likely landing site of Keokuk Chalk #4. This new information includes John Szweda’s discovery of additional aerial coverage of Landing Zone E and Hans den Brok’s discovery of what is essentially the Keokuk Mission After Action Report (AAR) of F/O Winfield C. Goulden, the pilot of Chalk #4. With regards to those two discoveries…

Aerial Coverage of Landing Zone E
The long held and most favored theory of this thread with regards to the landing site of Keokuk Chalk #4 is that the glider landed on the western tree line of the field south of the Pratt Memorial. This theory is significantly based on two data points.

First, in George Koskimaki’s D-Day with the Screaming Eagles:
Sergeant McCarthy’s glider Number '4' had come to rest safely in a soft field only twenty yards from a hedgerow. He observed, “Glider Number 3 which was just in front of ours slammed into an earthen bank and collapsed in a pile of splinters. The co-pilot was killed as were several MP’s and headquarters people. I raced over to give aid and was immediately fired upon from a hedgerow corner. I assumed a prone position quickly. Uninjured glidermen from the wrecked craft were removing those who had survived the crash.

Based on this narrative, we made an assumption (now determined to be incorrect, based on the recently discovered aerial coverage) that Chalks #3 and 4 came to rest relatively close, or adjacent to each other, in the landing field. Now, it is clear that my father’s comments concerning the relative positions of the two gliders; “Glider Number 3 which was just in front of ours slammed into an earthen bank and collapsed in a pile of splinters” was not referring to their positions in the LZ. Rather, his comments appear to be referring to their relative positions in the formation on the ground at Aldermaston or inflight. However, other recently discovered information (Goulden’s AAR), confirms that Chalks #3 and 4, while not directly adjacent, did come to a stop in the same LZ field.

Second, based on this inaccurate assumption, Pat reviewed aerial coverage, looking for two Horsa gliders in close proximity somewhere to the SW of Hiesville. He found such a possibility in NCAP US7_1857_405 taken on June 12th.


Our most likely accepted theory has been that Chalk #3 is the “Second Horsa?” and Chalk #4 is the glider just to the north.

Then, a couple of years ago, John Szweda discovered a photo in Gary Dettore’s Screaming Eagle Gliders that provides a different perspective. The photo, an oblique view, was taken over the vicinity of Vierville and it looks to the west. This shot provides a clear view of the east side of the tree line on the western boundary of the field south of Pratt Field. Taken by the pilot with his personal camera, the photo is low resolution, but it clearly indicates that there is only one, not two, Horsa gliders on that tree line.

I recently contacted Gary Dettore and he granted me permission to post the Fort family photo from his book here. The red arrow points to the western tree line of the field south of Pratt and our current best candidate for Chalk #4.


Source: Screaming Eagle Gliders, with permission of the author.


A close-up of the field south of Pratt clearly indicates only one Horsa on the western tree line.

Source: Screaming Eagle Gliders, with permission of the author.

Last month, John Szweda also discovered NCAP_NARA_US7_1775_S_0068, taken on June 7th, which provides additional aerial coverage of Landing Zone E. With Pat’s assistance, we obtained a high-resolution copy of this shot from NCAP a few weeks ago. This oblique view not only confirms that there is only one Horsa on the western tree line of the field south of Pratt, it also provides insight into several other research theories related to this field along with Pratt Field. I’ll let John expand on that in a separate post.

A portion of US7_1775_S_0068

Source: National Collection of Aerial Photography


F/O Winfield Goulden’s Keokuk Mission After Action Report (AAR)
The narrative in Goulden’s AAR contributes to this discussion in two primary ways. First, from the text, it is clear that Goulden and my father were together for at least a portion of their journey from the landing site of Chalk #4 to the 101st Command Post in Hiesville on the night of June 6th. The level of detail concerning that night provided by Goulden far surpasses the level provided by my father and will most certainly assist with this research effort. Second, in his text, Goulden mentions his encounter with at least two other gliders during his trek to the Division CP. This information may allow us to link the possibly known location of at least one of these two gliders to the location of Chalk #4.

Specifically, Goulden’s report states:
We passed a glider that had crashed into the trees bordering the field the night before. I glanced insider and almost got sick… the copilot and one passenger were still in their seats. They were horribly mangled… attempts to cut them out of the entangled steel tubing had thus far failed. We moved on.

My first thought is that the glider Goulden encountered might have been General Pratt’s Chicago Chalk #1. However, there is some question as to when the General’s remains were removed from the glider. (See article by Major Leon Spencer: World War 2 Glider Pilot Charles E. Skidmore Jr.: The Death of General Don F. Pratt) Therefore, I want to approach the question of which Chicago Chalk this might be by accounting for the other Chicago Mission pilot KIAs, specifically the co-pilot KIAs, and determine if any of these Chalks could have been in the area. More on that line of research in future posts.

While I still believe that the field south of Pratt remains the most likely landing site of Chalk #4, I remain open to consider other possibilities (including a Pratt Field option). With all this being said, I would like to open this discussion for comments from others.

Again, my thanks to John and Hans for providing the new aerials and the AAR, respectively, and to Pat and Neil for their assistance.

R/
Kevin

 

Thank you for accepting my request to join the forum. I'm a Cincinnati native who has been working with World War Two veterans since 2015. That same year I set out online to find a local 101st Airborne Paratrooper who had been killed in action that I could adopt to visit each year and I came across the name Raymond DeMonge. It just so happened that he was buried about 2 1/2 miles from my mother in law's house in Fayetteville, Ohio. Through research I found one of his family members on Facebook and they were able to give me a face to his name and I have been visiting his resting place every Memorial Day since.

I've been back to Normandy twice and have friends that live there and was recently doing more research about how and where he was killed in action and I came across this thread. So to conclude, I'm just here to observe and hopefully learn more about where exactly it was that Raymond killed in Chalk #8 on the evening of June 6, 1944. Thank you for the work that you have all put in to this research. It's incredible and I hope one day we are able to have a definitive answer!

Kindest,
Patrick

Here is an image of me honoring his resting place back in 2019. I also made a little video, which is on YouTube...

 

Patrick,

Great job on your tribute video.

The focus of my research has obviously been my father’s glider, Keokuk Chalk #4. However, I have also discovered a significant amount of information concerning Keokuk Chalks #3, 7 and 8 that is related to my Chalk #4 research. Specifically, I believe that my father most likely encountered the crash site of Keokuk Chalk #8 on the morning June 7th as he made his way to the Division CP in Hiesville. This encounter has served to assist me in confirming the most likely landing site of Keokuk Chalk #4.

Below are some of the highlights of my Keokuk Chalk #8 research:

Keokuk Chalk #8, carrying members of the 101st Airborne Division Signal Company, crashed through a hedgerow upon landing, crossed a road and then crashed through a second hedgerow, killing three 101st troopers, wounding approximately six to eight others while killing the pilot and wounding the co-pilot. Based on my research to date, Chalk #8 probably sustained the most landing-related casualties of any Keokuk glider

Utilizing multiple sources, along with the Morning Reports (MR) obtained from the National Archives in College Park, MD for the 101st Airborne Division for the month of June 1944, Forum member Don Hillhouse and I were able to develop this almost complete manifest for Keokuk Chalk #8.

2nd LT Sam Shapiro – KIA
F/O Sylvan Runkle – WIA
PFC Raymond Demonge – MIA changed to KIA on subsequent MR
T/5 Robert McCullum – MIA changed to KIA on subsequent MR
T/5 William Weber – KIA on MR
T/5 Harrison – SWA on MR
T/5 Ted Lawler – SWA on MR
PVT Lester Gunderson - LIA on MR
CPL or T/5 Milton Reese - WIA
PVT Eugene Hart - SIA on MR
T/5 Charles Laden - No injuries, walked-away

SWA: Seriously Wounded in Action
LIA: Lightly Injured in Action
SIA: Seriously Injured in Action

With regards to PFC Demonge and T/5 McCullum, they were initially listed on the 101st Signal Company MR for June 20th as MIA and their status was changed to KIA on the 101st Signal Company MR for June 26th. (See Post #102 of this thread for additional information on this topic.)

Possibly the only unscathed survivor of the Keokuk Chalk #8 crash landing was T/5 Charles Laden. By chance, T/5 Laden and my father became post-war friends, living just a few miles apart on the outskirts of Chicago. During my youth, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Laden numerous times. While he made no mention of his war time experiences to me, he did provide a very detailed summary of the landing Keokuk Chalk #8 on the ww2airborne.com website. (Unfortunately, this summary is no longer available online.) T/5 Laden’s summary included the following: “When we did finally touch the ground, we continued to skid at a very high rate of speed. Evidently the smooth Norman grass in the fields was too slick to slow us down. We crashed through a hedgerow at the edge of one field and the wings of the glider were torn off. We continued to slide until finally crashing into another hedgerow that stopped us. Unfortunately due to the impact, we were torn up pretty bad. The pilot and co-pilot were both ejected, killing one of them. Also killed were a few guys from my company, Pfc. Raymond Demonge, T/5 Robert McCullum, and T/5 William Weber. Both the motorcycles ended up hanging in the trees, and the trailer and other equipment was tossed everywhere. Staff Sergeant Harrison who had been sitting in the tail section was alive, but wounded badly. I was also thrown from the wreckage, but miraculously I was fine, except for bumps and bruises on my right leg. I brushed myself off and then helped Harrison out of the wreckage and into a ditch at the side of the field for cover. A few minutes later a jeep from our signals company drove up and the driver told me to get in. I was then driven to General Taylor’s command post that he had established at a farmhouse in Hiesville.” (See Post #28 of this thread for additional information on this topic.)

In November of 2013, I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to speak with F/O Lynus Ryan, the co-pilot of Keokuk Chalk #7. F/O Ryan observed the crash landing of Chalk #8 as he made his own approach to landing in a nearby field. The key points of that conversation related to Chalk #8 are provided below:

Chalk #7 landed “right behind” and “relatively close” to Chalk #8 as Ryan described it. Ryan reiterated three times during our discussion that Chalk #8 went through a hedgerow, crossed a road and went through a second hedgerow before stopping in a field on the other side of a road from where Chalk #7 landed. Ryan stated that he believed that Chalk #7 landed west of Chalk #8 and that “just about everyone was killed” in Chalk #8. (The full details of this conversation can be found in Post #69 of this thread.)

Based on the research mentioned above and other sources, while not 100% certain, several members of this Forum believe that the most likely landing site of Keokuk #8 is just south of Hiesville on the east side of Route de Rabey. See photo below:



Finally, in George Koskimaki’s D-Day with the Screaming Eagles there is a photograph of a badly wrecked Horsa, identified in the book only as a “glider carrying men and motorcycles of the 101st Airborne Signal Company on the evening flight”. During my September 2013 interview with Mr. Koskimaki, he stated that he is positive that the wrecked Horsa glider pictured in his book is Keokuk Chalk #8. He also stated that Signal Company personnel or 326th Medical Company personnel were the most likely source of this photograph.

Keokuk Chalk #8 Crash Site


If you have any questions once you have had a chance to review the Keokuk Chalk #8 material on this thread, let me know.


R/

Kevin

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to share all of this information!

 

Thank you kindly! It's been a real honor to regularly visit his resting place. I'm glad I live close by. Coincidently, the cemetery where he is buried is Saint Patrick's Cemetery and my name is Patrick!

 

On this 80th anniversary of D-Day, in honor and memory of all who served in Normandy that day, including my father, Master Sergeant John T. McCarthy, 101st Airborne Division (Mission Keokuk, Chalk #4).

 

Pat,

Thanks for enhancing the photo and for taking another look at this thread. Back in early 2021 and the year prior, John and I discovered three new pieces of research material that reopened our discussion concerning Keokuk Chalk #4. (For newcomers, see Posts #141 and #142 of this thread for additional details.)

First, John found the two photos mentioned above (the Fort Family photo from Gary Dettore’s book and US7_1775_S_0068) that clearly show only one Horsa glider on the western hedgerow boundary of McCarthy Field. This discovery quickly disproved our long-held theory that two Horsa gliders (Keokuk Chalks # 3 and 4) came to rest on the western edge of McCarthy Field. However, as John outlined above, I also believe that it is still most likely that Chalk #4 came to rest on the western boundary of McCarthy Field and that Chalk #3 possibly came to rest on the northern boundary. Photographic evidence in US7_1857_405 taken on June 12th indicates some disturbed earth, a possible break in the hedgerow, and a single Horsa fuselage rib on the northern boundary. While nothing is visible in this general area in US7_1775_S_0068, perhaps, as you mentioned, a review of more frames from this run might provide something of interest. I would appreciate your help with this effort.

In early 2021, at about the same time John came across US7_1775_S_0068, Hans den Brok forwarded me a copy of what is essentially the Keokuk Mission After Action Report (AAR) of F/O Winfield C. Goulden, the pilot of Chalk #4. I believe that the information in Goulden’s AAR clearly points to the area to the SW of Hiesville as the location of his Landing Zone (LZ). In his text, Goulden mentions his encounter with at least two other gliders during his trek to the Division CP from the LZ. This information may allow us to link the possibly known location of at least one of these two gliders to the location of Chalk #4.

Specifically, Goulden’s report states:
We passed a glider that had crashed into the trees bordering the field the night before. I glanced insider and almost got sick… the copilot and one passenger were still in their seats. They were horribly mangled… attempts to cut them out of the entangled steel tubing had thus far failed. We moved on.

My first thought is that the glider Goulden encountered might have been General Pratt’s Chicago Chalk #1. However, there is some question as to when the General’s remains were removed from the glider. (See article by Major Leon Spencer: World War 2 Glider Pilot Charles E. Skidmore Jr.: The Death of General Don F. Pratt). Therefore, I want to approach the question of which Chicago Chalk this might be by accounting for the other Chicago Mission pilot KIAs, specifically the co-pilot KIAs, and determine if any of these Chalks could have been in the area. Pat and John (or others), from your previous research, do you have any of this data, or can you point me in the right direction for the information, if it is even available?

Pat and John, I appreciate you revisiting this discussion.

R/
Kevin

 

Pat,

The break in the hedgerow in the 1947 IGN aerial appears to be on the north side of Route de Rabey and on the southern perimeter of Pratt Field. I think we are looking for a break in the hedgerow on the south side of the road on the northern boundary of McCarthy Field. US7_1857_405 taken on June 12th indicates some disturbed earth, a possible break in the hedgerow, and a single Horsa fuselage rib on the northern boundary of McCarthy Field. Do you see anything that would suggest that?

John and I believe this area is potentially associated with Keokuk Chalk #3, not Chalk #8. We covered what we believe is the Chalk #8 landing site extensively in Posts #69-76 of this thread. Back in 2013, I spoke with F/O Lynus Ryan (co-pilot of Chalk #7) and he told me that he observed Chalk #8 land in a field just to the south of Hiesville.

With regards to the Troop Carrier KIA lists that you and John provided, we can also eliminate 2nd LT Sam Shapiro from consideration as he was the pilot of Keokuk Chalk #8. That perhaps leaves the KIA glider pilots associated with the lower number Chicago Chalks as being in the glider that F/O Goulden encountered. I will have to look at some reference material I have which discusses the other Chicago chalks that ended up in/near the hedgerow on the southern boundary of Pratt Field.

Finally, I want to take another look at F/O Goulden’s AAR. In that report, he mentioned encountering two gliders on his journey from the Chalk #4 landing site to the 101st CP in Hiesville. One of these two gliders is the one that Goulden described as having crashed the night before with a KIA co-pilot and passenger. I believe the second glider he referenced was Keokuk Chalk #3. The timeline Goulden outlined in his narrative suggests that the two gliders he referenced were in close proximity to each other. That points to the stretch of Route de Rabey between Pratt and McCarthy Fields as the potential location for both gliders. More after I review Goulden’s AAR.

R/
Kevin