Charles Holland
Below meet B-24 Liberator crew 209 of the 15th Air Force, 459th Bomb Group, 759th squadron. The men depicted here are all truly heroes! This was my grandfathers crew based out of Giulia Airfield in Italy during WW II. My grandfather, S/Sgt. Charlie Holland (front row, far left) was a radio operator with this crew of young men in 1944. The story behind this image is long and truly inspiring but I will try to keep it brief here for Flickr but will elaborate more on the blog post later. Most ironic thing to note here is that this picture was taken 6-21-1944, two months and one day later on 8-22-1944 this crew's plane was hit with anti aircraft fire while on a bombing run on an oil refinery over Belchammer Germany and subsequently went down on their return leg of the mission to Italy while over Kisber, Hungary. The 459th lost 6 planes that day, this is the story of B-24 #44-10565. The entire crew bailed out of the camera hatch and bomb bay doors, fell into German control and all ended up as POW's from what I understand. I do not have details on where all of these men ended up or their fates (other than they all went to POW camps at Stalag Luft 3 & 4) but do know a little of what happened with my grandfather. Charlie, along with 5 of the other crew members were sent to the POW camp Stalag Luft 4 in northern Poland where he remained for roughly 5-6 months. As the Russian front advanced into this area of Poland in January of 1945, the Germans rounded up all of the prisoners and abandoned the Stalag Luft camps on an "endless march" (later referred to as the Death March Across Germany?) with over 6,000 men and traveled some 86 days an estimated 600 miles. My grandfather and a friend escaped while on this march and traveled by foot in occupied territory all the way France and was officially noted back into allied control on 4-16-1945.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joe_andrews/5096392231
 Front left: Charles Holland - Radio Operator
MACR: 8270
S/Sgt Charles K Holland was assigned to the 459th BG 759th Squadron.
Military Occupational Specialty (MOS): Radio Operator.
The following information on Charles Holland is gathered and extracted from military records. We have many documents and copies of documents, including military award documents. It is from these documents that we have found this information on S/Sgt Holland. These serviceman's records are nowhere near complete and we are always looking for more material. If you can help add to Charles Holland's military record please contact us.
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Rank |
General Order |
Date |
Notes |
Award |
Ribbon & Device |
Charles Holland |
S/Sgt |
3033 |
09/02/1944 |
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AM |
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Please contact us with any biographical data, pictures or other information regarding the service and life of Charles Holland.
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