George Ostroot

2nd Lt. George Ostroot Jr., 759th Bomb Squadron Navigator and 459 BGA Member No. 512, is shown in this photo of Joe Young`s crew in 1944. George is in the front row far right. George and most of his crew became P O W`s on 6/16/44 when their plane was shot down after bombing a Vienna, Austria oil refinery on 459 BG Mission No. 60. Their plane crash landed in a Hungarian grain field. Pilot Joe Young and Gunner Donald Hunt perished on this mission. S/Sgt Donald Hunt is in back row - far right.

John Ostroot, George`s son, reports that George passed away 2/26/07 at the age of 86 in St Louis, Mo.

2nd Lt George Ostroot Jr`s story of Mission No.60 and his early days of being a P O W will be listed under 759th BS Servicemen stories.

2nd Lt George Ostroot,Jr was a Navigator on a 759th Bomb Squadron B-24 bomber on 459th Bomb Group Mision No. 60, June 16, 1944 to bomb an Oil Refinery in the Southeastern part of Vienna,Austria when his plane was hit by flak, knocking out 2 engines. The ship then became eazy prey for German ME 109 fighters as the plane could not keep up with the rest of the formation, with a hole in the wing fuel tank and the plane`s intercom system wiped out plus other damage. As the ship dived towards the ground to attempt to get away from the fighters, three of the gunners in the rear of the plane, Donald Hunt, Agius and McCord, were wounded by cannon and machine gun fire from the ME 109`s. Still later, Engineer Broshears was hit and wounded by another fighter attack on their crippled plane. Finally, over Hungarian grain fields with a fighter still fireing at them from the rear, the above three gunners plus Lingebardo bailed out of the plane from the waist position and Engineer Broshears; Co-Pilot George Tice; Martin Harris, Bombardier; George Ostroot,Jr,Navigator and Nose gunner Hovet dove out of the open bomb bay compartnent.. Pilot, Joe Young, apparently was trying to attempt a crash lannding. George Ostroot, upon reaching the ground, noticed a thick plume of black smoke from where his plane had crashed about 2 miles away. He did not know the fate of his pilot. Donald Hunt, one of the wounded gunners, died of his wounds shortly after landing in his parachute and wounded gunner Broshears was taken to a hospital as the rest of the crew becme P O W`s. The full story of 2nd LT George Ostroot,Jr. ordeal that day and following will be posted under Servicemen`s Stories.

MACR: 6128

2nd Lt. George Ostroot Jr was assigned to the 459th BG 759th Squadron.
Military Occupational Specialty (MOS): Navigator.

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