Honoring the lost crew of the Pocatello Chief

Dutch Della Betta

The power of photographic images sometimes leaves me (almost) speechless and that certainly was the case last week when Mary Kay Jensen forwarded this --- the 10-man crew of the B-24 Liberator called Pocatello Chief. Their plane is in the background.

 Mary is the niece of  of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Prosdocimo J. "Dutch" Della Betta, front and center, radio operator, who with the remainder of the crew died not long after the photograph was taken when the Pocatello Chief was shot from the sky over Germany on March 15, 1944, after completing a successful bombing mission.

I wrote more about Dutch, the other men and their mission last week in a post entitled: "Memorial Day 1949: Dutch Della Betta comes home."

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If you look carefully at the image, you'll note that six of the 10 men autographed the photograph and that allows us to identify them. Most likely, had the fates allowed more time, the other three would have signed their names, too.

The U.S. Army Air Corps accepted the Pocatello Chief in Los Angeles on Nov. 9, 1943, and it was delivered to Royal Air Force Station Wendling, Norfolk, on Dec. 27. We know that Dutch was deployed to England during January of 1943, so the crew had been together only a short time when its members died together.

The officers are standing in the back row with the pilot, 1st Lt. Bert D. Miller of Abilene, Texas, second from the left. The other officers are 2nd Lt. William E. Wilson, Santa Rosa, California, co-pilot; 2nd Lt. Charles R. Williamson Jr., 28, Encinitas, California, navigator; and 2nd Lt. Gabriel Wishbow, 26, Lawrence, New York, bombardier. We don't know their order in the photograph, however.

The enlisted mean, kneeling, are (from left) Staff Sgt. James M. Lynch, 24, Sioux Falls, S.D., A.P. Mech. gunner, top turret; Staff Sgt. Henry T. Mayer, 21, Bellmore, New York, A.P. Mech. gunner, waist gun; Staff Sgt. Dutch Della Betta of Chariton, Iowa, and St. Louis, radio operator; Staff Sgt. Truman F. Roberts, 21, Batesville, Arkansas, aerial gunner-waist gunner; Staff Sgt. Thomas L. Rice, 19, Meridian, Miss., A.P. Mech. gunner, belly turret;  and Staff Sgt. Gerard P. Lemily, 25, Brooklyn, New York, aerial gunner-tail gunner.

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Bert D. Miller

After the war, the remains of the 10 crewmen were recovered from the cemetery in Germany where they had been buried.

Five were interred in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium --- 2nd Lt. Wilson, 2nd Lt. Williamson; Staff St. Mayer, Staff. Sgt Roberts and Staff Sgt. Rice.

The remains of the other five were repatriated to the  United States. Staff Sgt. Della Betta is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery, Albia, Iowa; 1st Lt. Miller, at Lincoln Memorial Park, Portland, Oregon; Staff Sgt. Lynch at St Michael's Cemetery, Sioux Falls, S.D.; 2nd Lt. Wishbow at Montefiore Cemetery, Queens, New York; and Staff Sgt. Lemily, Long Island National Cemetery, New York.

At left is another image of 1st Lt. Bert D. Miller, found online as part of a family history project.

You can open the group photograph in a new window to examine it more closely. So take a few seconds, look into these young faces and honor 10 of our American heroes.