Leon Lawrence Del Grande was born on August 18, 1923, in San Francisco County, California. He was the son of Elia Del Grande and Leopolda Geriboni Del Grande.

Leon served in the 68th Bomber Squadron, 44th Bomber Group, as a Second Lieutenant and Co-Pilot on the B-24 #41-29418 'Pappy's Chillun' during World War II. On April 21, 1944, their aircraft was on its way on a bombing mission to the German town of Zwickau, when during assembly north of Norwich, the aircraft encountered bad icing conditions. As it was climbing about 155 to 160 mph through overcast skies, it suddenly shuddered and bore sharply to the right and then back before canting over into a spin, with its tail and right-wing finally twisting off. The pilot and his co-pilot were tossed into the cockpit roof and then thrown out of the plane when it disintegrated still in flight. Both men were injured but, none of the other eight crew members survived.

2Lt Del Grande injured his ankle when he landed, apparently quite seriously. He flew no more missions for the 44th, was transferred to the 70th RCD on December 10, 1944, for transfer back to the United States. However, it appears that Lt. Del Grande recovered, was transferred to the 93rd BG, and completed his tour with them.

2Lt De Grande died on May 3, 2010, in California, at the age of 86. He is now buried in the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery, Colma, San Mateo County, California, USA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, geograph.co.uk, dainthecbi.com