Homer Hymbaugh was born on December 11, 1920 and was from Hopedale, Illinois. He served as the Left Waist Gunner on B-24 “Tenmenbak” (42-51324) of the 764th Bomber Squadron, 461th Bomber Group, 15th Air Force which was based out of Torretta Airbase in Italy.
On December 17, 1944, this plane was a mission to bomb the oil refineries in Odental, Germany. After the bombing run, “Tenmenback” had an engine problem and dropped out of formation and was shot down by enemy fighters. The plane crashed killing one crewmember. Eight crewmembers were taken prisoner and one was able to evade capture with the help of partisans. A memorial in Trenčianske Teplice ,Slovakia remembers the plane the crewmember who died with the plane. Reference Missing Aircraft Report {MACR} 10683
Hymbaugh was taken as a POW (Camp Stalag Luft 1) and remained there for the rest of the war.