Thomas Campbell Whyte was born in English-speaking Canada about 1919. His parents were Thomas Whyte (18 Jun 1877 – 12 Jun 1965), who was born in Scotland and immigrated to Canada in 1890; and Elizabeth Spears (McNiven) Whyte (5 Oct 1878 – 23 Mar 1944), who was born in Scotland. His parents married at British Columbia, Canada on January 2, 1900. His father was a farmer. He immigrated with his parents from Munson, Alberta, Canada to Stockton, California in August 1923. They traveled via Vancouver, British Columbia and Seattle, Washington. In 1940 the family lived at 2415 East Poplar Street, Stockton, San Joaquin County, California, where he and his father worked as retail merchandise clerks. He completed four years of high school before enlisting in the U.S. Army.

He completed Army Air Forces navigator training and was assigned to the heavy bomber crew of Lt Floyd W. McCullough. The McCullough crew completed crew training in the States and departed Hunter Field, Georgia on November 26, 1944, bound for England via the North Atlantic ferry route. The crew was assigned to the 837th Bomb Squadron of the 487th Bomb Group at Army Air Forces Station 137, near Lavenham, Suffolk, England. The crew arrived at Station 137 by December 7, 1944, and became part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in Europe.

F/O Whyte and four of his crew mates were killed in action on February 20, 1945, when their aircraft, B-17G 43-38596, was shot down by flak after bombs away over Nuremberg, Germany. The aircraft took a direct hit during the turn away from the target, the railroad station at Nuremberg, and exploded within 30 seconds. The Germans reported that the aircraft crashed at Rφthenbach an der Pegnitz, 10 kilometers east of Nuremberg, between 1300 and 1400 hours. The dead were buried at the cemetery in Fόrth, Germany, just west of Nuremberg.

After the war his remains were permanently reinterred at Lorraine American Cemetery, Saint-Avold, France.

B-17G 43-38596 crew:
• McCullough, Floyd W – 2/Lt – Pilot – POW
• Elam, Paul J – 2/Lt – Copilot – POW
• Whyte, Thomas C – F/O – Navigator – KIA
• Lehmkuhl, Donald J – 2/Lt – Bombardier – POW
• Taft, Kay S – T/Sgt – Engineer – POW
• Mitchell, Robert E – T/Sgt – Radio Operator – KIA
• Brotherton, Wayne C – Sgt – Spot Jammer – KIA
• Dunham, Hiram D – S/Sgt – Ball Turret Gunner – KIA
• Raffel, William P – S/Sgt – Waist Gunner – KIA
• Hyatt, Gilbert E – S/Sgt – Tail Gunner – POW

Source of information: Paul M. Webber, www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov