Clough Farrar Gee, III was born on January 7, 1919 in DeLand, Florida. He was the son of Clough Farrar and Inez Barron Gee. He attended The Citadel 1935-38 and in January 1943, graduated from the United States Military Academy. Clough, III served in the 379th Fighter Squadron, 362nd Fighter Group as a Captain during World War II.
In the afternoon of June 7, 1944, Captain Gee took off from Station 412 in Headcorn, England. His group attacked railroad lines around Alencon, Argentan, and Vire, France. They saw little traffic and dropped bombs to cut the tracks. The 379th also caught a locomotive in the open and shot it up. The mission was an all-out bombing mission with no top cover, and this tactic cost the group dearly. Two flights were bounced by fighters from 15G.26. Green Flight of the 379th had just finished bombing and was headed home in line abreast formation when German planes emerged from the undercast in the P-47's 6 o'clock low position. Lieutenant Art Wilcke yelled for his lead, Capt. Clough Gee, to break. "At the same time, I broke into the two that were on Green One and Two's tails. Looking left, I saw Green Four start to break, but he was hit by the FW behind him He broke right and down and continued to roll out in a 270-degree turn away from the FW that was firing at me. I saw fire from his fuselage and under the cockpit, but he still had control of the aircraft and I believe evaded the FW on his tail." Wilcke continued to pursue the Fw 190s stalking Lt. Ted Jensen and Lt. Madison Putnam:
By this time, they had broken off their attack and started climbing to the right through a clearing in the clouds. I followed them up above until they turned left and over me. I pulled back and shot a long burst out of range until my speed fell off ; [I] rolled over and went down through a cloud. Looking for the rest of the flight, I dove beneath a cloud and met six Fw 190s head-on at about 150 yards. A few fired, but before they or I could get our sights on each other I passed between the number four and five men on the right. I pulled up into the cloud and turned 180 degrees, but did not see any when I came out of the cloud. I called Green Four and Green Leader, but I did not get any reply. I broke out into another clearing and saw Green Leader [Gee] and started to join him, when we were bounced by two more Fw 190s. We broke again into the clouds, and that was the last I saw of Green Leader.
Gee was shot down by Fw190 at 16:00 and was killed near Fierville-les-Parcs - 10 km north of Lisieux, France.
Captain Gee is now buried in the Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France.
Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov, Thunderbolts Triumphant, The 362nd Fighter Group vs Germany's Wehrmacht, francecrashes39-45.net