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Ellis John B., Jr.

Name:
John B., Jr. Ellis
Rank:
Staff Sergeant
Serial Number:
34038466
Unit:
314th Troop Carrier Group
Date of Death:
1945-06-13
State:
North Carolina
Cemetery:
Grover Cemetery, Grover, North Carolina
Plot:
Row:
Grave:
Decoration:
Air Medal w/ Oak Leaf Cluster
Comments:

John B. Ellis, Jr. was born on August 30, 1920. He graduated from Grover High School in 1937 and attended Mars Hill College until 1940. He enrolled at UNC in 1940 and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps after graduation in 1942.

John served in the 314th Troop Carrier Group as a Staff Sergeant and was a passenger on the B-24H 42-95095 "Sleepy Time Gal" at the time of his death. He was a radio operator aboard a glider-towing C-47, taking part in the invasions of Sicily and Italy, and he held the Air Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster.

Ellis was stationed in England shortly after the war had ended in Europe. On June 12, 1945, while on his way home, he was killed in a plane crash in Scotland.

B-24H 42-95095 took off from Prestwick at 13.50 on June 13, 1945, on a route that should have taken them by the Mull of Kintyre to Stornoway, then on to Meeks Field Iceland, to refuel before the last leg to the States. At some point during the flight, the plane was thought to have developed an engine fire in the outboard starboard engine.

The Liberator was fitted with fire extinguishers, but these did not always work, and so being 6000’ up above the Minch, Ketchum may well have put the aircraft into a steep dive to try to extinguish the fire. But Sleepy Time Gal was not above the Minch, the aircraft was 25 miles too far east, and over the high mountain area around Loch Maree. A desperate attempt to pull the aircraft out of the dive would have put enormous stress on the veteran aircraft, pieces may have broken off and struck the tail fin, rendering the aircraft uncontrollable. Sleepy Time Gal swept over Gairloch before turning fully anti-clockwise back inland, and crashing into the Fairy Lochs, on the lower slopes of Sithean Mor, taking the lives of the 15 men on board.

SSgt Ellis is now buried in the Grover Cemetery, Grover, Cleveland County, North Carolina, USA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, http://www.scottishhills.com