Edward Tappan, of Tucson, Arizona, served in the 36th Bomber Squadron, 801st Bomb Group, Heavy, as a Second Lieutenant and Co-Pilot on the B-24 #42-72873 'S-Sugar' during World War II.
On July 5, 1944, his crew took off from Harrington airfield in England to give supplies to the maquis in Loir-et-Cher, France. Shot down by an Me110 night fighter after dropping the load, their plane crashed in a field in Trancrainville. The only survivor in this incident was 2Lt Tappan. He was one of the 152 allied airmen and soldiers who were helped and hidden in the Freteval Forest camp by the French Resistance to evade German capture.
Born and raised in North Carolina, Ed Tappan and his family moved to Arizona in 1931. Ed attended the Evans School for Boys in Tucson and competed on the school’s early rodeo teams. He studied later at the University of Arizona, enlisting in September 1942, initially in the Cavalry as he was a gifted horseman. Transferred to the Air Forces, he followed pilot training and was sent overseas at the beginning of 1944. He was assigned to the 801st Bomb Group/36th Bomber Squadron and flew Carpetbagger missions.
2nd Lt Edward Tappan was Co-Pilot of B-24D '"Star Spangled Hell", 42-72873. Took off from Harrington at 23:13hrs on 4 July 1944 on a secret Carpetbagger mission of weapons and supplies delivery to the French Underground in the Loir-et-Cher area, France. Missing Air Crew Report - MACR 6990. After successful drop, shot down by ME110 over Orléans, France. A/c caught fire and crashed at 00:10hrs, 5 July, near Champgirault at Trancrainville (Eure and Loire). Edward Tappan was stuck in the top escape hatch after bail out order and was blown clear when a/c exploded. 7 members of the 8-man crew were killed in the explosion and they are commemorated on a plaque on a wall at the entrance to the Trancrainville cemetery. Ed Tappan was the only survivor of the 8-member crew and was helped by many French citizens in his evasion of capture in the Loir-et-Cher and Eure-et-Loir French Departments. Having reached a secret camp in the Foret de Fréteval, South of Châteaudun, France, he was liberated by US troops on 13 September 1944, together with 151 other Allied military evaders who had been sheltered in the woods. Ed Tappan would fly again, in a C-47 transport plane, with his brother Lt. Colonel Arthur E. Tappan, a pilot in the 62nd Troop Carrier Squadron, who managed to allow him on board as an observer on a few ferrying and supply missions over Europe. Ed flew back to the United States in late fall 1944 and after a short furlough, he taught Chinese students to fly the B-25 at Douglas Army Airfield in Arizona.
Honorably discharged the following year, he started raising and training quarter horses as well as managing a boat business in Tucson, Arizona. He raised four sons with his wife Margaret. Sadly, Margaret passed away in 1991 and couldn’t accompany Ed when he visited France in the summer of 1994 to reconnect with French people or their descendants who had helped him escape 50 years before.
2Lt Tappan died in 1996.
Source of information: francecrashes39-45.net