Wilton Douglas Biggs was born on December 8, 1919, in Rome, Sunflower County, Mississippi. He was the son of Walter May Biggs and Jane Rebecca "Jennie" Dyess Biggs. He was married to Mary Lou Dickey Biggs. After graduating from Osyka High School in 1937 and Copiah-Lincoln Junior College, he entered the U.S. Army Air Corps, earning his navigator’s wings in 1942. He served in the 368th Bomber Squadron, 306th Bomber Group, Heavy, as a First Lieutenant and Navigator of B-17F #41-24514 during World War II.

On March 8, 1943, the B-17F #41-24514 departed Station 111 at Thurleigh, Bedfordshire, at 11:45 on a mission against the Rennes marshalling yards in France. At 14:30, over Plouguenast (Côtes-d’Armor, France), the bomber was attacked and shot down by a German Fw 190 fighter. The crew bailed out by parachute; however, the pilot was killed when his chute failed to open at low altitude. The majority of the crew were captured and spent the remainder of the war as prisoners, while one evaded capture and made it back to the United Kingdom with assistance from the local resistance and a fishing boat escape.

1Lt Biggs was taken as a prisoner of war and held at Stalag Luft 3 in Sagan-Silesia, Bavaria. After the war, he reentered military service in 1946, serving worldwide until retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1963. He later worked for the U.S. Postal Service, retiring in 1984. He died on June 27, 1990, and is now buried in the Osyka Cemetery, Osyka, Pike County, Mississippi, USA.

Source of information: francecrashes39-45.net, www.findagrave.com