Staff Sargeant Joseph B. Young Jr. - 324th Bomber Squadron
Joseph Birl Young, Jr. was born on August 26, 1921 in the historic village of Washington, Virginia. In 1941, while working in the sheet metal business in Baltimore, Maryland, Young registered for the draft. On October 7, 1942 he officially enlisted.
Young served as a B-17F Ball Turret Gunner with with 324th Bomber Squadron, 91st Bomber Group. On December 31, 1943, he was sent with a Hodge podge crew on the “Oklahoma Okie”, a replacement for the pilot’s regular plane, to bomb the submarine pens of Bordeaux, France, on the Atlantic coast. The stream of bombers flew to southwest from England, over the Brest peninsula and in the direction of Spain, before it turned back to the French coast to hit the submarine bases from the water. As it approached, German fighters hit the formation, including the “Oklahoma Okie”, with 20 mm cannon fire. The aircraft was hit in three places and fires spread, all while it still held its bomb load, along with over a thousand gallons of remaining fuel. According to witnesses and included in the plane’s Missing Air Crew Report, “At 1158 hours, 4428N-O115w, A/C 42-29921 was seen to explode in mid-air after dropping down to 8,000 feet due to engine, fuselage and nose being on fire from hits registered by enemy aircraft.” While some crew members escaped, Young was among the crew to be killed. His remains were identified within the aircraft wreckage. In 1944, his family received his posthumous Purple Heart, officially engraved by the United States government.
Young served as a B-17F Ball Turret Gunner with with 324th Bomber Squadron, 91st Bomber Group. On December 31, 1943, he was sent with a Hodge podge crew on the “Oklahoma Okie”, a replacement for the pilot’s regular plane, to bomb the submarine pens of Bordeaux, France, on the Atlantic coast. The stream of bombers flew to southwest from England, over the Brest peninsula and in the direction of Spain, before it turned back to the French coast to hit the submarine bases from the water. As it approached, German fighters hit the formation, including the “Oklahoma Okie”, with 20 mm cannon fire. The aircraft was hit in three places and fires spread, all while it still held its bomb load, along with over a thousand gallons of remaining fuel. According to witnesses and included in the plane’s Missing Air Crew Report, “At 1158 hours, 4428N-O115w, A/C 42-29921 was seen to explode in mid-air after dropping down to 8,000 feet due to engine, fuselage and nose being on fire from hits registered by enemy aircraft.” While some crew members escaped, Young was among the crew to be killed. His remains were identified within the aircraft wreckage. In 1944, his family received his posthumous Purple Heart, officially engraved by the United States government.
The Oklahoma Okie, a B-17F with 91st Bomber Group. Shown here with an earlier crew, mid-1943