1917 - 1943

John was born February 27, 1917.  He graduated from East High School .

John was in the AAF TWICE.  Apparently he joined initially about 1937 and married a girl from Iowa who was a graduate of Nursing
School-- and it seems they were stationed in Spokane, Washington. Very sadly, he lost his wife and baby in childbirth.  John left the Service and came back to Iowa.   Apparently he had already learned to fly and was a private (civilian) pilot. John had his own plane.

John "kicked around" for a while doing various jobs---welding was one of them---then he wound up in Kansas City, where it seems he was back with the AAF--for his second time--now as a pilot instructor.  He must have taken his own career path beyond pilot instructor into multi-engine training and that is how he wound up in bombers. John might have served some time in Africa early in the war--this MIGHT have been on the ferry route from the USA--bringing the planes to Europe.  The northern route was thru Newfoundland to Scotland to England.The southern route was through South America to Africa to England.  That's the answer to why John made 1Lt.  He had extensive "time in grade" in the Army.  

"Hellsapopin" was aircraft 41-24459.  (On the tail this is always written as 124459)  It was a B-17 F (B17F-10-BO) Built at Boeing Seattle, Washington.  In the 401st BS it carried the fuselage code LL-A and later LL-B.  It was the "B" plane when lost.

There is a photo of this plane in the 91st history-THE RAGGED IRREGULARS OF BASSINGBOURNE.   The photo is on page 14, and the plane is mis-identified in the caption as plane 449 "Invasion II". The tail number is clearly visible as plane 459 and the B code can be clearly seen.  "Hellsapopin" was one of six planes lost that day on the mission to  Bremen.  In fact all the losses were out of the 401st.   The plane was reported lost to enemy fighters and crashed in Wunstorf, Germany.   There were 5 men KIA and 5 POW.

It is interesting to note that Lt. Wilson is buried in Neupre.  Considering the date of loss and location, it appears that he was temporarilly interred in Germany for over two years before his body was transferred to the American Cemetery at Neuville-en-Condroz (which became the ARDENNES Cemetery in Neupre).

~ information lovingly supplied by John's Godmother:  Ariane                                            Back to John's Home Page