This is to tribute Lt. Patrick Aloysius Walls, Bombardier, 457th Bomb
Group, 749th Bomb Squadron, United States 8th Air Force made possible
by the generosity of his family.
The 457th was activated in 1943 at Geiger Field, Washington. Training
and final preparation occured at Rapid City, South Dakota, Ephrata
Washington and Wendover Field, Utah until the end of December. The
Group was stationed at Glatton, England until May 1945.
Lt. Walls was a member of the crew of B-17G s/n 42-97063, Miss Yu III,
which was attacked by German fighters over France returning from a
mission on March 16, 1944. The plane was ditched in the English
Channel and RAF Air-Sea Rescue picked up all of the crew uninjured
except that Sgt. Fontaine was earlier injured by Flak. 42-97063 was
the only one of eighteen aircraft shot down on the mission which
bombed Augsburg, Germany.
Two weeks later, on March 29, most of that same crew were flying B-17G
s/n 42-31531 on their 3rd mission, part of a 300 aircraft attack on a
Fw 190 plant in Waggum, Germany. 42-31531 was attacked and shot down
with two fatalities. Fortunately Lt. Walls was not on that flight.