Crew Roster · Personal File

James V. Vitale

Navigator

HometownWest Hollywood, CA

2nd Lt. James V. Vitale served as navigator. His next of kin was his wife, Mrs. Margaret A. Vitale, of 804 North Huntley Drive, West Hollywood, California.

Vitale bailed out of the stricken aircraft on 25 February 1944 and was captured by German forces in the Dahn/Pirmasens area. He was identified in German records with ASN 0-600022, though the MACR lists him as 0-683882 or 0-683885 across different pages. He was transported to Dulag Luft as a prisoner of war.

Prisoner of War

Sortie Log

3 CATALOGUED SORTIES
24 FEB 1944 — 25 FEB 1944

The sorties below are those we have been able to document for this airman, drawn from flight logs, mission records, and archival sources. It is not necessarily a complete account of every mission flown; gaps may reflect missing documentation, transferred assignments, or records lost to time.

8AF Mission

Date

Target

Aircraft

B-24J Liberator serial number 42-100323 assigned to the 93rd Bomb Group, 330th Bomb Squadron, departed AAF #104 on 25 February 1944 on an operational mission to Furth, Germany. The aircraft was last known at coordinates 48:50N 08:00E at 1459 hours. It appeared to have been hit by flak and then attacked by two enemy fighters. Six parachutes were observed by witnesses on the ground. The aircraft crashed in the forest section "Kleiner Humberg" in the state forest Niederschlettenbach, near Dahn, Pirmasens district, Palatinate, western Germany. The wreckage was burning on arrival of local police and ammunition continued to explode. A dead crewmember was found approximately 10 meters from the crash site. German police and country-guard patrols captured 8 survivors within a radius of 3-4 km by 1906 hours on 25 February 1944. A ninth capture was made by 2100 hours. The ten crewmembers were all accounted for by 12 March 1944.