Military Life

Enlistment/Draft Date: Nov 10, 1941

Place of Enlistment: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Site of Training: Pre-flight San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center, Texas (circa 26 April 1943)

Rank at time of Death: First Lieutenant

MOS: AAF MOS 1092-Pilot, B-24

Responsibilities Associated with Rank: Ensuring the training and survival of the crew and the aircraft

Branch: Army Air Corps

General Equipment: B-24 Liberator

Conflict and Combat: WWII European Theater of Operations/Air Offensive (1942-1944), Europe Campaign (1942-44)

Place of Interment: American Cemetery and Normandy, France

459th Bombardment Group Plane

758th Bomber Squadron Patch

First Lieutenant Rank, U. S. Army Air Forces

459th Bomber Group Patch

Division/Unit

Division/Unit History: The 459th Bombardment Group (Heavy) was activated on 1 Jul 1943. The group was trained for combat with B-24's. Jan-Feb of 1944, the group was moved to Italy and assigned to Fifteenth AF. They were engaged primarily in strategic bombardment, Mar 1944-Apr 1945, attacking such targets as oil refineries, munitions and aircraft factories, industrial areas, airfields, and communications centers in Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, Rumania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Greece. The 758th Bombardment Squadron was first activated during World War ll. After training in the United States, it deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, where it participated in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany, and it earned a Distinguished Unit Citation for its actions. Following V-E Day, the squadron returned to the United States and was inactivated.

Last Known Activity: On 24 July 1944, John Kalie was the pilot of a B-24H (tail number 42-94935) with a crew of 9 men that took off from Giuilia #1 Airfield, Italy with 54 other aircrafts.  The mission bombardment of the German fighter airfield at Les Chapoine, France. En route to the target, the flight was attacked by German fighters. Lt. Kallie was seen to salvo his bomb load after that. The aircraft was seen to continue on over the target. It was then brought down when an 88-mm shell/FLAK exploded just in front of the nose turret and another hit the bomb bay causing a fire which engulfed the internal area of the aircraft. More information is listed on the MACR regarding 4 other crew members seen to drop out of the aircraft with no parachutes, and the aircraft disintegrated before crashing. The plane down near Fos sur Mer, France. 

Crew:
1st Lt. John Kalie, pilot (KIA) in the cockpit after giving order to bail out
2nd Lt. Quentin E. Cadd, co-pilot (KIA) in the cockpit
2nd Lt. Richard M. Simmons, bombardier (survived/POW)
TSgt. Willard A. Campbell, engineer/gunner (KIA) in cockpit
SSgt. Osborn D. Ashford, engineer/gunner tail turret gunner (survived/POW)
SSgt. Robert R. De Jongh, armorer/gunner (KIA) in turret
SSgt. Bernard Miller, radio operator/right waist gunner (KIA)
SSgt. Edwin N. Thomas, armorer/gunner (survived/POW)
SSgt. Anthony G. Buccini, aerial gunner/nose turret gunner (KIA)

459th Bombardment Group Plane

Staff Sargent Robert C. Gaylor's Statement of the Plane Crash that killed First Lieutenant Kalie and five other men. 

Images of B-24 bombers flying during WWll