C-47 crash near Lyon Nov 1944

It mentions five crew and 15 wounded soldiers, both Allied and German.

Many thanks for all the replies…

I had Googled the bio about Lt Lutz [Lyons Italy 🙂 ]

The news paper article is interesting as the crash site is some distance away from the memorial.

There is an airstrip nearby and as you walk from it to the restaurant you pass by the memorial.

The 64th TCG was based at Rome-Ciampino and presume flight was a med evac back to the UK ? The French article suggests Istres as the point of departure so it would be Lyon ,France.

Thanks Nick just glad to help !

One puzzle is that almost all of the sources quote the place of the crash as “near Lyon, Italy” yet Ian says he photographed the memorial at La Jasserie, which is near Saint Etienne?

They must mean Lyon, France, I cannot think or find a location of Lyon in Italy

42-92700

C-47A 42-92700 17TCS 64 Troop carrier Group, pilot Robert Carsons crashed St Chamond ,SW Lyon 01.11.44.

Not positive this is the aircraft concerned but it’s a start.

From: AAIR 441101 C-47A 42-92700 17TCS 64TCG 12 KCR 5 Roberts, Carson M FRA St Chamond

So pilot’s name & number of crew casualties match, as does unit, date and approx area – So I think you have the right aircraft 🙂

The article mentions the pilot is Carson Roberts,I had the name reversed.

Crash details

Article on the crash here

Ok its in French – but that just makes it a little more challenging 😀

C-47A 42-92700 17TCS 64 Troop carrier Group, pilot Robert Carsons crashed St Chamond ,SW Lyon 01.11.44.

Not positive this is the aircraft concerned but it’s a start.

Aleda E. Lutz

Googled the name only & got loads of hits 😀 – seems she is pretty famous in the US. Following quote from the best source I could find (URL too long to include!)

Aleda E. Lutz
(1915 – 1944)
Inducted: 1994
Era: Historic
Area(s) of Achievement: Aviation,Medicine/Health Care,Military

“For outstanding proficiency and selfless devotion to duty,” reads the citation accompanying the Distinguished Flying Cross presented in December of 1944 to First Lieutenant Aleda Lutz of Freeland. She had volunteered for duty with the 802nd Medical Air Evacuation Squadron, the first of its kind. Lutz had recorded 814 hours in the air when the C47 hospital plane evacuating 15 wounded soldiers from the battlefront near Lyons in Italy crashed killing all aboard.

Aleda E. Lutz is one of the most celebrated women war heroes of World War II. As a First Lieutenant Army Flight Nurse she flew 196 missions evacuating over 3500 men. She also logged the most flight hours of any flight nurse. She earned six battle stars before her death, and she was recorded as the first military woman to die in a combat zone in World War II. Lutz was awarded the Air Medal four times, the Oak Leaf Cluster, the Red Cross Medal, and the Purple Heart. She was also the first woman awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in a World War, our nation’s second highest military honor.

A Veteran’s Medical facility located in her hometown of Saginaw, has been named after her by Congressional Decree. The congressional resolution was first offered in 1949, but died in committee, mainly because she was a woman. Though the building was completed in 1950, it was not until August 15, 1990, that it was officially named. The United States Army Hospital Ship and a C-47 plane have also been named in her honor. With the exception of the Civil War Era Doctor Mary Walker, these honors make Aleda E. Lutz the highest decorated woman in the history of the United States of America.

One puzzle is that almost all of the sources quote the place of the crash as “near Lyon, Italy” yet Ian says he photographed the memorial at La Jasserie, which is near Saint Etienne?

Aleda Lutz

Quick Google finds the following:

1 Nov 44:

USA ANC 1LT Aleda Lutz from Freeland, MI is one of the most celebrated war heroes of World War II. As an Army Flight Nurse, she flew 196 missions in an air ambulance, losing her own life in an evacuation effort over Lyon, Italy. Supposedly she was the first US military woman to die in a combat zone during World War II.

From: http://www.nooniefortin.com/earlierwars.htm

My French is not very good (babelfish level), but it appears that Germans were also killed here. Maybe someone can translate it in detail.

I can’t see anything indicating, that the 15 (besides the crew) other fatalities were killed on the ground.

Relatively late in the war, so maybe they were transporting German prisoners