Name:
Bruce B. Tuthill
Rank:
Staff Sergeant
Serial Number:
Unit:
742nd Bomber Squadron, 455th Bomber Group
Date of Death:
1944-08-25
State:
New York
Cemetery:
Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA
Plot:
34
Row:
Grave:
3305
Decoration:
Comments:
Born 18 April 1914. Assistant engineer and gunner of the B-24 G, 42-78240, "Our Love", which took off from near Bari, Italy on a bombing run of a train yard in Bucharest, Romania. Over the target, the plane was struck by anti-aircraft fire and thus fell out of formation and was attacked by five German fighter planes on the return flight, which brought the plane down. S/SGT David Koblitz and S/SGT Bruce Tuthill forced open the bomb-bay doors and dumped equipment and to lighten the plane. Then, the aircraft's two vertical tail rudders were shot off, sending the plane into a spin of such power that it threw Koblitz and Tuthill out the bomb-bay doors. Tuthill was originally listed as missing in action until November 1944.