Captain Robert Moffat Losey is considered to be the first American military that was killed in action in WWII. He was killed by a Luftwaffe Bomber in Dombas, Norway, april 21 1940, but I forgot to post it yesterday.
I don’t have dates in front of me, and I could very well be wrong here… April 1940 as the first American to die during WWII to military action… what about the Flying Tiger volunteers in China… I don’t remember when they started operating, but when did the first one of them die?
I don’t have dates in front of me, and I could very well be wrong here… April 1940 as the first American to die during WWII to military action… what about the Flying Tiger volunteers in China… I don’t remember when they started operating, but when did the first one of them die?
Warbirdforum shows these as being the first:
Flight Leader Neil Martin, killed in action, Dec. 23, 1941
Wingman Henry Gilbert, killed in action, Dec. 23, 1941
I don’t have dates in front of me, and I could very well be wrong here… April 1940 as the first American to die during WWII to military action… what about the Flying Tiger volunteers in China… I don’t remember when they started operating, but when did the first one of them die?
I think that a distinction can be drawn between American service personnel killed in action from the time that the US was formally engaged in WWII (meaning from December 7, 1941 onward) and those KIA prior to US entry into WWII. That second category can produce complicated and debatable answers. Frank Capra’s “Why We Fight” propaganda / documentary films, for instance, consider the three US sailors who were killed in December 1937 when the Japanese bombed the gunboat USS Panay to be among the first (if not the first) Americans KIA during WWII. Capra’s films actually consider WWII to have begun way back in 1931, with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria; I think that’s pushing it, but I think a case can be made for the concept that the Second Sino-Japanese War which began in July 1937 (and continued non-stop until September 1945) was the first phase of what later became WWII in the Asia-Pacific theatre. If, however, one works from the alternate premise that the Second Sino-Japanese War in itself doesn’t count as WWII, then the period which counts would be the one from September 1, 1939 onward.
@CWO:
If, however, one works from the alternate premise that the Second Sino-Japanese War in itself doesn’t count as WWII, then the period which counts would be the one from September 1, 1939 onward.
Well this is exactly my point… if they want to say WWII is Sep 1 1939 forward, there is still plenty of space between 1 September 1939 and April 21 1940 for a Flying Tiger volunteer pilot to have died in China before the volunteer pilot died in Norway in 1940.
Can we all just agree the war wasn’t over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
@AryanRights:
Warbirdforum shows these as being the first:
Flight Leader Neil Martin, killed in action, Dec. 23, 1941
Wingman Henry Gilbert, killed in action, Dec. 23, 1941
While I don’t have the dates in front of me, I know for a fact the Flying Tigers were operating in China BEFORE Dec 7 1941, and find it hard to believe nobody died before Dec 7.
While I don’t have the dates in front of me, I know for a fact the Flying Tigers were operating in China BEFORE Dec 7 1941, and find it hard to believe nobody died before Dec 7.
The Flying Tigers were active from 20 December 1941 to 4 July 1942.
I could’ve sworn they were operating before then, but oh well… that’s what I get for being lazy and not looking it up myself. This silly thing like being at work and not wanting to spend the extra time it takes to properly goof off.
Well this is exactly my point… if they want to say WWII is Sep 1 1939 forward, there is still plenty of space between 1 September 1939 and April 21 1940 for a Flying Tiger volunteer pilot to have died in China before the volunteer pilot died in Norway in 1940.
Just to add a further complication: officially, the Americans who served with the Flying Tigers were not “American armed service personnel”, they were Americans citizens who had volunteered for service in the Chinese Air Force. I’m not sure anybody (including the Japanese) believed the official story, given that these guys were all originally U.S. Army Air Corps and U.S. Marine pilots, but technically they were Chinese Air Force pilots at the time.
Well during the time of the “AVG”, by definition, American Volunteer Group, no, they weren’t officially working for the US Military… anymore than that American pilot who got shot down in Norway (or the American pilots who died during the Battle of Britain)… but I was mistaken, the AVG didn’t even form till 1941, so it’s past the date of the volunteer who died in Norway, and it wasn’t the AVG for long, as the Flying Tigers were officially incorporated into the USAAC in 1942… so it wasn’t independent as long as I had first thought… roughly only 1 year.
…that American pilot who got shot down in Norway…
No, he wasn’t shot down. From wikipedia:
…Losey and the chauffeur passed through Dombas, a strategic railway intersection, just as a German Luftwaffe bombing began. The two sought refuge in a railway tunnel with others, but once in the tunnel Losey stood where he could observe the bombing. After a bomb fell near the entrance to the tunnel, a fragment of it pierced Losey’s heart, killing him. In addition to Losey, five Norwegians were killed by the bomb, and 18 wounded.
He was in Norway as a military attache at the US embassy and not as a fighter pilot. Like most others, he was evacuating north from Oslo, when he got to Dombas. He was very interested in flying and Luftwaffe, and stood close to the entrance to see the planes.
