- 707th Bomb Squadron, USAAF during the Second World War -
Air Force Index
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this siteplease consider making a donation.
Site Home
WW2 Home
Add Stories
WW2 Search
Library
Help & FAQs
WW2 Features
Airfields
Allied Army
Allied Air Forces
Allied Navy
Axis Forces
Home Front
Battles
Prisoners of War
Allied Ships
Women at War
Those Who Served
Day-by-Day
Library
The Great War
Submissions
Add Stories
Time Capsule
Childrens Bookshop
FAQ's
Help & FAQs
Glossary
Volunteering
Contact us
News
Bookshop
About
707th Bomb Squadron, USAAF
If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
Logbooks
Do you have a WW2 Flying Log Book in your possession?If so it would be a huge help if you could add logbook entries to our new database. Thank you.
View Logbook entries
Those known to have served with
707th Bomb Squadron, USAAF
during the Second World War 1939-1945.
- Maier Ralph E.. 1st.Lt.
The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List
Records of 707th Bomb Squadron, USAAF from other sources.
The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
Announcements
- 1st of September 2024 marks 25 years since the launch of the Wartime Memories Project. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over this time.
- The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 25 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web.
- 16th Jan 2025 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 265273 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
- Looking for help with Family History Research? Please read our Family History FAQs
- The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web.
If you enjoy this siteplease consider making a donation.
Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text.
Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home.If you have any unwanted photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes.
Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted. World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion
Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
Want to know more about 707th Bomb Squadron, USAAF?
There are:-1 items tagged 707th Bomb Squadron, USAAF available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War.
1st.Lt. Ralph E. Maier 707th Bomb Squadron 446th Bomb Group
Lt. Ralph E. Maier landed at Cluntoe, Northern Ireland on 5th of May 1944, and trained for combat. On May 29th, he joined the 446th Bomb Group, at Flixton, near Bungay. He was the pilot of Pistal Packin' Bomma II. His B-24 was shot down by flak on 24th of August 1944 after bombing Waggum Air Base near Brunswick. He was severely burned while trying to rescue his crewmen in the exploding bomber. After being shot while parachuting, a German soldier saved him from a group of farmers with pitchforks. At Lazarett for Stalag IX-A/H at Hania, a British nurse found him still alive after lying for three days with the dead, and she saved his life. Then he was sent to Lazarett IX-C(a) and IX-C(b). While at Lazarett IX-B in Bad Soden, the well respected Dr. Major David Charters, RAMC, performed a skin transplant to his lower eyelid, which he had learned by a correspondence course with Dr. Archibald McIndoe, RAF. Afterwards by refusing to transfer Lt. Maier to Stalag IX-B in Bad Orb, he probably saved his life.A theater program and photographs show Lt. Maier in a New Years 1945 play called Yankee Doodle presented by Major Geoffrey Bedding, 2NZEF, and directed by Forrest W. Howell. It includes one scene with Major Charters. He also brought home a cap from a German guard, which is on display in England. Ralph performed the burial rights for Cpl. Charles Hayes, who had been awarded the Medal for Gallantry by the King. The names of others spelled phonetically were: Licht, Hodges, Statham, Masay, Anderson, Wiseman, Butz and McHead. Additionally, four photographs show a funeral at the POW cemetery about a mile from the hospital. It was for the last American POW to be buried in a casket, before common graves were used when the death rate jumped. The first shows a procession of German guards, a casket draped with a US flag, and POW's marching. Next, a German guard presenting a Wreath at the grave, and then an American presenting a wreath. The last shows a bugler playing Taps, more than 28 POW's in a line saluting, while three German guards fire a rifle salute.
On 31st of March 1945, the 11th Armored Division liberated Lazarett IX-B at Bad Soden. After artillery fire damaged the hospital, Major Charters helped arrange a cease fire. The German guards deserted the hospital. A boy fired at the Americans, but they held their fire.
Ralph was one of the first Repatriated American Military Personnel sent to Camp Lucky Strike. On 24th of April 1945, he was flown to Britain, and then to New York. He was finally discharged from an army hospital on February 12, 1946. He lived with his wife Mary and six children until he died in 1991. He earned the Air Medal with 3 oak leaves.
Recomended Reading.
Available at discounted prices.
Links
Suggest a link
The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small
to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites, books, magazines or any other forms of media. |