Item:
ON5034

Original U.S. WWII B-24 Liberator Hoo Jive 734th Bomb Squadron Named Pilot Grouping - POW

Item Description

Original Items: One-of-a-kind grouping. Lieutenant Charles R. Huntoon ASN 0-380452 from Portland Maine, was a pilot on the B-24 Liberator HOO-JIVE which was assigned to the 734th Bomb Squadron, 453rd Bomb Group, 8th Air Force.

As found from an online interview in 2010:

1st Lt. Huntoon was the pilot of the B-24H Hoo-Jive (42-52174) that on the 25th of August 1944 left England for Wismar, Germany. Their target was an FW (Focke-Wulf) aircraft engine plant. The B-24 was hit by a burst of flak under the right wing and soon lost its #4 engine. Not long after that, the #3 engine also died. As they started back toward England, with a P-51 covering them, #2 engine started smoking.  Knowing their only other alternative was to ditch the plane in Germany, the crew decided to head toward Sweden. They threw everything in the plane that was not fastened down overboard.

Charlie made a perfect landing at Bulltofta, an airport near Malmö, and the crew was safe.

Initially Charlie went to the internment camp at Falun. Then because he had an engineering background, he was moved to Satenas, an airfield where quite a few of the bombers had been impounded and needed repair.

After the 1st of the year, January 1945, Charlie was the only American officer on the base. When the internees were given a weekend pass to go into Stockholm, Charlie would debrief them when they returned to base. It was not unusual for the boys to be approached by “characters” asking seemingly casual questions about military details. If there was anything unusual to report, Charlie would take that information to Herman Allen who was stationed in Stockholm at the American Legation.

On July 12, 1945, Charles Huntoon flew the same plane back to England that he had brought to Sweden the year before, now with four re-built engines.  His was the last interned plane to leave.

Included in this wonderful set are the following items:

- Ike jacket named internally to Huntoon with wonderful bullion embroidered pilot wings as well as bullion embroidered lapel aviator wings. Medal ribbons that include: Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, American Defense, WWII Victory Medal ribbon with Medal, European-African Middle East Campaign with 3 battle stars and the American Campaign Ribbon.

- 2 x OD Green peaked visor "crush" caps

- USAF Air Force Major Colonel Officer's Dress Hat.

- Original WWII famed photo of Huntoon in uniform.

- Copy of photo of Huntoon in HOO-JIVE.

- Copy of the Missing in Action report from actions on 8/24/1944

- Overseas garrison side cap.

- Headset with wire.

- Army issue overcoat.

- Loads of original documents including honorable discharge.

History of the 734th Bomb Squadron:

Established in mid 1943 as a B-24 Liberator heavy bombardment squadron, assigned to II Bomber Command for training. Trained in Idaho for the first phase of training which included local area flights, bombing and aerial gunnery practice. Moved to California for second and third phases of training. The training there was more extensive. It included cross country missions, navigation problems, gunnery, bombing and pilot training problems. At this time considerable time was spent in ground school instruction on problems pertaining to heavy bombardment operations for overseas duty. Deployed to European Theater of Operations (ETO), being assigned to VIII Bomber Command in England in December 1943.

Engaged in long-range strategic bombardment of enemy targets in Occupied Europe and NSDAP Germany, attacking transportation, industrial, Oil Industry and other targets as directed. Also engaged in tactical bombardment of enemy forces in France in support of the Operation Overlord landings in Normandy, and the subsequent breakout at St-Lo in July 1944. Attacked enemy formations and armor during the Battle of the Bulge, January 1945. Continued bombardment of strategic targets until the German Capitulation in May.

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