T/Sgt Fred Russek

by Tony Hough
(Wichita,Kansas)

I was looking through your Oral History page and I found a name on there that is in a piece of History that was given to me by the widow of the 376th. the name I found is Fred P. Russek. the sortie mission date was April 4, 1943. his fellow crewmates were E.J. Feeley, J. Beck, C. Quggenheim, J.C. Macmillan, C.J. Cannon, D.W. Brunson, F.R. Bone and G.W.Wilkinson. the aircraft number was #71 and the aircraft Letter was M. the taget was Naples harbor, Time up-1145 time down-2030. This mission did not go well or last long because at 1640 GMT @24,000 feet they lost the #2 supercharger, manifold pressure dropped to 15 and the had to jettison their bomb load but still tried to stay with the formation because they did not want to return alone. @ 1700 GMT #3 engine cut out, they got it restarted and headed home


I have sortie reports from the 512th, 513th, 514th and 515th squadrons for the mission flown in April of 1943