World War II Honoree

Edgar H. Wittman

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Lamar, Indiana

Honored By

Darin Collignon

Relationship

Friend; Distant Relative

Inducted into US Army Air Forces; trained as radioman, Chanute Field, Illinois, circa April 1940. Stationed at Barksdale Field, Louisiana, as a radio chief; was commended for “performing his duties in an outstanding manner.” Commissioned circa Oct 1940, he was trained as a B-42 Liberator pilot was then assigned to the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bomb Group, 13th Air Force. and sent to the Pacific Theater. On 30 September 1944, 64 B-24s of FEAF’s Thirteenth Air Force’s 5th and 307th Bomb Groups (BG) and Fifth Air Force’s 90th BG struck oil installations at Balikpapan dropping 85-tons of 1,000 lb. bombs. His aircraft, B-24J #44-40529 took off, with a crew of 10, from Kornasoren Airfield, Biak, Numfor Regency, Papua Province, Indonesia on a strike mission over Balikpapan, East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. To reach the gasoline and oil refineries at Balikpapan, the B-24s had to fly a round trip of 2,610 miles entirely over water and Japanese held territory, the longest daylight mass formation bombing missions ever flown by B-24 aircraft. However, his crew never made it back, they were hit by enemy ground anti-aircraft fire and also attacked by Japanese A6M Zeros which disabled the #2 engine and both left and right rudders. The plane later crashed into the Molucca Sea taking the life of the entire 10-man crew. He was awarded the following decorations: Purple Heart, Air Medal (1 OLC), American Defense Campaign Meda, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (4 Campaign Stars), WW II Victory Medal, and Distinguished Unit Citation (1 OLC (5th Bomb Group).