416th Bomb Group

The first road sign on my journey in search of Bill Cramsie was a military unit designation, the 416th Bomb Group (Light). This unit was formed in the U.S. and trained at Lake Charles, Louisiana and Laurel, Mississippi before transferring to England and the 9th Air Force in January of 1944. Surprisingly, the 416th did not have an individual unit patch. Each squadron had their own patches and they all wore the 9th AF patch. Sixteen West Point graduates from the class of June 1943 were assigned to the 416th in September of 1943, with four being assigned to each of the Group's four squadrons. Bill Cramsie was assigned to the 671st Bomb Squadron. My first exposure to the 416th came in the early days of 2006, partly through the book Attack Bombers We Need You, by 416th veteran Ralph Conte, and partly through email exchanges with former 671st gunner Ray Jones. It happened that Ray lived close enough for my wife Doris and I to drive to and we met him for a very pleasant session of war stories and photo album exploration. That summer, Doris and I attended the Group's annual reunion at Louisville, KY and met about a dozen veterans and their families. Some of the families came in force and it was much like an old fashioned family reunion. Indeed, that is exactly what happened in our case, we were immediately adopted by the group and made to feel like we had always been there. That instant bonding was at first a surprise to me, but the deeper I got into the writing of First To Fall, the less surprising those bonds became. I rarely met anyone in the process of researching the life of Bill Cramsie that I didn't have an immediate affinity for. It was, strangely enough, as though they had expected me. I won't go into the history of the 416th here because I have established a memorial site to the group that does precisely that. We have since attended the Group reunions at Oshkosh, WI and at Topsail Island, NC. The veterans are unable to manage the preparation and hosting of a reunion themselves, so it will fall to individual families to host any future reunions. Doris and I volunteered to host the 2009 reunion at Branson, MO on September 9th through 12. Most of the surviving Group members are in their late 80s or early 90s. They are, without exception, a most cordial and pleasant bunch to be around and becoming a part of their world has been a great honor for me. In future visits here I'll post some individual vignettes of those 416th veterans whom I have met.