BODELL, LLOYD May 26, 1945 age 27 KIA Formosa

LLOYD EDWIN BODELL  b. May 6, 1918 Monroe, Mich d. May 26, 1945 Killed in Action  

Formosa (Taiwan)

1st Lt O-1041507 US Air Force 345^th Bomb Gr 498th Bomb Squad

14114 Archdale

Buried: Woodland Cemetery, Monroe, MI

Parents: Lloyd J. & Anna Marie

Step-Siblings: Roger, Evelyn   
 

Lloyd’s father was killed Aug 6, 1918 in WWI. Anna Marie remarried after 1920 where the census lists him living alone with his mother. In 1930 he lived at 14114 Archdale with his step father, mother and two step siblings.

 

 

He graduated from Redford in 1935 and Wayne State in 1939. He worked as shipping & receiving clerk for Sears & Roebuck. He must have worked at the store at Grand River and Oakman.

Draft registration was Oct 16, 1940 in Detroit; he was 5’8” 136 lbs with blue eyes and brown hair. His enlistment followed in April 1941. By March 1943 he was a student officer Army Air Force pre-flight school at Maxwell Field, Ala.

On May 26, 1945 sixteen B-25J Mitchell bombers from the 498^th Bomb Squadron took off from the base in the Philippines headed for Taiwan. Part of the 345^th Bombardment Group with the 5^th Air Force, they were stationed in the Philippines since November 1944 carrying out missions against shipping along the China coast as well as industrial and infrastructure targets in Taiwan. The mission that day was the Byoritsu Refinery in the northwestern Taiwan city of Miaoli. US intelligence estimated that it produced 100,000 barrels of gasoline, kerosene and heavy oil annually. The refinery was designated Target No. 85. Among the bombers heading across the sea towards Taiwan was #42-36192, ‘Jaunty Jo’ piloted by Robert J. Knauf with a crew of 5.

Bodell's plane is hit

 The 16 bombers approached the target almost grazing the treetops. They did this as the bombs they carried, Parafrag bombs, were designed to be dropped with great precision from low altitude before detonating and breaking into smaller fragments. Parachutes delayed impact long enough for the aircraft to escape unharmed.

Crash of #42-36192

As it released its Parafrag bombs the left side of the ‘Jaunty Jo’ cockpit was hit by shrapnel and a gaping hole opened next to the pilots. Trailed by a dense tail of smoke the bomber crashed seconds later killing all on board.

The official explanation was that a camouflaged anti-aircraft battery near the refinery shot down the plane. However, the extremely low altitude makes it possible that it was hit by Parafrag bombs descending towards the ground having been dropped by another bomber. The truth will never be known; either option has the same end result. There were no survivors. Incredible is that there are photographs of the plane being hit and then crashing.

 

Lloyd was reburied in Monroe in 1949, where his father already was interred. In April 1950 Roger W. Haines, Lloyd’s step brother, applied for headstones for each of them.