270th Field Artillery in the ETO WWII: September 2023

Thursday, September 28, 2023

Medical Section

Doc Saenz

Medical Section

Doc Saenz

Medics eating chow

Doc Saenz

Fatal Crash of L4 Aircraft

LTs Eugene Anspach and LaVerne Emberts Pilot and Observer of an L4 Observation Airplane was shot down over Germany on 1 Jan 1945.

WWII Grid Coord: wQ220882

Modern Day Lat/Long: 49.23.20N / 6.39.43E

Vicinity of Beckingen Germany

L4 Light Observation Plane assigned to the unit.

Unknown if this is the plane that was shot down.

1Lt LaVerne Emberts attended Field Artillery Plot Course P-34-I [the class was large so it was divided into 2 sections, I and II] at Ft. Sill OK that began on 14 Jun 1943 and graduated on 24 Jul 1943. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Army Liaison Pilot badge and entitled to draw flight pay ( which was 50% of his base pay). His grade in the last portion of the course- Stage 3- was 72/100. While he was in training he was involved in a "Class C" aircraft accident. I'm not sure of the details of that accident, but it was not serious.

1Lt Cyrille John LaBlanc also attended the same class and was in the same section "I" as Emberts. LaBlanc graduated with a 70/100 grade in Stage 3.

Unfortunately, the page of the class lists for Lt Carl Walker is missing. He graduated from Artillery OCS Class 54-43 on 4 March 1943. Since he was already at Sill, he likely attended a Pilots course sometime in March 1943 and would have graduated in late April or early May 1943.

Artillery Liaison pilots were pilots not Aerial Observers. Observers were volunteers from the ranks - NCOs or officers-who knew artillery business so they could adapt to assisting the pilot to adjust artillery from the air. But training Aerial Observers became a real challenge so before the end of the war, the Army had begun to train soldiers as Aerial Observers. There were no wings for Observers in Army Artillery.

Morris P. Barker left the 270th FA not for Liaison pilot training in the Army but for the Cadet program of the USAAF intending to become a pilot. However, by the time he got to Miami to begin training, the program was suspended. So he trained as a gunner and flew on a B-24 which led to his shootdown.

He was a POW in Stalag Luft 4 Gross-Tychow (formerly Heydekrug) Pomerania, Prussia (moved to Wobbelin Bei Ludwigslust) (To Usedom Bei Savenmunde) 54-16. You can look him up at the Texas Air and Space Museum. The write-up of his time in the 270th mentions a couple of names of his friends in the unit.

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