Item Description
Original Items: One-of-a-kind set. 1st Lieutenant Harry Lee Ingram 0-734697 was the Navigator aboard B-17 Flying Fortresses as a member of the 8th Air Force, 381st Bombardement Group, 533rd Bomb Squadron during WWII. He flew 25 missions between July 17th, 1943 and January 4th, 1944. He was a recipient of the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters and the Distinguished Flying Cross. This grouping while fascinating is quite rare in the fact that his hand written flight log book detailing all 25 "sorties" is included. This book describes each mission in detail including the date, target, formation, weather, enemy encountered, number and type of bombs dropped and more. Also included is what appears to be almost every official document Ingram was issued by the military, all the way back to his induction paperwork, through his DFC citation paper work to his discharge in the 1960s. It is easily the most extensive historical document record for one soldier we have ever seen.
The 381st Bomb Group flew B-17 Flying Fortresses from Ridgewell, Essex between June 1943 and April 1945. The Group was awarded two Distinguished Unit Citations, the first for bombing shipyards at Bremen, whilst under heavy attack, on 8 October 1943 and the second was awarded to the 1st Bomb Division as a whole for flying without fighter protection to bomb aircraft factories at Oschersleben on 11 January 1944.
Lt. Ingram was on the Bremen Shipyards Mission on October 8th, 1943 and his flight log journal describes it in detail as follows:
Included in the amazing grouping are the following:
- Original WWII U.S. Class A four pocket officer tunic with Lieutenant bars on each shoulder, early Army Air Force patch, 8th Air Force patch, 3 overseas bars on left sleeve, tailor label from Freem's Ltd located in New York City inside the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
- Original WWII U.S. Army peaked cap by Henry's of Wichita, Kansas.
- Original WWII U.S. Type A-4 Flight Suit.
- Original WWII U.S. AN-H-15 Summer Flight Helmet.
- Original WWII USAAF Pilots Navigation Kit filled with documents, tools and other things.
- Original WWII U.S. leather document binder with hundreds and hundreds of military wartime document (and postwar) including his DFC citation the three Air medal citations, order, and so much more. HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of documents!
- Original WWII U.S. Flight Log Journal with all 25 missions handwritten accounts in wonderful detail.
All in all an amazing set of a true air hero from WWII that went on to serve in the Air Force through the mid 1960s.
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