2nd Lt Orville F. Card, 705 Squadron, 446th BG
Orville F. Card, my mother’s brother, graduated from Mt. Clemens High School in 1940. When World War II came, he joined the U. S. Army Air Corps. He trained at various air bases out west, including Lemoore in California and at Marfa, Texas, eventually qualifying as a bomber co-pilot. A 2nd Lieutenant, he was assigned to the 705th Squadron in the 446th Bomb Group which had received new B-24 Liberator bombers. The men of the 446th embarked on the RMS Queen Mary in October 1943 and headed for England. The wing was based at Bungay in Suffolk, about 100 miles northeast of London, and they began bombing strategic objectives on the continent that December. Their targets included U-boat installations, chemical plants, railroads, ball-bearing works and aircraft factories. The 446th also bombed German troops in Normandy, France on D-Day in June 1944. On August 25th 1944, uncle Orville and his crew in their B-24 nick-named “Happy-Go-Lucky” took off for a mission against the Heinkel aircraft engine factory in Rostock. As they approached the coast, their aircraft peeled out of the 38-plane formation with an engine fire. Other bomber crews watched “Happy-Go-Lucky” veer back to the west attempting to return to England. They didn’t make it and crashed into the North Sea near Amrum Island. All of the crew were lost. The other crewmen were: 2nd Lieutenant Fred Mincks (pilot), Flight Officer Howard Bedford (navigator), 2nd LT James Davies (bombardier), Corporal John Smith (ball turret gunner), Sergeant Donald Burt (top turret gunner), Corporal Charles Meisle (radio operator), Corporal Chris Paragone (nose turret gunner), Sergeant Jack DelMastero (engineer/waist gunner) and Corporal James Turner (tail turret gunner). I can remember as a kid that my grandmother still had a hard time with Orville’s loss; she kept some of his things thinking he would come back some day but of course he never did. She placed a grave marker for him in Clinton Grove Cemetery in Mt. Clemens and she was buried next to it a few years ago. So, on Memorial Day, amid the furniture sales, parades, and baseball games, I’ll be thinking at least for a while of my uncle and the rest of the crew of the “Happy-Go-Lucky”.
