Lot 5542

Description

US Army Air Force brown leather jacket, with affixed metal pilot's wings above a sewn-on leather name tag impressed with the name, 'D.H.Lumberg', and below this is a round leather patch being the patch of the 320th Bombardment Group and with the number '443' inside the star being for the 443rd Bombardment Squadron, on the right breast is an image of a bomber and below this is ink transferred 3 rows each of 15 bombs and a 4th row of 4 bombs making a total of 49 bombing missions, the inside label on the jacket reads, 'Type A-21/Drawing No. 3C-1415-P/Property/Air Force U.S.Army/United Sheeplined/Clothing Co./Long Branch, N.J.'; also included is an officer's hat with metal hat badge, label on underside of hat reads, 'by Dobbs/Fifth Avenue/New York'. In very fine condition for age and scarce. (2)

Together with a b&w photo of D.H.Lumberg, wearing the above leather jacket, standing beside a B-26 Marauder aircraft. The B-26 he flew was called, 'Scram Boogie'.

The 443rd Bombardment Squadron was first activated in mid-1942 as a Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber unit assigned to the 320th Bombardment Group. It operated against targets in Europe during early fall of 1942; deployed to North Africa as part of the Twelfth Air Force after Operation Torch landings in Algeria in November; flew tactical bombing missions against Axis forces in North Africa until the end of the Tunisian Campaign in May 1943; participated in the Sicilian and Italian Campaigns, Liberation of Corsica and Sardinia and the Invasion of Southern France; supported ground forces in the Western Allied Invasion of Germany, spring 1945; became part of the United States Air Forces in Europe Army of Occupation in Germany, in 1945. Personnel were demobilized in Germany and the squadron inactivated as a paper unit in December 1945. The unit earned two Distinguished Unit Citations (later renamed Presidential Unit Citation) and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm.