Press Release | Dec. 20, 2024

Airman Accounted For From World War II (Bradbury, G.)

WASHINGTON  –  

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. George F. Bradbury, 22, killed during World War II, was accounted for Dec. 19, 2024.

In the fall of 1943, Bradbury served as the navigator aboard a B-24 Liberator bomber with 858th Bombardment Squadron, 492nd Bombardment Group, Eighth Air Force. The unit was engaged in Operation CARPETBAGGER, a series of secret missions in which several specially designated bomb groups dropped supplies, arms, equipment, leaflets, and U.S. Office of Strategic Services and French agents to resistance groups operating in northern France. On Sept. 16, 1944, Bradbury’s crew was scheduled to fly its final mission to drop supplies to resistance forces 40 miles east of the Moselle River. 115th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Gun Battalion, an American artillery unit stationed near Lebeuville, France, mistook Bradbury’s B-24 for an enemy aircraft and opened fire upon it, killing six of the eight crew members onboard, including Bradbury.

This is an initial release. The complete accounting of Bradbury’s case will be published once the family receives their full briefing.