S/Sgt.

David Kent Ollre

Radio Operator (AAF) - MOS 756

545th Bomb Squadron

384th Bombardment Group (Heavy)

Serial Nr 06288183

Killed 18/04/1944 - Ground Accident - aged 23

Resting place - Old Fellows Cemetery, Gonzales, Texas

David Kent Ollre was born on 10th February, 1921 in Gonzales, Texas. His father was Claude Kent Ollre, his mother Flora Leona Ollre. He lived in Seguin, Texas and attended Seguin High School, Class of 1939. He had a brother and three sisters. Ollre was married to Joyce Cohea, and had a son - David Kent Ollre Jnr. When S/Sgt. Ollre was assigned overseas with the 384th Bombardment Group, his son was just two days old.

Assigned to the 545th Bomb Squadron on 31st December 1942, S/Sgt. Ollre was a specialist in ground-based radio equipment, and would have been responsible for radio communications on base, plus the maintenance and upkeep of this equipment.

On the evening of 18th April, 1944 at around 23.00 S/Sgt. Ollre was returning by bicycle along with Cpl. James A. Moore and Cpl. Teddy R. Potocki (both also 545th Bomb Squadron) after an evening at Geddington. Although expressly forbidden, they had proceeded to ride their bicycles down, or across, Runway No.2. Due to day operations by the USAAF, it would be an easy assumption for them to make that the runways were inactive late into the evening. 

Unbeknown to the trio, an RAF Short Stirling of 1657 Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU), based at RAF Stradishall in Suffolk, was operating on this runway completing a circuit of "touch and goes" as part of crew training. On its fourth such pass, the aircraft was to strike the three men on their bicycles, killing them all outright. The impact damaged the large RAF bomber, resulting in it heading immediately back to their home base. Enroute, a fire broke out in an engine, causing the aircraft to then divert towards the emergency airfield at RAF Woodbridge, in Suffolk. The experienced pilot and co-pilot instructed the crew to bail out whilst they attempted to land the aircraft at the emergency airfield -  however, tragically, the trainee flight engineer was to fall to his death when his parachute failed to open. A few miles short of RAF Woodbridge, the Stirling was to crash near the village of Little Glenham in Suffolk with the loss of life of both pilot and co-pilot.

S/Sgt. Ollre was initially interred at Madingley American Cemetery near Cambridge, England before his body was repatriated, in line with family wishes, in the years after the war's end.

Research courtesy of Keith Andrews on behalf of 384th Bombardment Group Museum.

With kind thanks to the 384th Bomb Group website www.384thbombgroup.com for permission in using material from their records in the making of this story. It holds a wealth of information, documents and photographs of their activities during World War 2.

Further information courtesy of www.newspapers.com, www.ancestory.com and www.findagrave.com