USAAC Pilot 1Lt. Hartwell Riley Howington was born on April 17, 1917 in Warsaw, Florida, the son of Reverend Arthur Fletcher Howington Sr. (1880-1938) and Cora Cornelia Kelly (1877-1963). He graduated from Eclectic High School in Elmore County, Alabama and attended one year at Birmingham-Southern College. His father supported his family as a country preacher until he passed away in 1938. Two years later, Cora and Riley moved to Jay, Florida where she rented a house for $4.00 per month while her son worked as a clerk at a local feed store called the "Square Deal Store." Shortly afterwards, Riley married Winnie Louise McFaden on October 27, 1940 and later moved to Cantonment, Florida where his daughter Linda Louise was born. After the war began, Riley enlisted in the US Army Air Corps in Montgomery, Alabama on March 31, 1942. He was eventually assigned to the 68th Bombardment Squadron attached to the 44th Bombardment Group.
Shipped overseas to England in October 1943, he participated in numerous missions including the bombing of Munster and Wilhelmshaven. Finally, on January 21, 1944 they were assigned a bombing mission over Calais, France to destroy the German V-1 rocket sites that were striking London. Riley and his crew boarded their B-24 Bomber that they had nicknamed "Ram It - Damn it." It was supposed to be an easy milk run compared to their previous missions. But suddenly, German fighter formations appeared and attacked with a vengeance. They raked Riley's plane with 20-mm shells with one exploding directly on the nose. The explosion killed the bombardier and navigator and turned their compartment into an instant inferno. The co-pilot was killed by that same blast just as Riley began to lose control of his burning bomber. He bravely but desperately tried to keep the aircraft level while his crew tried to bail out. Finally, Riley bailed out himself as the plane went into a steep dive and crashed with a huge explosion. Sadly, Riley's parachute never opened as he desperately struggled with the cords. He perished quickly in the field of a French farmer and was buried in the cemetery of Poix. Of the seven planes that left that morning only three came home! Of the eleven crewmen aboard "Ram it Damn It," four were killed, one became a POW, and six made it home.
After the war, Howington was exhumed and buried in a American War Cemetery. In 1949, he was again exhumed and transported back home where he was buried in the Barrancas Cemetery with his brother Reverend A. F. Howington Jr. officiating. He also has a memorial placed in the Repton Methodist Church Cemetery by his parents and wife in Repton, Alabama. After the war, Riley's wife received a letter postmarked "France" from a Miss Giberte Daumal. She wrote that she had visited the crash site and saw the body of Lt. Howington draped in his own tangled parachute. She also saw the burned bodies of two other crewmen. She placed flowers on Riley's grave for years and also sent Louise her husband's watch that she had scooped up and hidden from the German soldiers. The two women corresponded over the years and later Louise sent Miss Gilberte material for her wedding dress.
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