US Army Air Corps 2nd Lt. John O'Donovan Dargacz was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 13, 1923, the son of Joseph Frank Dargacz Sr. (1896-1938) and Genevieve (Jenny) Sheliah O'Donovan (1901-1991). His father served in the US Navy during WWI before taking a job as a mechanic in an automobile factory in Chicago after the war. He would marry Pensacolian Genevieve O'Donovan in 1923, the daughter of a city inspector John O'Donovan (1852-1910) and her mother Moleen Whitehead (1859-1917). Joseph would pass away prematurely in November 1938 after an operation. As a historical side note, John's mother was also the sister of Alberta O'Donovan (1897-1987) who married Leo G. Askew (1893-1956) and gave birth to Reubin O'Donovan Askew (1829-2014), the 37th Governor of the State of Florida from 1971-1979.
After his father's death, Genevieve took a job as a bookkeeper for the government's WPA program while renting a home at 1001 West Garden Street for $22.00 per month. By June 1940, John had graduated from Pensacola High School in the Class of 1940, lettering in track and football. After high school he went to work for the WPA program as an assistant. Afterwards, he became a aircraft metal worker stationed in Pearl Harbor. It was there he enlisted in the US Army Air Corps on March 22, 1943 and served at Schofield Barracks and Hickman Field. He would earn his wings at the Army's bombardier school at Kirtland Field in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Following intensive B-17 bombardier training in Gulfport, Mississippi he was assigned to a ten-man crew. Together they trained under simulated combat conditions before heading into combat. Finally, he and his crew left for overseas duty in September 1944 and was attached to the 711th Bomber Squadron of the 447th Bomb Group.
His squadron was flying out of the Royal Air Force Rattlesden Airfield known as AAF #126 located near Ipswich, Suffolk County England, 9 miles SE of Bury St Edmunds. It was from this field that John took off in his B-17 bomber on November 2, 1944, heading for the biggest bombing mission of his short-lived career. The 8th Air Force had sent 638 B-17 bombers, escorted by 642 P-51 and P-38 fighters to attack the Leunawerke synthetic oil refinery at Leuna, Germany. It was a huge refinery covering three square miles and located near the town of Merseberg. Their distance to target was five hundred miles and they were told the anti-aircraft fire would be horrendous. There, the Germans were using a hydrogeneration process to produce aviation gasoline from coal. Its importance was such that it was the most heavily defended target in all of Germany. Surrounding the site were over 1,700 88-mm and 105-mm antiaircraft flak guns contained within 36-gun batteries. The survivors of that mission described the flak as a solid, unbroken carpet of explosions. To add to the fiasco were 700 enemy fighters including the newly invented Me 262 twin-engine jets. The casualties were frightful with 38 bombers and 28 fighters blown out of the sky and 481 bombers damaged.
As John and his crew approached the target, bomber #551 lost one engine and began to pull out of the formation by peeling off to the left. However, John's pilot came up at the same time and the two bombers collided. Two of bomber #551's props cut John's plane in half as the two halves began a death spiral to the ground with no survivors. John went down to his death with the plane. The bomber's pieces came down one kilometer south of Nimmelage near Quakenbrueck, Germany. However, bomber #551 was able to land nearby and their entire crew survived.
Killed in the crash was pilot Lt. Charles Moses, Tom Freeman, Sherrill Davis (identified and buried in the Quakenbrueck Cemetery), John O'Donovan Dargacz, John Hallmark, Sam Levy, Bill Brown, and Gerald Pryme with one survivor Bob Humphreys who was captured. After the war, John's remains were disinterred and buried in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium. In the meantime, his mother was notified by the War Department at her home at 3830 Barrancas Avenue in Warrington that her son was missing in action and presumed dead.
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