Col. Byron E. Brugge-WWII

Date of Loss: 3 December 1944 on a bombing mission over Tokyo, Japan

A letter, dated 8 October 1944 (this in reference to the same Missing Crew Report below) from this office to Major Robert F. Goldsworthy requested all available information regarding the fate of the persons named in paragraph 1d above. The reply, dated 22 October 1945, is, in pertinent part, as follows:

"The following is an account of what happened to my crew to the best of my knowledge:

Colonel Brugge made a successul bail-out. Later that same night he was placed in a truck with me and taken to a Japanese Federal Prison in downtown Tokyo. He was placed in a cell on my immediate left. We were kept there for months during which time Colonel Brugge received very harsh treatment.

During the lasw weeks in which I was in this prison, Colonel Brugge's mind was very definitly beginning to fail him. On February 3, I was moved to a second Federal Prison. There I heard nothing more of Colonel Brugge until a month later a Japanese interpreter told me that Colonel Brugge had died in solitary."

Corporal Schroeder reported:

"Col. Byron E. Brugge, I was told by Col. King, died in a kimpee station in Tokyo sometime between February 20, 1945 & April 3, 1945."

A clipping from a St. Louis (Missiouri) newspaper, not otherwise identified contains an Associated Press dispatch from Yokohama (Japan), dated 16 September 1945:

"Colonel Byron Elias Brugge died in a Japanese prison, surviving Superfortress flyers reported today.

"Brugge, operations officer for the Seventy-third wing of the Twenty-first Bomber Command, was singled out for special severe treatment because he steadfastly refused to give the enemy information about the world's largest bomber, according to other Americans held in the Japanese prison. He was failing rapidly when was was last seen by cell mates in February. They said he probably died of malnutrition and maltreatment."

Please read the information below which contains more details about Colonel Brugge.

Goldsworthy's Crew #101, 881st Squad of the ROSALIA ROCKET Crew Picture taken 10/9/44

Pictured Left to Right Standing 1/Lt. Walter J. PATYKULS-Bombardier 1/Lt. Benjamin F. EDWARDS-Navigator Maj. Robert F. GOLDSWORTHY-Commander 2/Lt. Robert E. SOLLOCK (replaced by Col. Richard T. KING on that fateful flight)-Pilot 1/Lt. Henry W. WARDE-Flight Engineer Knelling Sgt. Thomas M. GOFFERY-Rt. Gun. S/Sgt. James P. CORRIGAN-Tail Gun S/Sgt. Carl T. WELLS-Radar Cpl. Harold J. SCHROEDER-Lft. Gun. Cpl. Robert E. ABEL-Ring Gun. W Sgt. John A. WRIGHT-Radio

Click on their individual picture to read more about them (links will open into a new browser window.)

Although Robert Sollock (he was a part of the original crew) is pictured above, click his picture to read about Richard King, who replaced him that fateful flight.

Not pictured but present on flight that went down on 12/3/1944 were Col. Byron Brugge, as Observer.

Click here to read the Missing Crew Report

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