This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSgt Robert Bruce McClelland, Jr.
to remember
Manske, Joseph William, Col USAF(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Gowanda, New York
Last Address San Antonio, Texas
Date of Passing Apr 04, 1998
Location of Interment Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery (VA) - San Antonio, Texas
He was the flight engineer/gunner in crew #5 on the Doolittle Raid. After the raid he flew a few more missions in the CBI Theater, then got commissioned, and later was an aircraft maintenance officer in the Mediterranean Theater. He later served in the USAF until retiring as a colonel in 1973.
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Corporal Joseph W. Manske (ASN: 6914440), United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary achievement as Engineer/Gunner of a B-25 Bomber of the 1st Special Aviation Project (Doolittle Raider Force), while participating in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland on 18 April 1942. Corporal Manske with 79 other officers and enlisted men volunteered for this mission knowing full well that the chances of survival were extremely remote, and executed his part in it with great skill and daring. This achievement reflects high credit on himself and the military service.
Division: Doolittle Tokyo Raider Force Crew #5 (Plane #40-2283, target Tokyo): 95th Bomb. Sq. L-R: Lt. Eugene F. McGurl, navigator; Capt. David M. Jones, pilot; Lt. Denver V. Truelove, bombardier; Lt. Ross R. Wilder, copilot; Sgt. Joseph W. Manske, flight engineer/gunner. (U.S. Air Force photo)
AFSC/MOS AAF MOS 4823-Aircraft Engineering Officer
Base, Station or City
Not Specified
State/Country
Italy
Patch
321st Bombardment Group, Medium Details
Bases of the 321st Bombardment Group in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) during WWII:
Oujda, French Morocco, 7 Mar 1943.
Ain M�??lila, Algeria, 12 Mar 1943.
Souk-el-Arba, Tunisia, 1 Jun 1943.
Soliman, Tunisia, 8 Aug 1943.
Grottaglie, Italy, 4 Oct 1943.
Amendola, Italy, c. 20 Nov 1943.
Vincenzo Airfield, Italy, 14 Jan 1944.
Gaudo Airfield, Italy, 18 Feb 1944.
Solenzara, Corsica, 23 Apr 1944.
Falconara, Italy, 6 Apr 1945.
Pomigliano, Italy, c. Aug 1945 - 12 Sep 1945.
In February of 1944, recently commissioned Brigadier General Robert D. Knapp became the Commanding Officer of the 57th Bomb Wing. The 57th Bomb Wing Headquarters was based at Migliacciaru, Corsica between April of 1944 and April of 1945. During this period, the B-25 Mitchell medium bombers of the 310th, 319th (until their return to the States in January 1944), 321st, and 340th Bombardment Groups participated in the Naples-Foggia Campaign, the Rome-Arno Campaign, Operation Dragoon and the Southern France Campaign, the Northern Apennines Campaign, and the Air Combat Balkans Campaign.
This is B-25J "Ave Maria" from the 321st Bombardment Group
This was a maximum effort, utilizing 72 B-25s of the 321st Bomb Group to attack the Cancello Marshalling Yard, near Naples
This B-25J "Mama" from the 321st Bombardment Group stationed at Solenzara, Corsica.
Constituted as 321st Bombardment Group (Medium) on 19 June 1942 and activated on 26 June at Barksdale Field, Louisiana. The group's operational squadrons were the 445th, 446th, 447th and 448th Bombardment Squadrons.
The group trained for overseas duty with North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers at several Third Air Force training bases in the southeast. Was assigned and deployed to the Mediterranean theater in January 1943, arriving in Algeria in March. The 321st was assigned to Twelfth Air Force.
In North Africa, the 321st engaged primarily in support and interdictory operations, bombing marshalling yards, rail lines, highways, bridges, viaducts, troop concentrations, gun emplacements, shipping, harbors, and other objectives in North Africa. Later targets shifted to Southern France, Sicily, Italy, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Greece.
The 321st also engaged in psychological warfare missions, dropping propaganda leaflets behind enemy lines. Took part in the Allied operations against Axis forces in North Africa during March�??May 1943, the reduction of Pantelleria and Lampedusain June, the invasion of Sicily in July, the landing at Salerno in September, the Allied advance toward Rome during January�??June 1944, the invasion of Southern France in August 1944, and the Allied operations in northern Italy from September 1944 to April 1945.
The group received two DUC's: for completing a raid on an air drome near Athens, 8 October 1943, in spite of intense flak and attacks by numerous enemy interceptors; and for bombing a battleship, a cruiser, and a submarine in Toulon harbor on 18 August 1944 to assist the Allied invasion of Southern France.
The 321st Bombardment Group was inactivated near Pomigliano d'Arco, Italy on 12 September 1945. It was later briefly activated as part of the Air Force Reserve at Mansfield Airport, Ohio as the 321st Bombardment group (Light) (June 1947 �?? June 1949) and equipped with A-26/B-26 Invaders, then inactivated.
