Lee "L. V." Allen
| Date and Place of Birth: | April 15, 1916 Fort Worth, TX |
| Date and Place of Death: | December 31, 1943 off coast of Carcan, France |
| Baseball Experience: | Minor League |
| Position: | Shortstop |
| Rank: | First Lieutenant |
| Military Unit: | 704th Bomb Squadron, 446th Bomb Group USAAF |
| Area Served: | European Theater of Operations |
A sandlot infielder from Fort Worth, Texas, Allen played minor league baseball in 1938. He entered military service in 1942 and became bomber pilot, flying B-24s from England.
Lee V. “L.V.” Allen, the son of Cadmus and Vada Allen, was born in
Fort Worth, Texas, on April 15, 1916. He was playing sandlot baseball in
his hometown when signed by the Brownsville Charros of the newly
reformed Class D Texas Valley League in March 1938. The 22-year-old
shortstop batted .222 (12 hits in 54 at-bats) before joining the Wink
Spudders of the Class D West Texas-New Mexico League, where he hit .190
in 17 games.
That was Allen’s only experience with professional baseball. He returned
to Fort Worth where he continued to play with sandlot teams, worked as a
firefighter and married
Eppie “Jo” Allen.
With the outbreak of WWII, Allen entered service with the Army Air
Force on April 13, 1942, and was stationed at Fred Harman Training
Center, Bruce Field in Ballinger, Texas. He received his commission as a pilot on June 26, 1943, and
served with the 704th Bomb Squadron, 446th Bomb Group, arriving at
Bungay airfield (also known as Flixton) in Suffolk, England, in November
1943.
First Lieutenant Allen piloted a Boeing B-24H Liberator (42-7577) nicknamed “Buzz
Buggy”. On December 31, 1943 – only the group’s sixth mission – “Buzz
Buggy” went missing during a raid on the Luftwaffe-controlled Chateau
Bernard airfield in Cognac, France, which was the secondary target
because of heavy cloud cover over the airfield at La Rochelle. It remains unclear exactly what
happened to the four-engined bomber - was it hit by flak or shot down by
fighters? - but it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean about 50 miles off
the coast of Carcan, southwest of Bordeaux, France. Of the crew of 10,
there were no survivors. Five remain missing in action. Lee Allen’s body
washed ashore further down the coast at Mimizan on January 20, 1944.
Together with two of his crew members (2/Lt. Chester Mikus and S/Sgt.
William D. Norton) he was buried in the local
cemetery before being moved to the U.S. military cemetery at Luynes,
France, in June 1945.
In 1947, Allen’s wife, Jo, remarried, so his father, Cadmus, was
declared his legal next of kin and chose to have his son’s body returned
to the United States. Lee Allen is buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery
in Fort Worth.
|
Year |
Team |
League |
Class |
G |
AB |
R |
H |
2B |
3B |
HR |
RBI |
AVG |
|
1938 |
Brownsville |
Texas Valley |
D |
- | 54 | - | 12 | 2 | 1 | 0 | - | .222 |
|
1938 |
Wink |
West Texas-New Mexico |
D |
17 | 63 | - | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | .190 |
The final resting place of Lee Allen at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Fort
Worth, Texas.
Lt. Allen is remembered, along with the crew members of two other USAAF
bombers that were shot down on December 31, 1943, in the grounds of the
Saint Jean-Baptiste Church in Mézos, France.
Thanks to Davis O. Barker for "discovering" Lee "L. V." Allen.
Sources:
Brownsville Herald - Mar 2, 1938
Valley Morning Star - Apr 25, 1938
http://francecrashes39-45.net
https://www.aerosteles.net
www.findagrave.com
www.americanairmuseum.com
Date Added June 30, 2016, Updated October 26, 2019
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