Donald Crossley
Highest scoring Gunner in the 8th AF, 12 enemy fighters, DFC with OLC in 24 missions, AM w/ 3 OLC'S , 1943
WWII uncovered: Staff Sergeant Donald Crossley: Highest Scoring Tail Gunner Ace of the ETO.
Donald W. Crossley, of Wellsburg West Virginia, enlisted with the US Army on August 14, 1942 at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana. Don was 21 years old. He was assigned to the [335]BS, 95BG, 8AF USAAF.
Staff Sergeant Crossley served as a tail gunner with the 95th Bomb Group- he is pictured in a position inside a B-17 Flying Fortress on the cover of the New York Times Magazine after being named "Tail Gunner of the Year" in the October 1943 issue.
"The Distinguished Flying Cross and an Oak Leaf Cluster- the equivalent of two DFC honors- have been award simultaneously to S/Sgt Donald Crossley, tail gunner of the US 8th Air Force. Crossley, the highest scoring aerial gunner in the ETO, has shot down 12 German planes in 23 heavy bomber missions. The possessor of the Air Medal and the Oak Leaf Clusters, Crossley added a second cluster to his new DFC within a few days when his twelfth "target" was confirmed. [The 95th] flew 321 combat missions between 1943 and 1945 that ranged from bombing a German aircraft factory while under heavy enemy fire to transporting liberated prisoners from Austria, France and England." (Original AP description on back of photograph)
After the war Don returned to Wellsburg West Virginia and resumed his position with the Follansbee Steel Company. Staff Sergeant Donald W. Crossley passed away on November 7, 1992 at the age of 71. He lies in rest at Brooke Cemetery in Follansbee West Virginia. Lest We Forget.
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Original description and photo sourced by: IWM, American Air Museum in Britain database, Wheeling News Register, New York Times Magazine (personal collection) and ancestry.com