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I had great-uncle that was a bombardier on a B24 in WW2. He was shot down over Belgium (I think) and taken POW for a while before being released. We have some of his stuff from the war including a journal he kept during the war with some notes about a couple of bombing runs and time as a POW, but would love to find more info about his unit, plane, missions, etc.

Are there any resources that might have more specific info or records, or just a place to start?

The UA library system is pretty good. Call the librarian (the real librarian not a student who keeps the chairs warm), and they will get you going. The other option is to go to the local VFW, ask nicely, and within 15 minutes you will be learning everything you never wanted to know and most of it will be true.

Does the journal mention the names of pilots? I had a neighbor who flew bombers in WWII , he was also shot down over Belgium. He was found by friendlies and "smuggled" out. He stayed in and retired a Colonel , eventually flying B-52s . I might find out something from his daughter if they were in the same unit and such.

You can search basic info about specific units on line easily but its always just general info and nothing interesting. such as: Unit so and so had X number of soldiers and destroyed X big thing. and thats it.

There are some pay sites like Ancestry.com or fold3.com that have military records and free trial periods.

What was his name? There are guys with the SCV that are pretty good at tracking that kinda stuff down.

“Billy F. Moss” is the way his name is typically listed in the few documents I’ve been able to find. From Memphis, TN

Is this him?[s][/s]

Yep that’s him. I’ll have to go through his stuff at my parents house one day. Always wanted to find out the name of his plane and see if I could dig up any pics of it if there were any. I thought he was shot down over Belgium but apparently it was Austria.

I was 9 when he died but vaguely remember him and he knew I was into planes and stuff at the time. Wish I could’ve know him when I was older and could really talk to him about it.

Where did you find that info?

Since you know his bombing group - most of the bombing groups have websites that you can search for the missions. For example my grandpa was in the 303rd bombing group and they have a website that I can pull most information about his missions. For example -

303rd Hell's Angels

It appears that he was in the 15th AF.

15th Air Force

You can request a search with:
15th AF Research Request

I found the 454th Bombardment Groups website like you suggested. Looks like he was in the 738th Squadron. Maybe more will turn up as I head down this rabbit hole

Most of those sites have the missions and you may be able to search his name for his missions and outcome.

Looking further down that list, looks like he may have been on Herk’s Jerk (#114). That plane was shot down over Vienna on 10/7 which jives with that first link above about him being MIA at the time.

That’s awesome. Thanks!

Now that’s cool. Thanks for sharing Gomer

Next time I visit my parents I’ll take some pics of his journal entries and other stuff. It’s been years since I read through it but seem to remember there being a decent amount of stuff