“Lost to History: The Unraveling Mystery Behind WWII Airman Robert T. McCollum’s Final Flight Revealed in Denmark”
Robert T. McCollum’s Bomber Crashes Into The Baltic Sea In 1944
According to a press release from the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Robert T. McCollum’s plane went down on June 20, 1944.
The 22-year-old from Cleveland, Ohio, was part of the 565th Bombardment Squadron, which had been deployed to England in 1943 to fight in World War II. The squadron had been tasked with bombing major Nazi industrial sites, including several in Berlin and Münster. In June 1944, the squadron was flying over the Baltic Sea, off the coast of Nazi-occupied Denmark.
Then, on June 20, the squadron suffered a tragic accident.
U.S. Air ForceA B-24 Liberator, similar to the plane that Robert T. McCollum was in when it went down on June 20, 1944.
McCollum was working as a bombardier when his B-24J Liberator crashed with another B-24 in the same formation. Though the pilot and co-pilot of McCollum’s plane were able to safely bail out, the rest of the crew vanished into the Baltic Sea. They were presumed dead, and the U.S. War Department issued a “Finding of Death” for McCollum on June 21, 1945.
However, subsequent searches for his remains were unsuccessful. In 1948, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), which sought to recover fallen American personnel in Europe, investigated the crash but did not locate the remains of McCollum or his crew. The AGRC also examined unidentified remains that washed ashore, but similarly determined that they were not connected to the downed B-24J Liberator.
