Elbert Edward Gilmore
Technical Sergeant, 579th Bombardment Squadron, 392nd Bombardment Group
Elbert was born the 14th of November 1913 in Marlborough, Massachusetts the youngest of three sons born to Clarence and Alice Gilmore. He was raised in Westborough, Massachusetts until his sophomore year in high school and was an accomplished trumpet player. He moved to Atlanta, Georgia and graduated from Athens High School near Atlanta in 1933. While working at the office of the Hayward-Schuster Mills at East Douglas, Elbert enlisted into the Army Air Corps the 13th of March 1941.
Following his basic training he received training in aerial gunnery at Tyndall Field, Florida. He was assigned for a time with the 36th Material Squadron of the 45th Bombardment Group at Westover Field, Massachusetts where he was a member of the Westover Bombers Orchestra. While serving with the 79th Bombardment Squadron “Bebs” was assigned duties flying patrol and search missions off the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States. Traveling overseas in February of 1944, he was assigned to the 579th Bombardment Squadron of the 392nd Bombardment Group. While flying over Bernberg Germany in April of 1944, following a shell strike on the B-24 he was a top turret gunner on, he began sliding through the open hole only to be saved by a fellow crewmember.
On the 28th of May 1944 while serving as top turret gunner on the B-24 aircraft “Tondelayo” on a mission to bomb Zeitz, Germany Elbert was killed in action during a strafing run by German fighter aircraft, the only member of his crew killed. His remains were repatriated to the United States in 1948 and he is buried at the Pine Grove Cemetery in Westborough, Massachusetts.
