HUBERT B. BUCHANAN

From the De Leon Free Press of January 21, 1944

   

   Mr. and Mrs. Fred H. Buchanan of the Trinity Community (southeast of De Leon) received word from the War Department that their son, T/Sgt. Hubert B. Buchanan was officially reported as dead after being reported as missing in action after a bombing mission over France.  The plane in which S. Sergeant Buchanan was serving was last seen December 30, 1942, while the ship broke formation and headed earthward.  No word has been received since that time as to the fate of the members of the crew.

    Following is a copy of the letter received this week by Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan:

 

30 December 1943

Mr. and Mrs. Fred H. Buchanan

Route 2

De Leon, Texas

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan:

It is my distressing duty to inform you that all possible efforts have failed to locate you son, Technical Sergeant Hubert B. Buchanan, 38,036,362, Air Corps, who was officially reported missing in action in the West European Area on 30 December 1942.  Technical Sergeant Buchanan was aboard a plane which left formation during the return from a bombing mission and was last seen near Lorient , France.

   Pursuant to the provisions of Public  Law 490, 77th Congress as amended, all available records, reports and circumstances relating to the disappearance of your son have been carefully reviewed and considered and an official finding of death has been made.  The law cited provides that when such a finding is made, “it shall include the date upon which death shall be presumed to have occurred for the purposes of termination of crediting pay and allowances, settlements of accounts, and payments of death gratuities and such date shall be the day following the day of expiration of an absence of twelve months.”   Accordingly, the death finding in Technical Sergeant Buchanan’s case shows the presumed date of death as 30 December 1943.

    I very much regret that the conditions of warfare on many fronts and over isolated areas and vast expanses of water have served to deny to some of us an accurate knowledge of the actual dates and circumstances of the deaths of our loved ones.  We can nevertheless find this uncertainty regarding actual circumstances of time and location can in no way alter the significance of their sacrifice; and to them, as to those others the circumstances of whose deaths have been fully recorded, must be ascribed the great honor of having given their lives for their country in her gravest crisis.

   I extend my heartfelt sympathy to you.

Sincerely yours,

J.A. ULIO

Major General

The Adjutant General

  T/Sergeant Hubert B. Buchanan had two brothers also serving in the armed forces at that time.  One was his twin Herbert W. Buchanan MM2c who was in the Navy somewhere in the South Pacific.  A younger brother, Cpl. Henry P. Buchanan was serving in the Army and stationed at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma.

   Following is the last letter written by Hubert Buchanan to his sister Mrs. W. V. McWilliams then living in Jayton, Texas.   A small portion of the letter along the fold of the paper is missing.  What is believed to have been written in that area is included in parenthesis.  Wording in part of one line can not be filled in.

Somewhere in England

December 28, 1942

Dearest Sister and Family,

    I am O.K. I haven’t heard from you in sometime, but will try to drop you a few lines.  I have received only two letters from you that were written after I arrived over here and one of them was written before you knew that I was in England. You wanted me to write and tell you what I was doing and of all the sights I had seen.

   Well, I wrote you a letter over a month ago telling you what little sights I had seen.  As for telling you what I am doing, very little can be said.  You can find out more from daily papers and radio news broadcast than I can tell you.  As for the particular things I do you will have to wait until I see you and then I might not care talking about it too much then.

   Things happen in a hurry in a business like this.  I don’t do much but one can age 10 years in a few minutes time.  One of the boys that files with me is a pretty small youth in stature and we often call him KId.  After completing one of our missions, he said we could stop calling him Kid because he had grown up during that mission and no doubt he did because I had aged a little myself.

   But that is what it is going to take so I am ready for more when it falls my lot.

   There is an empty cot in the bunk tonight; yes, more than one.  Every time I walk in and see them I thank God we were spared.

  Sis, you will never know the felling (it has on) one to see what we have seen.  (It) gives us a greater determination (?) and adds a greater score against the enemy that we have to settle for. 

   Well Sis. don’t get excited over this letter, because if I do have to go I will be one among a million; so don’t worry.

    Wishing you the richest of God’s blessings, I will close.  Love to all.

Your brother

H.B. Buchanan

    Lorient, France is in Brittany on the Mediterranean  side of the French coast southeast of Normandy.  Lorient was the site of a major German U Boat facility which the Allies bombed repeatedly beginning in late 1942 and throughout 1943. 

     It is unknown whether or not Buchanan was on one of these missions or was if his plane was returning from a run on another area and happened to be downed near Lorient.  Allied bombers struck in Tunisia that same day but whether bombers out of England would have been included in that raid is unknown.

   Several reports show his date of death as 1943.  The difference is explained above.  It appears the actual date is 1942.  One source shows the location as near Lavint, France.  I believe this is a misprint.