Samuel French Reneau was born on 29 December 1920, the son of Seaton French Reneau and Bertie Sutton. Husband of Mary Louise Rinehart and father of Loveace Reneau.
He died 10 March 1945
Staff Sergeant
498th Bomber Group, 873rd Bomber Squadron, Very Heavy, 21st Command
Returned from USAF Cemetery Jokohoma No. 1, Japan in 1949
Husband of Levence M. Reneau, Route 1, Dandridge, Tennessee
Buried Knoxville National Cemetery, Section B, Site 6470
Eyewitness statement:
Aircraft B-29 with serial number 44-69747, which took off from this station for a bombing mission on Tokyo, Japan at 1915, 9 March 1945. Aircraft did not assemble and bombed target individually therefore making it impossible for returning crews to state whether any aircraft was lost over the target. Aircraft 747 is 12 hours overdue at time of this report and has not been heard from since its departure. Not other information is available at the present time.
Samuel F. Reneau and Henry S. Solomon (from Brownsville, Haywood, Tennessee) were crew members on aircraft 44-69747. The B-29 was lost when it hit mountain Wasurezu, Shichigashuku-mura, Miyagi Prefecture on Honshu Island in bad weather on the night of March 9-10, 1945 while returning from a reaid on Tokyo. All on board were killed.
Crew members
Pilot 2nd Lt Hubert L. Kordsmeier
Co-Pilot 1st Lt Claude T. Dean
Navigator/Bombardier 1st Lt Leonard Gottlieb
Navigator/Bombardier 2nd Lt Robert L. Owens
Engineer 2nd Lt Harold Raybould
Tail Gunner Sgt William E. Fry
Top Turret Gunner Sgt Henry S. Solomon
Radio Operator S/Sgt Samuel F. Reneau
Radio Operator Sgt Martin Boskovich
Right Gunner Sgt Martin J. McManon Jr.
Left Gunner S/Sgt Ernest L. Bretag
- Rank: Staff Sergeant
- Date of birth: 29 December 1920
- Date of death: 10 March 1945
- County: Jefferson
- Hometown: Dandridge
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: 498th Bomber Group, 873rd Bomber Squadron, Very Heavy
- Theater: Pacific
- Conflict: World War II
- Awards: p
- Burial/Memorial Location: Knoxville National Cemetery, Knoxville, TN
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XII, Middle Panel
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