Wayne H. Larson was born June 16, 1918, in Viborg, South Dakota. Wayne was the first and only child of Mayme and Harold Larson. Although not related to Wayne, Dotty Larson of Viborg remembers Wayne and his mother and grandmother, Valdemire Larson. Wayne and his family were members of the Baptist church in Viborg.

Wayne enlisted in the air corps on December 29, 1941. He was trained at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. After his training in Minnesota, Lt. Larson went on for additional training for flying the B-17. He was shipped overseas on November 6, 1943 until January 30, 1944. He was stationed in Germany.

Second Lieutenant Wayne H. Larson died January 30, 1944 near Ehlexshausen, Germany. He perished in an air crash with another plane. At the time of his death, Lt. Larson was survived by his mother, father, and grandmother. On July 11, 1946, Mrs. Mayme Larson received the following letter from Army Air Forces Headquarters in Washington, D.C.:

In an effort to furnish the next of kin with all available details concerning casualties among our personnel, the Army Air Forces recently completed the translation of several volumes of can trued German Records.

In regard to Second Lieutenant Wayne H. Larson, these records indicate that he was killed on 30 January 1944 when his B-17 (Fortress) bomber collided with another B-17 and both airplanes crashed to the earth near Ehlershausen, Germany, which is located approximately sixteen miles northeast of Hannover. There were ten crew members aboard your son’s bomber and ten crew members aboard the bomber with which it collided. The Germans captured six crew members aboard and removed fourteen bodies from the wreckage of the two bombers. Only eight of the bodies recovered could be identified. Since your son was not one of those captured nor was his one of the eight identified bodies, it can be assumed that his was one of the six unidentified bodies recovered. The bodies of the fourteen-deceased crew members were interred in individual graves in the community cemetery at Otze, Germany, which is located approximately four miles south of Ehlershausen. The burials were made on 2 February 1944.

This entry was respectfully submitted by Kurt Runge and Nick Bolte, 11^th Grade, Parker High School, Parker, South Dakota, April 30, 2002. Information for this entry was provided by newspaper clippings and an Application for South Dakota veterans Bonus.