Baird Mitchell
United States Army Air Force Captain Anthony Baird Mitchell was born to Mr. and Mrs. Osborne Mitchell. Baird Mitchell grew up as the youngest of five children in the town of Poland, Ohio where his father was Mayor. He was an accomplished athlete and leader during his high school days, setting a record at a state championship track meet. He moved on to College after high school which he attended only for a short time before enlisting in the war effort. In September 1941 Mitchell enlisted with the USAAF, trained and graduated as a bomber pilot. He served on several missions on the Gulf of Mexico before being sent overseas for service in the European theatre in June 1944. He was placed with 854th Bomb Squadron, 491st Bomb Group, 8th Air Force, Heavy, based in North Pickenham, Norfolk, England.
In an ironic twist of fate Captain Mitchell landed a spot as Co-Pilot in a crew of ten, aboard a Consolidated B-24J-150-CO Liberator, piloted by Captain James K. Hunter for Operation Market Gardens. The normal Co-Pilot, 1st Lt. Charles Griffin had finished his tour of missions and wasn’t allowed to go on this one. Since there was a real competition to be included on this mission Captain Mitchell and a Captain Shy flipped a coin to see who got to fly, and Captain Mitchell “won”. On September 18, 1944 the crew of ten left to complete the operation, when their plane crashed northeast of Udenhout, Holland. The aircraft was badly hit in the right wing and the pilot, Captain Hunter decided to belly her into a field, but lost the no. 3 engine at an altitude of fifty feet, causing the right wing to dip low enough to touch the ground. Captain Hunter managed to pull the plane back into the air after hitting the ground, only for it to crash into some trees and farm buildings.
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