Today in Wheeling History: August 15—First Lieutenant John R. Specht, a McMechen native and 1941 graduate of Wheeling Central Catholic, was killed when his B-24 Liberator blew a tire on takeoff and crashed at Lecce, Italy, while serving with the 98th Bombardment Group (1944).
John Robert Specht was born in McMechen, Marshall County, on November 7, 1923, son of John J. Specht and Martha Dolores Kelly Specht. His mother died in 1929, and his father remarried her sister, Esther A. Kelly, the following year. Specht graduated from Central High School (later Wheeling Central Catholic) in Wheeling in 1941 and went on to West Virginia University in Morgantown. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps at Wheeling on July 31, 1942, entering active duty February 2, 1943. He trained as a pilot at Nashville, Tennessee; Maxwell Field, Alabama; Clarksdale, Mississippi; Newport, Arkansas; and George Field, Illinois, earning his wings and a commission as second lieutenant in November 1943. Promoted to first lieutenant, he piloted a B-24 Liberator nicknamed "Specht's Wreck," with the 345th Bomb Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group, Fifteenth Air Force, going overseas in June 1944 to fly from the group's base at Lecce, Italy. On August 15, 1944, as the 98th Bombardment Group flew in support of Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France, Specht's plane blew a tire on takeoff from Lecce and crashed on what would have been his 31st mission, killing six of the eleven men aboard, including Specht; five crewmen survived. He was 20. His remains were returned to McMechen in 1949 for a High Mass of Requiem at St. James Church and burial, with military honors, at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Wheeling.
To learn more: Archiving Wheeling - High Masses of Requiem (https://tinyurl.com/39wn3d4m), Army Air Corps Library and Museum – 98th Bombardment Group Honor Roll Project (https://tinyurl.com/3cjvh8jp), Find a Grave - 1LT John Robert Specht (https://tinyurl.com/mvyz2rtu), USAF Serial Number Search Results (https://tinyurl.com/ms6ttkah), American Archive - 41-11819 - Raunchy (https://tinyurl.com/yvrw9apu), 98th Bombardment Group (https://tinyurl.com/5nxtf98y), Aviation Safety Network (https://tinyurl.com/2xrkkd65), WW2AIRCRAFT.NET (https://tinyurl.com/44jf4c22), USAAF Aircraft Serial Numbers (?), USAAFDATA - American Air Forces lives lost during WW2 (https://tinyurl.com/es3pxrk6), West Virginia GenWeb [Marshall County] - John R. Specht (https://tinyurl.com/55se8jyd), Wikipedia - Operation Dragoon (https://tinyurl.com/5car65mz)
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, Find a Grave
John Robert Specht was born in McMechen, Marshall County, on November 7, 1923, son of John J. Specht and Martha Dolores Kelly Specht. His mother died in 1929, and his father remarried her sister, Esther A. Kelly, the following year. Specht graduated from Central High School (later Wheeling Central Catholic) in Wheeling in 1941 and went on to West Virginia University in Morgantown. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps at Wheeling on July 31, 1942, entering active duty February 2, 1943. He trained as a pilot at Nashville, Tennessee; Maxwell Field, Alabama; Clarksdale, Mississippi; Newport, Arkansas; and George Field, Illinois, earning his wings and a commission as second lieutenant in November 1943. Promoted to first lieutenant, he piloted a B-24 Liberator nicknamed "Specht's Wreck," with the 345th Bomb Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group, Fifteenth Air Force, going overseas in June 1944 to fly from the group's base at Lecce, Italy. On August 15, 1944, as the 98th Bombardment Group flew in support of Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France, Specht's plane blew a tire on takeoff from Lecce and crashed on what would have been his 31st mission, killing six of the eleven men aboard, including Specht; five crewmen survived. He was 20. His remains were returned to McMechen in 1949 for a High Mass of Requiem at St. James Church and burial, with military honors, at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Wheeling.
To learn more: Archiving Wheeling - High Masses of Requiem (https://tinyurl.com/39wn3d4m), Army Air Corps Library and Museum – 98th Bombardment Group Honor Roll Project (https://tinyurl.com/3cjvh8jp), Find a Grave - 1LT John Robert Specht (https://tinyurl.com/mvyz2rtu), USAF Serial Number Search Results (https://tinyurl.com/ms6ttkah), American Archive - 41-11819 - Raunchy (https://tinyurl.com/yvrw9apu), 98th Bombardment Group (https://tinyurl.com/5nxtf98y), Aviation Safety Network (https://tinyurl.com/2xrkkd65), WW2AIRCRAFT.NET (https://tinyurl.com/44jf4c22), USAAF Aircraft Serial Numbers (?), USAAFDATA - American Air Forces lives lost during WW2 (https://tinyurl.com/es3pxrk6), West Virginia GenWeb [Marshall County] - John R. Specht (https://tinyurl.com/55se8jyd), Wikipedia - Operation Dragoon (https://tinyurl.com/5car65mz)
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, Find a Grave
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