World War II Greece and a Benton Pilot
In a recent letter to the editor in the March 12th edition of the Bossier Press-Tribune, mention was made of a local young man who gave his life defending the Free World: 1st Lieutenant Harvey M. Bigby, a World War II pilot with the U.S. Army Air Corps, 15th Airforce. Lieutenant Bigby, with another seventy-nine men, would be involved in an air accident over the south of Greece while undertaking a bombing mission. Now you may be asking yourself why these American pilots were in Greece in the first place, and the answer is more complex than you may first believe.
The Second World War came to Greece during 1940, after the Italians invaded from Albania, according the to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Having conquered and occupied Albania, a Balkan country to the north of Greece and to the east of the “heel” of Italy, the Italian dictator Mussolini began a protracted invasion campaign, starting on October 28th, 1940. The Greek army would stem the tide against the Fascist invasion for a time, thanks both to the tenacity of the Greek army and the significant shortcomings of the Italian Army. However, with the planned invasion of the Soviet Union on the horizon, the German military would invade both Yugoslavia and Greece on April 6, 1941, to secure their Southeastern flank and assist their Italian allies. Though the British deployed an Expeditionary Force, and the Greek Army put up an admirable resistance, the German army would overrun the country by April 26th. Greece would be divided between Italy, Germany, and Bulgaria, and the country would be subjected to a brutal occupation for nearly three long years. However, just because the nation was occupied did not mean it was forgotten, and the Allies, along with Greek resistance fighters, would fight a bloody fight against the occupiers. Enter the U.S Army Air Corps, and Harvey M. Bigby.
Harvey M. Bigby registered for the draft on July 1st, 1941, just a few months before the American entry into the Second World War. By February of 1942, he volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps and spent the next year in training and pilot school, graduating as a 2nd Lieutenant on February 16th, 1943. Harvey was stationed stateside over the next several months, until finally the moment came: deployment overseas, bound for the European Theatre. Assigned to the 97th Bomb Group, 342nd Bomb Squadron, 15th Air Force, Bigby was made co-pilot to a B-17 Bomber Flying Fortress, nicknamed “Webfoot.” The B-17s were tasked with striking strategic targets behind the front lines, from military bases and concentrations to production facilities. The USAAC strategy was to flood the skies, so to speak, and Bigby’s mission was no different. On January 11th, 1944, he, along with many others, were tasked with striking a German port facility based in a small town just south of Athens. Alas, tragedy struck on the mission’s approach. While flying over the Greek region of Peloponnese, two of the bombers in the mission were lost in the clouds, leading to a terrible collision costing dozens of lives.
Initially, Lieutenant Bigby and the other men were labeled as missing, though the Army Air Corps suspected the planes had crashed into one another, based on the Missing Air Crew Report filed in the wake of the accident. By February 3rd, the Bigby family was informed of Harvey’s Missing-In-Action status, and from there, no substantial news would come for nearly half a year. Indeed, it wasn’t until the June 1st edition of the BPT that it was reported that 1st Lieutenant Harvey M. Bigby was Killed-In-Action during his January 11th bombing mission.
Lieutenant Bigby and his comrades gave their lives in the defense of the Free World, and the defeat of the Nazi German menace. The German occupation of Greece would end in late 1944 due to fears of the advancing Red Army and the Romanians changing allegiance to the Allies. As for the Lieutenant’s body, he was initially buried overseas, before being reinterred at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Missouri on January 13th, 1950. While the Lieutenant was but one of many Americans who gave their lives, his memory yet lives on.
If you have any photos or other information relating to the history of Bossier City or Bossier Parish, the History Center may be interested in adding the materials to its research collection by donation or by scanning them and returning the originals. Call or visit us to learn more. We are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ and http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/
Article by: Jonah Daigle
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