Harold Eugene Clanton was born December 27, 1921 in Neosho, Missouri to Everett Hamilton Clanton and his wife Deema (Hobson) Clanton. Both of his parents were born in Missouri. Harold had two older sisters and an older brother. In 1930, the family was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma where his father worked as a meter reader for the city Water Department and Harold attended local schools, graduating from Central High School in 1940.

Harold enlisted in the US Army Air Forces on 2 July 1940 at Tulsa. After basic training, he attended aerial gunnery school and upon completion was assigned as a Staff Sergeant to one of the initial crews of the 418th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bombardment Group (Heavy), Eighth Air Force, which flew B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers.

The 100th BG was activated 27 October 1942 at Gowen Field, Idaho then moved to Walla Walla Army Air Base, Washington. After receiving crews and aircraft, the group relocated again on 30 November 1942 to Wendover Field, Utah, where it added additional personnel, aircraft, and crews, and began operational training. On 1 January 1943, the aircraft and aircrews moved to Sioux City AAB, Iowa where they assisted in training of other groups bound for overseas. In mid-April 1943, the aircrews moved to Kearney Army Air Field, Nebraska and received brand new B-17s. After additional operational training, the group's aircrews departed Kearney on 25 May 1943, flying the North Atlantic route to England, where the group was based at Thorpe Abbotts, Norfolk. SSgt Clanton was the waist gunner of a crew that flew its first combat mission on 26 June 1943 and over the next four months flew an additional sixteen missions.

On 10 October 1943, SSgt Clanton’s crew was flying its seventeenth combat mission aboard B-17F 42-30830 (named “M'lle Zig Zig”) when the 100th BG sent 13 aircraft as part of a larger force of 236 bombers to attack railroad marshalling yards in the German city of Munster. On this mission, M'lle Zig Zig was in the group lead position, with 418th squadron commander Major John C Egan flying in the right seat as command pilot, with the regular co-pilot in the tail gunner's position as formation observer. The Luftwaffe sent up 350 fighters to engage the American force, and flak over the target was intense. Approaching the target, the aircraft was hit by flak, killing SSgt Clanton and forcing the stricken aircraft to fall out of formation. The surviving crew members were able to bail out and became prisoners of war. Tragically, of the 13 aircraft dispatched by the 100th BG that day, only one returned from the mission.

SSgt Harold Eugene Clanton was initially buried in a local cemetery in Germany and after the war was reinterred in Memorial Park Cemetery, Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma.

Thank you SSgt Clanton for your service and your sacrifice, you will not be forgotten.

Crew of B-17F 42-30830, “M'lle Zig Zig”

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story. SBTSProject/Oklahoma/Tulsa.

If you noticed anything erroneous in this profile or have additional information to contribute to it, please contact me at bob.al@storiesbehindthestars.org.

Sources:

1930 United States Federal Census
1940 United States Federal Census
U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100th_Air_Refueling_Wing#World_War_II
100th Bomb Group Foundation, https://www.100thbg.com/
Missing Air Crew Reports, #1029
Tulsa World, 1 Jul 1949
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/114452320/harold-eugene-clanton

Harold E Clanton