Memorial

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Donald O. Shire graduated from Tamaqua High School in 1938 and attended Aero Industries Technical Institute in Los Angeles.

He joined the Air Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve at March Field, California, on 13 October 1942 and was commissioned in March 1944. He was sent overseas in September of the same year.

The aircraft carried four crew members and 22 passengers, all members of the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

According to a witness statement of Capt Leroy L. Bryant, the pilot of another C-46 in the same group, this airplane dropped his paratroopers over the drop zone. As the group crossed the Rhine, back to allied occupied territory, he saw that the left wing behind the gas tank was on fire. As he was catching up with the aircraft to call the pilot over the VHF, it started to go down in a slow glide, as if preparing to crash-land. Instead of putting the aircraft down straight ahead, the pilot started a low turn at what seemed to be a slow airspeed. When the aircraft went into the turn, the fire spread to the extreme end of the left wing, burning the aileron off almost immediately. Unable to straighten out the aircraft, the left wing struck the ground, followed by the nose and then the right wing. The aircraft then exploded, and the tail section was thrown clear of the wreckage.

Three crew members were killed. One man, T/Sgt Rhoads, crash-landed in the burning aircraft and suffered only minor injuries. He was taken to an aid station by British forces.