Stories Behind The Stars

PLATTSBURGH — Jacqueline Stewart, a retired Plattsburgh City Schools history teacher and genealogist, has researched Staff Sgt. Benjamin Barnard Bromley for the Stories Behind the Stars Project, whose mission is to tell the stories of 421,000 U.S. World War II Fallen Stories. Link: https://tinyurl.com/4wjfx7xe

Below is Stewart’s file:

Benjamin Barnard Bromley

Find A Grave Memorial ID # 147018025 – Peru, NY

Find A Grave Memorial ID # 56288099 – Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial, England /Tablets of the Missing

2 Find A Grave -NOT LINKED

Memorial Posted: Memorial ID # 147018025 – Peru, NY

Lost at Sea

Maintained by Don (contributor 46972513)

Memorial Posted: Memorial ID # 56288099 – Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial, England

Entered Service from New York

Maj Jimmy Cotton (contributor 48803557)

Staff Sergeant Benjamin Barnard Bromley, Service # 12026756, 19th Squadron, 479th Anti Sub Group, US Army Air Force, died 20 July 1943. He is buried in the Peru Cemetery, at Peru, Clinton, New York.

S/Sgt. Bromley was born 8 December 1911 at Peru, Clinton, New York the son of Herbert James Bromley and Madeline C. (Cramer) Bromley of Route 3, Plattsburgh.

Benjamin Bromley was a graduate of Plattsburgh High School in 1930. He was the editor of the yearbook, The Barker, and a charter member of Adirondack Chapter, DeMolay. He was selected to attend the Casey Jones School of Aeronautics, Newark, New Jersey where he graduated in airplane mechanics in 1941. He was a student at the Diesel School of Engineering at Hempstead, Long Island.

He married the former Miss Ethel Anderson of Mineola, Long Island on 4 October 1942, while she was a secretary at Mitchell Field. The late B.S. Cramer of Plattsburgh was the grandfather of the missing soldier.

He registered for the draft at Huntington, Suffolk, New York on 16 October 1940. He was employed by Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps on 12 March 1941.

S/Sgt. Bromley was reported missing in action as a member of the crew of a flying fortress on a North Sea mission in 1943. His mother was notified from Bromley’s wife who is secretary to the Chief of Staff of all the airports on the Atlantic Coast, located at Mitchell Field, Long Island. S/Sgt. Bromley was a member of the flying fortress crew which had become widely known as the “Sea Hawks,” and they were on convoy duty at the time.

Mrs. Ethel Bromley, wife of Staff Sergeant Benjamin Bernard Bromley, 31, received from the War Department an air medal, awarded to her husband who has been missing in action since 10 July 1943, at ceremonies recently, the award presumable being a posthumous honor, no word has been heard from the non-commissioned officer in more than six months. He is thought to have lost his life in the service of his country. Presentation of the air medal was made to Mrs. Bromley at Mitchell Field, by Col. Douglas Johnston, Commander.

The general order read: “For meritorious achievement while participating in more than 200 hours of anti-submarine patrol flight accomplishment. Many of these missions were carried out under unfavorable weather conditions that made flights hazardous. The possibility of encountering enemy planes and anti-aircraft fire from armed vessels added to the danger of these missions. The courage, skill and untiring energy displayed by these officers and enlisted men reflect the highest credit upon themselves and the armed forces of the United States.”

S/Sgt Bromley has two brothers in the service, James, who is on submarine duty in the Pacific, and Roger, who is stationed at Camp Adair, Oregon. A sister is married to Lieutenant James B. Lyon 3rd. He has two other sisters, Mrs. Robert Woodward, and Mrs. Dorothea Lawrence. The family having read of many recent rescues of airplane crews in the North Sea, clings to hope that a rescue of the “Sea Hawks” may have been affected by some ship that has not yet been reported at port. Their hopes were not realized.

S/Sgt. Bromley is listed on the Tablets of the Missing, in Cambridge, England.

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 and saved on Together We Served and Fold 3. Can you help write these stories? These stories will be accessible via smartphone app at any war memorial or cemetery.

If you noticed anything erroneous in this profile or have additional information to contribute to it, please contact babyjack7@charter.net

SBTSProject/New York/Clinton County

Medals:

Purple Heart. Air Medal.

Sources:

Plattsburgh Press Republican, February 10, 1944, page 3, Image 3

Plattsburgh Daily Press, July 18, Page 5, Image 5

Plattsburgh Press Republican, August 3, 1943, Page 3, Image 3

Ancestry.com US Army WWII Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 (database on-line). Lehi, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2005.

Ancestry.com US WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 (database on-line). Lehi, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2011.

Ancestry.com US World War II Military Personnel Missing in Action or Lost at Sea, 1941-1946 (database on-line). Lehi, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2007.

Ancestry.com US World War II and Korean Conflict Veterans Interred Overseas (database on-line). Lehi, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2000.