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Remember...John Richard Sole
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John Richard Sole was born on June 24, 1923, in Parkersburg, West Virginia. By 1930, the family, which consisted of only John and his parents, was found by the census taker to be living in Clarksburg, West Virginia. His father, Joseph Sole, was listed as a manager of a public utility. His mother, Arline Sole, was listed with no occupation. In 1940, U.S. Federal Census records show that the family was still in Clarksburg. Joseph Sole's occupation was listed as the supervisor of field accounting for a gas company. The family was joined by Nancy, who was four years old, a sister to John, who was sixteen.
In 1941, John Sole was a senior at Washington Irving High School in Clarksburg, Harrison County. He is pictured in the year book, Reminiscences, as a member of the Glee Club and as a member of Hi-Y, a club whose purpose was to "create, maintain, and extend throughout the school and community high standards of Christian character."
Then, in 1942, John Sole registered for military service. He was 19 years old and working for Hope Natural Gas when he registered for military service in Clarksburg. He enlisted on December 4, 1942, at Wheeling, West Virginia. He'd had one year of college and was single and without dependents. He was branched into the Army Air Corps.
By 1945, Second Lieutenant John R. Sole was serving in England, a fighter pilot with the 8th Air Force, 78th Fighter Group, 84th Fighter Squadron, stationed at Air Force Station F-357, Duxford, Cambridgeshire, England. (Barry J. Anderson, Army Air Forces Stations, USAF Historical Research Center, 31 January 1985, accessed 2 April 2020, https://www.afhra.af.mil/Portals/16/documents/Timelines/World%20War%20II/usaaf_bases_in_united_kingdom.pdf?ver=2016-08-30-150752-303.)
On April 21, 1945, a three-plane mission left AAF F-357 and headed to Germany. Thirty miles west of Koblenz, Germany, the planes came upon a weather front of thunderstorms. The visibility dropped to a level described as "extremely limited." Second Lieutenant John R. Sole was flying as an escort to a bomber and was low enough on fuel that he and the other pilots were seeking a field in which he could land. The planes were flying below the weather. In interviews, the other pilots described the event leading to the fateful flight. The countryside over which they flew was described as hilly and heavily weeded. As the pilots gained altitude to climb over the hills, 2nd Lt. Sole was heard by the others over the radio reporting that he'd hit a tree and the left wing of his plane was badly damaged. Fellow flyer Lt. Stier reported that he advised 2nd Lt. Sole to make a 180-degree turn and climb until he ran out of gas, and then to either land or bale out. The remainder of the story of the fate of 2nd Lt. Sole is described in the book "Down to Earth": Strafing Aces of the Eighth Air Force by William N. Ness. (Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2003.) 2nd Lt. Sole's P-51D was lost with him at the controls, "the pilot being killed when he baled out too low in bad weather near Koblenz." Two other pilots died on the mission; one due to his plane crashing due to the bad weather and another due to his plane's mechanical failure.
| John Sole was buried in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium. A cenotaph was placed in Bridgeport Cemetery, Bridgeport, West Virginia. For his service, he was awarded a Purple Heart and the Air Medal with 6 Oak Leaf Clusters. |  Cross marking the grave of 2nd Lt. John R. Sole, Ardennes American Cemetery. Courtesy Dominique Potier |
 Cenotaph for John R. Sole, Bridgeport Cemetery. Courtesy Cynthia Mullens |
Article prepared by Cynthia Mullens
March 2020
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
