Name: Leslie Robert Durkee Jr. Rank: Second Lieutenant Service Number: O-717404 Service: 490th Bomber Squadron 341st Bomber Group United States Army Air Force Awards: Air Medal, Purple Heart Date of Birth: September 11, 1924 Place of Birth: Swampscott, Essex County, Massachusetts Address at Enlistment: Essex County, Massachusetts Date of Death: May 30, 1945 Age: 20 Memorial: Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Philippines Reference: Tablets of the Missing Leslie Robert Durkee Jr. was the son of Leslie Robert Durkee (1895-1941) and Marion Harvie (Underwood) Durkee (1898-1965), and the husband of Gladys Jean Franklin (1926-1961). His siblings were Raymond Jesse Durkee (1923-2008), Leon Carl Durkee (1926-2009), and Clayton Allen Durkee (1930-1996). Leslie’s father was born in Ohio, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia. His brother Raymond served as a Motor Machinist 1st Class in the US Navy in WWII, including service in the Philippines. His brother Leon, Sergeant, served in the USAAF, including a posting in California. Private Leslie Robert Durkee enlisted and trained in the USAAF in WWII. He was killed in action in Zhejiang, China on May 30, 1945. He served with the 490th Bomber Squadron, 341st Bomber Group (Medium), aboard the B- 25J Mitchell #43-27810. The 490th was nicknamed the “Burma Bridge Busters”. The 490th operated in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater, frequently called the "Forgotten Theater" because it was routinely starved of replacement parts, fuel, and new aircraft compared to Europe and the wider Pacific. The Japanese military relied heavily on the sweeping railway systems of Burma and occupied China to move troops, ammunition, and supplies to the front lines. Standard high-altitude bombing was largely ineffective against narrow, reinforced concrete and steel railway bridges. To solve this, the 490th pioneered a highly dangerous tactic known as "glip" bombing (or skip-bombing). Flying their twin-engine B-25 Mitchells at treetop level, sometimes just 50 to 100 feet above the ground, pilots would race down the path of the river or railway line, dodge intense ground fire, and release their bombs at point- blank range so they would slide or skip directly into the bridge abutments. Between 1943 and 1945, the squadron flew over 600 missions, destroying nearly 200 vital enemy bridges and completely disrupting Japanese logistics. By April 1945, the war in Burma was winding down, and the 490th was reassigned to Hanchung (Hanzhong), China, coming under the operational control of the 14th Air Force (the legacy theater of General Claire Chennault's "Flying Tigers"). From this new base, the squadron's mission shifted to severing the remaining Japanese escape routes, supply corridors, and rail yards across occupied China. The flying conditions here were grueling, requiring navigation of mountainous terrain, unpredictable weather, and heavily defended transportation hubs. B-25J #43-27810 took off from Hanzhong alongside a formation of other B-25s for a low-level strafing and bombing mission over the ‘Sincheng’ railroad bridge. After completing a successful bombing run, the crew of B-25J #43-27810 returned to the bridge to strafe nearby railroad cars. During this second pass, the aircraft was apparently hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed approximately two miles southeast of the railroad bridge. The entire six-man crew was lost in the crash, including Durkee and the following crew: First Lieutenant Robert Alan Hansen Pilot, born in Brooklyn Co., New York in 1924 Sergeant Joseph M. Hinds Engineer, born in Maine in 1913 First Lieutenant Emile Albert Larrecou, Jr. Co-Pilot, born in San Francisco, California in 1921 Sergeant Chester Frederick Rouillard, Jr. Radio Operator, born in Malden, Massachusetts in 1925 Sergeant Paul H. Van Wart Gunner, born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1922 Leslie is also remembered on the WWII Memorial in Swampscott, Essex Co., Massachusetts.

Sources American Battle Monuments Commission – Leslie R. Durkee Jr. U.S., Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Unaccounted-for Remains, Group A (Recoverable), 1941-1975 U.S., Headstone and Interment Records for U.S., Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942-1949Preview U.S., World War II and Korean Conflict Veterans Interred Overseas