CA CA - Gertrude Tompkins Silver, 32, WWII flying P-51D plane from California to Newark NJ, 26 Oct 1944

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Gertrude Vreeland Tompkins Silver
Missing since October 26, 1944 from Inglewood, Los Angeles County, California.
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics
Age at Time of Disappearance: 32 years old
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; brown eyes.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Gertrude Tompkins Silver, was one of 1,074 Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASPS) in World War II and the only WASP who disappeared without a trace. She had over 850 hours of flying time, 46 hours of those were in the P-51, and 17 of those were in the D model she was flying at the time of her disappearance.
She was 32 and a bride of just one month when her warplane disappeared during World War II after takeoff from what is now Los Angeles International Airport. Because of a misplaced flight plan, Gertrude Tompkins Silver of the Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) and the new P-51D Mustang she was ferrying in 1944 weren't even missed for three days.

A search, including the scanning of Santa Monica Bay by military boat with new husband Henry Silver on board, failed to turn up any trace of the young pilot or the newly built single-seat pursuit plane she was to fly across the country for shipment overseas. Months and years passed without any trace of the plane's wreckage in the deserts or mountains along the flier's route to Tucson, the first leg of her assigned journey.
So far, efforts to locate her or her aircraft have yielded no conclusive results.

If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Pat Macha
714-846-9213 Or Ken Whittall-Scherfee 916-446-0955

Source Information:
Missing in Service
Ongoing Search For Mrs. Gertrude Tompkins Silver
The Doe Network: Case File 1453DFCA

Link:
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/1453dfca.html
 
65 years after her WW II plane disappeared, a new search is underway...

_____________________________________________________


WASP Pilot Gertrude Tomkins Silver Crashed off California Coast in 1944

By RUSSELL GOLDMAN
Oct. 8, 2009

The fog rolled in from Santa Monica Bay just after noon on Oct. 26, 1944, just three hours before Gertrude Tomkins Silver opened the hatch of her fighter plane, a P-51 Mustang.

The plane left from a little strip called Mines Field, today known as the Los Angeles International Airport, bound for a three-day journey to New Jersey, where it would be placed on a cargo vessel and shipped to Great Britain to fight World War II's final battles in Europe.

The pilot, Silver, a 34-year-old New Jersey native nicknamed Tommy, had spent more than 500 hours in the air and had a reputation for being able to handle fighters like the P-51s, some of the Army's fastest aircraft. It would be four days -- as the other two members of her squad landed in New Jersey -- before anyone realized Silver's plane went down somewhere off the coast of California just minutes after takeoff.

On Tuesday, a crew of archeologists, divers, sonar technicians and volunteers began a search 65 years overdue, to find the wreckage of the plane that carried Silver, the only missing and unaccounted for member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, an elite, all-female flight squadron formed at the height of World War II.

"Of the 38 WASPs who lost their lives, she's the only one unaccounted for," said Pat Macha, a retired teacher-turned-aviation archaeologist who is leading the search, from aboard a search vessel in Santa Monica Bay. "That's a big motivator," he added. "These women played an important role in our history and their next of kin still want resolution."

Three boats are searching for the downed fighter. One carries sophisticated sonar equipment. The others have teams of 10 divers. The sonar crew, helmed by Gene Ralston, who has conducted undersea searches for high-profile murder victims like Laci Peterson and Natalie Holloway, marks a spot on the surface with a buoy.


Link to Search Begins for Last World War II Female Pilot Gertrude Tomkins Silver - ABC News:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/world-war-ii-female-pilot-gertrude-tomkins-silver/story?id=8776928


Updated Doenetwork Link:

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1453dfca.html
 
Thanks, Richard, for updating this story. I've long had in interest (more to the truth, a love affair) with WWII aircraft. I knew little of the WASPs until I read your post and did some research. The history of the WASP program and the contribution to the war effort made by these brave women is truly fascinating and well worth the read.
 
Thanks, Richard, for updating this story. I've long had in interest (more to the truth, a love affair) with WWII aircraft. I knew little of the WASPs until I read your post and did some research. The history of the WASP program and the contribution to the war effort made by these brave women is truly fascinating and well worth the read.

You might enjoy a book titled

On Silver Wings: The Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II 1942-1944 by Marianne Verges with an intro by Senator Barry Goldwater. Copyright 1991.

It is about the recruitment, unit formation, and training of the women who flew every type of US aircraft used in World War II. Many photos and individual stories as well as a memorial page dedicated to the many who lost their lives.

The book mentions Gertrude "Tommy" Tompkins Silver and even has a photo of her. There are some details about her final flight, but strangely this book claims that her P-51D Mustang was found by hunters in the mountains in 1985 and that her body was recovered and positively identified. All other sources seem to refute this.
 
This link is to a website with articles by G Pat Macha, a California expert on aviation archaeology, who has been working with the family of Gertrude to locate the plane and determine what occured to her.
I haven't been able, as of yet, to locate any information on a downed P-51 being located in '85 but obviously the book is incorrect in this instance.

http://www.aircraftwrecks.com/gts/gts.htm

Also an excellent picture of Gertrude, wearing her flight jacket showing the "Fifinella" logo. Fifinella was a female gremlin, designed by Walt Disney. The WASPs asked for and obtained permission to use Fifinella as their mascot.

http://www.aircraftwrecks.com/images/gts/img544a.jpg
 
Here is a wonderful article I saw today about female WWII aviators finally being honored. It's about time. It made me think of Gertrude Silver.

Female WWII aviators honored with gold medal

By KIMBERLY HEFLING (AP) – 55 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — A long-overlooked group of women who flew aircraft during World War II were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday. Known as Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, they were the first women to fly U.S. military planes.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iMdYRUedjmyrD-nnbULYjPI5ALswD9EC069G0
 
Here is a wonderful article I saw today about female WWII aviators finally being honored. It's about time. It made me think of Gertrude Silver.

Female WWII aviators honored with gold medal

By KIMBERLY HEFLING (AP) – 55 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — A long-overlooked group of women who flew aircraft during World War II were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday. Known as Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, they were the first women to fly U.S. military planes.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iMdYRUedjmyrD-nnbULYjPI5ALswD9EC069G0

Thanks for the link! Today, Gertrude, or "Tommy" as she was called by her friends, was awarded the medal posthumusly and she was also remembered in a ceremony at the Air Force Memorial (which is adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery) along with all the other women pilots who died in service during World War II.
 
WASPs: Women Who Served

There are records of women who have served our country down through the years; this is a story of the brave women who served in the United States forces piloting military aircraft during World War II.

[snip]

Gertrude Tompkins Silver was on a mission to Palm Springs on Oct. 26, 1944, and never arrived. She was the last WASP to be declared "Missing in Action." Search efforts to find her remains and the wreckage are still ongoing.

http://www.greenevillesun.com/featu...cle_a0c56a13-a9aa-50cf-a0e3-6fd518184483.html
 
The witness seems credible and the story about crashing into the water makes sense. But he didn't actually see the plane, and there was apparently only one witness. Another possibility is that the Nazis stole it; there was a Nazi spy ring in California at the time (see the new book Fetch the Devil.) that would have loved to get their hands on a new P-51D, the Allies' most advanced fighter. (Such a plot would not be without precedent. The British planned to drop a pilot into Paris to steal a Focke-Wulf FW-190, to study its vulnerabilities, before a defector miraculously flew one to England.)

What do we know about this accountant Henry Silver, whom the pilot had just married? Did he have foreign connections?

But yeah, my money's on a simple crash. Salute to a brave aviatrix.
 


Gertrude Tompkins Silver

Here is a summary about the only WASP who disappeared without a trace.

Mission and Flight Plan:

At 12:00 on October 26, 1944, in the Long Beach Control Office, Gertrude and 40 other pilots were briefed on ferrying new P-51s from the North American Aviation factory at Mines Field, Los Angeles Municipal Airport, Inglewood, California, to Coolidge Field, Arizona by the Long Beach briefing officer, Capt. Hershell L. Abbott. The pilots were given current weather conditions for Mines field, but the only information entered on Form 23 was that the weather was O.K. They were also given instructions that if they didn't depart by 15:18, they would have to stop at Palm Springs, California, to avoid flying at night. The pilots departed for Mines Field by bus at 13:00.

A list of these pilots, their plane numbers, and destination, was delivered by Capt. Abbott to the North American Aviation Supervisor for Flight Operations, Mr. Bud Noon, at the North American FLight Operations Office, Mines Field. Mr Noon called this list into the LA Municipal Airport control tower, where operators copied the list and used it to record the time of departure for each plane.... Much more at below link.

LINK:
Gertrude V. Tompkins Silver - Missing In Service -

Note in this report that she had over 850 hours of flying time, 46 hours of those were in the P-51, and 17 of those were in the D model she was flying at the time of her disappearance.
 
The 75-year search for a missing WWII pilot from NJ continues

6168a8b1-f038-4212-85e4-fab8989b35b2-wasp3.jpg

Gertrude Tompkins (far right) had a stutter for most of her life until she began flying planes. She went missing in October 1944 after the P-51D she was flying disappeared on a flight to Newark, NJ from California.

ca30fd69-ba64-42b2-9000-afee29bd0e16-gts2.jpg

Gertrude Tompkins with her husband Henry Silver (right). The military didn't want Women's Airforce Service Pilots to be married so Tompkins got married secretly before returning to California to fly. This photo was taken in October 1944, right before Tompkins went missing.

83c84880-682b-473f-af14-22e47b538d34-gts3.jpg

Gertrude Tompkins was flying a P-51D to Newark, NJ from California when she went missing in October 1944.

7a8d68db-40dc-42b4-831e-0563189efffc-gts1.jpg

Gertrude "Tommy" Tompkins is one of 38 Women's Airforce Service Pilots to be killed during the war. She disappeared in 1944 while flying a P-51D from California to Newark, NJ

ef37b233-4bab-4f61-9b05-34a0170640a4-wasp1.jpg

Over the past several decades, there have been search efforts for Gertrude Tompkins, a WASP who went missing in October 1944 after she was supposed to fly a plane from California to Newark, NJ. Her remains and the plane wreckage have never been found.
 
This month marks the 75 year anniversary of the disappearance of Gertrude Tompkins-Silver.
 
Coolidge Field, in Coolidge, Arizona - an Army Air Force station in WW II - was the destination of Ms. Tompkins-Silver, and her fellow aviators the day they departed Long Beach California in their new P51D Mustangs. Here is some history of that field:

Airport History
The Coolidge Municipal Airport was originally constructed in the early 1940’s by the U.S. Department of the Army. Originally constructed as an air transport command base, Coolidge Army Airfield served as an auxiliary operating base for Williams Field during World War II. The original airfield was constructed with three runways in a triangular configuration. Of these three runways, two remain: Runway 17-35 and Runway 5-23. Numerous support facilities were constructed, of which a 120-foot by 80-foot hangar still remains. On January 19,1950 the airfield was transferred to Pinal County since the airfield was no longer needed by the U.S. Department of the Army. Pinal County owned and operated the airport until 1959 when the City of Coolidge obtained ownership of the airport. On March 2 1959 the airport was officially transferred from Pinal County ownership to the City of Coolidge.


From 1962 until July 1992, operations at the airport were dominated by training activities of T-37 jet aircraft based at Williams Air Force Base. The Air Force had a lease agreement with the City of Coolidge for four parcels of land and joint use of the main runways and taxiways in return for the continued maintenance and upkeep of the main runway and taxiway. In addition, they constructed several facilities along the runway and apron to support their operations. The Air Force lease was terminated in July 1992 and training operations at the airport ceased in June 1992. Williams Air Force Base was closed in late 1993.


  • Long Beach to Coolidge Field distance is 436 miles
 
Last edited:
A missing pilot, a Mustang and an enduring mystery: What happened to this WASP aviator?

It seems like there were a lot of people who ASSUMED that things would work out and that all would go according to the plan.

From the linked article:
(Quote) On the day she disappeared, Tompkins was supposed to be one of 40 pilots taking the P-51Ds from Mines Field, which is now part of Los Angeles International Airport, to Newark Airport. The planes were supposed to then be shipped overseas to American pilots.

The group was expected to hopscotch across the country to get to Newark, but as the planes took off, Tompkins and two other women had problems with their canopies. Because of the delay, the three planes were delayed and had to cut their flight short, landing in Palm Springs, California, Macha said. Tompkins flew into a fog bank, and that was the last time anyone saw her and her plane.

When Tompkins never showed, the two other pilots thought she had encountered further canopy problems and turned back to Mines Field. It was five days before anyone realized Tompkins was missing (Unquote)

She was missing for five days before anyone thought to look for her?!

If Gertrude took off in a flight of (at least) two other pilots/planes, why did they just assume that she turned back for some reason? The planes had radios in them. Did they do any radio checks or did they monitor tower radio on take off? Did they attempt to join up in formation using radio call up?

Even today, why do searchers ASSUME that she crashed into Santa Monica Bay? Was it Standard Operating Procedure on Take Off to fly over the Bay? What radio contact with the tower was required?

Who saw her fly into the cloud bank? The other pilots?

To Assume...



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