The Last Flight of Leon Vance – June 5, 1944

The Last Flight of Leon Vance – June 5, 1944

In the darkened hours before D-Day, while thousands of Allied ships crossed the Channel below, Lt. Col. Leon Vance and the men of the 489th Bomb Group took to the skies on a mission that would never make headlines—but may have helped shape the outcome of the war.

Their assignment was to mislead the Germans. Flying at over 22,000 feet in B-24 Liberators, they were to bomb the Pas-de-Calais—far from the true landing zone in Normandy—to trick the enemy into holding their forces in the wrong place. Vance was aboard a specially equipped radar “Mickey Ship,” guiding the formation.

But when the lead bomber's bombs failed to release, Vance made the call to circle back for another run. It was a fateful decision.

As the bomber re-entered the danger zone, it was struck by a storm of flak. Three engines were knocked out. Four crew members were wounded. A live bomb remained stuck in the bay. The aircraft commander was killed. And Vance’s own right foot was mangled and pinned behind the copilot’s seat.

Despite the agony, Vance fought to keep the aircraft aloft. He coordinated with the copilot, worked to feather the remaining engines, and stabilized the crippled bomber—refusing medical treatment all the while.

As the plane struggled back toward England, Vance believed one of his crewmen—the radio operator—was too injured to bail out. With the rest of the crew jumping to safety, Vance made a heart-wrenching decision: he would attempt to ditch the bomber in the English Channel rather than abandon a fellow airman.

No one landed a B-24 in the sea and lived to tell about it. But from a semi-prone position, Vance did the impossible. The plane slammed into the waves. The dorsal turret collapsed, trapping him underwater. An explosion hurled him free.

Clinging to life and nearly unconscious from blood loss, Vance tried to return to the sinking wreck to search for the missing crewman. Only then did he inflate his life vest. He was found and rescued after nearly an hour adrift.

Leon Vance would survive that flight—but not the war. While being flown home for medical care on July 26, 1944, his transport vanished over the Atlantic. No trace of the aircraft or its passengers was ever recovered.

For his bravery, leadership, and refusal to abandon a fellow airman, Lt. Col. Vance was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. His daughter, Sharon, received the medal in his honor in 1946.

In war, there are heroes—and then there are those who choose to stay when they could leave, who risk everything for one more life. Vance was one of them.