given her by a soldier in the first World war.". 11 October The Dornier Do 217N V1 stalls with its undercarriage down and crashes into Müritz Lake, killing the crew. 11 October Consolidated B-24D-1-CO Liberator, 41-23647, c/n 442, the eighth block 1 airframe, of the 469th Bomb Squadron, 333d Bomb Group, based at Topeka Army Airfield, Kansas, piloted by Ralph M. Dienst, suffers engine failure and crashes into a hillside three miles W of the base, killing eight and critically injuring one. "The plane was on a routine flight, army officers reported. Lt. H. R. Rubin of the Topeka base said the dead included: Lieut. Ralph M. Dienst, 26, Pasadena, California; Second Lieut. James H. Edwards, 24, Berkeley, California, and Second Lieut. James L. Holmes, 24, Fort Bragg, California." 12 October "Los Angeles, Oct. 12. – Four barrage balloons of the army's coastal defense system broke from their moorings today, one falling in flames after its metal trailing cable struck a high tension wire. Two were later recaptured and the fourth continued to soar." 13 October "AAF 201. The Pan American Air Ferries, Incorporated, has now furnished this office with all the available information relative to the disappearance of your brother... Senior Pilot Donald Mac Farrow and Navigator Joseph Henry Barenthaler departed from Accra, Gold Coast, British West Africa at 9:40 a.m., on 13 October 1942, in an A-20 aircraft from Kano, Nigeria, en route to the Middle East. Weather conditions on the day of the flight were overcast with rain and scattered thunderstorms between Accra and Lagos, Nigeria..." Plane last sighted going into a very bad thunderstorm while flying over the water. No wreckage reported by the Vichy French Government. No survivors found. Reference source: letter from Brigadier General Leon W. Johnson, Headquarters Army Air Forces written to Staff Sargeant Robert C. Farrow, Public Relations Office, 554th AAF Base Unit, 4th Ferrying Group, FD, ATC, Memphis 2, Tennessee. 13 October "Seattle, Oct. 13. – An army barrage balloon broke from its moorings in the Puget sound area today and swept over Seattle, starting a fire, breaking power and telephone wires, and disrupting transit system service. The balloon was brought to a halt about an hour after breaking away. A thousand feet of cable dragging from beneath the balloon caused the damage." 14 October The apparent mid-air explosion and crash of Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan, 41-27447, of the 383d School Squadron,