Target: Paris (Billancourt), France
It was Wednesday, September 15th 1943, when Joe and co-pilot Dave Prees took off from Horham Airbase together for the last time, flying their B-17 into the skies over Europe. It would be their final mission.
As fate would have it, they originally flew the B-17 Flying Fortress nicknamed Blondie II, their usual plane, but they spun a prop shortly after getting airborne, and had to return to base unexpectedly.
Knowing that if he didn’t get the job done, someone else would probably have to go in his place, Joe Noyes and his crew found a different aircraft, B-17 Sittin’ Bull, serial number 42-3266, and took off from Horham again at about 1534 hours.
It was expected to be a relatively easy bomb run, with light enemy resistance. A milk run really. The assigned target that day was the Billancourt-Renault industrial works, which the 95th Bomb Group (H) successfully hit at 1854 hours.
There are conflicting reports of what happened next, but the fact is the Sittin’ Bull never made it back to England.
About 15 miles off Beachy Head on the route back, Joe was spotted flying in the number 9 spot, in the high squadron.
At that point and with no apparent difficulty, he was seen to lose altitude and leave his position.
It was a quiet departure, and puzzled witnesses uncomfortably recalled that the plane seemed to be operating normally.
We lost Little Joe Noyes and my old crew yesterday. No one saw them go down. They just disappeared out of the formation and were never seen again.
– Capt. Harry M. Conley, 95th Bomb Group (H)
Once he learned about the disappearance of the Joe Noyes crew, Harry Conley penned an encouraging letter to the Noyes family. He believed that there was still hope the crew had survived.
In October 1943, Joe’s remains were found in Berck-Plage, France.
He was initially buried in a small local French cemetery, and then reburied at Étaples Military Cemetery.
Joe’s bereaved mother wrote diligently to Washington State Senator Warren Magnuson, and they had his remains returned to the U.S. after the war.
Today “Little Joe” rests at Calvary Cemetery in Seattle, Washington. His remains were the only ones ever recovered.
Joe Noyes left behind his young fiancée, Donna Davis, who also graduated from Queen Anne High School. Donna saved a pair of his shoes to remember him by. She still had them in her possession, when I spoke to her in 2009.
In 1943, the relatives of the other crew members desperately wrote to Joe’s mother in Seattle, to share their grief and concerns.
The tear-stained airmail envelopes survive and are in the possession of Joe’s nephew Tom. Some of the family members were convinced that all their boys had survived, but were taken prisoner of war.
Decades have passed without answers or clues, and over eighty years later, nine brave American airmen from Joe’s crew are still missing in action. With that said, they’ve certainly never been missing from the hearts and memories of their relatives.
I am sure I will be through by Christmas but I won’t be home just then. Not too long afterwards though I hope…
– Flight Officer Noyes, September 8th 1943