The Joe Noyes Story

Joe Noyes was a 22 year old B-17 pilot from Seattle who was killed in 1943. 55 years after his death a teenage girl found his photo in a book and decided that his story was worth sharing.

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When I was fourteen years old…

In 1998 a local television network aired the well-known 1990 film The Memphis Belle, featuring Matthew Modine, Sean Astin, David Strathairn, Billy Zane, and John Lithgow. I was an introverted teenager, and was already obsessed with studying Second World War military history, so it didn’t take very long for me to become fascinated with the 8th United States Army Air Force which was stationed in England starting in 1942.

While watching the opening scene for The Memphis Belle, when you’re introduced to the cast of characters while they play a game of football at their airfield; it suddenly dawned on me that the men who flew in the European skies over fifty-five years ago were really not that different from me. They were fresh faced, mischievous, uncertain about what life would bring next, and their families back home missed and loved them dearly. I could relate to them on a personal level.

Intrigued, I hunted down and devoured countless books on the subject of The Air War over Europe, and that’s how I stumbled across B-17s Over Berlin: Personal Stories from the 95th Bomb Group (H). Within the pages of the book I found myself attracted to a particular photograph, and #15, a man listed on the roster as F/O Noyes, struck me as being the most interesting out of all the faces. For some unexplainable reason I chose to learn more about him.

Over the next decade thanks significantly to the popular expansion and development of the internet, I slowly made contacts around the world who were able to introduce me to veterans who flew with him, alumni who attended high school with him, and relatives who never forgot him. I would be completely lost without their assistance, advice, and moral support.

The life and times of “Little Joe Noyes”

Joseph Herbert Noyes was from Seattle, Washington. Growing up on Queen Anne Hill at 410 West Lee Street, he had two younger brothers, Bob, and Walter, and was one of the first of his peers to obtain a drivers license. He worked delivering food for a local grocer, but he always knew in his heart that he was meant to fly airplanes.

After graduating from Queen Anne High School in 1940, he joined the United States Army. Although he still wanted to fly, he served out of Fort Lewis, Washington, and rose to the rank of Sergeant. He was at Fort Lewis on Pearl Harbor Day. In 1942 he volunteered to become a Flying Sergeant - essentially ferrying aircraft from the factory to a delivery point.

However things changed when he was among a small group of trainees selected specifically to become B-17 co-pilots. Immediately after training he was sent overseas to Horham, England where he was assigned to the 334th Bomb Squadron, in the 95th Bomb Group (H).

In the skies over Western Europe

Originally assigned to fly alongside Captain Harry M. Conley (author of No Foxholes in the Sky), twenty-one year old Joe Noyes was promoted to first pilot when Harry became Squadron Commander. Joe’s new co-pilot was David F. Prees, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

On August 17th 1943, Joe flew on the infamous mission to Regensburg. The 334th was assigned to be the lead squadron for the 95th Bomb Group, and the Group Commander Col. John Gerhart, flew in the lead plane as Wing Commander. Harry Conley flew as co-pilot so he could keep an eye on Joe, flying off their right wing. Harry was once quoted as saying, “If I have done nothing else in this war, I have turned out a damned good pilot in Joe Noyes”.

On Wednesday, September 15th 1943 Joe and his crew took off from Horham Airbase. Joe was on his 12th confirmed mission in the skies over Western Europe. Their assigned target was the Billancourt-Renault industrial works, which they successfully hit at 1854 hours.

There are conflicting reports regarding what happened next. What is known is that the B-17F-40-DL “Sitting Bull” never made it back to English soil. Joe’s aircraft, with all engines functional, and in no apparent distress left formation following the bomb run, and silently turned back towards France; never to be seen again.

Harry Conley later wrote about the incident in No Foxholes in the Sky. “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”.

Joe’s body was the only one ever recovered, which offered the families of his crewmen very little closure. Grief stricken, the relatives of the other men wrote sadly to Joe’s mother in Seattle. The tear stained airmail envelopes survive to this day, in the possession of one of Joe’s nephews. Joe Noyes washed ashore on a French beach in early October 1943, and was buried and later reburied, before his mother had him returned to the United States after the war had ended.

Joe Noyes left behind a young fiancée named Donna Davis, who graduated from Queen Anne High School in 1943. For Valentine’s Day 1943, Joe had sent her a card reading, “Though days may come and days may go. Though we’re near or far apart, I’ll always love you. Dear, you know… You’ll always be in my heart. I love you. -Joe”.

In his last letter home to his parents, which was dated September 8th 1943, Joe wrote optimistically about hearing of Italy’s surrender, and how he hoped to finish his 25 missions before the year was over. “I am sure I will be through by Christmas but I won’t be home just then. Not too long afterwards though I hope”.

Dedication

After over a decade of research, Joe is no longer simply #15 out of 48. Joe is still alive in memory and spirit, and it is my intention that even once I’m no longer here to weave a narrative out of an incoherent collection of facts, his story will continue to survive.

While I was visiting Tom Noyes in Oregon recently, he hopped online to attempt to look up the specific French beach that Joe’s body was discovered at. “It looks like it’s a nudist beach”, he told me, and we both smiled. “Somehow I don’t think Joe would have minded that too much”, I said… and it’s true… I can see Joe smiling about that right now…

I’ve built this website as a tribute to the short but inspiring life of “Little Joe Noyes”, and as a gathering place for others around the world who spend their free time searching historical archives and military databases for the names and stories of countless young servicemen who will never be forgotten. This is also for the families of the 9 others on board the Sitting Bull whose bodies were never recovered. Those 9 families will always remember and miss their husbands, sons, and brothers, and might never get the answers which they so deserve. My heart goes out to them, and I can only hope that my project can help them find a little closure someday.

Joseph H. Noyes, Seattle, Washington
David F. Prees, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Frank A. Roth, Union City, New Jersey
Rex A. Rice, Anderson, South Carolina
Billie E. Clapper, Erie, Pennsylvannia
Edgar A. Lajoie, Providence, Rhode Island
Robert H. Willis, Carteret, North Carolina
Raymond L. Provost, Orange, Texas
Daniel J. Fabritz
William L. Cochran

Rest In Peace

Acknowledgements

Robert E. Noyes, Sara Baty-Noyes, Tom Noyes, Donna Davis Flynn, Paul E. Perceful, Col. Harry G. Conley USAF (Ret.), Col. H. Griffin Mumford USAF (Ret.), Col. Daniel Cummins USAF (Ret.), Bob Cozens, W.L. Bergman, Michael Darter, Dennis Sparks, Jacqueline Glassner, Richard E. Flagg, David M. Blankenstein, Matthew J. Ihlenfeld, William R. Tobin, Terrance M. Lane, Elizabeth Noyes Trunkey, Max Foor, The Marines’ Memorial Association, and The 95th Bomb Group Memorial Foundation & Association.

Kimberly Arthur Lindner
ktotheimmy@gmail.com