On this day in Alabama history: Fighter pilot declared killed in action
Charles Crommelin (1909-1945) was a Navy fighter pilot in the Pacific Theater of World War II, one of the famed Crommelin brothers from Alabama. During a battle over the Marshall Islands, his fighter was damaged. His successful landing of the craft was the subject of the war propaganda film "Fighting Lady." (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Southern Museum of Flight)
March 28, 1945
Fighter pilot Charles Crommelin went missing over the sea near Okinawa and was declared killed in action. One of five brothers to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy, Crommelin rose to fame flying F6F Hellcat fighter planes in some of World War II’s most significant air battles in the Pacific. Video footage of Crommelin landing his aircraft after sustaining severe damage and severe wounds in November 1943 was featured in the propaganda film “Fighting Lady.” He received a Distinguished Flying Cross and the Navy Cross for his heroism and is memorialized at the WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument in Honolulu, Hawaii. He and his brothers were also inducted into the Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame and the Alabama Military Hall of Honor.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
Portrait of Charles Crommelin. (Patrick McConnell, USNA Virtual Memorial Hall)
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
