10/12/44 – the day before Luther Smith’s last mission on 10/13/44 with his brother Howard H. Smith
Luther Smith with SE-43-E classmate Lt. Charles M. Bussey.
Captain Luther Smith’s service with the 332nd Fighter Group included 133 combat missions within eight months, destroying two German aircraft in air and 10 in ground strafing attacks. On his final mission, Smith’s aircraft was heavily damaged and he bailed out over Yugoslavia, where he was taken captive as a POW for seven months. He was badly injured and emaciated by the time Allied forces liberated him, and endured a further two years of recovery stateside.
Read the following reports
Lt. Luther H. Smith Accident Report
Narrative Mission Report No. 93 and MACR’s
Learn more about Captain Luther Smith in Tuskegee Airmen Profiles!