By Sean CW Korsgaard
CP Reporter
When it comes to hometown heroes, Bowling Green has more than a few, but the story of Lt. Thomas Haigh. A decorated Army aviator during World War II, Haigh was one of the many men who gave their lives in defense of this country, and his story is a moving one. This is the story of a Bowling Green butcher who flew planes from Arizona to Egypt, and in the skies above Italy, gave his life so that his crew might live.
As a boy growing up in Bowling Green, Thomas Haigh was active in Sunday school programs and school plays, and was a skilled basketball player in high school. Before the war, he worked as a butcher at the Sanitary grocery store in Bowling Green, where he enjoyed a reputation as a cheerful young man who cut the best lamp chops in Caroline County.
Like so many other brave young American men, all of that changed after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He enlisted in the Army in Richmond on March 11, 1942, at the age of 23. He was soon selected for flight training, attending Army Flying School in Greenville, Mississippi, before being commissioned as a second lieutenant and assigned to fly a B-17. He saw service in North Africa and Italy, for which he was awarded the Army Air Medal, with two oak leaf clusters. Soon after, he was promoted to first lieutenant, and made a flight commander.
When news that Tommy Haigh had gone missing reached Caroline County, it hit the community hard. The Caroline Progress ran a story on the front page titled “Wings above Fear”, detailing his service, and encapsulating the hopes of many in Bowling Green praying for a safe return of “our Tommy”.
“Somewhere out there the young flier failed to return from action against the enemy – somewhere out there is a part of our town. We were proud of Tommy, he was as much our Main Street as the post office, the maple trees, and the court green,” the article read. “He was out there fighting for all the things that are America, school plays and Sunday schools, hot dogs and popcorn and warm firesides, children playing and old men chatting on the court green, and peace and happiness and laughter – all without fear.
“Somewhere out there our town’s Tommy and the Tommys of many other American towns have failed to return from action. We don’t believe it – we have hope.”
Eventually, the worst fears of his family and his community were confirmed in a letter his mother received from the War Department – Lt. Thomas Haigh had been killed in combat on December 28, 1943. He was 25 years old.
It would take far longer for the story of his last mission to come together – and when it did, in death, as he had in life, Haigh had made Bowling Green proud.
Flying a B-24 bomber of the 512 Bombardment Squadron nicknamed “Old Sarge” by its crew of 10, of which, Haigh was one of the two pilots, they were part of a mission to bomb the railroad yards in Vicenza, Italy, on what was supposed to be what fliers called “a milk run” or an easy mission.
Instead, Haigh’s bomber group was attacked by 50 to 90 German fighters, and his plane took heavy fire, with three members of the crew mortally wounded by enemy fire, and “Old Sarge” losing two engines, all communications and most flight controls.
Though the gunners took out a number of German fighters, with the B-24 on fire and losing altitude, the decision was made to put on parachutes and bail out of the aircraft.
Throughout all of this, Haigh remained at the controls, completely calm under fire. When the decision to abandon the aircraft was made, he stayed at the controls – as the aircraft commander, he refused to abandon his post until certain that his crew had made it to safely. Shortly after the last remaining crew member jumped from the aircraft, the B-24 exploded with Haigh still inside.
Of the six surviving members of the Haigh’s crew, three eventually made it back behind Allied lines, while three others were captured by the Germans, and spent the rest of the war as prisoners at Stalag Luft I. All survived the war, and though each airman’s account of that day differed in small details, such as the number of enemy aircraft, the accounts all shared one detail – that Lt. Thomas Haigh died so that his crew would live.
“There was so much fire in the bomb bay it singed my hair, but nothing could make Haigh move, not until he knew the rest of us got out,” said co-pilot 2nd Lt. Albert D. Matthai. “Displaying conspicuous gallantry, he gave his life for his crew.”
For his actions, which likely saved the lives of his crewmembers, Haigh was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously. Several of his former crewmembers petitioned unsuccessfully after the war for Haigh to be posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross as well.
Haigh is buried in the Florence American Cemetery in Italy, alongside 4,400 other American soldiers. His sister and sole living relative, the late Mary Campbell Cook, took some small comfort in the location of his burial – Tommy is buried in a town that shares the name of their mother, Florence.
Thomas Haigh is one of the 32 soldiers from Caroline County killed in action during World War II whose name is listed on the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond. His medals, photograph, pilot’s log book and the telegram to his mother are all on display at the Caroline Historical Society, and he was one of several honored at a ceremony this past April.
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