Signal CorpsFrom Missouri to Newfoundland to ArkansasSignal Corps

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Lt.
            Snell
Lt. Eugene Snell
21st Signal Company,
US Army Signal Corp

Missing and Presumed Dead: February 14, 1943
Found:  November 6, 1944

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Inquiry Image

- RCAF Court of Inquiry, April 24, 1943

By A. Gafiuk and L. Cizewski
Copyright 2017

Hudson 771 of No. 145 Bomber Reconnaissance Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, went missing on Valentine's Day 1943, and with it:  six men.   Five were Canadian.  One was from the United States. The men’s families held vigil, hoping to receive news the plane had landed elsewhere due to poor weather.   They waited.  They prayed.  As the weeks and months passed, their hopes faded.  A year and a half later, they received telegrams: the Hudson was located, the remains of the crew and passengers were found, including American Lieutenant Eugene Snell, Service Number 0482660, a member of the US Signal Corps, stationed in Newfoundland during the Second World War, far from his home in Missouri.

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Canada

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Newfoundland

Maps of Canada and Newfoundland. Torbay is just outside of St. John's

The United States entered the Second World War after the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. Looking upon Newfoundland as a buffer similar to Alaska after December 1941, Americans were arriving in large numbers to the British Colony. (Newfoundland did not become a Canadian province until March 31, 1949.)

Starting with the 21st Signal Service Company, the US Military linked up the USS Edmond B. Alexander with the communities along the shores of the island.  The Americans also built an extensive communications system and installed a cable across Newfoundland alongside the railway line, including Naval Station Argentia from St. John's, and then across to Stephenville Air Base.  This provided a permanent dial system between the bases.

The U.S. Base Headquarters and operation centres were at Fort Pepperrell. Flight activity was carried out from RCAF Torbay, where many of the men were accommodated.

One of the men involved in the communications division of the US Army Signal Corps was First Lieutenant Eugene Estes Snell, of Columbia, Missouri.

The American Presence in Newfoundland and Labrador

Under its Leased Bases Agreement with Britain, the United States had obtained permission in 1941 to establish military bases in Newfoundland in exchange for 50 of its aging destroyers. Prior to that, the United States had avoided any involvement in the war, having suffered heavy casualties during the First World War. However, with the fall of France to Nazi Germany in June 1940, the American government recognized a need for additional bases to better defend the Western Hemisphere. The first American troops arrived at St. John’s in January 1941.

In the coming months, Newfoundland and Labrador became one of the most highly militarized places in North America as the United States spent more than $100 million to build military bases in St. John's, Argentia, and Stephenville.

Excerpt from Article by Jenny Higgins. Copyright 2006, Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Web Site
 
http://www.heritage.nf.ca/law/cdn_pres.html


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Roosevelt and
          Churchill
Roosevelt with Churchill.

At one time during World War II, Churchill described Newfoundland as the largest aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean.

21st
      Signal Company
Radio direction-finding personnel of the 21st Signal
Service Company's Radio Intercept Platoon in Newfoundland.

Photo: National Archives and Records Administration

In the official RCAF report, minimal information is written about Eugene E. Snell:  his name, his rank, how he was a passenger in the rear of the plane on the ill-fated flight on February 14, 1943.  "Lieut. E.E. Snell of the US Army Signal Corps was also an occupant of Hudson aircraft # 771 when it was lost, and it is assumed that he was on an official mission under orders of the US Army and is missing and presumed dead."

From the US Army Human Resources Command in Fort Knox, Kentucky, more information was gathered via Snell's Individual Deceased Personnel File (IDPF).  He stood 5"9 ½" tall, weighed 152 ½ pounds, had brown eyes and brown hair.  He wore a size 10D shoe.  Dental records were also included.  He had been admitted to the Station Hospital at Fort Pepperell twice in 1942 for two two-week stays for unknown reasons, with his last physical noted being taken in Newfoundland.  He was married to Lois Pauline Snell and together they had daughter, Gloria.

Lt. Snell was heading to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia for a Land Lines Communication Conference at the Eastern Air Command Headquarters in nearby Halifax, held on the 15th of February, "at the insistence of Flight Lieutenant John T. Hook," who looked after the financial aspects of telephone requirements and was a liaison with other government departments and services. Flying Officer William H. Thompson, the base signals officer at the base in charge of land communication, was also asked to join Hook and Snell at the conference.

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Crew
Crew: RIGHT TO LEFT Watterson, Rolfe, and grave of Stick

Grave photo taken by Mark Peapell

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Passengers
Passengers: RIGHT TO LEFT:Hook, Thompson and Snell

Before take-off, Pilot Officer Thomas Watterson was advised of the rapidly deteriorating conditions, which were to be expected at his destination at Dartmouth. He was given an alternative of Sydney, which provided a wide margin of safety. The flight left a few hours after midnight on February 14, 1943.  (In the RCAF report, Sydney remained open until the following morning.)  Radio conditions were unfavourable, according to another airplane, which departed sixteen minutes after Hudson 771.

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Hudsons

RCAF Hudsons, Maritimes

P/O Watterson was a skilled pilot.  He was very familiar with both Dartmouth and Torbay.  From his records at the Library and Archives in Ottawa, Canada:  "He is an exceptionally steady and reliable pilot and has set a fine example by the cheerful, thorough and uncomplaining manner in which he has carried out any task given him.  He has flown a total of 1300 hours and was strongly recommended for the Air Force Cross."  Wireless Operator II James R. Stick, and Flight Sergeant Robert C. Rolfe, navigator, were also experienced aircrew.

Hudson 771 did not arrive at its destination and a concerted effort was made through numerous searches to locate the airplane and its occupants.

Because of this accident, the Court of Inquiry, dated April 24, 1943, made recommendations including an air transportation service provided by the RCAF between Newfoundland and Canada.

To facilitate movement of personnel who are on duty and who urgently required transportation; that all aircraft in operational commands should have at least two receivers and two transmitters, in order that adequate watch can be maintained on the guard frequency without interfering with the operation of the radio for navigation purposes; that an investigation should be instituted into the operation of the right cyclone engines, as presently installed in the Mk I Hudson with a view to eliminating the proclivity of carburetor icing; the evidence taken by this Court indicates that continuous instruction in meteorology, navigation, and radio aid to navigation, should be given to aircrew at Operational Units.

The Court of Inquiry concluded, "The cause of the accident is obscure, but the following maybe regarded as possible causes: a) Faulty navigation b) Becoming lost and loss of fuel c) Failure of one or both engines by carburetor icing."

As time continued to pass, the prospects for finding survivors grew dim.  In the huge probability of discovering no one alive, being it February, still very cold and snowy, the RCAF and US Army began to prepare for the worst.

Lists of the crew members' and passengers' belongings were made, including those of Lt. Snell. Books, including a Bible and telegraphy encyclopedia, a cigar box filled with miscellaneous articles, clothing, hats, towels, handkerchiefs, radio equipment, a smoking table, cigarettes, a pipe and tobacco, plus an ashtray. He had three small rugs and a light fixture, a clock, a teakettle, and two bottles of Eno, an over the counter antacid.  Family photos, personal hygiene items, tennis balls and a racquet, plus an antler rounded out the collection.  A footlocker and metal suitcase were also included.
By early May 1943, the disposition of the effects of 1st Lt. Snell had been completed, three months after Hudson 771 had gone missing, with no word of its whereabouts.

In August 1943, the Army Effects Bureau wrote to Lt. Snell's wife, Lois Pauline Snell requesting the names of his closest relatives. "Please be assured this communication does not purport to indicate that your husband is a casualty.  Our only information is that he is missing."  Six months had gone by without having answers.  Lois indicated she was the nearest relative and was the emergency contact.

In September 1943, she received an optimistic letter from Carl H. Essert, Administrative Assistant of the Army Effects Bureau.

I transmit these items only in order that you may act as gratuitous baillee in caring for them until the return of the owner.  In the event he is later reported as a casualty, and I sincerely hope that he never is, it will then be necessary that you turn the property over to the person or persons legally entitled by law to receive the same.

In 1939, upon joining up with the US Army, Lt. Snell listed his wife and daughter as his beneficiaries.  In a handwritten note, Essert noted that Mrs. Snell was "anxious to receive the personal effects of her husband."

In October 1943, Mrs. Lois Snell received a letters from G. H. Galvin, Jr., 2nd Lt. QMC, Chief, Administrative Control Branch, indicating Lt. Snell's personal effects had been forwarded to her; the Army Effect Bureau requested she sign and return one copy of the receipt in an enclosed addressed envelope that required no postage.

In January and March 1944, Mrs. Snell received cheques for $112US, representing funds received at the Army Effects Bureau, belonging to her husband, which she needed to continue to support Gloria and herself, while they continued to wait for news.  The monies were from the public sale in December 1943, of Lt. Snell's 1935 Ford four-door sedan in Newfoundland.  He had been noted in the Fort Pepperrell Daily Bulletin on December 27, 1943 as "the late Lt. Eugene E. Snell."  On December 28th, in the St. John's Evening Telegram, the car was noted as the property of a deceased Army Officer.  The RCAF and US Army Signal Corps had declared him dead.

Eight months, later, in November 1944, two hunters, Cecil and Percy Rumley found the wreckage of Hudson 771 and its occupants, 184 kilometres off course, near Preston, eleven kilometers from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, near Halifax.

Gertrude Pratt, 77, of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia said, "This story is part of our family lore. My father, Percy Rumley, built a cabin on leased land near Granite Lake, Nova Scotia, twenty miles from Dartmouth.  He and Uncle Cecil would have to hike in through the forest along small paths and trails, about five miles starting at Lake Echo.  They would then hunt and fish.  There were bear, deer, moose, wolves and coyotes in that area." The brothers made a trek into their cabin, coming across the site of the crashed airplane.  "They saw skeletons in the plane and things were all broken up.  They didn't touch anything, just looked around.  Dad and Uncle Cecil then hiked back out and told the authorities."  Percy and Cecil Rumley escorted members of the RCAF to the wreckage of Hudson 771.  A newspaper article reported that some of the men may have survived the crash, but died from exposure.

The RCAF personnel sorted through the men's skeletal remains, making an initial identification based on the uniforms including the buttons of the crew and passenger, Lt. Snell. Then they turned over to the US Army what they had tentatively identified as Lt. Snell's remains. The US Army made a positive identification based on Lt. Snell's dental records.

On November 14, 1944, Mrs. Snell received a very business-like telegram from R.P. Harbold, Assistant to the Quartermaster General.

Information received that wrecked plane has been recovered and bodies of crew and passengers have been recovered and identified.  Body of your husband, 1st Lt. Eugene E. Snell, 0482660, Signal Corps has been prepared for shipment upon receipt of information as to where you desire remains shipped.

It was suggested a national cemetery, and Little Rock, Arkansas was the nearest National Cemetery to her residence in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reported that Lt. Snell's mother, Ada Snell, "received a letter yesterday from the War Department, informing her of the death of her son, First Lt. Eugene E. Snell, 37, who had been reported missing in action since leaving a United States base in Newfoundland as a member of a flight crew last February."  The article continued to list his surviving relatives including his wife and their daughter.  The article concluded, "Lt. Snell attended Columbia High School and joined the army in 1923."

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Halifax
          Papers
Halifax Papers, November 1944

Lt. Snell's body was placed in a hermetically sealed case, enclosed inside an outside case, and then prepared for transportation by rail from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Sarnia, Ontario, to Chicago, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri, then motor transportation to Little Rock, Arkansas, arriving on November 23, 1944.   Lois Snell was assured in a letter that "all expenses of preparing the remains for burial and the cost of shipping the body of your husband to Little Rock for internment will be borne from Government funds.""Five skulls and parts of bones were found, but it will be impossible to identify the remains until receipt of medical and dental documents."

"Watterson identified by epaulet,

"Stick identified by dental work, Rolfe identified by identification and dental work, Hook identified by dental work and cigarette lighter with initials,

"Thompson identified by elimination, Snell (US) identified by tunic button."


RCAF Documents, Library and Archives, Ottawa, Canada

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Buttons
Items on Lt. Snell's Uniform which could have been used by the RCAF to identify his remains.

Chad Philips reviewed the accuracy of this graphic.

Noted in Snell's IDPF was the Report of Burial Services, dated January 11, 1945 from the Army Service Forces Headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts to the Quartermaster General in Washington, itemizing of "obligations incurred to date in connection with the disposition" of Snell's remains including the casket, outside shipping case, hearse hire, transportation, flag, and new clothing.  R.F. Drummond & Company in Little Rock, Arkansas, on December 12, 1944, sent their invoice for services, hearse and car funeral to the US Government in the amount of $40.00."

Lt. Eugene E. Snell is buried at the Little Rock National Cemetery, in Arkansas. Close to home and family.
Headstone
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obituary
Lt. Snell's grave from Find-A-Grave

Photo added to Find-A-Grave by Chris Kittrell
Obituary from Mr. and Mrs. Cannon's scrapbooks of obituaries from Boone County Newspapers.

Note: Handwritten date on obituary is incorrect.

Courtesy of the Reference Desk Staff at Daniel Boone Regional Library Collection (2009)

For more information:

Lt. Snell's Individual Deceased Personnel File (IDPF)

History of the 21st Signal Service Company, Fort Pepperrell, Newfoundland

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<< Unofficial Informal Archive of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in WWII
All material not in the public domain Copyright 2017-2021
 Leonard H. Cizewski & Anne Gafiuk

Last Major Update:
Minor Revision: April 2, 2021
Posted: November 8, 2017
Last Reviewed:

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