ETO Baseleg - James B Tunison

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Album 1	Album 2	Album 3	Album 4
Album 5	Album 6	Album 7	Album 8
Red Cross	WWII Drawings	ETO Baseleg	Miscallaneous

<-------- Click Here to Go Back to John J Tunison's Album List 1-8

Creator of Life in the ETO Albums, James B. Tunison and Paulette Starz

James B. Tunison was from New York and enlisted in the Army Air Force in 1943 when he was 21. He had a couple of years of aeronautical engineering college at Cornell and was sent to Burtonwood to assist with building and repairing aircraft.

He met his future wife, Paulette E. Starz at Burtonwood. She was from Indiana and volunteered for the Red Cross.

After the war, Paulette returned home and Jim was sent to Dubendorf, Switzerland to repair and scrap damaged aircraft. Mom and Dad keep a serious long-distance relationship through postal letters. Jim proposed when he returned from the war. Jim was discharged in 1946.

Dad then worked for Republic Aviation on Long Island for several years. Then was transferred to a new project at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Jim enjoyed sports cars, art, and skiing. They had 3 children together, Jim, Jeff, and Andy. James B. Tunison was tragically killed in an auto accident a week before his 40th birthday.

Mom recently passed at 100 years and these volumes of photos were rediscovered. If you copy/ use any of the volumes somewhere else, please just credit James B. Tunison and Paulette Starz

This is the last of dad's albums from Burtonwood. At the end of the war James B. Tunison was transferred to Dubendorf, Switzerland in order to salvage or repair aircraft. These 21 pages are the end of his time in England and the flight and beginning of time in Switzerland where he developed a love of skiing.

Destruction of a Fort at Dubendorf Airfield, Switzerland

The prop hubs were pulled ...

the vertical stabilizer removed ...

the life rafts removed ...

and oil and fuel drained

Swiss pulling Props

Cutting off Empennage

Burning fabric off the Elevator

Ryals chopping the Vertical Stabilizer

Salvage work at Kloton Airfield Switzerland

To the right is Miller and Morgan

German Junkers JU 52 with Swiss markings at Kloton Airfield Switzerland

Hotels in Zurich Switzerland

Parsenn Bahn from Dayos Dorf

Cynthia and Brenda from Leeds Yorkshire

Red Melzac and Rocky Ryals Instaling a Tail Skid to a Consolidated B-24 Liberator

Ryals, Melzac, and Harwick, next to a B-24 Liberator Tail Fin..

Queue up

The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is being salvaged at Dubendorf Airfield by Swiss and GI American servicemen

Cut Her in Half

Flip Em

Consolidated B-24 Liberator Salvage

Coffee by the Wayside

from the left is:

Harwick, Moses, Penny, Jackson, and Ryals

Ryals in the Barracks

Alps in the fog

Limey Miles, Aerovan hits Dubendorf airfield

From the left:

in front of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator called Sleepy time Gal are:

Latimer, Martin, Stein Ryals, Melzac, and Harwick

Villa Coublay Airdrome 8 Miles Southwest of Paris September 5, 1945

B-17, OL Mama - Lts Standing in front is:

Hoenes and Theissen

Lockheed Lodestars

Frog Plane, Frog Fraulein, and a Coupla of Frogs

Standing in front of the B-17 from the left are:

Hoenes, Theissen, and Tunison

Coublay Airdrome France

P-39 Bell Airacobras With Four-Bladed Props

General De Gaulle's Private Avro York Aircraft

General De Gaulle's private Avro York Aircraft

The Sidewalk Cafe in Paris

Larc De Triomphe - Les Champs Elysees Paris

Building at Paris France

Eppes Cutting Bob Applehances Hair

Consolidated B-24 Liberator Alley-oop

Zimmerman, Shaw, and Greider

Home in the 328th Air SV Squadron

Earl Courtney standing in the Window

Flying to Dubendorf, Switzerland, on September 3, 1945,

Coming in over the French Alps

The final approach to Dubendorf Airfield

C-87 Liberator Crash Piled up where the black X is indicated

The Crash of United States Army Air Force Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express in Dubendorf at Zurich Switzerland on Aug 18, 1945.at 1500 Local Time, Aircraft Registration is 44-39213.

On touchdown at Dübendorf Airport, the right main gear collapsed, causing engine number four to hit the runway surface. The captain increased power and decided to go around. During the initial climb, the aircraft stalled and crashed in flames in a wooded area located some 550 meters northwest of Hangar #2.

Four crew members were killed while two others were injured.

James B. Tunison USAAF from BAD1 at Burtonwood England was assigned to Dubendorf in the Scrapping of American Aircraft at the time of the Crash, he states that the 4 Crew Killed were Technical Sergeant Case, Technical Sergeant Holt, Captain Neisser, and Captain Smith.