World War II pilot shot down over France is finally laid to rest: ‘Bruce Brown was a Richmonder who sacrificed his life for his country, and he deserves to be honored.’

It’s been more than 80 years since former Richmond resident Bruce Howard Brown was killed in a plane crash during World War II. But after spending decades in a grave for unknown soldiers in France, 2nd Lt. Brown finally returns today, to Houston National Cemetery. 

“You know, it’s celebratory and sad at the same time,” said Winnifred McNamara, a Houston resident who is one of Brown’s sole surviving relatives and the organizer of the service. “But I’m so happy that he’s back on American soil.”

City Council passed a proclamation this month to designate Oct. 25, as 2nd Lt. Bruce Howard Brown Day in Richmond. “I wanted to honor his memory,” said Soheila Bana, who introduced the proclamation.“Bruce Brown was a Richmonder who sacrificed his life for his country, and he deserves to be honored.”

Brown was co-pilot of a B-17 “Flying Fortress” bomber nicknamed the “Danellen.” On Dec. 20, 1942, during a raid on targets near Romilly-sur-Seine, France, the “Danellen” was shot down by German forces, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Brown and eight other crew members perished in the crash, but one airmen, Salvatore Dalterio, managed to survive after parachuting in time. French villagers nursed his wounds for an hour before he was taken prisoner, according to a newspaper account at the time. 

Due to the damage caused by the crash, the American Graves Registration Command was unable to identify the crew’s remains. After being buried in a local cemetery in France, the remains were then transferred to the Normandy American Cemetery, where they lay unidentified for more than 70 years. 

It wasn’t until McNamara received a call from a genealogist with the Department of Defense that the mystery surrounding Brown’s remains began to be unraveled.

“At first, I thought it was one of my cousins playing a joke on me,” McNamara said.

She first heard Brown’s story from her mother at the age of 10. For years, McNamara had been poking around Ancestry.com, trying to find information on her long lost cousin, a World War II hero who went by the name of Bruce Bishofshausen. Other than that, she had little information about him. 

But in 2011, the Defense Department received new evidence — a section of the plane recovered by one of the crew’s surviving family members. An investigation team with Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which is tasked with researching, recovering, and identifying the remains of Americans who are unaccounted for in conflict, traveled to the site. 

“It was almost completely destroyed” due to flooding and other changes to the landscape, according Donna Knaff, military historian for the agency’s Western European and Mediterranean region, the team that led Brown’s case. Because an excavation of the site was not possible, the agency recommended disinterring the remains held at the Normandy American Cemetery and transferring them to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska for forensic analysis.

In 2019, a genealogist with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency was able to track down McNamara through her Ancestry.com profile. Research suggested that Brown had changed his last name before the war, dropping the surname Bishofshausen.

“She asked me,” McNamara said, “is there any possibility that your Bruce Bishofshausen could be known as Bruce Brown?”

Shortly after Bruce was born, his mother’s ex-husband, Kurt Bishofshausen, died in an altercation with Bruce’s mother “Birdie,” short for Bertha. During a bitter divorce, Kurt Bishofshausen demanded custody of Bruce. After a physical tussle with Birdie, a gun fired and Kurt was killed. Birdie was later acquitted of foul play, and she moved to California with Bruce. McNamara believes it’s likely that Bruce dropped the surname Bishofshausen because Kurt wasn’t his biological father.  

Bruce grew up mostly in Texas, with his mother and stepfather, Fred Barron. He graduated from high school in 1938, then moved to Richmond in 1940, according to his obituary. He was 23 years old when he died.

McNamara never knew her cousin, who died before she was born, but family members described him as a “good kid.” He also liked to dance and frequented a Richmond dance club before he enlisted months before Pearl Harbor.  With genealogy, McNamara would learn more. 

“I spent like 20 years looking for a Bruce Bishofshausen,” McNamara said, “when in fact I was really looking for Bruce Brown.” 

To confirm this theory, the Defense Department requested a DNA sample from McNamara and other surviving family members of the Danellen crew.

“They had been looking for us for years,”McNamara said

After collecting DNA samples from all family members, including McNamara, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency positively identified Brown’s remains in September 2023.

“When our laboratory is able to make an identification, we’re really happy,” Knaff said. Such cases are notoriously difficult to investigate, and approval for disinterment can typically take a year. “All that hard work to bring our service members home has paid off,” Knaff said. 

The agency makes an average of around 200 identifications a year. And this year, Knaff’s team has done 91 disinternments, a record, according to Sean Everette, an agency spokesperson.
Brown is set to receive full military honors in Houston, where McNamara and Brown’s other extended family live.

“I’m not a crier,” McNamara said plainly, upon seeing Brown’s headstone. “But I cried.”

(Top photo of the “Danellen,” contributed by TallPaul19, American Air Museum in Britain. All other photos contributed by Winnifred McNamara)

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