Orange County, Florida
United States Army
Second Lieutenant

2Lt. Paul Bouton, Jr. was a co-pilot of a B-17F Flying Fortress (#41-24526) of the 8th Air Force, 303rd Bomber Group, 358th Bomber Squadron, based out of Molesworth, Cambridgeshire, England.  The nickname of the aircraft was “Leapin Liz.”  On January 3, 1943, a group of 72 B-17’s and 13 B-24’s – left their air fields on a mission known as VIII Bomber Command 28 to bombard St. Nazaire on the west coast of France.  The site was known to have dry docks “pens” for repair of U-boats submarines along with torpedo storage areas.  There were 14 “pens” of reinforced concrete with roofs that were 8 meters (26 feet) thick of multiple layers and many anti-aircraft weapons on top. 

The airplane was seen by another aircraft to go down after bombing, passing the target, hitting the water with engine #4 and possibly #3 on fire. This was at 11:34am, off St. Brevin, Bay of Biscay, France. Two parachutes were thought to be seen, persons as MIA but later changed to KIA.  This was the third bombing mission, the second to St. Nazaire, that 2LT Paul Bouton, Jr. had participated in, plus another mission in December that had been aborted due to “Leapin Liz” having a mechanical failure along with heavy cloud cover on the target. 

 2LT Paul Bouton, Jr. was known to be a star athlete at Lakeland High School in Polk County and Rollins College in Winter Park.  He was an assistant coach and teacher at Orlando High School.  His younger brothers also served in the war effort:  brother John “Jack” P. Bouton also piloted B-17’s with the 390th Bomb Group, 1944-1945 in England.  He flew 35 combat missions over Germany and authored a book of his service, “The Lucky Bastard”.  Youngest brother William “Billy” P. Bouton served in the Merchant Marines during the war.