320th Bomb Group roster
Supports the core roster entry: Cary, Robert A. - 444.
444th Bomb Squadron December 1944 war diary
Supports Dijon station, December missions, Singen target, and Thayngen target misidentification.
444th station lineage
Places the 444th Bombardment Squadron at Decimomannu, Sardinia, from 9 November 1943 until its move to Alto, Corsica, on 19 September 1944. Useful for the D-Day unit-location question.
444th Bomb Squadron June 1944 history
Names Decimomannu, Sardinia, as the squadron station for June 1944 and records 444th aircraft taking part in the 6 June Narni Road Bridge mission in Italy.
320th 1944 mission index
Identifies 6 June 1944 as Mission 233 against the Narni Road Bridge in Italy. This supports the unit-level D-Day context, not a Bob-specific crew claim.
444th Bomb Squadron November 1944 diary
Provides the strongest current unit-level clue for Bob's probable arrival window: the 4 November entry says more replacements arrived from the States. It also documents the 444th move from Alto, Corsica, to Dijon, France, during November.
AAF / ATC middle-Atlantic route history
Supports the historical plausibility of the family-memory route through Lagens/Lajes in the Azores and North Africa. The AAF history describes 1944 routes through the Azores to North Africa, including Wilmington-Newfoundland-Azores-North Africa and Miami-Bermuda-Azores-Casablanca variants.
320th mission report PDFs
Supports Cary-linked crew roles, mission numbers, ship numbers, targets, and outcome notes.
B-17 Museum Thayngen article
Supports the 25 December 1944 Thayngen bombing summary, aircraft count, casualty/damage account, and reparations context.
Stadtarchiv Schaffhausen record
Supports the existence of a 1985 article/photo item naming Bob Cary and Hartwell Davis.
Angst, Trauer, Hoffnung
Supports Hartwell Davis's 1984 visit and the May 1985 return with dentist Bob Cary.
320th / B-26 aircraft lists
Clarifies the Lady Bugs aircraft question: the inspected 320th aircraft page lists 42-95746 Lady Bugs as 444th battle number 78, not 79. Current mission sheets do not yet tie Cary to Lady Bugs.
National Museum B-26 fact sheet
Supports the public B-26 page with general Marauder history, combat use, production summary, and representative late-war technical specifications.
320th B-26 aircraft summary
Supports the 320th-specific B-26 overview, including crew, engines, armament, and the aircraft's role in the group's combat story.
Representative B-26 image
Source for the B-26 page image. The aircraft shown is representative only and is not documented as Bob Cary's aircraft.
Mission Report 436
Confirms Cary as co-pilot in 444th ship 82 on the 25 December 1944 Singen railroad bridge mission. The report says 26 B-26s dropped on Singen and nine dropped on Thayngen; ship 82's drop group remains unresolved.
1939-1945 en Pays Dolois
Supports Tavaux, local memory, French book/photo leads, and the Bob Cary/Hartwell Davis reunion context once exact pages are obtained.
Peggy Hodgson email and devotional
Supports family-memory leads including Lady Bugs nose art, Hartwell "Pappy" Davis, Tavaux children, the dog Pal telegram, the loose bomb pins story, Christmas chalet story, and Bob's "keep on pluggin'" character note.
Unpublished family email thread, 25 April 2021. Attachment: Pluggin.docx, Advent 2018.
James Angus Cary note
Supports family-memory leads about Bob's possible overseas ferry route, the brand-new aircraft he gave up at the battlefront, the Ramon or Ramonde bicycle story in France, and possible French medal or recognition.
Unpublished family note from Bob's son, forwarded by Dan Cary, 7 June 2026.
Conversation with Dad story list
Supports conversation-derived leads around Hartwell "Pappy" Davis, Bob's low-key personality, B-26 handling, possible Azores/North Africa/Italy movement, France/chateau/school memories, Battle of the Bulge supply-line context, formation flying, a red-haired pilot story, bomb-load questions, Bob's remembered pre-service Western attendance, and possible California B-29 training after the August 1945 marriage.
Treat this as family-memory evidence and a guide to future source hunting, not as official proof.
Western Brown and Gold Yearbooks, 1941-1944
Support Bob's Western Michigan student sequence before service: 1941 freshman page printed as "Robert Carey" with the index entry "Cary, Robert 76"; 1942 likely sophomore spelling variant "R. Corey"; 1943 junior page "R. Cary" with index "Cary, Robert 53"; and 1941 W.S.T.C. Bands roster "R. Cary" under Alto Horns.
The 1944 yearbook has not produced a Bob entry in the inspected civilian student sequence, but it documents the wartime campus shift that makes his absence from normal class pages meaningful. These yearbooks do not yet prove Bob's major, graduation status, transcript, or exact departure date.
Decatur growing-up context
Decatur, Michigan is a useful setting for Bob's likely youth, with leads around Decatur High School class-of-1940 material, the Michigan Central depot, Van Buren County agriculture, and Angus Cary references.
This is context and a prewar identity lead, not proof by itself.
Hastings practice and postwar life
The postwar trail for Dr. Robert A. Cary, D.D.S. includes the 1950 Michiganensian, Mary Cary's obituary, Hastings Public Library Michigan Room, Barry County History Portal, and Hastings practice records.
The strongest current follow-up targets are Hastings Banner, city directories, dental-license files, church records, funeral-home records, and University of Michigan dental archives.
Wartime-to-postwar records synthesis
The wartime, flight-training, family-memory, and postwar records point to the names, places, and dates most useful for service-record, civil-record, dental-archive, and local-newspaper searches.
U.S. Army Battle of the Bulge summary
Supports the broader winter 1944-1945 context around the Ardennes counteroffensive while Bob's unit was attacking transportation and supply targets from Dijon.
U.S. Army CMH campaign summaries
Supports Rhine-crossing and final-offensive context for the March-April 1945 portion of the timeline.
National Archives German surrender record
Supports the V-E Day and German surrender context at the end of the timeline.
444th Bomb Squadron B-26 image
Public-domain U.S. Army Air Forces context image of a 444th Bomb Squadron, 320th Bomb Group B-26 Marauder in 1944. Useful as project visual context, but not proof of Bob Cary's specific aircraft.
320th Albenga bomb-run image
Public-domain NARA / U.S. Army Air Forces image showing 320th Bomb Group B-26s dropping on a railroad bridge at Albenga, Italy, on 12 April 1944. Useful for explaining rail-interdiction missions, but it predates Bob's confirmed mission trail.
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320th Albenga damage-assessment image
Public-domain USAAF image plotting bomb fall after the 320th Bomb Group's 12 April 1944 Albenga railroad-bridge attack. Useful for explaining mission-result review and bomb-damage assessment.
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320th R-2800 engine-service image
Public-domain NARA image showing 320th Bomb Group personnel servicing a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engine on a B-26B Marauder in North Africa, 1942-1943. Useful for aircraft and maintenance context.
320th end-of-war cap-toss image
Public-domain USAAF / NARA image showing members of the 320th Bomb Group tossing caps near a B-26G at the end of World War II. Useful for unit-level V-E aftermath context, but it does not identify Bob Cary.
Robert A. Cary family-collection photographs
Four direct Bob Cary family images are currently published: a flight-jacket portrait, an aircraft-side portrait, a cockpit portrait, and a Bob-and-Mary portrait. They use provisional captions because exact date, location, photographer, event, aircraft identity, and original owner details still need family confirmation.
Trier-Pfalzel B-26 rail-bridge attack image
Public-domain USAAF image showing B-26 Marauders attacking the Trier-Pfalzel railroad bridge over the Moselle River, probably on 24 December 1944. Useful as German rail-bridge campaign context, but not a Bob Cary or 320th image.
Operation Strangle B-26 rail-viaduct image
Public-domain Office of War Information / Library of Congress image showing a French-marked B-26 over a rail-viaduct strike at Piteccio in central Italy. Useful for broader Allied rail-interdiction context.
Chartres airfield B-26 civilian-contact image
Public-domain USAAF image showing French civilians and students watching a B-26 at Chartres airfield around September 1944. Useful as liberated-France airfield context, but not a Bob Cary or Tavaux image.
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Eller B-26 flak-loss image
Public-domain USAAF image showing a 323rd Bomb Group B-26 hit by flak over Eller, Germany, on 23 December 1944. Useful as late-1944 combat-risk context, but not a Bob Cary, 320th, or 444th image.
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Evidence Standard
Confirmed claims need a named source, mission report, diary, roster, archive record, or clearly captioned image. Strong leads are kept useful, but they stay labeled until a source ties Bob Cary directly to the claim.
Research status last reviewed: 8 June 2026.