A public running list of meaningful discoveries, corrections, new pages, and evidence updates in the Bob Cary WWII research project.
This log highlights changes that affect the public story, the evidence, or the open questions. Family memory and uncertain leads stay clearly labeled until a record, caption, letter, photograph, or other source supports them.
Added B-26 Target Run, a small browser game that starts with a mission brief and then moves into a top-down B-26 target run over a German landscape.
The game includes flak to dodge, a limited bomb load, multiple target types, a Norden-style bombsight inset, and scoring based on target hits and aircraft condition. It is an interactive context piece, not a historical reconstruction of a specific Bob Cary mission.
Added Western Brown and Gold yearbook evidence to the existing Bob Cary pages. The evidence now supports Bob's pre-service Western sequence: 1941 freshman entry printed as "Robert Carey" with the index "Cary, Robert 76," likely 1942 sophomore spelling variant "R. Corey," and 1943 junior entry "R. Cary" with the index "Cary, Robert 53."
A 1941 W.S.T.C. Bands roster also lists "R. Cary" under Alto Horns. These sources support attendance and band participation, but they do not yet prove Bob's major, Western graduation, transcript, or exact departure date for aviation-cadet training.
Added a map page that plots Cary-linked mission targets, the Singen intended target, the Thayngen accidental-bombing context, confirmed operating bases, and probable overseas-route leads.
The map labels coordinates as exact, approximate, or open where appropriate. The 1 January 1945 mission remains listed but unmapped until the target place name can be read from a cleaner report crop.
The project overview now gives new readers a quick path into the short story, the evidence guide, or the records-help page. The Christmas Day Mission 436 evidence page now collects the key mission-report crops for the Singen / Thayngen question.
A new records-help page identifies the documents, photographs, captions, and local records most likely to move the research forward.
The timeline can now switch between a military-only view and a fuller view that also includes personal milestones in Bob Cary's life.
The added personal entries include Bob's southwestern Michigan beginnings, Western Michigan attendance lead, Bob and Mary's Decatur connection, marriage, Ann Arbor dental-school years, Hastings move, family/farm/church life, 1985 France return lead, 2007 death, and Mary's 2016 obituary as a bridge source. Uncertain details remain labeled as leads where primary records are still needed.
Added a new working reconstruction for Bob's probable Atlantic crossing: October to very early November 1944, likely as a replacement or possible ferry pilot through the Azores/Lagens-Lajes and North Africa before joining the 444th during its Corsica/Italian-campaign phase or shortly before the move to Dijon.
The strongest current unit-level clue is the 4 November 1944 444th diary note that more replacements arrived from the States. Bob is not named there, so the route remains probable rather than proven. The needed proof record is a movement order, flight log, ferry record, aircraft delivery card, or personnel/morning report naming the replacements.
Added a clearer answer to the Normandy D-Day question: Bob's eventual squadron, the 444th Bomb Squadron, was based at Decimomannu, Sardinia, and flying B-26 missions over Italy on 6 June 1944, not operating as part of the Normandy landing force.
Bob's personal location on that date remains unconfirmed. The key missing record is his ocean-crossing or squadron-arrival date, which would show whether he had reached the 444th by then or was still in the training/replacement pipeline after Class 44-F.
The gallery now includes two more family-collection images: a cockpit portrait of Bob Cary and a Bob-and-Mary portrait with Bob in U.S. Army Air Forces uniform.
The new images appear on Gallery & Open Questions, Family Memory, and The Long Way Back to a Small Town. Captions remain provisional until date, location, event, photographer, aircraft identity, and original owner details are confirmed.
Added The Long Way Back to a Small Town, a public family narrative connecting Bob Cary's Decatur youth, wartime B-26 service, marriage to Mary, University of Michigan dental training, Hastings move, farm life, and children.
The story reads as a family narrative while keeping unresolved details clearly marked.
Added four more public-domain Internet images from Wikimedia Commons / Library of Congress / USAAF sources: a Trier-Pfalzel rail-bridge B-26 attack, an Operation Strangle rail-viaduct image, a Chartres airfield civilian-contact image, and an Eller flak-loss image.
The new captions keep the evidence boundary clear. These are context images for rail-bridge attacks, interdiction, French-local contact, and combat risk; none identifies Bob Cary, the 444th, or Bob's aircraft.
Added public-safe leads from Dan's conversation with Dad to Family Memory, Sources, and Gallery & Open Questions.
The new leads include Hartwell "Pappy" Davis, Bob's low-key personality, B-26 handling and formation-flying memories, possible Azores/North Africa/Italy movement, liberated-France school/chateau context, Battle of the Bulge supply-line interpretation, bomb-load questions, Bob's pre-service Western attendance, and possible California B-29 training after Bob and Mary's August 1945 marriage.
Added two direct Bob Cary images: a flight-jacket portrait and an aircraft-side portrait of Bob in flight gear. Both are captioned as family-collection images with date/location details still under review.
A targeted image search found roster and memorial confirmations for Robert A. Cary, Hartwell Davis, and Leland Sherman, but no publishable Bob-captioned archive photo. A B26.com 2005 guestbook item remains a 444th unit-photo permission lead.
Added new context around Decatur, Michigan; University of Michigan dental training; Hastings, Michigan; and the records that fill in Bob's life before and after the war.
Remaining proof work is focused on strengthening the biography with service number, discharge, birth, marriage, dental-license, practice, church, funeral, and local newspaper records.
Reviewed the 320th roster, Mission Report 436, Class 44-F flight-training page, Robert Cary obituary, Mary Cary postwar timeline, and University of Michigan dental-school record. The public pages now fold those records into one biography while keeping exact service and civil-record details as open research targets.
Added a public B-26 Marauder page with a short history, technical description, representative specifications, and source links.
The page explains the aircraft behind Bob Cary's 320th/444th mission records while preserving the important research caution that mission-report ship numbers do not automatically prove serial numbers, aircraft names, or nose art.
Added five clearly captioned public-domain context images from Wikimedia/NARA/USAAF sources: a 444th Bomb Squadron B-26 image for the project overview, 320th Bomb Group Albenga bomb-run and damage-assessment images for mission-method context, a 320th R-2800 engine-service image for the B-26 explainer, and a 320th end-of-war cap-toss image for the timeline.
The captions state that these are context images, not proof of Bob Cary's specific aircraft or missions. The image audit also identified 320th archive, Swiss, and Tavaux material as permission targets rather than immediately reusable assets.
Added a new family-memory note from Bob's son James Angus Cary. The note raises research leads around Bob's possible overseas ferry route, a brand-new aircraft he had to give up at the battlefront, a French girl remembered as Ramon or Ramonde, and possible French medal or recognition.
These items are now tracked as family-memory leads until service records, family documents, photos, reunion programs, or medal/certificate evidence can confirm them.
Added a public vertical timeline placing Bob Cary's confirmed and likely WWII movements beside larger Allied operations from late 1944 through V-E Day.
The page highlights how rail, ammunition, defensive-area, and airfield targets could connect the 320th's work to broader operations, while keeping Bob-specific uncertainty visible. Timeline points include hover/focus detail panels with source links.
Expanded the page with individual Cary-linked mission entries for January, February, March, and April 1945 so the timeline now shows both campaign phases and specific report-backed events.
Created this public update log so meaningful discoveries, corrections, and new pages can be followed in one place.
Mission Report 436 was inspected directly. It confirms Bob Cary as co-pilot in 444th ship 82 on the 25 Dec 1944 Singen mission.
Open question sharpened: whether ship 82 was among the 26 B-26s that attacked Singen or the nine that mistakenly bombed Thayngen.
The inspected 320th aircraft page lists 42-95746 Lady Bugs as 444th battle number 78, not 79.
This removed the earlier ship-79 proof path. Lady Bugs remains a family-memory lead until a source ties Cary to ship 78, serial 42-95746, or the aircraft name.
Peggy Hodgson's family-memory email and the Pluggin devotional attachment were incorporated into the website as a family-memory page and a character sketch.
New leads included Lady Bugs nose art, Hartwell "Pappy" Davis, Tavaux children, Bob's dog Pal, the loose bomb pins story, and the phrase "keep on pluggin'."
The project gained a linked public evidence guide with quick links to stories, mission logs, sources, and family memory.
Created the Bob Cary WWII Research project on the website with overview, mission log, stories, sources, family memory, gallery/open questions, and individual story pages.
This page records changes that affect the story, evidence standard, open questions, or navigation. Small wording fixes are usually left out unless they correct a factual issue.