Fitzmaurice, Donald Edward, born 13-03-1919, in Lincoln, Nebraska 
, to Fitzmaurice, William Francis “Little Will” and his wife Margaret Ruth, born Lowe Fitzmaurice. The couple had 5 chldren. Donald, Richard, John, Mary and Annette. 3 sons and the 2 daughters. Donald E. Fitzmaurice was the oldest.
Donald lived with his family until he graduated high school as Valedictorian of his class. Though he had ambitions to become a cattle rancher like his father, the Great Depression led him to join the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and eventually the US Army Air Corps 
in order to support his family financially. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps on 13-08-1940, and was trained as an Aircraft Mechanic at Chanute Field, Illinois, graduating in March 1941.
Chanute Air Force Base is a decommissioned United States Air Force facility, located in Champaign County, Illinois, south of and adjacent to Rantoul, Illinois, about 130 miles (210 km) south of Chicago. Its primary mission throughout its existence was Air Force technical training. Chanute Field was established on 21 May 1917, being one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the United States entry into World War I.
Donald Fitzmaurice was the engneer/gunner in the sixth plane, the ‘Green Hornet’, 
piloted by Dean Edward Hallmark 
and Robert John “Bob”. Meder 
as co-pilot.
B-17F #41-24603 “Green Hornet” [BN-Y], 303BG/359BS was assigned with a combat crew on 10-09-1942 at Biggs Field, El Paso, Texas then moved to Dow Field, Bangor, Maine 09-10-1942; Arrived at Molesworth, UK on 22-Oct-42.
Donald’s first assignment was to the 95th Bomb Squadron 
of the 17 Bomb Group at McChord Field, Washington, where he served as a B-25 Mitchell mechanic and flight engineer until he was selected for the Doolittle Mission in February 1942.
On the morning of 18 April 1942, some 600 miles east of Japan, the aircraft carrier USS Hornet 
launched 16 Mitchells on the highly successful Doolittle raid, 
under command of U.S. 3* Air Force Major General James Harold “Jimmy “Doolittle 
on Tokyo and other Japanese cities. A boost to American morale, the raid marked the first combat launch of twin engined bombers from an aircraft carrier and the first American aerial attack on the Japanese mainland. Piloting the first plane the 16th Mitchell 
was 1st Lieutenant. William Glover “Billy” Farrow, age 24, 
captured and subsequently executed by the Japanese after completing his mission.
Death and burial ground of Fitzmaurice, Donald Edward.
Crew 6 of the Doolittle Raiders, left to right-Lieutenant Chase J. Nielsen, Lieutenant Dean E. Hallmark, Sergeantt Donald E. Fitzmaurice, Lieutenant Robert J. Meder, and Sergeantt William J. Dieter.
Sergeant Fitzmaurice was the engineer-gunner on the sixth B-25 to take off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet on 18-04-1942, and after bombing Tokyo his crew flew to China and ditched the plane off the coast.
The pilot of Crew 06 (Dean A. Hallmark) headed for China, and at about 8:30 pm the night of 18-04-1942, while flying very low over the water, he noticed the gas tanks were empty and gave the order to prepare to crash. Hardly had the order been given, and without much preparation, the plane crashed into the sea, just a few hundred yards from the coast.
Dieter, William John “Billy Jack” 
was riding in the nose of the plane, and when the plane crashed, the nose was broken open, apparently swooping Bill out of the plane. Captain Chase Jay Nielsen surviver of the crash 
said that when he got out of his position, Bill was already standing on top of the plane, and that he said, “I am hurt all over”. They all adjusted their life belts, and started swimming to shore. Lieutenant. Hallmark was helping Corporal Donald Fitzmaurice of Lincoln and someone was helping Bill. 
Nielsen at the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders memorial at the National Museum of the United States Air Force (2006)
When Nielson reached shore he said he was exhausted and collapsed. On awakening the next morning, he saw the bodies of Bill Dieter and Fitzmaurice which had washed ashore. The shore where the accident took place was at the foot of a little village of 300 or 400 people, named Shipu, 
which in turn was about 20 or 30 miles south of Ningbo. The native Chinese built a coffin for Dieter and Fitzmaurice, and buried the both of them just over a little knoll a few yards back from the shore where the accident happened. The graves were hidden for the Japanese oocupying forces in China.
Some sources say that Dieter and Fitzmaurice were later buried in Shantou, China and then their bodies were flown over to the United States wehere they were reburried. About Shantou I’m not sure and I don’t have a date when their bodies arrived in the United States. As noted in the letter, Fitzmaurice and Dieter were originally interred at Shipu, China by Chinese civilians near the site of the crash. His body was returned to the States for reburial after interment at Schofield Barracks, Mausoleum #2 in Oahu, Hawai. On 10-01-1949, his body was relocated permanently to Golden Gate National Cemetery. Section C Grave 120B
Richard William Fitzmaurice, brother of Donald E. Fitzmaurice was shot down with his bombing plane over Berlin and imprisoned in a German POW camp. In the camp the Germans camp administration told him that his brother Donald had died. But Richard wouldn’t believe it. It was a coincidence that David Mudgett Jones, 
pilot of crew 5 and later shot down over Africa with his plane, ended up in the same prisoner of war camp in Germany. The two got in contact with each other and Jones confirmed to Richard that his brother had indeed been killed in China. The later Major General David Mudgett Jones died 25-11-2008 (age 94) in Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, USA.
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