Sugas, Arthur "Elmer" (Sougas, Athanasios)

Date of birth:: December 27th, 1919 (Trikala/Corinthia, Greece)
Date of death:: August 17th, 1943 (Maastricht, the Netherlands)
Buried on:: American War Grave Riverside Cemetery
Plot: HH 019. Grave: 09.
Service number:: O-660213
Nationality:: American

Biography

Born as Athanasios Sougas in Greece and immigrated as a child with his parents to the American state of Michigan. On August 23, 1928, he departed Piraeus with the SS Edison and arrived in the United States on September 9, 1928. Here he changed his name and attended the CPTP (Civilian Pilot Training Program).

When war broke out he enlisted in the USAAF as a fighter pilot and was promoted to 2nd Lt. and joined the 56th Fighter Group, 63rd Fighter Squadron in Bradley. When the group was relocated, he flew interception and escort missions over Europe to defend the bombers of the 8th AF. He was based at Halesworth airfield in Suffolk, England. His Thunderbolt was nicknamed "Elmer's Tune", after a song by Glenn Miller. This is probably the reason for his nickname "Elmer". On his last mission (before returning to the United States) he did not fly in his own plane as it was then under repair, but in the plane (P-47C-5RE, 41-6372) of his Greek-American friend Aristos Spougios.

On August 17, 1943 the American 8th Air Force attacked the ball bearing factories at Schweinfurt and the Messerschmitt factories at Regensburg. The plan was to attack both targets simultaneously to confuse the German Luftwaffe. The Regensburg force would start first, quickly followed by the Schweinfurt force. The German air force would concentrate on the Regensburg force which after the bombardment would try to escape over the Alps. This would allow the Schweinfurt armada to proceed to the target with only light resistance. On its return to England however the Schweinfurt force would face the full fury of the Luftwaffe. Due to weather delay the Schweinfurt mission started much later than the Regensburg one, allowing the German fighters to land, refuel, rearm and already attack the Schweinfurt fleet on its way to the target. Because of this and due to the limited range of the allied escort fighters, whose protection couldn't reach further than the Belgian-German border, the Americans suffered heavy losses. 60 out of 376 bombers, 3 P-47s and 2 Spitfires were lost, mostly due to the Luftwaffe that threw into battle about everything she had, losing about 30 fighters herself.

On that day Arthur and a number of fellow pilots were assigned to escort a number of B-17 bombers that returned from the Schweinfurt mission, picking them up east of Eupen or Nideggen and escorting them to Sint-Niklaas from 16.20 to 16.40 or 16.51 hours. They were intercepted by the 26th Jagdgeschwader of the Luftwaffe. Three P-47's were lost. Voorhis H. Day was killed in Warsage near Visé and Robert M. Stultz lost his life in Vreren near Tongeren.

Sugas was possibly shot down by Hauptmann Johannes Naumann (6./JG 26) near Rullen, Voeren, who claimed to have shot down a P47 here on this day. His plane then crashed on Vroenhovenweg (Wolder, Maastricht, The Netherlands) and Arthur Sugas was killed in action. His aircraft came circling down, nearly missed the church tower and crashed into a field. Some say that he wanted to spare the church and village, according to others he was already deceased at that stage.

He was buried at the age of 23 at the General Cemetery Maastricht (grave CC 163) on 18 August 1943. Later (on 10 July 1945) he was reburied at the American Cemetery Margraten. After the war, in 1949, he was repatriated to America and buried at the Riverside Cemetery, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The Roman Catholic Church in Pletzersstraat in Maastricht has an Plaque in memory of 1Lt. Arthur Sugas.

A.G. Sugios wrote later the following poem for the fallen friends N. Stampolis (declared dead and missing in action since 01 Augustus 1943, Ploesti, Romania) and A. Sugas.
"The guns of August were a blazing Juggernaut in the sky,
That caused our brave heroic Eagles to fall and die,
Bright silver wings, lying broken, on a far foreign soil,
Rueful award, for a loving dear, mother's long toil,
Life with it hardships and travesties leaves many hurts and scars,
Death is only a brief incident to those who travel among the stars,
Tho our thoughts may sometimes wax and wane in a dream resemblance,
Their heroic deeds bring to mind God's dearest gift, remembrance."