Lt (jg) William N. Arbuckle took off from the USS Kasaan Bay at 0602 in his Grumman F6F Hellcat 58333 in order to bomb enemy convoys in the Montpellier area. Finding an ammunition convoy they strafed it, but one of the planes was damaged in the ensuing explosion. Following another successful attack, the flight leader flew around the damaged plane and ordered it back to base. However, when he resumed his station Lt Arbuckle was no longer by his side, having been hit by AA fire and crashed, unknown to his teammates. The latter attempted to contact him and searched the area for 10 minutes before moving on. However, some say he strafed a target so low his wing clipped a tree bordering the road, sending him crashing down. The locals buried him, the mayor engraving on his headstone "Here lies William Nathan Arbuckle, an American airman killed in action in the sky of Me'ze, on August 20, 1944, for our liberation. We shall never forget him." The body was then moved to Epinal cemetery, and his parents put up a memorial headstone in his hometown cemetery. He left behind his family and young wife Elodie.