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November 2003 marks the 40th Anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Dr Harry Bennett, Head of American Studies at the University of Plymouth, writes that JFK might not even have been President but for the death of Joe Kennedy Junior in August 1944.

Navy pilot Joe Junior spent much of the war flying from Dunkeswell Airfield near Honiton in Devon. Piloting B24 4 engine bombers on maritime reconnaissance patrols out over the Atlantic looking for U-boats was difficult, demanding and unglamorous. Even so, the press feted the heir apparent of the Kennedy clan. Millionaire business Joe Kennedy senior wanted his elder son, rather than JFK, to be the clan’s political champion.

The two eldest sons were close but were also rivals. In August 1943 JFK had become an American national hero when his torpedo boat PT 109 was sunk in the Pacific, and he demonstrated outstanding qualities of leadership to ensure the survival of most of his crew.

This may in part have influenced the elder Kennedy brother to volunteer for a particularly dangerous mission — piloting a B24 packed with explosives towards a target near Calais. That target was the site for the German V3 revenge weapon — a series of gun tubes capable of firing large projectiles across the channel. The V3 would be the basis of the later Iraqi supergun.

Joe Kennedy junior was to pilot the plane towards the target and bale out. The aircraft would then be guided to its destination by remote control worked from accompanying aircraft.

The operation was launched from an Aerodrome in East Anglia on 12th August 1944. Twenty minutes into the flight the aircraft exploded killing Kennedy and his brother. No trace of their bodies was ever found, and John F. Kennedy would become the political champion of the Kennedys.

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