Memorial

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Gordon Haggard graduated from Arsenal Technical High School, Butler University and Indiana University, School of Medicine in 1933.

He was a physician in Hope seven years before he entered the Army Air Forces.

Major Haggard was a Flight Surgeon and had been in charge hospitals in England.

The group was the subject of intense, accurate flak, both barrage and tracking type. The #2 engine and perhaps #3 caught on fire. The aircraft went down in a steep dive, spiral, of flat spin. The engine and piece of the right wing came off. Then a section of the tail came off. The plane blew up or fell apart. Some pieces were seen to land in Stettiner harbor.

Five crew members survived and were taken prisoner, six men were killed.

As 1st Lt Frederick W. Asbell and S/Sgt John H. Derling bailed out, they tapped Maj Haggard, as he was apparently picking up something from the floor. He nodded but was not seen later. It is not known whether he got out before the explosion.

The only identification proof found was an idencification tag.

Maj Gordon H. Haggard was first buried at the Temporary American Military Cemetery Mausoleum, Griesheim Main, Germany.

In 2022 a group of researchers of the Polish Arms Museum in Kołobrzeg discovered remains of the wreckage in the bay of Szczecin. Of three crew members, the remains were never found and they could still be inside the wreckage. It is now investigated if the wreckage can be salvaged. A report on the search can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=856GeNDah5E