Memorial

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S/Sgt Robert J. Oglan, Jr. graduated from Waldo High School and worked as a farmer.

He joined the Air Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve in Miami Beach, Florida, on 1 February 1943.

He received radio training in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and his gunnery training at Las Vegas Field, Nevada.

The airplane was hit by flak in the bomb bay and #2 engine just after bombs away. It pulled off to the right of the formation, then turned left before the Rally Point and passed through low squadron and out to the right of the bomber stream. It was then seen going down in a steep dive into the clouds. #2 engine was burning and there was a fire in the bomb bay.
S/Sgt Robert J. Oglan stayed in the plane to help Sgt Sol S. Lipschitz, the radio-operator, to get out while the rest of the crew bailed out.

Six crew members survived and were taken prisoner. Three men were killed, probably after they landed with their parachute.

The killed crew members were initially buried at the cemetery of Tiefensee, Germany.

After the war S/Sgt Alvin Vaira, the nose gunner, stated that the next day he and Sgt Emil D. Beagini, a crew member of another shot down plane, were escorted by German guards to a lake near Tiefensee. There they were forced to undress the two dead bodies of fellow crew members, Sgt Sol S. Lipschitz and Sgt Robert J. Oglan. Sgt Lipschitz had been shot through the right groin with a 30-calibre size bullet, and had been beaten slightly about the head. His face was bloody and bruised, causing identification to be hard, but also was recognized by a part of a front gold tooth. Sgt Lipschitz's dog tags had been removed, and they had been seen laying on a German officer's desk the day before.

Sgt Oglan had been beaten about the head and face so badly that he could not be recognized by his features except for a tremendous amount of black hair and his dog tags, which were still on him. The parachute harnesses belonging to the two men were seen, and both showed evidence that their parachutes had opened because the two straps had the thread broken which holds them to the rest of the harness before the parachute opened.