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Personal info

Full name
SMITH, Robert Owen
Date of birth
20 September 1922
Age
22
Place of birth
Loogootee, Martin County, Indiana
Hometown
Loogootee, Martin County, Indiana

Military service

Service number
35813772
Rank
Staff Sergeant
Function
Tail Gunner
Unit
401st Bombardment Squadron,
91st Bombardment Group, Heavy
Awards
Purple Heart,
Air Medal with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
8 April 1945
Place of death
Near Stendahl, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
Plot Row Grave
M 18 12

Immediate family

Members
John Edward Smith (father)
Mary Josephine Smith (mother)
Cosmas Edward Smith (brother)
John Forrest Smith (brother)
Eugene Paul Smith (brother)
Margaret Alma Smith (sister)
Hugh Flavian Smith (brother)
James Bernard Smith (brother)
Rose Mary Smith (sister)
Francis Joseph Smith (brother)
Edmond Paul Smith (brother)
Eleanore Ann Smith (sister)

Plane data

Serial number
42-102504
Data
Type: B-17G
Nickname: Times-A-Wastin'
Destination: Stendahl, Germany
Mission: Bombardment of the marshalling yard
MACR: 14295

More information

Robert Smith enlisted in Evansville, Indiana on 20 Janaury 1944.

Statement of T/Sgt William J. Carlson, a crew member of another airplane in the group: "I first observed aircraft 42-102504 to be in trouble at about 30 seconds to one minute after bombs away. I saw the no. 2 engine smoking badly and there appeared to be flames between the no. 2 engine and the fuselage. The right wing and engines appeared to be untouched. The aircraft then nosed upward, stood on the right wing tip, and side slipped downward in a steep dive. After it had fallen for a couple of hundred feet I saw one man leave the aircraft and his parachute opened immediately. The aircraft continued downward on a steep circling dive to the right."

Seven crew members were killed, two survived and were taken prisoner.

Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Terry Hirsch, WWIIMemorial, Fold3 - MACR, Ancestry - Family Trees / 1930 Census / U.S., Headstone and Interment Records for U.S. Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil

Photo source: www.findagrave.com - Fred / Gary Hall