Memorial

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Leslie H. Schweinebraten graduated from Chartiers Township High School. He volunteered for the Air Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 25 November 1942.

Just before making a 120° turn to avoid Heligoland and enter the enemy coast, the airplane was observed to be on fire after being attacked by enemy fighters. A tail gunner of another plane saw eight men bail out.

Only one crew member, Sgt Elmer E. Simpson, survived and was taken prisoner, nine were killed.

Per Sgt Simpson: About 40 minutes off target we were hit by the first three klak [sic] bursts that came up. There were direct hits and the No. 2 and No. 3 engines and the last one was in the cockpit. We were knocked straight up and put out of formation to the left over the North Sea.” He then saw a piece of metal fly under the plane. He could not see the crew from his vantage point in the tail of the plane. He crawled up from his position and investigated the fuselage to see the plane was empty up to the radio room, he could not see into the cockpit. He realized then that the metal he saw must have been the door busting out of the side of the plane when the crew bailed out. “The plane was in a glide, gaining speed, vibrating badly, on fire with the left wing dropped dangerously low.” He then said he saw someone bail out from the nose of the plane, perhaps the flak burst that struck the cockpit had not killed the pilots after all. Simpson put on his parachute and jumped from the plane. He landed, of all places, in the middle of a German flak gun emplacement and was taken prisoner. The Germans told him the rest of the crew had died, but Simpson “I knew they hadn’t all crashed in the plane, and I figured that (expletive deleted) were just telling me that to get me to talk.”

S/Sgt Schweinebraten body washed ashore and was first buried at the Brockeswalder Friedhof in Cuxhaven on 24 June 1944.