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Personal info

Full name
TEPLITZ, Leo
Date of birth
28 March 1916
Age
27
Place of birth
Chicago, Cook County, Illinois
Hometown
Chicago, Cook County, Illinois

Military service

Service number
O-678975
Rank
Second Lieutenant
Function
Co-Pilot
Unit
710th Bombardment Squadron,
447th Bombardment Group, Heavy
Awards
Purple Heart,
Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

Death

Status
Missing in Action
Date of death
11 March 1944
Place of death
In the vicinity of Haamstede on Schouwen-Duivenland, Zeeland, the Netherlands

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
Walls of the Missing

Immediate family

Members
Samuel Teplitz (father)
Minnie R. (Block) Teplitz (mother)
Lea Teplitz (sister)
Evelyn R. Teplitz (sister)
Hershel Teplitz (brother)
David Teplitz (brother)
Lillian (Krietchman) Teplitz (wife)
Gail I. Teplitz (daughter)

Plane data

Serial number
42-97484
Data
Type: B-17G
Destination: Munster, Germany
Mission: Bombing of the marshalling yards
MACR: 3188

More information

2nd Lt Leo Teplitz as a maintenance painter.

He volunteered for the Air Corps of the U.S. Army as a private in Chicago, Illinois on 13 April 1942.

The aircraft was last sighted at 1105 hours, approximately 25 miles off the coast of Holland in a westerly direction from Voorne, with one and possibly two engines on fire, trying evasive tactics to put the fire out. The aircraft appeared and reappeared several times above clouds, and when last seen under control and preparing to ditch in the channel.

Nine crew members were killed. One crew member, tail gunner S/Sgt Julius H. Schultz, was taken prisoner. Most of them landed on a sandbank at low tide, but pleas for help to German workers and soldiers as the tide came in were ignored, and they all drowned. After the war, searches for those responsible failed.

All the deceased crew members were buried at the military cemetery of Haamstede.

Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Terry Hirsch, Peter Schouteten, www.447bg.com, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov, www.fold3.com - MACR, www.ancestry.com - Jewish Servicemen Card /, WWII Draft Card, 1950 US Census

Photo source: Peter Schouteten, Arie-Jan van Hees, Pilot Class Book 43-D, Victory Field, Vernon, Texas, www.newspapers.com - Chicago Tribune