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Personal info

Full name
SCHNABEL, Lester Earl
Date of birth
24 September 1917
Age
27
Place of birth
Massillon Township, Cedar County, Iowa
Hometown
Massillon, Cedar County, Iowa

Military service

Service number
37420160
Rank
Staff Sergeant
Function
unknown
Unit
E Company,
2nd Battalion,
41st Armored Infantry Regiment,
2nd Armored Division
Awards
Purple Heart

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
4 April 1945
Place of death
West bank of the Weser River, south of Hameln, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
Plot Row Grave
E 12 9

Immediate family

Members
Carl H. Schnabel (father)
Amanda S. (Goldsmith) Schnabel (mother)
Dorothy L. Schnabel (sister)

More information

S/Sgt Lester E. Schnabel worked on a farm before he enlisted in Des Moines, Iowa on 22 June 1942.

He is remembered at the Saint Johns Cemetery in Clarence, Cedar County, Iowa.

On one of the photos, Lester Schnabel poses with his niece Janice when she was still a baby. More than seventy years after her uncle was killed in action, she visited the cemetery with her husband and the adopter of the grave, Miguel Essers. In the meantime, she and her husband have already passed away.

Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Terry Hirsch, www.abmc.gov, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov - WWII Enlistment Record, www.ancestry.com - Family Tree / Iowa, County Births / WWII Bonus Case File, http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org - After Action Report CCA

Photo source: www.findagrave.com - Des Philippet / Rick, Cedar County Soldiers' Monument Assoc. - Sandy Harmel, family collection - courtesy of Miguel Essers