Memorial

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S/Sgt Robert E Barron graduated from Roosevelt High School. He was employed at the Santa Fe Railroad.

Lt Maxwell M. Cain was nearing the assigned altitude of 20,000 feet when the German fighters attacked. They had learned of a gap in fighter escort coverage. When the bombers were still forming up into boxes of twelve bombers each and with fighter escort five or ten thousand feet above them, they could be more easily attacked. Escorts may or may not be present, and stragglers struggling to catch up and find their place in formations could be found and picked off. The ME-109s of the Luftwaffe fighter groups located in northern France spotted an opening and attacked. Soon, three of the lumbering, powerful Boeing giants fell to the diving planes with their powerful machine guns. Lt Cain’s “Carrie B II” was one of those which dropped out of formation, slowly rolling over and heading for the farmlands of the Dutch soil below. Seven parachutes emerged from the ill-fated bomber, including that of 2nd Lt Maxwell M. Cain and co-pilot 2nd Lt Henderson. But Corporal Donald C. Byers, the plane's Bombardier, and Ball Turret Gunner Sgt R.E. Barron were killed. The seven who survived served out the war as Prisoners of War.