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Personal info

Full name
MOORE, Richard F Jr
Date of birth
26 April 1923
Age
21
Place of birth
Bridgeport, Fairfield County, Connecticut
Hometown
Fairfield County, Connecticut

Military service

Service number
O-709432
Rank
Second Lieutenant
Function
Navigator
Unit
337th Bombardment Squadron,
96th Bombardment Group, Heavy
Awards
Purple Heart,
Air Medal

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
12 May 1944
Place of death
500 meter south of Hartmannshain, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Ardennes
Plot Row Grave
B 23 12

Immediate family

Members
Richard F. Moore Sr. (father)
Grace (Barratt) Moore (mother)
Evelyn Moore (sister)
Francis Moore (sister)

Plane data

Serial number
42-31718
Data
Type: B-17G
Destination: Brux, Czechoslovakia
Mission: Bombing of the oil refineries
MACR:4857

More information

2nd Lt Richard F. Moore, Jr. graduated from Bassick High School in 1940.

The aircraft was heavily attacked by enemy fighters. A/C 718 was hit on the first attack, the plexiglass and metallic section of the nose was brown off by 20mm machinegun fire. A man was hanging out and the ammunition belting was also manging The A/C left formation peeling to the right under control. The airplane was on fire when they crashed and landed 500 meters north of Bellmuth, 500 meters South of Harmannshain, at the border of a forest on a barley field.

2nd Lt Moore was killed by a blast attack of enemy planes while in the air. He was last seen by his crewmembers in the nose of the ship when it burned up.
He and T/Sgt Paul T. Humphrey were recovered from the plane and were initially buried at Hartmannshain on 13 May 1944.

Lt Moore, Jr. is remembered at Nichols Farm Burial Ground in Trumbull, Fairfield County, Connecticut with a memorial marker.

Source of information: Astrid van Erp, Terry Hirsch, www.abmc.gov, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.ancestry.com - U.S. Headstone and Interment Records for U.S. Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil / 1930 Census, www.fold3.com - MACR

Photo source: Jac Engels, www.findagrave.com, Bassick High School 1940