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Personal info

Full name
PHILLIPS, John Francis
Date of birth
7 July 1913
Age
30
Place of birth
Peabody, Essex County, Massachusetts
Hometown
Peabody, Essex County, Massachusetts

Military service

Service number
31073172
Rank
Technical Sergeant
Function
Radio Operator
Unit
527th Bombardment Squadron,
379th Bombardment Group, Heavy
Awards
Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster

Death

Status
Finding of Death
Date of death
26 November 1943
Place of death
Bremen, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Ardennes
Plot Row Grave
C 9 13

Immediate family

Members
John Phillips (father)
Catherine Phillips (mother)
Thomas Phillips (brother)
Lillian Phillips (sister)
Elizabeth Phillips (sister)
Edward Phillips (brother)

Plane data

Serial number
42-29694
Data
Type: B-17F
Nickname: Southern Belle
Destination: Bremen, Germany
Mission: Bombing of the port
MACR: 1577

More information

T/Sgt John F. Phillips worked in a leather shop.

He enlisted in Cotuit, Massachusetts on 16 March 1942.
The airplane was shot down by flak. Four crew members were taken prisoner, six men were killed.

The crew members who bailed out and survived the crash heard a rumor that some allied air men had been killed by civilians in the area where they bailed out. On the other hand, a German officer told surviving crew members they found six bodies in the wreckage.

Source of information: Peter Schouteten, Raf Dyckmans, Terry Hirsch, www.abmc.gov, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov – WWII Enlistment Record, www.ancestry.com - U.S., Headstone and Interment Records for U.S. Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, www.fold3.com, WWII Draft Card, 1940 US Census

Photo source: Peter Schouteten