Memorial

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S/Sgt George W. Briggs worked in construction before he enlisted in Tacoma, Washington on 29 October 1942.

He was a crew member on a B-17 that collided with another airplane (42-39817) of the formation. It crashed in the vicinity of Peissen, some 10 miles north of Itzehoe, Germany. The entire crew of nine bailed out and were taken prisoner.

They must have been held prisoner in Stalag Luft IV in Gross-Tychow.

Regarding George Briggs' death in April 1945, T/Sgt Sid Goldenberg stated: "I've discovered another differing one in the Casualty Reports completed after liberation by my dad Capt Robert Lohof and his Navigator 1st Lt William Vaden. T/Sgt Goldenberg (and Nancy Putnam, who first related it to me) explained that after the SS took over the POW camps from the Luftwaffe in late 1944, things got very serious and tensions built rapidly on both sides. It seems that during a curfew S/Sgt Briggs was sighted outside the barracks and shot by a guard. He died some days later of an infection that had set in." According to this record, he must have been held prisoner in Stalag Luft IV in Gross-Tychow. Gross-Tychow is now called Tychowo and is a city in Poland.

The Casualty Reports, however, have it entirely differently. They indicate that during a forced march S/Sgt Briggs collapsed in an epileptic-type fit and died on a road somewhere.

To make the confusion even greater, records in the IDPF give another story. In a letter to his brother, the Director of Administration, Brig Gen B.E. Kendall stated that S/Sgt Briggs died in Farsberg and was buried at the Hospital Civilian Cemetery in Horsten, southwest of Wilhelmshaven.

Other records show that his remains were found at this cemetery on 4 April 1946 and the cause of death was a dislocated neck due to the fact that his parachute failed to open. He was buried there by German soldiers ton 12 May 1945. After disinterment, he was registered as Unknown X-641 and evacuated to Ardennes cemetery, where he could be identified and the official cause of death was recorded as epilepsy.