Memorial

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2nd Lt Charles H. Augustine attended West Hampton High School, St Christophers School and the Virginia Military Institute for 1 year.

He joined the Air Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve in Miami Beach, Florida on 27 February 1943.

Statement of the pilot, Ricard A. Funkhouser:
'At about 1100, the plane was hit by enemy flak. We were just passing over our IP and were heading to our target. After we were hit, fires broke out in several places on the ship but we kept in the formation until after passing over the target and dropping the bombs. By this time the #1 engine was afire and one blade of the propeller was gone. There was a fire in the #3 engine nacelle and the #4 engine was completely missing. The Tokyo tank on the right wing was afire and about four feet of the right wing tip was missing. Between 1100 and 1130, I gave the order to bail out. I put the plane on automatic pilot and started to check all the men out. There was a jam up because the pins in the front escape hatch were bent. We opened the hatch on the hinges and Augustine, Scales, Williams and Cook went out the front escape hatch in that order. I went to the rear as far as the radio room and checked all the men out. About this time the automatic pilot quit working and the plane went into a spin. While the plane was in the spin, I was unable to make my way to the escape hatch until an explosion stopped the spin. A second explosion blew me clear of the plane but knocked me unconscious. I remained unconscious until I was within one to two thousand feet of the ground.

After I got together with other members of the crew in Berlin, Scales, who had jumped right after Lt Augustine, said he saw Lt Augustine's chute open. I talked with all the members of the crew and none of them had seen Lt Augustine after this.

While I was held in a jail in Berlin, one of the policeman detailed to watch me made a remark which led me to believe that Lt Augustine had been beaten to death.'

This remark is very logical because some of the returned crew members also stated that they were severely beaten by civilians and police. In his statement Lt Funkhouser also mentioned that he was beaten severely by policeman, civilians and members of the Gestapo while being held in a police station. He also heard a Gestapo man ask the police chief why he was not been killed. The police chief answered that he could not do this because there was a sergeant from the Luftwaffe on duty at the station. After he was taken in custody by the Luftwaffe, he was treated very well.

On 13 June 1951 a field investigation was conducted at the place where there was a cemetery at Doberitz. This was the cemetery that was the closest to the place where the plane had crashed. At the time of this investigation, all remains were disinterred before the property was returned to the German owner and the field was planted with potatoes. The investigators therefore concluded that the remains of Lt Augustine could not be recovered.
Lt Augustine was the only casualty. The other 9 crew members survived their time as prisoner of war.