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Personal info

Full name
NISULA, Halsey S
Date of birth
23 September 1921
Age
23
Place of birth
Massachusetts
Hometown
Gardner, Worcester County, Massachusetts

Military service

Service number
O2065604
Rank
Second Lieutenant
Function
Navigator
Unit
414th Bombardment Squadron,
97th Bombardment Group, Heavy
Awards
Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

Death

Status
Died non-Battle
Date of death
12 April 1945
Place of death
Near Mauthausen, Austria

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Epinal
Tablets of the Missing

Immediate family

Members
Oscar A. Nisula (father)
Alice E. (Brown) Nisula (mother)
James O. Nisula (brother)
Ralph U. Nisula (brother)
Richard A. Nisula (brother)
Virginia T. Nisula (sister)

Plane data

Serial number
44-8730
Data
Type: B-17G
Destination: Linz, Austria
Mission: Bombing of the marshalling yards
MACR: 12715

More information

2nd Lt Halsey S. Nisula graduated from Gardner High School in 1939 and was a sales clerk.

He enlisted at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, on 11 June 1943.

S/Sgt Francis C. Neilson:
"Mission 25 February 1945. Just before bombs away that day, aircraft #730 peeled off with smoke coming from one engine. The aircraft was losing altitude rapidly, and immediately afterward started to break into pieces. As I kept watching the aircraft, I saw 6 to 8 chutes come out and open up. That is all I saw."

He was shot down on his 20th mission and he was executed by the SS in Mauthausen Concentration Camp.

He is remembered at the Green Bower Cemetery in Gardner, Worcester County, Massachusetts.

Source of information: Peter Schouteten, www.abmc.gov, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov – WWII Enlistment Record, www.ancestry.com – Nisula Family Tree / 1940 Census, www.fold3.com, www.findagrave.com – Ed Poulin
Photo source: www.findagrave.com – Have Paws will travel / Ed Poulin / TCSchultz