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Personal info

Full name
PUTZEL, Sterling August
Date of birth
1 December 1919
Age
24
Place of birth
New Haven County, Connecticut
Hometown
Hamden, New Haven County, Connecticut

Military service

Service number
11066016
Rank
Staff Sergeant
Function
Right Waist Gunner
Unit
429th Bombardment Squadron,
2nd Bombardment Group, Heavy
Awards
Air Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
4 October 1944
Place of death
Giesing, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Epinal
Tablets of the Missing

Immediate family

Members
Daniel J. Putzel (father)
Marie A. (Schaefer) Putzel (mother)
Daniel Putzel (brother)

Plane data

Serial number
44-8043
Data
Type: B-17G
Destination: Munich, Germany
Mission: Bombing od the marshalling yards
MACR: 8949

More information

S/Sgt Sterling A. Putzel attended college and was a draftman before he volunteered for the US Army in Hartford, Connecticut on 10 April 1942.

1st Lt Robert J. Foxen:
B-17 No.043 hit by flak just before bombs away. No.043 was hit on the left wing, wing tip and aerilon was blown off, he stood up on the left wing and almost turned completely over then fell off into a slow vertical spin. This was at 1217 hours, at approximately 29,000 feet.

He did not have time to bail out. His remains were never recovered.

He is remembered at the Beaverdale Memorial Park in New Haven, New Hanven County, Connecticut.

Source of information: Peter Schouteten, www.abmc.gov, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov – WWII Enlistment Record, www.ancestry.com – 1930 Census / U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, www.fold3.com, www.findagrave.com – Rob Johnson
Photo source: www.findagrave.com – Have Paws will travel / Rob Johnson, www.ancestry.com – U.S. School Yearbooks Hamden High School