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Personal info

Full name
WOOD, Roger Lee
Date of birth
25 May 1922
Age
22
Place of birth
Milford, Worcester County, Massachusetts
Hometown
Worcester County, Massachusetts

Military service

Service number
O-811921
Rank
First Lieutenant
Function
Pilot
Unit
514th Fighter Squadron,
406th Fighter Group
Awards
Purple Heart,
Air Medal

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
23 August 1944
Place of death
Brueil-en-Vexin, France

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Epinal
Plot Row Grave
B 13 22

Immediate family

Members
Ernest R. Wood (father)
Millicent H. Wood (mother)
Perry E. Wood (brother)
Beatrice Wood (sister)
Charles H. Wood (brother)
Herbert Wood (brother)

Plane data

Serial number
42-28300
Data
Type: P-47D-26-RE
Destination: Mantes-Gassicourt, France
Mission: Armed Column Support
MACR: 8588

More information

Roger L. Wood graduated from Uxbridge High School and was a machine operator.

He volunteered for the Air Corps of the Army of the United States in Boston, Massachusetts, on 21 January 1942.

Maj George I. Ruddell, who participated in the same mission, stated: "We had previously destroyed a German medium tank and knocked out three twenty mm flak batteries, receiving a fairly heavy concentration of light-type explosive flak in the process. We then found another enemy tank with a jeep and ammunition truck and proceeded to destroy these. Lt Wood was my number three man in red flight, and I observed him make a pass on the vehicle loaded with ammunition, which blew up after first catching fire and burning for several seconds. As Lt Wood pulled up off the target, I looked about to be sure of avoiding the other aircraft of the squadron in the vicinity, and then looked back just in time to observe an aircraft crash in the woods about a mile from the target and explode. I did not observe the flight path of the plane prior to the crash. I had observed no flak on attacking this target. There was no parachute seen."

He was first buried at the Temporary American Military Cemetery of Solers, France.

The American Legion Post 355 in Mendon, Massachusetts, is named after him.

The Association Vexin Histoire Vivante, a local French historical association, has done extensive research and has found the site of the crash and was able to recover wreckage.

Source of information: Peter Schouteten, www.abmc.gov, www.findagrave.com, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov – WWII Enlistment Record, www.ancestry.com - Headstone and Interment Record / 1930 Census / 1940 Census, www.fold3.com
Photo source: www.findagrave.com - Andy, Evening Gazette - 2 April 1940, Arie-Jan van Hees, Association Vexin Histoire Vivante