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Personal info

Full name
SCHUYLER, Robert E
Date of birth
16 May 1915
Age
28
Place of birth
Danube, Herkimer County, New York
Hometown
Little Falls, Herkimer County, New York

Military service

Service number
O-682125
Rank
Second Lieutenant
Function
Bombardier
Unit
506th Bombardment Squadron,
44th Bombardment Group, Heavy
Awards
Purple Heart,
Air Medal

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
8 April 1944
Place of death
Holdenstedt near Uelzen, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
Walls of the Missing

Immediate family

Members
Edwin M. Schuyler (father)
Iva L. (Jones) Schuyler (mother)
Leon Schuyler (brother)
Mary N. (Sullivan) Schuyler (wife)

Plane data

Serial number
42-109827
Data
Type: B-24J
Destination: Brunswick, Germany
Mission: Bombing of the aviation industry
MACR: 3858

More information

2nd Lt Robert E. Schuyler graduated from Herkimer High School and attended Syracuse University. He was a salesman for Personal Finance Company.

He joined the Air Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve in Albany, New York on 11 June 1942.

The primary target was the aviation industry at Brunswick. This target as well as the secondary were obscured by a smoke screen, so a target of opportunity, Langenhagen/Hannover Aerodrome, was bombed instead.
Statement of one of the surviving crew members: "Our plane was hit with cannon shells in the main gas lines across the front of the wing above the flight deck, as well as on the deck above the wing over the bomb bay where all of the oxygen supply bottles were secured. Fire erupted immediately, fed by the fuel, the oxygen, and the wind blowing in the open bomb bay. It quickly spread back to the waist positions and forward into the flight deck area. Lt Sprinkle sounded the bailout alarm very soon after the hits, and everyone hurried to get set to abandon ship. We in the waist area prepared to leave through the bottom camera hatch, as the heat from the fire soon was igniting the ammo in the waist gun belts."

Lt Schuyler is remembered at Oak Hill Cemetery in Herkimer, Herkimer County, New York.

Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Terry Hirsch, Roger Fenton VP/Historian 44th BGVA, www.ancestry.com - Buckland Family Tree, www.fold3.com - MARC, WWII Draft Card

Photo source: Jac Engels, Arie-Jan van Hees, Bombardier Class Book 43-8, Midland Army Air Field, Texas, www.findagrave.com