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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
Personal info
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