Memorial

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Sgt Gilbert E. Matthews graduated from Youngwood High School in 1939. He was employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad.

He enlisted in the Army Air Corps and left on 2 March 1942, for training in mechanics at the Aviation and Air College, Dallas, Texas, from where he was transferred to Harlingen Army Air Force Gunnery School, then to Weston Field, Mass., for advanced training. He was sent overseas on 21 June 1944.

The airplane with number 42-51098 was hit by flak and went down over the target. On its way down, it knocked the wing off airplane 42-52447. Both ships went down, and two to five parachutes were seen, but it is not certain from which airplane the parachutes were.

Eight of the crew members were killed in the crash. They were buried in a mass grave next to the wreckage, together with casualties of other crashed planes. Lt Joe Guastella died in the POW Hospital of Altengrabe on 19 August 1944.

An investigation in October 1946 revealed that between August and September 1944, four American planes crashed in the area. In some cases, bodies were buried near the crashed plane; other times, they were buried in mass graves. Some of the remains could be identified at that time, others couldn't.

Also proper investigation was not possible due to political restrictions because the area was in Russian-occupied territory.