Memorial

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Sgt Robert W. Zercher graduated from William Penn High School and attended Penn State University. He worked as a test engineer for York Corporation.

The B-17 took withering anti-aircraft fire over Berlin on April 29 and attempted to limp home. After crossing the Dutch border with three engines gone and one burning, the pilot successfully crash-landed in a field. Zercher and the rest of the crew survived, hiding in the German-occupied region with help from the Dutch resistance. For the next five months, the resistance, risking their own lives, moved Zercher from house to house. By that time, escape to friendly territory was difficult. The downed airmen would attempt to wait out the war. But the Germans found Zercher and another crewman, Kenneth Ingram, dressed in civilian clothes in a house in Apeldoorn on Oct. 1, 1944.

The Germans knew Zercher and Ingram were Allied soldiers, legally prisoners of war. But the Germans sought to warn others against harboring downed airmen. Without a trial, they shot Zercher, Ingram and six members of the Dutch resistance on Oct. 4. But the Germans did not stop there with their war crimes. They laid the bodies on the streets of Apeldoorn with papers on their chests bearing the word "Terrorist."