Memorial

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Alvin Schippang volunteered for the Air Corps of the Amry of the United States in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 16 January 1942.

The airplane made it through the flak over the target without being hit. On the way out to the coast she was attacked by fighters inflicting heavy damage. Still, it remained in formation. At 1326 hours, as the aircraft passed 3 miles east of Emden, it III took direct flak hits that knocked out the No. 3 engine and set the No. 4 engine afire. The pilot, Lt Lindsey, feathered the No. 3 engine. Almost immediately afterwards another anti-aircraft shell burst into the cockpit killing both Lt Lindsey and the copilot, 2nd Lt George Slivkoff. More flak hits smashed into the aircraft. It began slowly circling downward in the direction of Norden and the North Sea.
The bombardier, 2nd Lt Albert Dobsa, was hit in the stomach by one of the flak bursts. The navigator, 2nd Lt Rocco J. Maiorca, was uninjured. Lt Dobsa, sensing the plane was out of control, went up into the cockpit to see what was wrong. There he saw both pilots dead in their seats. He looked back into the fuselage and saw crewmen lying on the floor, also apparently dead. Lt Dobsa kwew it was time to bail out and went back down into the nose. Lt Maiorca was standing above the nose hatch, hesitating to jump. Lt Dobsa simply pushed him out the hatch and dropped through after him. Lt Dobsa came down in the shallow water on the Frisian Islands beach where he was captured immediately by German troops. Lt Maiorca drifted about a mile out to the sea off the Frisian Islands from where he swam ashore. He was in the water three hours and was taken captive by German troops upon reaching the shore.
Short Snorter III, went on out to seas where she crashed, taking the rest of the crew with her to a cold watery grave. Only two of the seven 401st planes what had gone over the continent were still flying.

His halfbrother Walter was serving in North Africa at the time of his death.