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Pfc Otto Zwingman was employed at the N.Y.C. Transit Company.

He enlisted on 25 February 1943 in New York City.

On D-Day, 6 June 1944, Otto Karl Zwingman, at that moment still a Private, was parachuted into Normandy, France, at 0215 hours. Like most paratroop units involved in Operation Overlord, the 508th PIR was dropped in the wrong location. After landing by parachute, the 508th PIR joined a composite group of paratroops that were also dropped in the wrong location. The group then proceeded to carry out a battalion mission and Pvt Zwingman, Pvt John A. Lockwood and Cpl Ernest T. Roberts, Jr., served as an outpost in a building on the edge of Guetteville, France. When a battalion of German infantry, reinforced by tanks, approached from the west and placed machine guns and mortars in position, the three brave men immediately opened fire on the enemy. Ordered to leave the post, the men determined to hold out until the 30 paratroopers in the town had withdrawn. Pvt Zwingman and the other two men assisted in holding the hostile force at bay for two hours, killing fifteen Germans and wounding many others. The courageous action of the three men delayed the enemy sufficiently to allow the main body of paratroopers to establish defensive positions to the east from which they were able to deny the overwhelming number of German forces an opportunity to cross the Merderet River.

Zwingman, Pvt Lockwood and Cpl Roberts were listed as missing in action.

For this action Pvt Zwingman’s and his two comrades were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

It was later determined that Pfc Zwingman, Pvt Lockwood and Cpl Roberts were taken prisoner.

Pfc Zwingman was killed at Stalag XII-A during at British air raid on the night of 23 December 1944. The intended target had been the railway station at Diez, a few miles away, but unfortunately the flares dropped by the pathfinder aircraft drifted off course in a strong wind and some strayed into Stalag XII-A. The bombs of RAF Mosquitos did not miss the highlighted target of a concrete building.