Memorial

More information

Aaron Kochel graduated from Baker High School.

He volunteered for the Air Corps of the Army of the United States in Missoula, Montana on 6 January 1942 and completed Army Air Forces Flexible Gunnery School at Kingsman, Arizona on 31 May 1943. He also completed the United States Army Air Forces Technical School for Airplane Mechanics on 18 November 1943, at Amarillo Army Air Field, Amarillo, Texas.

The bombardier, 2nd Lt Clifford Evans, one of the surviving crew members testified the following after the war: "The airplane took three direct bursts of flak, causing instantaneous explosion, blowing the plane apart into bits from the ball turret forward. I was blown into mid-air with only my parachute remaining on my back, the explosion having ripped off the flak suit, goggles, helmet and oxygen mask. There was no time to prepare for an emergency. I was the only member of the crew who wore a back type P3B parachute and that is the sole reason for my being alive today. The other members of the crew had refused to wear this type of chutes because they thought it was too ackward and too heavy. The other two members saved, the tail gunner Sgt Robert Beaman and waist gunner Sgt Theodore Schmidt, were in that part of the plane which was not blown completely apart and had time to fasten at least one hook of their chest packs, before leaving the falling part of the airplane. While descending in my parachute, large portions of the wing, a complete landing strut and wheel, thousands of fragments, a fully inflated dingy and debris and an opened parachute with none in it, passed me up. Further evidence of the terrific explosion which completely demolished the plane in mid-air might be offered in the fact that the bomb load had not as yet been released. The Germans later told me they had found the fragments of bodies of the following men, identified by crash bracelets and dogtags: Pilot Lt Mark R. Dunkel, Lt Frank L. Kelly, Sgt William Stoll and John L. Pillotti. They did not mention, nor did I ever see any of the possessions of Lt Kenneth Roehr and Sgt Aaron Kochel."

Six crew members were killed, three men survived and were taken prisoner.

The remains of the killed men were initially buried at the cemetery of Hamburg-Billstedt.