Memorial

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Sgt John P. Brogden attended Durham High School (North Carolina) and was employed as a surveyor for the Pennsylvania Turnpike commission.

He volunteered for the Army of the United States in San Francisco, California on 20 April 1942.

He served with the "Flying Tigers" in Burma and China for six months before he was transferred to the European Theater of Operations.

Statement from Bernard M. Keene, left waist gunner who survived the crash:
"On January 11, we were scheduled to fly as part of the spare squadron, We had to keep our group in sight and in the event one of the crews aborted, prior to reaching mid-channel, we were to replace that crew in the attacking formation. If none of the crews aborted, we were to return to the base. Lt. Saur felt that it was his error that had caused our crew to lose out on completing the previous mission, so he continued past the mid-channel limit hoping that an abortion would occur. As we approached the continent one crew finally aborted and we tried to catch the formation. As you might expect, we were alone during our effort to catch and join the formation and the enemy took full advantage of our position. We fought them off for some time but we were finally brought down when one of their fighters slashed through our bomber at the point just aft of the radio room. We went into a tailspin and the fuselage broke in two pieces. The aft section, which includes the waist gunner’s position was falling slowly and this gave the right waist gunner and me the chance to attach our parachutes and prepare to abandon the ship. After looking for the forward section and seeing nothing but the landscape, I was ready to jump. As I left the ship I saw the front end on the ground and burning. After two days in Gellenbeck, some German soldiers loaded me into a truck and drove me to an airbase at Bramsche. On the way they stopped at the wreckage of our B-17 and picked up the bodies of my crew members that had perished in the crash."

The killed crew members were intially buried at the POW cemetery in Achmer, Germany on 13 January 1944

At the time of his death his brother William served with the Army in Iran.