Memorial

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Sgt Thomas B. Cole was a mechanic before he volunteered for the Army of the United States in Jacksonville, Florida, on 6 January 1942.

According to witnesses, the plane was hit by a flak burst just outside the waist window or in the plane itself. The bottom part blew off. The tail section went one way and the frontal section another.

Statement from Edward J. Rice, Left Waist Gunner:
"About 100 miles from Holland it happens. A loud, hard, explosion toward the front of our plane. The plane was flying level as die, but the whole tail was gone. Just a great big hole looking out at the sky. The blast blew everything toward the front of the plane, the plane can't fly this way. I ran straight out into space through the open fuselage, the plane was diving straight down. It nosed into the ground and exploded, fire and smoke shot skyward."

According to 1st Lt Cyrus P. Bennett, the Germans told him there were eight bodies in the wreckage. They were initially all buried at the cemetery of Achmer.

His remains were discovered and disinterred from the Achmer Airdrome Military Cemetery on 27 February 1946 and labeled as Unknown X-1446. At first, he was reburied as Unknown at Margraten on 12 March 1946. After being disinterred a second time, his remains could be identified, and he was reburied in a temporary grave.

After the cemetery was given a permanent status, he was given his final resting place at Margraten on 22 July 1949.