Memorial

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Jerome C. Nawracaj (also spelled Nawracy) graduated from Bound Brook High school in 1939. He hoped to be a commercial Linotypist.

He enlisted on 31 July 1942 in Newark, New Jersey and received his basic training at Lincoln Army Air Base, Nebraska and was graduated from the Flexible Aerial Gunnery School in Kingman, Arizona.

On the way to the target, the airplane was attacked by an enemy fighter over Belgium and had to break away from theformation and became separated from the rest of the group.

Two crew members were killed by gunfire of the attacking enemy fighter. The pilot managed to keep the airplane flying long enough for the reminder of the crew to bail out before an explosion separated the tail from the rest of the fuselage.

The airplane crashed in a field at the crossroads of the N506 and the N527 in Beloeil, Belgium. A memorial stone marks the spot.

The IDPF contains contradictions about what happened to S/Sgt Nawracaj. One surviving crew member recalled that two men landed at an airfield in Chièvres, Belgium and where killed, Nawracaj being one of them. Another crew member recalled that S/Sgt Nawraci was able to steal a bicycle and tried to get to France. When he stopped and asked directions a woman informed the Germans.

Four crew members were killed, four men were taken prisoner and two men escaped capture and where guided to the Spanish border by the resistance.