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Personal info

Full name
ADE, Robert Hagy
Date of birth
3 January 1918
Age
25
Place of birth
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Hometown
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania

Military service

Service number
33105382
Rank
Staff Sergeant
Function
Ball Turret Gunner
Unit
401st Bombardment Squadron,
91st Bombardment Group, Heavy
Awards
Purple Heart,
Air Medal

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
17 April 1943
Place of death
Bremen, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Ardennes
Plot Row Grave
B 32 26

Immediate family

Members
Arthur Reed (father)
Irene M. (Lowry) Ade (mother)
Norman L. Ade (brother)
Helen M. (Haegney) Ade (wife)
Robert J. Ade (son)

Plane data

Serial number
41-24459
Data
Type: B-17F
Nickname: Hellsapoppin
Destination: Bremen, Germany
MACR: 15523

More information

The aircraft took part in a bombing mission to the Focke Wulf Plant at Bremen, Germany on 17 April 1943, at which time several aircrafts were lost. Three or four minutes after the target there was a very hard jolt under the left side of the plane, close in to the fuselage. An anti-aircraft shell had exploded just under "Hellsapoppin". Flak ripped into the left front side of the aircraft, flaking off chunks of metal from the fuselage and throwing them through the interior of the plane. At the same time, three feet of the right wing tip was blown off by a flak burst. One half foot hole appeared in the nose compartment and all the nose window plexiglas blew out. There was a fire in the left wing and nosecompartment. The radioroom became enfulged in fire from oxygen lines.

Five bodies were recovered from the wreckage, and were buried at the Waldfriedhof Cemetery in Vechta, Germany. They were moved after the war.

Source of information: Peter Schouteten, Terry Hirsch, Astrid van Erp, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov, www.ancestry.com - Headstone and Interment Record / Lowry Family Tree / Veteran Compensation Application File, https://airforce.togetherweserved.com

Photo source: Peter Schouteten, Michel Beckers