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Personal info

Full name
HAMRICK, Victor L
Date of birth
12 March 1920
Age
23
Place of birth
Webster County, West Virginia
Hometown
Webster Springs, Webster County, West Virginia

Military service

Service number
35275442
Rank
Staff Sergeant
Function
Waist Gunner
Unit
401st Bombardment Squadron,
91st Bombardment Group, Heavy
Awards
Purple Heart,
Air Medal

Death

Status
Missing in Action
Date of death
17 April 1943
Place of death
North Sea, 11 miles northwest of the Isle of Norderney, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Margraten
Walls of the Missing

Immediate family

Members
Lorenze B. Hamrick (father)
Ora A. (Pritt) Hamrick (mother)
Denver C. Hamrick (brother)
Hazel O. Hamrick (sister)
Doy H. Hamrick (brother)
Retha K. Hamrick (sister)
Rossie G. Hamrick (sister)
Leslie O. Hamrick (brother)
Buelah M. Hamrick (sister)
Lorenzo B. Hamrick (brother)
Junior B. Hamrick (brother)
Ormagene Hamrick (sister)
Harlan Hamrick (brother)

Plane data

Serial number
42-5337
Data
Type: B-17F
Nickname: Short Snorter 111
Destination: Bremen, Germany
Mission: Bombing of the Focke-Wulf aviation industry
MACR: 16090

More information

In April 1940 S/Sgt Victor L. Hamrick was a coal miner but in 1942 he worked for a lumber company.

He enlisted at Fort Hays, Columbus, Ohio on 12 February 1942.

The airplane made it through the flak over the target without being hit. On the way out to the coast it was attacked by fighters inflicting heavy damage on the aircraft. Still, it remained in formation. At 1326 hours, as the aircraft passed 3 miles east of Emden, it took direct flak hits that knocked out the No. 3 engine and set the No. 4 engine afire. The pilot, Lt Lindsey, feathered the No. 3 engine. Almost immediately afterwards another anti-aircraft shell burst into the cockpit killing both Lt Lindsey and the copilot, 2nd Lt George Slivkoff. More flak hits smashed into the aircraft and it began slowly circling downward in the direction of Norden and the North Sea.
The bombardier, 2nd Lt Albert Dobsa, was hit in the stomach by one of the flak bursts. The navigator, 2nd Lt Rocco J. Maiorca, was uninjured. Lt Dobsa, sensing the plane was out of control, went up into the cockpit to see what was wrong. There he saw both pilots dead in their seats. He looked back into the fuselage and saw crewmen lying on the floor, also apparently dead. Lt Dobsa knew it was time to bail out and went back down into the nose. Lt Maiorca was standing above the nose hatch, hesitating to jump. Lt Dobsa simply pushed him out the hatch and dropped through after him. Lt Dobsa came down in the shallow water on the Frisian Islands beach where he was captured immediately by German troops. Lt Maiorca drifted about a mile out to the sea off the Frisian Islands from where he swam ashore. He was in the water three hours and was taken captive by German troops upon reaching the shore.

The airplane ditched north of the Isle of Norderney. Eight crew members didn't survive and are all remembered at the Walls of the Missing at Margraten.

His brother Pfc Junior B. Hamrick is buried at the American War Cemetery of Henri-Chapelle. According to a niece Junior B. applied for the army after his brother Victor was killed.

Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Terry Hirsch, www.fold3.com - MACR, www.8thafhs.com, www.ancestry.com - Family Trees

Photo source: Peter Schouteten, Anneke Groothoff-Bakker, Dea Hamrick Hawks