Missing information?
Do you have any additional information you would like to share about a soldier?
Submit- Full
name
CRABTREE, Parker Francis - Date of
birth
5 October 1919 -
Age
23 - Place of
birth
Hancock, Hancock County, Maine -
Hometown
Hancock, Hancock County, Maine
Personal info
Military service
- Service
number
31116392 -
Rank
Staff Sergeant -
Function
Right Waist Gunner -
Unit
548th Bombardment Squadron,
385th Bombardment Group, Heavy
-
Awards
Purple Heart,
Air Medal
Death
-
Status
Missing in Action - Date of
death
17 August 1943 - Place of
death
Zoersel, Belgium
Grave
-
Cemetery
American War Cemetery Henri-Chapelle - Tablets of the Missing
Immediate family
-
Members
Alfred E. Crabtree (father)
Lillian S. Crabtree (mother)
Robert S. Crabtree (brother)
Alan B. Crabtree (brother)
Elaine (Hanscom) Crabtree (wife)
Plane data
- Serial
number
42-5886 -
Data
Type: B-17F
Nickname: The Jolly Roger
Destination: Regensburg, Germany
Mission: Bombing of the Messerschmitt aircraft factory
MACR: 387
More information
Parker Crabtree worked in a store.He enlisted in Portland, Maine, on 23 May 1942.
At about 10 o'clock, when the formation passed over the woods of Zoersel, Belgium, it came under heavy anti-aircraft fire. One airplane was hit and began to lurch from side to side, completely out of control. Belgian boy scouts saw six parachutes leave the plane.
Three men land on the castle grounds of Baron van de Put. It is not clear what happened to these men, but they probably disappeared without a trace. After all, four crew members are still missing. T/Sgt Schreppel landed not much further and his story is well known. This means Parker Crabtree, Olin Wieneke and Herbert Brown must be these men.
Three crew members survived and were taken prisoner, one evaded capture and with the aid of the Belgian resistance returned to England, and six men were killed.
The airplane crashed in Nieuwe Hinkelenpolder, 2 km southwest of Woensdrecht, the Netherlands.
Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Carla Mans, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.fold3.com - MACR / 1940 Census / U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, www.missinginaction.be, www.archives.gov - WWII Enlistment Record, IDPF, https://www.heemkundigekringzoersel.be/Weetjes%20nummer%205.pdf
Photo source: www.findagrave.com, Aimee Fogg