Memorial

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1st Lt Charles E. Van Ausdall graduated from Keokuk High School in 1935. He was employed at Iowa Fiber Box Company.

This plane was on its 53rd operational sortie when shot down. 15 different crew had manned this bomber. I completed his first 44 missions on the original engines for which crew chief Jack Gaffney was awarded the Bronze Star.

In the target area, the formation was attacked by about 60 fighters. It was flying in the Tail end Charlie, or Purple Heart corner, the position of the last plane and to the left side of the full formation. This position was definitely the most vulnerable to enemy fire and certainly was not perferred by any crew. The bomber was hit at the first passage of the fighters and it had engine #4 on fire, and its wings and elevators were badly damaged. The crew was ordered to bail out but only five got out in time (and became POW). The plane went down in a spin and lost it's right wing. Shortly after it exploded in mid-air, killing the four others of it's crew.

1st Lt Van Ausdall was found with a fractured skull and his left foot missing and taken to the Reserve Hospital for POW's in Hohenstein-Ernstthal where he died the same day. He was initially buried at the Genesungsheim Cemetery at Bethlemstift, Hohenstein-Ernstthal, together with the other three killed crew members on 22 July 1944.

1st Lt Charles E. Van Ausdall, T/Sgt Sharles J. Sullivan Jr. and Sgt Vernon Winters are buried at Ardennes Cemetery. 2nd Lt Richard Loomis is buried at the Arlington National Cemetery.