Memorial

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1st Lt David Albrecht attended Doane College for three years.

He joined the Air Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve in Columbus, Ohio on 22 June 1942.

Lt. Wallace Storey, the pilot of another airplane in the same group remembered what happened: "Flak was extremely heavy that day and the Wing had been somewhat disrupted by the heavy opposition. We found ourselves on a crossing course with another Group and just after “bombs away” the lead ship made a sharp descending right turn. Glancing to my right, I saw “Lazy Daisy” was sliding toward me. I pulled back on the control column to climb out of her path while keeping my eye on the # 2 ship of the lead element, Lt. Buslee in #378 (43-37822), on whose wing our element was flying. I yelled for Gross to watch out for him to come out on the other side and, sure enough, he slid under us and right into Buslee in the lead element. I watched the two planes as they collided. It cut #378 in half and the wings on #222 folded up and both planes fell in a fireball.”

The airplane collided with airplane #42-31222 over the target. Both airplanes went down in fire and out of control. Eight crew members were killed, one survived and was taken prisoner.

1st Lt Albrecht was initially buried at the cemetery of Ostingersleben, Germany.