Memorial

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S/Sgt Tzolag Aaronian enlisted in Boston, Massachusetts on 2 July 1943.

Statement of 2nd Lt John W. Whiteside Jr.:
'Aircraft 42-95088 piloted by Lt Mercer left the formation at 1336. We were on our way in to the target and I was leading the element in which Lt Mercer was flying the right wing. He called me up and said all his instruments were out and that he was returning to base. That is the last I heard from him.'

According to Missing Air Crew Report the airplane lost all instruments and #1 engine at 22000 feet just south of Gronningen, The Netherlands while on the way to the target. The prop on #1 engine would not feather. They started to lose altitude very rapidly because of the unfeathered prop and decided to try to reach Allied lines at around miles to the South near Krefeld. When they thought that they were over Allied lines, they were down to around 2500 feet altitude and the pilot gave the bailout order. They were actually over the German front lines and 8 of the crew were captured. S/Sgt Tzolag Aaronian was MIA. There was a casualty statement in the MACR by the Flight Engineer, Bruno Salazar who stated that he bailed right before Aaronian and saw him bail out the right front bomb bay. He watched him fall through space and never saw his chute open finally losing sight of him in the ground mist.

His parachute failed to open. A German woman who was 13 in 1945 was an eyewitness and saw him struck the ground a few hundred meters in front of her parents farmhouse while she watched in horror.