Maurice J Sample
Military ROLL OF HONOUR
Object Number - UPL 60798 - 2nd Lt Maurice J Sample
Crashed at Trier in B-17 "Baby Button" #43-37535, Killed in Action (KIA).
"On 22 September 1944 the B-17 “Baby Button” piloted by Maurice J. Sample of 92 BG took part in an attack on a Wehrmacht maintenance facility near Kassel. Even before reaching the target two engines were knocked out by flak and Sample changed course to return back home. His ship lost more and more altitude and on reaching the Rhine River a flak shell exploded above it, badly wounding the pilot and setting ablaze another engine.
Four of the men bailed out, five were still in the plane when the co-pilot Lieutenant Ralph Peters emergency landed it near Kell. Shortly thereafter, still on the crash site, the pilot died of his wounds. The others survived and were taken captive. The parachuters had landed between Gehweiler and Oberlöstern and near Kastel".
Crew:
Pilot: Maurice J. Sample
Co-pilot: Ralph Peters
Navigator: Eugene W. McCready
Bombardier: Anthony A. Kulikowski
Flight Engineer: Raymond Reierson Jr.
Radio Operator: John E. Kisgen
Ball Turret Gunner: Perwin S. Knutson
Waist Gunner: Joseph F. Cullen
Tail Gunner: Harvey F. Rueschman
Connections
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
People
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 92nd Bomb Group 326th Bomb Squadron
- Service Numbers: O-766292
- Highest Rank: Second Lieutenant
- Role/Job: BOMBADIER
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Unit: 92nd Bomb Group 326th Bomb Squadron
Places
- Site type: Cemetery
- Known as: Lorraine American Cemetery, St Avold, France
Events
| Event | Location | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Born |
Portland, Oregon | 11 February 1916 | Born Portland, Oregon |
|
Other Prisoner of War (POW) |
Germany | 21 September 1944 - 22 September 1944 | |
|
Died |
22 September 1944 | ||
|
Buried |
Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial Saint-Avold, Departement de la Moselle, Lorraine, France | 1 January 1946 | Re-Interred Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial Saint-Avold, Departement de la Moselle, Lorraine, France |
Revisions
Added a "-" to the A/C tail # in the "Summary biography" to aid clarity & consistency.
General Order 592 from Headquarters 1st Bombardment Division, Office of the Commanding General, by Command of Brigadier General Turner, dated 6 December 1944.
Article by Klaus Zimmer
http://www.flugzeugabstuerze-saarland.de/html/hochwald-nahe.html
Sammlung Klaus Zimmer at http://www.flugzeugabstuerze-saarland.de/html/hochwald-nahe.html
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / MACR 9371 / Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database
