Lawrence Edward Grubisich, Jr. was born on July 8, 1920 in Illinois. His parents Lawrence and Vincenca were both born in Croatia, Austria-Hungary. They came to America before 1900. His father worked as a coal miner. Lawrence had three older brothers and two older sisters. By 1940 Lawrence had completed four years of high school. He was still living at home and was working as a carpenter.



He enlisted in the army in January 1942 and volunteered for the Army Air Forces in November 1942 and applied to become an officer. He eventually became a second lieutenant in the 848th Bombardment Squadron, 490th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force which was equipped with B-17 Flying Fortresses. The 490th BG arrived in England in April 1944 and began flying bombing missions in May.



On October 6, 1944, Lt. Grubisich was the bombardier on B-17 43-38180 on a mission to bomb Berlin. His plane was shot down by flak and crashed at Spandau. He was originally listed as missing in action. Four of the crew were captured by the Germans. Lt. Grubisich and four others were killed.



His grave is at Saint Joseph Cemetery in Canton, Illinois.



Thank you Lt. Grubisich for your sacrifice.



This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.



Added to Fold3 by donlmilne998 · July 7, 2020



https://www.fold3.com/page/84387009-lawrence-e-grubisich/stories?fbclid…