Roy J Sykora

Military ROLL OF HONOUR
media-19182.png UPL 19182 Front page of “The Herald”, 2 October 1935. Roy Sykora is first from left in the photo of the Varsity Letter football team, Proviso East High School.

Added photo

Object Number - UPL 19182 - Front page of “The Herald”, 2 October 1935. Roy Sykora is first from left in the photo of the Varsity Letter football team, Proviso East High...

Roy Sykora grew up in Melrose Park and attended the Proviso High School there, playing on the school’s Varsity Letter Hillside football team. After completing his studies, he enlisted as an Aviation Cadet in the Air Corps. He was in the Montana State College training detachment at Bozeman, Montana before following pre-flight training at the Santa Ana, California Army Air Base. Then it was gunnery school at Kingsman, Arizona, before he was transferred to the Hondo Army Airfield in Texas where he had a four-month course in advanced aerial navigation. After receiving an Army Air Forces commission as a 2nd Lt, he was sent overseas in the summer of 1944. Roy was assigned to the 486th Bomb Group / 833rd Bomb Squadron in England. A navigator, he was flying his second mission on B-17 “The Last Roundup” # 43-37927 on the 6 December 1944 mission to Merseburg, Germany. The B-17 was hit by Flak and crashed near Ijmuiden, The Netherlands. Roy Sykora and the 8 other crew members were killed. Missing Air Crew Report – MACR 11048. Roy Sykora is still listed as Missing In Action and has no known grave.

Connections

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Units served with

A diagrammatic layout of AAF Station 174 - the USAAF codename for Sudbury airfield - while the 486th Bomb Group were stationed at the airbase as of the 22 June 1944.
  • Unit Hierarchy: Group
  • Air Force: Eighth Air Force
  • Type Category: Bombardment

People

  • Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
  • Nationality: American
  • Unit: 486th Bomb Group 833rd Bomb Squadron
  • Service Numbers: O-760522
  • Highest Rank: Second Lieutenant
  • Role/Job: Pilot
  • Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
  • Nationality: American
  • Unit: 486th Bomb Group 833rd Bomb Squadron
  • Service Numbers: O-771285
  • Highest Rank: Second Lieutenant
  • Role/Job: Co-Pilot
  • Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
  • Nationality: American
  • Unit: 486th Bomb Group 833rd Bomb Squadron
  • Service Numbers: 36747223
  • Highest Rank: Corporal
  • Role/Job: Radio Operator
  • Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
  • Nationality: American
  • Unit: 486th Bomb Group 833rd Bomb Squadron
  • Highest Rank: Corporal
  • Role/Job: Top Turret Gunner
  • Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
  • Nationality: American
  • Unit: 486th Bomb Group 833rd Bomb Squadron
  • Highest Rank: Lieutenant
  • Role/Job: Bombardier

Aircraft

  • Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
  • Nicknames: The Last Roundup
  • Unit: 486th Bomb Group 833rd Bomb Squadron

Missions

  • Date: 6 December 1944

Places

Aerial photograph of Sudbury airfield looking south west, the bomb dump is to the upper right of the airfield, 29 February 1944. Photograph taken by 7th Photographic Reconnaissance Group, sortie number US/7PH/GP/LOC188. English Heritage (USAAF Photography).
  • Site type: Airfield
  • Known as: Acton

Events

Event Location Date Description

Other

Killed in Action (KIA)

IJmuiden, The Netherlands 6 December 1944 Died in the loss of B-17 # 43-37927

Born

Melrose Park, Illinois, USA
Melrose Park, Cook County, Illinois, United States

Other

Memorialized

Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten, The Netherlands Memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten, The Netherlands

Revisions

Date
ContributorED-BB
Changes
Sources

MACR 11048
ABMC website

Date
ContributorAAM
Changes
Sources

Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / MACR 11048 / Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database

Roy J Sykora: Gallery (1 items)