Shot down 22 September 1944 in AC #4337535 B-17 Baby Button at Trier Prisoner of War (POW) in Stalag Luft I. Liberated by Russians in May 1945. Flew to Camp Lucky Strike Arrived in the US June 1945.



AM



"On 22 September 1944 the B-17 “Baby Button” piloted by Maurice J. Sample and Ralph Peters 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 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".