Robert George Robel
MilitaryShot down 17 April 1943 in B-17 #4229625. Last plane in lead squadron on mission to Bremen, it suffered heavy fighter attack over the target causing damage to both wings and to 2 engines. The entire crew bailed out, but 3 crew members died. Robel was imprisoned in Stalag Luft 3 and moved to 49-11 Nuremburg.
POW
Connections
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
People
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 306th Bomb Group 367th Bomb Squadron
- Service Numbers: 14094569 at enlistment, then O-794082
- Highest Rank: First Lieutenant
- Role/Job: Navigator
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Unit: 306th Bomb Group
Places
![A bomber crew of the 306th Bomb Group wave to Picture Post Girls in front of a B-17 Flying Fortress (serial number 41-24471) nicknamed "Four of a Kind" at Thurleigh in December 1942. Image stamped on reverse: '"Picture Post" [stamp], 'Passed for Publication 11 Dec 1942.' [stamp], '238038.' [Censor no.] Handwritten in censor's blue pencil on reverse: 'American Flying Fortress crew are introduced to the girls they will meet at Picture Post Xmas Party.'](https://assets.americanairmuseum.com/s3fs-public/styles/teaser_thumb_x2/public/freeman/media-379028.jpg.webp?itok=6Gc6iR0j)
- Site type: Airfield
- Known as: Bedford
Revisions
This was my father. I’ve edited the entry to remove “Killed in action.” He survived the wreck and after his release from a POW camp, served in the Air Force until 1967, when he retired as a CWO-W4. He then went to college!
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / MACR 15517, Losses of the 8th and 9th AFs Vol. 1 by Bishop and Hey p. 107, First Over Germany by Russell Strong pp. 90-91, NARA