Earle Joseph Aber Jr
Military ROLL OF HONOUR
NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Object Number - UPL 53983 - ABER
Flew B-17 #42-37516. Dropped leaflets at night over enemy occupied territory. Col Aber's remains were found in May 2002 in the river Stour at Harwick. He was buried on 5/10/02 at Cambridge American Cemetery. The airplane was the Tondelayo. The 406th was a night leaflet squadron. He was hit by anti-aircraft fire from the British positions engaging enemy aircraft in the vicinity.
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
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: Tondelayo
- Unit: 305th Bomb Group 492nd Bomb Group 422nd Bomb Squadron 858th Bomb Squadron
Places
- Site type: Airfield
Events
| Event | Location | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Born |
20 June 1919 | ||
|
Other Killed In Action |
4 March 1945 | ||
|
Buried |
5 October 2001 | Plot F Row 3 Grave 125 On March 4, 1945 a B17 piloted by Lt. Col. Earle J. Aber, Jr., crashed into the North Sea. While most of the crew bailed out, he and his co-pilot, 2nd Lt. Maurice J. Harper, both lost their life that day. A search after the crash only produced limited remains belonging to Aber. His family chose to have these recovered remains interred at Cambridge American Cemetery. In the late 1990s/early 2000s, further remains were recovered from the crash site. Some of the remains were positively identified as belonging to Aber, some were positively identified as belonging to Harper, and some could not be positively identified. The remains of Aber were added to his gravesite at Cambridge American Cemetery. The remains of Harper were buried in a private cemetery in the United States at the request of his family, and the comingled remains that could not be identified were interred together at Arlington National Cemetery. |
Revisions
Added " / " in the "Role/job" field as a separator to aid readability.
Corrected misspelling of the river "Stour" in the "Summary biography".
Walter R Longanecker Jr, via American Air Museum Memory book correspondence.
8th AF News, June 2000 8thAF News Sept 2002 / Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia
