Edward C Sharpe
MilitaryWhile serving as Aerial Gunner on B-26B-15 MA 41-34971 'Pay Off ' the aircraft was engaged by flak and attacked by a German FW-190 fighter while on a mission to attack the German airfield of Beaumont Le Roger, France. The attack set the right engine on fire. SSGT Sharpe was able to bail out of the stricken aircraft at minimal altitude and quickly captured as a Prisoner of War. He had landed in the middle of a Panzer Divisional field headquarters! He landed very hard with his parachute barely deploying. Surrounded by Germans, he remained on the ground until a local French boy offered him a chair to sit on. He was then taken to Frankfurt for initial interrogation. The aircraft crashed one mile northeast of Brionne near Rouen, France August 22, 1943. 386th BG was part of the 8th BG from July-October 1943
Connections
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Ninth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Ninth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-26 Marauder
- Nicknames: Pay Off
- Unit: 386th Bomb Group 554th Bomb Squadron
Missions
- Date: 22 August 1943
Places
- Site type: Airfield
Events
Event | Location | Date | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Other Prisoner of War (POW) |
Krems an der Donau, Austria | 22 August 1943 - 11 March 1946 | Held at Stalag 17B, Braunau-Gneikendorf (near Krems), Austria. Officially Returned to Military Control 11-Mar-1946. Late RMC date indicates he was probably in hospital. |
Born |
Revisions
Lee Cunningham 25-May-2015. Added SN and made connections to Place, Aircraft and Mission per MACR 375; Added POW event per National Archives Records Administration (NARA) WWII POW database; Edited Summay biography based on "Losses of the 8th & 9th Air Forces", Stan Bishop & John A. Hey MBE.
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / Losses of the 8th and 9th AFs by Bishop and Hey, Combat Chronology Supplement, MACR 0375