Name:
Ralph V. Shaffer
Rank:
First Lieutenant
Serial Number:
O-706001
Unit:
706th Bomber Squadron, 446th Bomb Group
Date of Death:
1944-08-26
State:
Ohio
Cemetery:
Cambridge American Cemetery, United Kingdom
Plot:
Tablets of the Missing
Row:
Grave:
Decoration:
Air Medal, Purple Heart
Comments:
1st Lt Ralph V. Shaffer, pilot of the B-24 41-29177 “Ginger”, took off from Bungay in Suffolk, UK on a bombing mission over the Farben chemical works in Ludwigshafen. Just after bombs away, the plane was hit by flak. Some of the engines cut out, dropping the plane to 10000 feet. Fifty miles later, the crew set the plane on a course to avoid the nearby town of Schoeneck and bailed out, shot at by machine gun fire all the way down. Shaffer was part of six crewmen rounded up and shot by SS auxiliaries.