Robert Theodore Burrell was born on March 13, 1921 in Maine. He was the son of Robert Simpson Burrell and Ida I. Brown Burrell. He enlisted in the Army on November 9, 1942 in Bangor, Maine. He was noted, at the time of his enlistment, as being employed as a Apprentice and also as Married. He resided in Penobscot County, Maine prior to the war. Robert served as a Private First Class, 3206th Quartermaster Service Company, U.S. Army during World War II. He was killed during the Exercise Tiger--one of the large-scale rehearsals for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. This took place in April 1944 in Slapton Sands, Devon in the UK. An Allied naval convoy involved in the exercise was attacked by German submarines, and coordination and communication problems resulted in friendly fire deaths. At least 749 American servicemen were killed. Because of the impending invasion of Normandy, the incident was highly classified and the full story did not come out until years later after the war. He was died on April 28, 1944, buried at sea and is commemorated on Tablets of the Missing, Cambridge American Cemetery, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
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