Ely N. Friedman was born in New York on August 14, 1916. His parents were Adolph Friedman (abt 1874 unk), who was born in Austria, and immigrated to America about 1886; and Sarah H. Friedman (abt 1888 unk), who was born in Russian Poland, and immigrated to America about 1904. His father owned a clothing business. In 1920 the family lived in The Bronx, New York. His father died by 1930. In 1930 he lived with his widowed mother and his mother's mother in Brooklyn, New York. By 1935 his mother was an inmate at the Creedmoor State Hospital in Queens Village, Long Island, New York.
He completed at least one year of college, and married by 1940. His wife was Mrs. Beatrice F. Friedman. In 1940 he and his wife lived in Washington, DC, and he worked as a clerk for the Railroad Retirement Board. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at Chicago, Illinois on November 28, 1942. In 1944 his wife lived at 72 East 92nd Street, Brooklyn, New York.
He completed Army Air Forces navigator training in Class 44-06 at Selman Field, Monroe, Louisiana, and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant on April 22, 1944. He was then assigned to the heavy bomber crew of Lt James S. Warner. The Warner crew completed B-17 crew training at Ardmore, Oklahoma [from IDPF], and was assigned to the 839th Bomb Squadron of the 487th Bomb Group at Army Air Forces Station 137, near the village of Lavenham, Suffolk, England. The Warner crew arrived at Station 137 by July 24, 1944, and become part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in Europe.
Lt Friedman was later assigned as navigator on the lead crew of Lt Joseph A. Duncan in the 839th Bomb Squadron.
On August 25, 1944, the Duncan crew took off from Lavenham Airfield in B-17G 43-37980, the deputy lead aircraft of the Lead Squadron, on a mission to bomb the German airfield at Rechlin, Germany. Captain Winston S. Rogers flew in the copilot position as Air Leader. Copilot Lt James Hood Jr moved to the tail gunner position as Officer Tail Gunner and formation observer. Lt Friedman and eight of his crew mates were killed in action when the aircraft was hit by flak just after bombs away over Rechlin, Germany. The right outer wing was lost, and the burning aircraft went into a spin, exploded, and crashed in Muritz Lake (Mόritzsee) near Boek, Germany, north of the target. Two crew members, 1/Lt Joseph Anderson Duncan and S/Sgt Monroe Stanley Wolyn, were blown clear and survived. Lt Hood's body was never found. He probably went to the bottom of Muritz Lake with the aircraft wreckage.
The body of Lt Friedman was recovered on the shore of Muritz Lake on August 29, 1944. His remains and those of seven of his crew mates were buried initially at the Retzow Cemetery in Retzow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, a short distance north of Rechlin Airfield. The deaths of Lt Friedman and 75 other servicemen from Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island, New York were reported in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle on Friday, December 15, 1944.
Lt Friedman's remains were disinterred from Retzow Cemetery on July 17, 1947, moved to the U.S. Military Cemetery at Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, and reinterred there in Plot BB, Row 3, Grave 69. After final confirmation of the identity of his remains, they were permanently reinterred at then renamed Ardennes American Cemetery, Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium on April 5, 1949.
B-17G 43-37980 crew:
Duncan, Joseph A 1/Lt Pilot POW
Rogers, Winston S Capt Air Leader KIA
Jones, Richard L Capt Pilotage Navigator KIA
Friedman, Ely N 2/Lt Navigator KIA
Dolan, James J 2/Lt Bombardier KIA
Henahan, Joseph W T/Sgt Engineer KIA
Brown, Gerard F T/Sgt Radio operator KIA
Everett, Lloyd E S/Sgt Ball Turret Gunner KIA
Brown, Rhodes L S/Sgt Waist Gunner KIA
Wolyn, Monroe S S/Sgt Waist Gunner POW
Hood Jr, James 2/Lt Tail Gunner MIA
Source of information: Paul M. Webber, www.findagrave.com