John Linder Sunberg was born at Red Oak, Montgomery County, Iowa on November 15, 1921. His parents were John August Sunberg (8 Sep 1879 – 25 Nov 1950), who was born in Sweden and immigrated to America about 1889; and Ruth Augusta (Linder) Sunberg (15 Feb 1893 – 25 May 1944), who was born at Frankfort Township, Montgomery County, Iowa. His parents married at Stanton, Montgomery County, Iowa on December 30, 1919. His father was a grocer in 1920, and later a farmer. He had three younger siblings: William Gustaf Sunberg (6 Feb 1923 – 19 Apr 2001), Ruth Marie (Sunberg) Johnson (abt 1926 – unk), and Paul August Sunberg (26 Jul 1927 – 31 May 2006).
He completed four years of high school and worked as a farmer. He was single, without dependents, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at Fort Crook, Nebraska on October 12, 1942. He was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 127 pounds. He had blue eyes, brown hair, ruddy complexion, and shoe size 8 1/2 B. His home of record was RFD 3, Red Oak, Iowa, his father's address in 1945.
He completed Army Air Forces radio operator training at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, followed by aerial gunnery training at Yuma, Arizona. He was then assigned as radio operator on the heavy bomber crew of Lt Jack Leon in the 837th Bomb Squadron of the 487th Bomb Group. This Group was based at Army Air Forces Station 137 near Lavenham, Suffolk, England. The Leon crew arrived at Station 137 by November 30, 1944, and became part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in Europe.
On March 18, 1945 Lt Leon's crew flew B-17G 44-8276 on a mission to bomb railroad marshalling yards at Berlin, Germany. Just before bombs away the aircraft was crippled by flak. Lt Leon initially tried to reach a safe landing site in Poland, but the crew was forced to bail out about ten miles east of the Oder River near Massin, Germany (now called Mosina, in Lubuskie Province, Poland). T/Sgt Sunberg and his crew mate T/Sgt Leonard A. Marino were killed by Russian Yak fighters that strafed the men after they bailed out. Seven men parachuted safely.
The bodies of T/Sgts Sunberg and Marino were buried in the vicinity of Massin by Russian troops. After the war this area was in the Russian sector of Germany, which limited the access of American Graves Registration personnel. A field investigation by American personnel in April 1948 determined that they were not buried in the town cemetery of Mosina, Poland (formerly Massin, Germany). In a letter to the U.S. Quartermaster Corps in October 1948, pilot Jack Leon estimated that the graves "are within a three (3) mile radius of the town of Massin, Germany [Mosina, Poland]."
T/Sgts Sunberg and Marino are still listed as missing in action. They are memorialized on the Wall of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery at Margraten. T/Sgt Sunberg also has a cenotaph at Evergreen Cemetery in Red Oak, Montgomery County, Iowa, where his parents are buried.
A monument to Technical Sergeants Sunberg and Marino was dedicated at Mosina, Poland on March 18, 2017. The initiative for the monument came from Dariusz Jaworski, then Mayor of Witnica, Poland.
B-17G 44-8276 crew:
• Leon, Jack – 1/Lt – Pilot – Safe
• Polen, Robert C – 2/Lt – Copilot – Safe
• Shaw, Robert W – F/O – Bombardier – Safe
• Dolin, Leon – 2/Lt – Navigator – Safe
• Marino, Leonard A – T/Sgt – Engineer – KIA
• Sunberg, John L – T/Sgt – Radio Operator – KIA
• Hopkin, Rees W – S/Sgt – Ball Turret Gunner – Safe
• Moore, Ralph L – S/Sgt – Waist Gunner – Safe
• Beeson, John D – S/Sgt – Tail Gunner – Safe
Source of information: Paul M. Webber, www.findagrave.com