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Lauf Elmer F.

Monuments

C47A 42-93038 Plaque

 

Name:
Elmer F. Lauf
Rank:
Corporal
Serial Number:
31248733
Unit:
113th Field Artillery Battalion, 30th Infantry Division
Date of Death:
1944-07-27
State:
Connecticut
Cemetery:
Cambridge American Cemetery, United Kingdom
Plot:
E
Row:
6
Grave:
83
Decoration:
Purple Heart
Comments:

Elmer F. Lauf entered the military service in Connecticut. He served in the 113th Field Artillery Battalion, 30th Infantry Division as a Corporal and was a passenger on the C47A #42-93038 during World War II. Their aircraft had taken off, along with a second C-47, from its home station of Merryfield, 8 miles SE of Taunton in Somerset, and had flown to Filton on the edge of Bristol where both aircraft took on injured US military service personnel from various units returned from Normandy and accompanying medical staff. In addition a single RAF airman had boarded 42-93038, he was returning home to Ayrshire on leave. Once loading was complete the two aircraft took off from Filton bound for Prestwick.

The injured soldiers were going to be taken back to the US, probably by sea in a convoy leaving from Clyde. At the time the two C-47s arrived at the northern end of the Irish Sea a dense fog hung over the area around the Mull of Galloway which obscured all of the coastal features, including the 200ft high cliffs which 42-93038 flew into above the beach in Cairngarroch Bay to the south of Portpatrick. The second aircraft had also come very close to crashing into the cliffs and landed RAF West Freugh.

CPL Lauf is now buried in the Cambridge American Cemetery, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, https://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk