Leaf Dale Bigelow

Monuments

Anglo-American Memorial 1939-1945 (65th Fighter Wing)

Name:

Dale Bigelow Leaf

Rank:

First Lieutenant

Serial Number:

O-885233

Unit:

334th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group

Date of Death:

1943-09-02

State:

Iowa

Cemetery:

Ardennes American Cemetery, Neupré, Belgium

Plot:

Tablets of the Missing

Row:

Grave:

Decoration:

Air Medal with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters, Purple Heart

Comments:

Dale Bigelow Leaf was born on April 13, 1915, in Marshalltown, Marshall County, Iowa. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940 and transferred to the U.S. Army Air Corps following Pearl Harbor.

Dale served in the 334th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group, as a First Lieutenant. He was piloting the P-47 Thunderbolt #41-6212 QP*I at the time of his death. On September 2, 1943, 1Lt Leaf took at 16:40 on a ramrod escort mission in Beauvais-Tillé aerodrome in France. At 7:30 PM, he was shot down in air combat with 22 Fw190 fighters. He was last seen to “dive straight down followed by 4 FW-190’s.” His plane crashed at Cne de Dancourt - 20 km NO d'Aumale.

No body has ever been found, his name is memorialized at the Tablets of the Missing, Ardennes American Cemetery, Neupré, Belgium.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov, 4thfightergroupassociation.org, francecrashes39-45.net