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