John Kenneth Eschbach was born on May 29, 1914, in Tyrone, Blair County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of John William Eschbach and Laura Isabel Hiney Eschbach. He was married to Ethel May Kerlin Eschbach. He was a graduate of Tyrone High School, Class of 1935. He entered the military in February 1941 when the 104th Cavalry Unit was federalized. He transferred to the Air Force as an aerial gunner on a B-17 #43-37839 with the 349th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force.

On July 14, 1944, Bastille Day, the United States Army Air Forces carried out Operation Cadillac, one of the largest Allied aerial resupply missions of World War II, delivering urgently needed weapons, ammunition, and supplies to the French Resistance. Hundreds of B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, escorted by fighter aircraft, flew from England to drop thousands of containers over designated Resistance zones, including Moustoulat in Corrèze.

Eschbach participated in the mission, and on August 5, 1944, his aircraft was shot down over Germany leading to his capture and confinement for ten months as a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft IV, Gross-Tychow, Pomerania, Prussia. After the war, he served for 30 years as a mail carrier with the Tyrone Post Office. He was a member of Christ United Methodist Church, where he served as a trustee, chairman of the Administrative Board, and a member of the ushers’ association. He was also active in several veterans’ organizations, including the American Legion, VFW, and the Ex-POWs Association.

In 1994, he returned to France with fellow members of the 100th Bomb Group at the invitation of the French Resistance to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Bastille Day operation that supplied Resistance forces near Tulle. John died on December 3, 2001, and is now buried in the Blair Memorial Park, Bellwood, Blair County, Pennsylvania, USA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, resistancefrancaise.blogspot.com