SSgt Marlyn M. Schrader

Marlyn M. Schrader enlisted at Fort Des Moines, Iowa on May 28, 1941. He was assigned to the Army Air Forces and trained as an aerial gunner. He was promoted to Sergeant, and assigned to crew training on the B-17 type aircraft.   The crew was sent to England after crew training, arriving at Thorpe-Abbots on May 9, 1944. They flew one combat mission on May 23, 1944, over Germany. On May 24, 1944, the crew was scheduled to bomb Berlin, Germany.   The formation had trouble assembling, so arrived at the target area in trail, not in combat box formation. The individual aircraft were attacked by a total estimated force of 200 German fighters. Fifteen B-17s were lost, with nine of them belonging to the 349th Bomb Squadron.   During the air battle, a German pilot misjudged distance, and collided with this particular aircraft. It began burning, went into a tight spin, and crashed with all crew aboard near Itzstadt, Germany.   Schrader was at first moved to a temporary military cemetery (Plot T, Row 2, Grave 33) and later moved to where he lies today in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium in Plot G, Row 2, Grave 33.