In Memory of U. S. Army Air Force First Lieutenant
Lynn George Peterson
Frederick, South Dakota
Brown County
February 22, 1918 – March 18, 1944
Killed in Action in Southern Germany
Lynn G. Peterson was born on February 23, 1918, at Stratford, South Dakota. His parents were Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Peterson, and he had four brothers: Glen, Robert, Harold, Dean, and two sisters: Ruth and Gertrude. In 1922, the Petersons moved to Frederick, where Lynn attended high school. His father was the Superintendent at Frederick. After graduation, Lynn attended college at Northern State Teachers College in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and Pasadena Junior College in California. Before enlisting, Peterson was employed by a wholesale building firm in Pasadena.
Peterson entered the Army Air Force in September 1942, and was commissioned in April of 1943. He married Evelyn Angerhofer of Pasadena (daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. R. Angerhofer) in April of 1943 in Marfa, Texas. He received his basic training at Gardner Field in Taft, California, and his primary flight training at Ryan School, a twin-engine advanced pilot training school in Tucson, Arizona.
First Lieutenant Peterson piloted a B-24 Liberator and completed 23 missions in Europe. He was awarded the Air Medal, three Oak Leaf Clusters, a Purple Heart, the President’s Memorial Certificate, and the Distinguished Flying Cross. In the book South Dakota in WW II, we found the citation for the DFC, which is issued for “heroism OR extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight.” His citation read:
March 18, 1944, pilot on B-24 on mission against Friedickhofen, Germany * * * encountered a strong group of enemy planes and intense fire and two engines of his plane and robot control put out of commission. The tail and waist gunners were killed. In order to permit the other six members of the crew to parachute to safety Peterson and First Lieutenant Willard V. Lidgard, manually controlled the plane but when they had parachuted the plane went into a spin and they were unable to extricate themselves and fell with the plane to their death.
According to South Dakota in WW II, “The six men who parachuted all lived and returned to the United States probably owing their lives to the determination and devotion of the two pilots.” In regards to Lt. Peterson and crew, the website www.b24.net reports that seven of the crew bailed out and were subsequently taken prisoner and that the pilot (Lt. Peterson), the co-pilot (Lidgard) and the tail gunner (S/Sgt. Robert Stevens) were killed. Peterson’s plane was among 2,000 participating on a mission over southern Germany on March 18, 1944. The newspaper reported that the day’s attack cost the U.S. 43 bombers and 10 fighters. Details of Lt. Peterson’s last mission can be found at www.b24.net (mission #53, 18 March 1944). It reports that 28 B-24 aircrafts were dispatched on the Friedrichshafen mission, 4 had mechanical trouble, and only 7 returned to England.
The report of Peterson’s death was received by the war department from the German government through the International Red Cross. In 1948, the body of Lynn Peterson was returned to the United States for reburial. Frederick’s American Legion, which had been named in his honor, was in charge of the military ritual for the final services. Burial took place in the family lot at the Frederick Cemetery.
At the time of the burial service, he was survived by his widow, his parents, six brothers and sisters: Glen, Brentford; Mrs. Grant Fish, Wattis, Utah; Robert, Westminster, Maryland; Mrs. W. Williams, Menlo Park, California; Harold, Oakland, California; and Dean, Frederick.
Miranda Nissen and Kellie Heier, of Central High School in Aberdeen, South Dakota, submitted this entry April 9, 2002, with information obtained from articles from the Aberdeen American News on file at the Alexander Mitchell Library, South Dakota in WW II, and the Peterson family, via Bill Cantwell, Aberdeen, SD.
