George Coe

29Jun1918 – 22Dec1943

Edison Days

George’s photograph appears in the “In Memoriam” section of the 1946 Edison Wizard yearbook. No other photographs have been found of his time at Edison. Newspaper accounts of his military service list him as a graduate of Vocational High School.

Military Service

Rank: Staff Sergeant

Branch: United States Army Air Force

Unit: 409th Bomb Squadron – 93rd Bomb Group (Heavy)

George entered into military service in February 1942. In December 1942 he was promoted to Sergeant while attending gunnery school in Harlingen, TX.

It is unknown as to the exact date when George and his crew joined the 409th Bomb Squadron. It was likely late August or early September 1943 when they arrived at RAF Hardwick near Norfolk, England. The 93rd Bomb Group needed several replacement crews after losses sustained on the famous, and deadly, bombing mission to the oil refineries around Ploesti, Romania.

Little is known about the missions that George may have been involved in. His squadron would have participated in daylight bombing raids into France, the Netherlands, and into Germany.

On 22Dec1943 George’s plane was the lead aircraft of 18 B-24 Liberator bombers on a mission to attack the railroad marshalling yards at Osnabruck, Germany. They were joined by 103 additional B-24s from other squadrons.

After successfully completing their bombing run, the group encountered intense anti-aircraft fire and large numbers of German fighter planes just East of Staphorst, the Netherlands. George’s plane was hit by enemy fire and took evasive action by diving into the low cloud cover. While it was originally thought that the plane crashed into Lake IJsselmeer, the Netherlands, no trace of the plane or crew was ever found. It is suspected that they crashed into the North Sea.

George and the rest of the crew were originally declared missing in action.

In September 1945 his status was changed to killed in action.

A memorial service was held for George on 30Sep1945.

George’s body was never recovered. His name is 1 of 5,127 named engraved on the Tablets of the Missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery in Cambridge, England.