Ens. Harry Rudolph Flachsbarth
Born: 10 April 1918 – Proviso Township, Illinois
Parents: Harry E. Flachsbarth & Lydia Rudolph-Flachsbarth
Siblings: 1 sister
Nickname: “Rudy”
Hometown:
– lived in Oak Park, Illinois in the early 1930s
– 7653 West Monroe Street, Forest Park, Illinois
Education:
– Garfield Grade School, Maywood, Illinois
– Proviso Township High School
– Graduating Class: 1936
– Carthage College – Carthage, Illinois
– Class of 1940
Wife: Edith Blanche-Flachsbarth
– Married: 5 April 1942 – Corpus Christi, Texas
Enlisted:
– United States Naval Reserve
Inducted:
– August 1940
Training:
– Naval Air Station – Pensacola, Florida
September 1940
– received his wings
– commissioned an Ensign
– Corpus Christi, Texas
– Anacostia Naval Air Station, Washington D.C.
– Jacksonville Naval Air Station, Florida
– Miami Naval Air Station, Florida
– Glenview Naval Air Station, Illinois
– spent two years as PBY flight instructor
Carrier: U.S.S. Shangri-La
Engagements:
– Invasion of Saipan
– Battle of Philippine Sea
Killed in Action:
– 21 June 1944
– took off as part of a routine night patrol from Saipan Harbor, Saipan Island, Marianas Islands
– left formation to look at a suspicious ship
– a destroyer sent out to look for his plane found wreckage from the type of plane he flew
– shot down by anti-aircraft fire by an American ship
– Missing in Action – July 1944
Declared Dead:
– 22 June 1945
Memorial:
– Memorial Courts of the Missing – National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific – Honolulu, Hawaii
Medals:
– Two Bronze Stars
– Purple Heart
