S/Sgt. Miles Lloyd Toepper
Born: 26 December 1923 – Forest Park, Illinois
Parents: J. Charles & Laura Toepper
Siblings: 2 sisters, 2 brothers
Home:
– 418 South Elgin Avenue – Forest Park, Illinois
Education:
– Saint James Catholic School – Maywood, Illinois
– Proviso Township High School
Employment: Chicago Title & Trust Company – Chicago, Illinois
– Class of 1941
– Northwestern University (Evening School)
Selective Service Registration: 27 June 1942
Contact Person: Laura Toepper – mother
Inducted:
– 31 March 1943
Serial Number: 36655469
Training:
– Camp Hood – Killeen, Texas
– Camp Bowie – Brownwood, Texas
– Camp Harlingen – Killeen, Texas
– Biggs Army Airfield – El Paso, Texas
– crews of B-17s and B24s trained there
– ball turret gunner
Stationed: North Pickenham, England
– member of crew #601
Deployment:
– went to England on the Queen Elizabeth
Unit:
– 856th Bomb Squadron, 492nd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 8th Air Force
– the unit flew B24J Bombers
– unofficially known as “The Hard Luck Group” for number of casualties
– Toepper’s crew was one of the original bomber crews
Plane: 44-40163
Engagements:
– 34 bombing missions over Europe
– 11 May 1944 – his first mission
Killed in Action:
– 20 June 1944
– 856th assigned to bomb oil refineries at Politz, Germany
– on the flight to target the squadron was attacked by Me-410s, Ju-88s, Me-109s, and Me-110s
– it is believed a captured B-24 joined formation and radioed their position to Luftwaffe
– Toepper’s plane hit by rockets from Me-410s and Ju-88s
– the plane fell from sky and crashed into the Kibitzer Bodden, a part of the Baltic Sea, which is a channel between Stralsund and Rugen Island
– Toepper’s body recovered on the coast near Stralsund by Germans after crash
– buried in a local cemetery
Buried:
– 11 June 1949 – Forest Home Cemetery – Forest Park, Illinois
– buried next to his grandmother
Medals:
– Purple Heart
