Casualty questionnaire, page 24 · 22 June 1944
AFPPA- li
File 11543
INDIVIDUAL CASUALTY QUESTIONNAIRE
Name of crew member:
ELDRIDGE, Charles H.
Hank:
Sgt.
Serial number:
14168063
Position: Crew (Bomber) Asst.Arm.Gunner
Did he bail out?
No
Where? XXXXXX
If not, why not?
No explanation can be given as to why.
Last contact or conversation just prior to or at time of loss of plane No one
an the plane heard from Elditdge for quite some time.
Was he injured?
Where was he when last seen? Sgt. Ryan was the last man to bail out. and
he did not see him in the wadät of the ship- so he must have still been
Any hearsay information: in the tail gunner's seat.
The bodies of Lts. Schild, Freiberger and Sgt. Eldridge lay in the plane
on the ground for Siree days while the German Intelligence Officers:
Stripped the lance. At the end of this time they dug a comm: on grave
for the three bodies, looted all valuables- and then buries them together,
That night the Italian peasants oug up the bodies, placed them in- coffins,
along with Sgt. Snracher's body, ane gave them a christian funeral and
buraal in the church cemetary, marked with four wooden crosses with the
one word, AMERICAN.
Thi S information was devulged to me by a man sent to me by the
Source: Catholic priest of that church.
Any explanation of his fate based in part or wholly on supposition: Either sgt.
Eldridge was mortally wounded and unable to put on his chute, or the
centrifical force of the spinning plane must have kept him in there
until 1t crashed.
Total number of missions of above crew member: This was his sixth mission.
Dates and destinations if possible: I do not know them as this was the first
time I had ever flown with him.
6-3861, AF
File 11543
INDIVIDUAL CASUALTY QUESTIONNAIRE
Name of crew member:
ELDRIDGE, Charles H.
Hank:
Sgt.
Serial number:
14168063
Position: Crew (Bomber) Asst.Arm.Gunner
Did he bail out?
No
Where? XXXXXX
If not, why not?
No explanation can be given as to why.
Last contact or conversation just prior to or at time of loss of plane No one
an the plane heard from Elditdge for quite some time.
Was he injured?
Where was he when last seen? Sgt. Ryan was the last man to bail out. and
he did not see him in the wadät of the ship- so he must have still been
Any hearsay information: in the tail gunner's seat.
The bodies of Lts. Schild, Freiberger and Sgt. Eldridge lay in the plane
on the ground for Siree days while the German Intelligence Officers:
Stripped the lance. At the end of this time they dug a comm: on grave
for the three bodies, looted all valuables- and then buries them together,
That night the Italian peasants oug up the bodies, placed them in- coffins,
along with Sgt. Snracher's body, ane gave them a christian funeral and
buraal in the church cemetary, marked with four wooden crosses with the
one word, AMERICAN.
Thi S information was devulged to me by a man sent to me by the
Source: Catholic priest of that church.
Any explanation of his fate based in part or wholly on supposition: Either sgt.
Eldridge was mortally wounded and unable to put on his chute, or the
centrifical force of the spinning plane must have kept him in there
until 1t crashed.
Total number of missions of above crew member: This was his sixth mission.
Dates and destinations if possible: I do not know them as this was the first
time I had ever flown with him.
6-3861, AF
National Archives, MACR 11543, page 24 · Machine-read from microfilm, uncorrected.