World War II Honoree

Edgar L. Herrick

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Kingsbury County, South Dakota

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

RANK: TECHNICAL SERGEANT. SERVED AS A B-17 ‘FLYING FORTRESS’ BOMBER FLIGHT ENGINEER/TOP TURRET GUNNER ASSIGNED TO THE 350TH BOMB SQUADRON, 100TH ‘BLOODY HUNDREDTH’ BOMB GROUP, U.S. 8TH AIR FORCE ‘MIGHTY EIGHTH’. HIS UNIT WAS BASED AT THE THORPE ABBOTS ROYAL AIR FORCE AIRFIELD ENGLAND, UNITED STATES ARMY AIRFIELD STATION #139. KILLED IN ACTION MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1944 DURING A BOMBING RAID ON THE RUHLAND SYNTHETIC OIL REFINERY, RUHLAND-SCHWARZHEIDE, GERMANY. HIS FLYING FORTRESS WAS SHOT DOWN WHEN IT WAS ATTACKED BY A LARGE FORMATION OF GERMAN FIGHTERS AND CRASHED INTO A FORESTED HILL IN THE VICINITY OF KOVARSKA, CZECH REPUBLIC. THERE WERE 9 CREWMEN ON BOARD, 6 PERISHED IN THE DISASTER AND THE OTHER 3 BAILED OUT AND WERE CAPTURED BY THE GERMANS, BECOMING PRISONERS OF WAR. THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN THE AMERICAN AND GERMAN AIR FORCES, LATER KNOWN AS ‘BLACK MONDAY’ TOOK PLACE AROUND MIDDAY AND WAS ONE OF THE LARGEST AIR BATTLES FOUGHT OVER THE ORE MOUNTAINS IN THE EUROPEAN THEATER. HE WAS INTERRED IN A BATTLEFIELD CEMETERY AND AFTER THE CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES IN EUROPE, HIS REMAINS WERE RETURNED TO HIS FAMILY APRIL 4, 1951, WITH INTERMENT IN THE JEFFERSON BARRACKS NATIONAL CEMETERY, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI. ON SEPTEMBER 11, 1994, THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ‘BLACK MONDAY’, THE CITIZENS OF KOVARSKA UNVEILED AND DEDICATED A MEMORIAL, HONORING THE AIRMEN WHO TOOK PART IN THAT GREAT AIR BATTLE.