Robert Zercher, Floyd Ragsdale, Philip Cavanaugh and the other crewmembers of a B-17G

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Posted By Jelle Reitsma on June 12, 2006 at 16:19:58:

I am researching the crew of a B17G bomber (serial number 4239881, 729 Squadron, 452 Bomb Group (Heavy)) which crashed in Holland (Veldweg, Lieren near Apeldoorn) on Saturday, April 29th 1944.

The bottom-turret gunner was Sgt Robert Zercher, whose father's address (Frank Zercher) was York, Pennsylvania.
Floyd Ragsdale was the tail gunner.
He died, age 76, Honea Path, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2000.
He was born in Honea Path on Oct. 31, 1923, a graduate of Erskine College, Class of '49, and was a member of the State Engineering Board. He was a land surveyor for five decades. After the crash Mr. Ragsdale was missing in action for six months, and was a prisoner of war for six months.
2nd Lt Phillip Cavanaugh of Baltimore was bombardier. Cavanaugh evaded capture, although some of the crew were captured by the occupying Germans.

Above mentioned information on Bob Zercher, Floyd Ragsdale and Philip Cavanaugh is from Mr Don Kay, Mt Pleasant SC.

Reason for my research:
On one of the war monuments in Apeldoorn (the Netherlands) is the name of Sergeant USAAF Robert W. Zercher, a ballturretgunner on a B-17 from 729 Bomber Squadron 452 Bomber Group.

On April 29th 1944 he and the rest of crew had to bail out when their B-17 was shot down by German fighters in the neighborhood of Apeldoorn. The Dutch resistance took care of the crew and hid them for the Germans. Unfortunately Sgt Zercher was eventually caught by the Germans on October, 1st 1944 together with a British Flight sergeant named Kenneth Ingram. The Germans knew that they were Allied soldiers, but nevertheless they murdered them the next day, together with six members of the Dutch resistance. The Germans laid their dead bodies in the streets of Apeldoorn, with a paper on their chests with the word ‘Terrorist’ written on it, to frighten the Apeldoorn population. After the war a monument was erected for these unlucky Allied soldiers and resistance fighters to commemorate this atrocious war crime.

For some unknown reason Robert Zercher’s family name is misspelled on the monument as ‘Zurcher’. We - a working group that described Apeldoorn's war monuments in a book - are planning to correct this and to unveil the monument anew with the correct name at the next commemoration, October 2nd 2006. At the same time we will try to publish a more in-depth description of Robert Zercher and his war experiences in the local newspaper ‘Stentor’ and on a website: http://www.monument.apeldoorn-onderwijs.nl/index.htm.

In the meantime we are looking for more details about the other 7 crew members, the mission (a mass attack on Berlin?), etc.

Jelle Reitsma
Apeldoorn, the Netherlands



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