B-17F-20-BO "Omar Khayyam/The Plastered Bastard" Serial Number 41-24534
The order of the Purple Heart was recently posthumously awarded to Capt. Willis E. Jacobs who lost his life on December 1, 1942. Mrs. Henry Burg of 265 Washington, the captain's mother, received the decoration with the declaration from Washington of the official death of the aviator, just one year later on December 1, 1943, stating that all reasonable doubt of his death had vanished.
Capt. Jacobs was confined in a hospital in Pearl Harbor on the day of the fateful invasion. A bomb which struck the hospital sent debris crashing through his room, covering him with plaster. He was not injured however.
The battle in which Capt. Jacobs lost his life took place over the Solomons when his heavy fortress encountered a number of Jap planes and shot down four of them. The remainder disappeared and it looked like all was clear when a "suicide Jap" plane came through the clouds and rammed into the fortress. The impact, which occurred 1700 feet in the air, completely severed the tail of the fortress and all the crew were killed but the tail gunner. He regained his consciousness in time to open his parachute and landed in enemy territory, about 150 yards from shore. For 68 days he wandered about the island until finally natives aided him to return to his base.
The young gunner, a native of Alabama, has written a number of letters to his captain's mother and upon his return to this country visited Mrs. Burg and gave her the above information with the assurance that her son had certainly perished.
Mrs. Burg has another son, Lester [Jacobs], in the navy, who is on the airplane carrier "Belleau Woods" and has seen action in Tarawa, Marshall and Gilbert Islands.
Since the death of her son has bee ascertained, Mrs. Burg has received numerous letters from heads of the various branches of the armed forces, among them General Simpson, General Marshall and General Ulio.
—Oak Leaves (Oak Park, IL), 13 Jan 1944, pg. 26
The order of the Purple Heart was recently posthumously awarded to Capt. Willis E. Jacobs who lost his life on December 1, 1942. Mrs. Henry Burg of 265 Washington, the captain's mother, received the decoration with the declaration from Washington of the official death of the aviator, just one year later on December 1, 1943, stating that all reasonable doubt of his death had vanished.
Capt. Jacobs was confined in a hospital in Pearl Harbor on the day of the fateful invasion. A bomb which struck the hospital sent debris crashing through his room, covering him with plaster. He was not injured however.
The battle in which Capt. Jacobs lost his life took place over the Solomons when his heavy fortress encountered a number of Jap planes and shot down four of them. The remainder disappeared and it looked like all was clear when a "suicide Jap" plane came through the clouds and rammed into the fortress. The impact, which occurred 1700 feet in the air, completely severed the tail of the fortress and all the crew were killed but the tail gunner. He regained his consciousness in time to open his parachute and landed in enemy territory, about 150 yards from shore. For 68 days he wandered about the island until finally natives aided him to return to his base.
The young gunner, a native of Alabama, has written a number of letters to his captain's mother and upon his return to this country visited Mrs. Burg and gave her the above information with the assurance that her son had certainly perished.
Mrs. Burg has another son, Lester [Jacobs], in the navy, who is on the airplane carrier "Belleau Woods" and has seen action in Tarawa, Marshall and Gilbert Islands.
Since the death of her son has bee ascertained, Mrs. Burg has received numerous letters from heads of the various branches of the armed forces, among them General Simpson, General Marshall and General Ulio.
—Oak Leaves (Oak Park, IL), 13 Jan 1944, pg. 26
B-17F-20-BO "Omar Khayyam/The Plastered Bastard" Serial Number 41-24534
The order of the Purple Heart was recently posthumously awarded to Capt. Willis E. Jacobs who lost his life on December 1, 1942. Mrs. Henry Burg of 265 Washington, the captain's mother, received the decoration with the declaration from Washington of the official death of the aviator, just one year later on December 1, 1943, stating that all reasonable doubt of his death had vanished.
Capt. Jacobs was confined in a hospital in Pearl Harbor on the day of the fateful invasion. A bomb which struck the hospital sent debris crashing through his room, covering him with plaster. He was not injured however.
The battle in which Capt. Jacobs lost his life took place over the Solomons when his heavy fortress encountered a number of Jap planes and shot down four of them. The remainder disappeared and it looked like all was clear when a "suicide Jap" plane came through the clouds and rammed into the fortress. The impact, which occurred 1700 feet in the air, completely severed the tail of the fortress and all the crew were killed but the tail gunner. He regained his consciousness in time to open his parachute and landed in enemy territory, about 150 yards from shore. For 68 days he wandered about the island until finally natives aided him to return to his base.
The young gunner, a native of Alabama, has written a number of letters to his captain's mother and upon his return to this country visited Mrs. Burg and gave her the above information with the assurance that her son had certainly perished.
Mrs. Burg has another son, Lester [Jacobs], in the navy, who is on the airplane carrier "Belleau Woods" and has seen action in Tarawa, Marshall and Gilbert Islands.
Since the death of her son has bee ascertained, Mrs. Burg has received numerous letters from heads of the various branches of the armed forces, among them General Simpson, General Marshall and General Ulio.
—Oak Leaves (Oak Park, IL), 13 Jan 1944, pg. 26
The order of the Purple Heart was recently posthumously awarded to Capt. Willis E. Jacobs who lost his life on December 1, 1942. Mrs. Henry Burg of 265 Washington, the captain's mother, received the decoration with the declaration from Washington of the official death of the aviator, just one year later on December 1, 1943, stating that all reasonable doubt of his death had vanished.
Capt. Jacobs was confined in a hospital in Pearl Harbor on the day of the fateful invasion. A bomb which struck the hospital sent debris crashing through his room, covering him with plaster. He was not injured however.
The battle in which Capt. Jacobs lost his life took place over the Solomons when his heavy fortress encountered a number of Jap planes and shot down four of them. The remainder disappeared and it looked like all was clear when a "suicide Jap" plane came through the clouds and rammed into the fortress. The impact, which occurred 1700 feet in the air, completely severed the tail of the fortress and all the crew were killed but the tail gunner. He regained his consciousness in time to open his parachute and landed in enemy territory, about 150 yards from shore. For 68 days he wandered about the island until finally natives aided him to return to his base.
The young gunner, a native of Alabama, has written a number of letters to his captain's mother and upon his return to this country visited Mrs. Burg and gave her the above information with the assurance that her son had certainly perished.
Mrs. Burg has another son, Lester [Jacobs], in the navy, who is on the airplane carrier "Belleau Woods" and has seen action in Tarawa, Marshall and Gilbert Islands.
Since the death of her son has bee ascertained, Mrs. Burg has received numerous letters from heads of the various branches of the armed forces, among them General Simpson, General Marshall and General Ulio.
—Oak Leaves (Oak Park, IL), 13 Jan 1944, pg. 26
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Entered the service from Illinois.
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