1st Lieutenant Gordon Byron Ashley O-694112

1st Lieutenant Gordon Byron Ashley O694112 US Army Air Corps. He was born on November 10, 1917, in Yuba, California he was the son of Walter Byron Ashley and Eunice Francis Gordon Ashley.  He had one sister. Lieutenant Gordon B Ashley entered the military on January 12, 1943, when he was 25 years old.

He served in the 314th Fighter Squadron, 324th Fighter Group, XII Tactical Air Command. The Air Craft that he flew was a P-47 Thunderbolt 36, serial number 42-27105 nicknamed “Edgewood Angel” He died in this aircraft on April 1, 1945, at the age of 27. On April 1, 1945 during an attack on Heilbronn, Lieutenant Gordon B. Ashley’s P-47 presumably hit by anti-aircraft guns in the engine, Ashley tried to get behind the American lines near the town of Allfeld. The P-47 lost more and more power until it pitched forward and went into a nosedive. Lieutenant Gordon B. Ashley crashed near the village of Bernbrunn Germany with wing machine guns firing. On October 8th, 2001 Ashley was rescued from the air burial and taken to the USA and was buried in San Bruno, California.

U.S., National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962

1920 United States Federal Census

1930 United States Federal Census

1940 United States Federal Census

California Birth Index, 1905-1995

U.S. Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939-1945

https://www.plane-crashes-heidelberg.de/1945/04/01/nr-04-p-47-pilot-gordon-b-ashley-absturz-01-april-1945-bei-bernbrunn-heilbronn/