Jacob Kaplan
An early photo of Jacob Kaplan
Oregon Chapter
8th Air Force
Historical Society
Preserving the history of the Mighty 8th
Jacob Kaplan
Jacob was a pre-war pilot and was in Panama Kapan on 7 December 1941 before the unit was assigned to the 8th Air Force in 1942.
Paul Bellamy 401st Bombardment Group (H) Association wrote and found out additional information about Lt Kaplan.
Checking the POW records at NARA confirms Mr Kaplan's serial number was O-755228, as seen in his Stalag ID photo. He was a Lieutenant flying as the navigator of a B-24H crew with the 392nd Bomb Group, 577th Bomb Squadron when his aircraft 42-7496 was lost on a mission to Gotha on February 24th 1944. 42-7496 was nicknamed The Jinx, which matches a photograph.
392 BG 24/2/44 mission summary and MACR reference: MISSING AIRCREW REPORT: #02946 AIRCRAFT: #42-7496 "THE JINX" "U" 16th Mission
These photos were originally on a web site (the domain had expired) and I found by accident and I was able to save the images due to it still being in Google's cache.
Lt Kaplan was shot down and became a POW at Barth, Germany.
POW Jacob Kapan
POW Jacob Kapan - Luftwaffe photo
German ID tag
Jacob Kaplans German ID tag at Stalag Luft 1Map of Stalag Luft 1
Approximately 8,939 airmen, 7,588 American, 1,351 Royal Air Force, were POWs at Stalag Luft I during the Second World War.
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