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Personal info

Full name
JOUBERT, Clifford Louis Jr
Date of birth
14 February 1919
Age
25
Place of birth
San Francisco, San Francisco County, California
Hometown
Sacramento County, California

Military service

Service number
19139967
Rank
Sergeant
Function
Right Waist Gunner
Unit
786th Bombardment Squadron,
466th Bombardment Group, Heavy
Awards
Purple Heart,
Air Medal

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
22 March 1944
Place of death
Berlin-Friedrichsfelde, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Ardennes
Plot Row Grave
A 42 36

Immediate family

Members
Clifford L. Joubert (father)
Mildred H. (Eby) Joubert (mother)
Frank Nicolosi (stepfather)
Roberta Joubert (sister)
Dorothy Joubert (sister)

Plane data

Serial number
41-29434
Data
Type: B-24H
Nickname: Terry and the Pirates
Destination: Oranienburg, Germany
Mission: Bombing of the Heinkel aviation industry.
MACR: 3492

More information

Sgt Clifford L. Joubert Jr. volunteered for the Air Corps of the Army of the United Stated in San Francisco, California on 17 October 1942. He attended high school for 1 year and was a mechanic before he joined the army.

The primary target was the Heinkel aviation industry in Oranienburg. Due to cloud cover, the secundary target, the city center of Berlin, was atacked.

The aircraft collided at about 1330 hours with B-24H / AF# 41-29416, nickname "Rebbel Gal", 15 seconds before bombs away. 5 crew members were killed, 5 were taken prisoner.

Exerpt from the book "B-24 Liberator Units of the Eight Air Force", by Robert F. Dorr:
B-24H 41-29434 Terry and the Pirates, piloted by 2nd Lt William Terry, was suddenly flying upside down over the target.
A crew member on another Liberator 'wondered what the heck he was doing in that attitude'.
Another crew member said, 'Suddenly I saw directly ahead and below a bomber with one tail missing. Mid-air collision! It was trying desperately to stay upright, but finaly it slid off to the left and slowly turned belly up with its bomb bay open, the bombs still in the racks. Then it went into a helpless spin. The realisation struck me that a bomber could spin easely as a single seater'.

The deceased men were initially buried at the POW Cemetery of Elsgrund-Döbertiz. In June 1951 an investigation was conducted to find several American deceased at the grounds where the POW Cemetery of Döbertiz was situated. The former caretaker, however, stated that the Americans exhumed their remains in 1947, in 1948 the French and in 1949 the Italians, Germans and Russians completely exhumed the cemetery. This was done systematically, field by field, row by row. In late 1949 the former cemetery site was returned to its German owner. In 1951 it was planted with potatoes. The conclusion of the investigation was that when the cemetery finally was disinterred all remains left, were evacuated to Russian or German Honor cemeteries and buried in unmarked graves.

Source of information: Raf Dyckmans, Terry Hirsch, www.wwiimemorial.com, www.archives.gov - WWII Enlistment record, www.usaafdata.com, www.fold3.com - Aircrashes by date, March 1944, page 42, Annotations, Book: B-24 Liberator Units of the Eight Air Force, by Robert F. Dorr, Chapter three, page 48, WWII Draft Card

Photo source: Peter Schouteten