Memorial

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2nd Lt Gerald J. Duffy graduated from Davenport High School with the class of 1936 and later attended business college. He was a paymaster with French & Hecht.

He joined the Air Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve in Des Moines, Iowa on 13 October 1942.

While on a mission over Merseburg, Germany, the plane was hit causing it to lose two engines. Lt Duffy, however, continued his flight back to England. Somewhere between the Rhine River and the Dutch-German border, Lt Duffy’s plane was again struck by flak. Consequently, Lt Duffy found that he was unable to maintain level flight.

Realizing that the plane was going to crash, Lt Duffy ordered his crew to bail out, which they did. He also realized that the aircraft was headed toward the town of Well where he believed it would crash with the potential of taking many civilian lives. He stayed with the plane, pulled her up once more to avoid hitting the town. He then abandoned the plane, however he was too low for a successful bail out and his parachute did not completely open. He was killed in the jump.

The other eight crew members were taken prisoner.

Lt Duffy was first buried at the Arcen Roman Catholic Cemetery, a few miles across the Maas river from the crash site on 9 November 1944.