Edmund G. Klemm

Taking Third Phase of Flight Training

Courtland, Ala. -- Aviation Cadet Edmund G. Kemm, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Klemm of Schneider, has reported here to the army air forces basic flying school for the third stage of training as a cadet pilot.

This air base, only until recently the site of flourishing cotton fields, is alive today with the roar of Uncle Sam's planes flying overhead.

The BT-13 which a cadet learns to handle here is a faster and heavier plane than the one which he flew at primary school, and therefore, requires a wider knowledge of all aerial sciences. His varied course of training includes instrument flying, night soloing, and a thorough study and application of aerial navigation.

The army air forces basic flying school at Courtland, Ala., is one of the newest in the southeast training center. Night and day they "Keep 'em Flying" for victory.

Receives Award and Promotion

Sgt. Edmund G. Klemm, son of Mr. and Mrs. F.W. Klemm, Schneider, received his silver aerial gunner's wings and was promoted to the grade Sergeant when he completed the flexible gunnery course for radio men at the Yuma army air field recently. Prior to his training in flexible gunnery, Sgt. Klemm graduated from the radio operators and mechanics school, Scott Field, Ill. He is a graduate of Lowell high school.

A Ninth Air Force Bomber Base, France -- Sgt. Edmund G. Klemm, whose wife, Mrs. Bethel M. Klemm, lives in Lowell, recently has been assigned to the 386th Bombardment Group in France. He flies in combat as a B-26 Marauder radio gunner in direct cooperation with the Allied armies fighting on the western front.

This tactical air operation, carried out by the medium bomber component of the Ninth Air Force, is directed against bridges and communication centers back of the enemy's front lines, and against fortified villages and strong points in the path of Allied troops.

By this interdiction program against rail and road facilities, not only does the air force present the enemy with increasing difficulty in supplying and reinforcing his troops but also in making strategic shifts from one section of the front to another in attempting to stem Allied pressure.

Sgt. Klemm's group--popularly known as the "Crusaders"--is commanded by Col. Thomas G. Carbin of Fremont, N.C. The "Crusaders" have been awarded the Presidential unit citation for outstanding performance in bombing enemy targets.

A 9th Air Force Bomber Base, France -- For meritorious performance as a radio gunner on bombing missions to Germany, Sgt. Edmund G. Klemm, Lowell, has been awarded the Air Medal at an American air field in France.

The 28 year old gunner is a member of Col. Grover C. Brown's 387th "Tiger Stripe" B26 Maurader group of the U.S. Ninth Air Force which was recently commended by Lieut. General Omar N. Bradley, commanding the 12th army group, for its outstanding record of sorties made on the enemy.

Sgt. Klemm's group has been attacking enemy bridges, marshalling yards, communication centers and supply installations in conjunction with the Ninth Air Force's concerted drive to neutralize the Nazi war effort through constant aerial attacks. Just as it bombed the Nazis on the beaches, drove them from the occupied nations, crushed them in the Rhineland, the "Tiger Stripe" group helped finish the task of tactical bombing in the German Fatherland.

Sgt. Klemm, son of Rev. and Mrs. F.W. Klemm, Schneider, has been overseas since February of this year.