Walter Paul Shimshock was born on April 28, 1925 in Minneapolis, Hennepin County Minnesota. His mother was Marie Shimshock and there is nothing else that can be found for him on Ancestry.

He worked at the Catholic Gift Ship before he enlisted in the Army Air Forces. Served during World War II. He Staff Sergeant and was a Gunner and served with 390th Bomb Group, 568th Bomb Squadron on the B-17 #43-38175 “Till We Meet Again” aka “I’ll Be Seeing You”

Shimshock experienced loss of life on September 18, 1944. When he died as prisoner of war in Lomianki, Poland during the Warsaw Uprising in Poland. Polish villagers watched helplessly as they saw the Nazis shoot an American plane out of the sky. The crew of 10 American airmen were trying to fly food and medicine into Poland. Three members of the crew survived the crash, including 19-year-old Shimshock, but he was interrogated and executed by the Nazis because of his Polish heritage.

In 1986, the citizens of Lomianki erected a monument in memory of the American flyers who lost their lives.

Walter P Shimshock is buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is a National American Cemetery administered through the Department of Veteran's Affairs.

COMMENDATIONS

★Prisoner of War Medal

★Purple Heart

8 Killed in Action

Find A Grave Memorials for crew below:

Pilot: Lt. Francis E. Akins, PA

Co-pilot: Lt. Forrest D. Shaw, NH

Navigator: F/O Ely Berenson,

Bombardier: Lt. Myron S, Merrill, NJ

Flight engineer/top turret gunner: T/Sgt. Frank P. De Cillis, NJ

Ball Turret Gunner: George A. Mac Phee

Waist gunner: Paul F. Haney,

Tail gunner: S/Sgt. Walt Shimshock, MN

2 Prisoner of War

Radio Operator: Marcus L. Shook,

Passenger: James D. Christy

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/. This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Sources:

www.ancestry.com

www.findagrave.com

www.americanairmuseum.com