WWII · Battle Death Record
Bert Stiles
First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces · Colorado
Personnel File — Core Information
- Name
- Bert Stiles
- Entered the Service From
- Colorado
- Rank
- First Lieutenant
- Service
- U.S. Army Air Forces
- Unit / Regiment
- 505th Fighter Squadron, 339th Fighter Group
- War
- WWII
- Date of Death
- November 26, 1944
- Awards
- Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, Purple Heart
- Burial / Memorial
- Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial, Neupré, Belgium
- Grave
- Plot B, Row 36, Grave 43
Their story
Bert Stiles was a USAAF pilot who flew 35 B-17 bomber missions with the 91st Bomb Group before transferring to fighters with the 339th Fighter Group, and he is the author of the posthumously published aerial-combat memoir "Serenade to the Big Bird." On November 26, 1944, during a bomber escort mission near Hanover, Germany, he shot down a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 but became disoriented at low altitude and his P-51 Mustang crashed, killing him at age 24. He is buried at Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium.
Compiled from American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) and National Archives (NARA) records and public sources.
This record is one of more than 200,000 in our historical archive. Some information may have been corrupted or lost over decades of data conversion. Corrections are welcome — please contact the archive.