Staff Sergeant Clyde L. Yaegle, Army serial number 39715507, was born at Heyburn, Minidoka County, Idaho on October 12, 1917. His parents were Louis William Yaegle Jr (1 Apr 1895 – d by 1940) and Dorsa Velma (Brown) Yaegle (later Dorsa Qualls) (11 Jan 1897 – 8 Nov 1978). His parents married at Heyburn, Idaho on December 23, 1914. Clyde Yaegle had an older brother, Otto Glen Yaegle (6 Oct 1915 – 27 Sep 1986); and a younger sister, Hilda Mae (Yaegle) Rolls Lempke (22 Jun 1920 – 6 Jun 1996). His father was a farmer and a truck driver for a dairy company in Heyburn, Idaho.

By September 1936 Dorsa Yaegle was married to a Mr. Qualls, and lived in Tucson, Arizona. By November 1939 Dorsa Qualls returned to Pocatello, Idaho. The April 1940 US Census records that Dorsa Qualls was widowed, and worked as a practical nurse in the private home of a Mr. Thomas Dailey in Pocatello, Idaho.

Clyde Yaegle completed two years of high school. In 1939 he worked at a Civilian Conservation Corps Camp in Idaho. He registered for the draft at Heyburn, Minidoka County, Idaho on October 16, 1940. He was 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighed 129 pounds and had gray eyes and brown hair. At that time he lived with his mother in Heyburn and was unemployed.

In October 1940 he and his mother, Dorsa Qualls, moved to San Diego, California, where Clyde trained at an aviation school. He worked for Ryan Aircraft Company in San Diego in an unskilled occupation in the building of aircraft. He was married to Gertrude Yaegle when he enlisted in the U.S. Army at Los Angeles, California on October 30, 1943. His mother lived at San Diego, California from October 1940 through at least April 1945.

After training at Buckley Field, Colorado and Las Vegas, Nevada, he was assigned as an aerial gunner on the heavy bomber crew of Lt Arthur G. Allard Jr. Lt Allard's crew completed operational training in the States and was assigned to the 839th Bomb Squadron, 487th Bomb Group, at Army Air Forces Station 137 near Lavenham, Suffolk, England. They arrived in England by October 4, 1944, and became part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in Europe.

On March 11, 1945, S/Sgt Yaegle flew as waist gunner on the crew of Lt Joseph M. Sugarman Jr in the 839th Bomb Squadron, on a mission to bomb the industrial area and shipyards on the south bank of the Elbe River at Hamburg, Germany. Here is Lt Sugarman's crew roster on that day:

B-17G 43-38888 – 839th Bomb Squadron

• Sugarman Jr, Joseph M – 1/Lt – Pilot – KIA

• Crosland Jr, William S – F/O – Copilot – KIA

• Barnett, James S – F/O – Navigator – KIA

• Owen, Charles V – Sgt – Togglier – KIA

• Stanton, Willard W – S/Sgt – Engineer – KIA

• Schlotte, Harvey F – T/Sgt – Radio Operator – POW

• Mau, Eldon A – S/Sgt – Ball Turret Gunner – KIA

• Yaegle, Clyde L – S/Sgt – Waist Gunner – KIA

• Berger, Robert M – Sgt – Waist Gunner – KIA

• Simac, Edward A – Sgt – Tail Gunner – KIA

S/Sgt Yaegle and eight of his crewmates were killed in action on March 11, 1945 when their aircraft, B-17G 43-38888, was shot down by flak at Hamburg, Germany. The aircraft crashed at 1310 hours near Meckelfeld, about 20 kilometers south of Hamburg. The radio operator, T/Sgt Harvey F. Schlotte, survived and became a prisoner of war. The dead were buried at the cemetery in Sinstorf, a southern suburb of Hamburg.

His remains were returned to the United States and interred at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado on February 6, 1951. He is buried in a common grave with his crewmate Eldon A. Mau in Section A, Site 115. Their remains were not individually identifiable.

Some relatives:

     His father's parents were Louis William Yaegle Sr (22 Dec 1837 – 20 Dec 1915) and Elizabeth 'Lizzie' (Henggl) Yaegle (18 Oct 1858 – Mar 1939). Louis William Yaegle Sr immigrated to the United States from Germany about 1857, and worked as a butcher in Denver, Colorado. Elizabeth Henggl was born in Berne, Switzerland, and immigrated to the United States about 1881. She married Louis William Yaegle Sr at Denver, Colorado in 1894. They had a son, Louis William Yaegle Jr, who was born at Denver, Colorado on April 1, 1895. Louis Yaegle Sr and Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Yaegle moved with their son from Denver, Colorado to Heyburn, Minidoka County, Idaho about 1905; they homesteaded at Heyburn and participated in the Minidoka Project. Lizzie Yaegle's sister, Margaret (Henggl) Merz, and her son, Carl Merz, moved with them.

Sources:

1. 487th Bomb Group Association

2. 1900 US Census; Colorado; Arapahoe County. Yaegle, Louis. 18 Jun 1900 (his father's father)

3. 1920 US Census; Idaho; Minidoka County; Heyburn Precinct. Yeagle, Louis W. 24 Jan 1920 (his father)

4. 1930 US Census; Idaho; Minidoka County; Heyburn Village. Yeagh, Louis W [sic]. 2 Apr 1930 (Louis William Yaegle Jr, his father)

5. 1940 US Census; Idaho; Bannock County; Pocatello; 337 North Hayes Avenue. Qualls, Dorsa. 5 Apr 1940 (his mother)

6. BYU Idaho Special Collections. Western States Marriage Record Index

7. California Death Records. Qualls, Dorsa Velma (11 Jan 1897 – 8 Nov 1978) (his mother)

8. de Jong, Ivo. The History of the 487th Bomb Group (H). Paducah KY: Turner Publishing, Oct 2004

9. Enlistment Record of Clyde L. Yaegle

10. Find A Grave page for Otto Glen Yaegle (1915 – 1986) (his brother)

11. Idaho Death Index about Lewis Wm. Yaegle (Dec 1837 – Dec 1915) (Louis William Yaegle Sr, his father's father)

12. Idaho Birth Records, 1861–1919 (ancestry.com)

13. Idaho Evening Times, TwinFalls, Idaho, 25 Mar 1939, p10. Double Rites For Sisters (obituary of Elizabeth Henggl Yaegle, his father's mother; and her sister Margaret Henggl Merz, his great aunt)

14. Obituary of Otto Glen Yaegle. 29 Sep 1986 (his brother)

15. San Diego, California, City Directories. 1941, 1942, 1943 (ancestry.com)

16. Social Security Death Index

17. Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho, 13 Apr 1945, p3. 2 B-17 Gunners on Missing List (Clyde L. Yaegle reported MIA)

18. Twin Falls (Idaho) Newspaper Archive. Idaho Evening Times (1936 – 1942) and Times-News (1942 – 2009)

19. U.S. Army Air Forces Missing Air Crew Report 12979

20. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Nationwide Gravesite Locator

21. U.S. National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928–1962 (ancestry.com)

22. U.S. Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939–1945 (ancestry.com)

23. U.S. War Department. World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing Army and Army Air Forces Personnel. Washington, D.C., June 1946 (His serial number is recorded incorrectly in this publication.)

24. U.S. World War II Draft Cards, Young Men, 1940–1947 (ancestry.com)

25. World War I Draft Registration of Louis William Yaegle Jr (his father)

Research by:

Paul Webber

Find A Grave member ID 47577572

Bio added 7 Dec 2012

Last edited 22 Jul 2024