Samuel Lester BARNETT

Parents : Lester & Adele BARNETT

 B-17F #42-30314

"Beautiful Baby"

Shot down by flak.

 CEMTERY TEMPORARY of  Draguignan N°3551

Story of Cemetery Temporary 

Map of Rhône American Cemetery

Samuel Lester Barnett was born in Kansas on October 27, 1917. He was the son of Lester and Adele Barnett. The US Census 1920 and US Census 1930 both show the family in Rovohl, Kansas. Although born in Rexford, Kansas, Barnett moved (with his parents) to Colby, Kansas at less than 1 year of age. He graduated from Colby High School in 1937.

 Barnett enlisted in Kansas on October 14, 1941 as a private in the Army Air Forces. The enlistment papers confirm nativity and birth year, plus state he had completed 4 years of high school. He was employed as a farm hand.

 Selected for flight status, he was trained as both an aerial gunner and a flight engineer. It is recorded that he flew 49 combat missions, but his date of overseas duty has not been found. On August 17, 1943, he acted as the flight engineer and top turret gunner for the Cunningham crew. The target area was German air fields in Southern France, in hope that this support would create indecision in the Luftwaffe concerning the deep raids to Regensburg and Schweinfurt.

 No enemy aircraft came up to oppose the bomber formation, but the flak was intense and accurate. A shell hit the nose of the aircraft, killing most of the forward crew. The plane then exploded, falling in a mass of flaming wreckage.

 The Germans reported 6 bodies were recovered from the wreckage. Three of the crew parachuted down safely, but were captured. The dead were all buried in a local cemetery, and retrieved after the war. Sam Barnett was moved to the American Cemetery in Draguiguan (Rhone) Cemetery, France where he lies in Plot A, Row 3, Grave 10.

Lynn Virgil BARNETT

Source : Sam Pennartz

Source : Cynthia Brown