When Richard Joseph Zander, Jr. was born on February 22, 1924, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, his father, Richard, was 35 and his mother, Helen, was 29. He had three siblings.
Richard, Jr. served in the 338th Bomber Squadron, 96th Bomber Group, Heavy, as a Technical Sergeant and Radio Operator on the B17 #43-38746 aircraft during World War II. On January 29, 1945, while attempting assembly into a bomber stream scheduled to raid the marshalling railway yards at Bielefeld, Germany, his aircraft collided with that of 2Lt. George Peretti. Both aircraft exploded and crashed approximately 1/2 miles southeast of the airdrome. All 18 crew members aboard the 2 aircrafts were killed. TSGT Zander is now buried in the Mount Sinai Cemetery, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA.
Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.ancestry.com