Robert Carl Breiling was born near Big Falls, Waupaca County, Wisconsin on January 24, 1922. His family moved to Kenosha, Kenosha County, Wisconsin after his birth. He was one of eight children of Herman Andrew Breiling (12 Nov 1886 – 3 Feb 1965) and Alvina Rosalie (Schaefer) Breiling (25 Oct 1896 – 12 Dec 1972), who both immigrated to America from Russian Poland. His father immigrated at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 19, 1910; his mother immigrated at Baltimore, Maryland on July 27, 1907. His parents married at Kenosha, Wisconsin on December 26, 1914. In 1917 the family lived at Big Falls, Waupaca County, Wisconsin, and his father was a farmer in surrounding Wyoming Township, Waupaca County, Wisconsin. By 1928 the family lived at 6337 28th Avenue, Kenosha, Wisconsin. By 1940 his father was employed as a sheet metal finisher at the automotive works of the Nash-Kelvinator Company in Kenosha.
He completed three years of high school, and in 1940 worked as a laborer at Saint Francis Hospital in Peoria, Illinois. He was single, without dependents, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at Chicago, Illinois on January 17, 1943. He married after enlisting. His wife was Irma M. Breiling (later Kreher) (16 Dec 1923 – 21 Mar 2010). They had a son, Gary Lee Breiling (11 Sep 1943 – 8 Nov 1979) of McLeansboro, Illinois. In 1945 his wife and son lived at Dahlgren, Hamilton County, Illinois. Irma Breiling later married Robert James Kreher (5 Aug 1918 – 12 Jan 2005).
He completed Army Air Forces radio operator and aerial gunnery training, and was assigned as radio operator on the heavy bomber crew of Lt Clarence M. Lamason Jr. The Lamason crew completed B-17 operational training at Ardmore, Oklahoma. They deployed to England and were assigned to the 839th Bomb Squadron of the 487th Bomb Group, at Army Air Forces Station 137 near Lavenham, Suffolk, England. They arrived by July 24, 1944, and became part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in Europe.
B-17G 44-6463 crew:
• Lamason Jr, Clarence M – 1/Lt – Pilot – POW
• Pierce, Kelvin H – 2/Lt – Copilot – POW
• McIntyre, Howard W – 2/Lt – Navigator – POW
• Kathary, Raymond D – 2/Lt – Bombardier – POW
• Adams, Clyde D – S/Sgt – Engineer – POW
• Breiling, Robert C – S/Sgt – Radio Operator – KIA
• Sorrell, Gordon M – S/Sgt – Ball Turret Gunner – POW
• Bauchens, William J – S/Sgt – Waist Gunner – POW
• Lordi, William P – S/Sgt – Waist Gunner – POW
• Gruwell, Richard R – S/Sgt – Tail Gunner – POW
On September 28, 1944, the Lamason crew took off in B-17G 44-6463 on a mission to bomb the large I. G. Farben synthetic oil refinery at Leuna, just south of Merseburg, Germany. The aircraft was hit by flak during the turn away from the target after bombs away, and the crew was forced to bail out. S/Sgt Breilling was severely wounded in both legs, and his crew mate S/Sgt William J. Bauchens bailed him out using a static line. Waist gunner S/Sgt William P. Lordi, was severely wounded and lost his right eye. All ten crew members were captured and became prisoners of war. The aircraft crashed at Naherstille, Germany, about 110 miles southwest of Merseburg.
All crew members survived except S/Sgt Breiling. He was treated initially at the Reserve Hospital in Leipzig-Wahren, Germany (a northwestern suburb of Leipzig). He succumbed to complications of his wounds at a German Airforce hospital in Frankfurt, Germany on February 10, 1945. He was buried at the Frankfurt Community Cemetery (Hauptfriedhof Frankfurt am Main) in the section for Prisoners of War on February 19, 1945. After the war his remains were reinterred at Lorraine American Cemetery in Saint-Avold, France.
Source of information: Paul M. Webber, www.findagrave.com