Edwin Breaw

  • 2nd Lieutenant
  • World War II
  • West Wall (by Entrance Door)

Alden, Iowa

Mar 26, 2023

Nov 04, 1944

Biography

Year at ISU: 1945

Second Lieutenant Edwin Gordon Breaw was born to Rev. Walter L. Breaw and Elva A. Cullen on March 26, 1923, and grew up in Alden, Iowa. He married Margaret K. Kepler.

Edwin enlisted in the Army Air Corps in Des Moines, Iowa on December 10, 1942. The military called him to active duty on February 21, 1943. He graduated from navigation school at Hondo, Texas on April 21, 1944 and was commissioned second lieutenant the following day. He served with the 8th Air Force, 3rd Bombardment Division, 708th Bomber Squad, 447th Bomber Group.

His last service assignment was as a navigator in the lead crew of a B-17 during the sixteenth bombing mission over Europe. His plane crashed in the English Channel on November 4, 1944. He was at first considered missing in action, but later confirmed dead.