Gerber, Herman W.

HERMAN WILLIAM GERBER 

SERGEANT
U.S. ARMY AIR CORPS

Herman William Gerber was born on November 25th, 1923 in Wabash Township of Adams County, Indiana. He lived with his mother and father, Louise Mathys and Robert Gerber, who were born in Switzerland, and his three siblings; Robert, John, and Martha. Herman was the baby of the family, being the youngest by 5 years. Herman lived with his parents and siblings, along with 5 other relatives until 1942, when he enlisted in the Army Air Corps.

Herman attended Geneva High School for his freshman and sophomore year, then left to work full time for his father in the fields. In these two years, he did not play any sports, due to his workload at home, but his classmates seemed to enjoy having him around. One of his friends said that Herman was the reason he didn’t chase after too many girls, keeping him pure. In Mr. Gerber’s sophomore quote, he says,” I’m no ordinary person”. So even though he was busy with work he still found time to be himself and have fun at school.

Herman enlisted into the Army Air Corps on December 11th, 1942 at Camp Perry Lacarne, in Ohio. His enlistment was for the duration of the war, plus six months after that, unless otherwise ordered by the President.  After he enlisted, he was employed as a structural and ornamental metal worker. His job was to fix minor metallic things on planes at first. He trained with metalworks and how to be a B-29 gunner in 10 different locations: Miami, Florida; Lincoln, Nebraska; Seattle, Washington; Chanute Field, Illinois; Clovis, New Mexico; Great Band, Kansas; and Kearney, Nebraska. All of this training took about two years to complete, so the first time he set foot on foreign soil was in September of 1944. Upon completion of training, Private Gerber was assigned to B29 #44-69752) with the 498th Bomber Group, 873rd Bomber Squadron along with 10 other airmen (Marion Bordwell, Norman Dubb, Pilot William Filbert, August Guarino, Nelson Harman, Frank Jahn, Wallace Pitts, Edward Rudofsky, Russell Sandquist, Fay Tuttle).

Herman was actually promoted to Sergeant on June 10th, 1944, which was a few months before his squadron landed in the Marianas Islands, where they carried out their first bombing run. The reason for this attack was to destroy Japanese factories, bases, and buildings containing artillery. Sgt. Gerber's group received two Distinguished Unit Citations (DUC’s) for their success in these missions. These missions were scheduled to be performed from March to June of 1945, but they were cut short after significant losses in April of 1945, which is where Sgt. Gerber and his crew were lost.

On April 1, 1945 Sgt. Gerber's B-29 was assigned a mission along with 114 other B-29’s to attack the Nakajima aircraft plant in Tokyo. The aircraft plant in Tokyo was one of the largest aircraft engine producers that the Japanese had, so taking out that plant would significantly stall and slow the production of Japanese fighters. Sgt. Gerber and his crew were shot down by Japanese anti-artillery while over the target area, and crashed outside of Tokyo, with no survivors. Five other B-29's were lost on this mission.

Gerber's B29 crashed with a "thunderous roar" in Gonjiro Omata's tea garden creating a hole 40 meters across and 20 meters deep. Despite the fact our countries were at war; Omata, a devout Buddhist, decided that the eleven member crew should be laid to rest with dignity. Omata and others interred the crew together in an ancestral cemetery in Yokohoma.

Omata's son, Gontara, was told by his father that "the discrimination between friend and foe means nothing after death" and that war dead should always be honored. At the conclusion of the war, Gontara made it his mission to seek out the families of the airmen and to let them know how their loved ones had died. He traveled to the United States in the 1970's meeting with nearly every family member of the B29. The Omata family also constructed a monument to the crew near the crash site. In addition to the names of the eleven-member crew, Gonjiro Omata's last thoughts are carved into its base: 

"“To pray for the peace of human beings and the world and console the spirits of the courageous eleven U.S. crew members of the bomber B-29 which crashed on this spot during the last World War, I have erected this monument to wish that these eleven brave men should sleep here peacefully forever”.

In January, 1949 the remains of B29 #44-69752 were repatriated to the U.S. and interred as a crew at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Lemay, St. Louis County, Missouri.

For his service and sacrifice, Sgt Gerber earned the Purple Heart, the Air Medal for meritorious achievement in aerial combat, American Theatre Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the WWII Victory Medal. 

Information collected and researched by Ryne Norby, 2017. 

SOURCES

American Legion Post No468, and Berne & Community Business Men, comps.Service Record: World War I and II - Book of Men and Women of Berne, Indiana and Community. Marceline: Walsworth Brothers, n.d. Print.

Berne Library Heritage Room Staff

Genealogical Records: Year: 1940; Census Place: Wabash, Adams, Indiana; Roll: T627_1024; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 1-21

High School yearbook: "U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012"; Yearbook Title: The Legend of the Limberlost 1939; Year: 1939

Newspaper: The Berne Witness, Adams County, IN; January 17, 1949

Military Records: Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005.

            “SGT Herman William Gerber (1923-1945) - Find A...” Www.findagrave.com, www.findagrave.com/memorial/46355602/herman_william-gerber. Accessed 12 Mar. 2024.

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