Crystal Lake, IL.
Date of Birth: 7 March, 1923
Date of Death: 30 September, 1944
Branch of Service: USAAF (United States Army Air Forces)
Rank: Staff Sergeant
Unit: 836th Bomb Squadron, 487th Bomb Group, Heavy, 8th Air Force
Aircraft Type and Position: B-17 Flying Fortress- Flight Engineer
Place of Death: Vicinity village of Bexterhagen, Lippe region, Germany
Staff Sergeant Laverne W. Nelson
Hailing from Cicero, Illinois, Laverne Nelson was born Laverne Duane Stock in March of 1923. His mother passed away very shortly after his birth, and he was raised by his maternal grandparents in Crystal Lake, eventually taking their surname — a reflection of the central role they played in his life. He went on to graduate from Crystal Lake Community High School in 1941 and register for the draft in Woodstock in 1942. Nelson served in the 836th Bombardment Squadron, 487th Bombardment Group (Heavy). For his service, he was awarded the Air Medal for meritorious achievement and, posthumously, the Purple Heart.
Nelson’s active service began on March 1, 1943. He attended Army Air Forces flight engineer and aerial gunnery training and was assigned as a flight engineer and top turret gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress the crew named the Liberty Belle. After months of training stateside, the crew — led by Lt. Raymond F. Jackson — entered the European Theater in July of 1944. As the Liberty Belle made mission after mission from its base in Suffolk, England, to targets across Germany’s Rhineland, Nelson monitored instruments and measurements as a flight engineer while manning the top turret during enemy encounters. He and his crewmates flew hundreds of miles through enemy airspace to strike major railway junctions and industrial facilities across western Germany, dealing heavy blows to critical Nazi infrastructure.
On September 30, 1944, Lt. Jackson, Sgt. Nelson, and seven others set out on what became their final mission. The Liberty Belle successfully flew to the city of Bielefeld — a major rail hub — alongside other B-17s, including the Heavenly Body, and dropped their payloads on rail infrastructure and factories. Minutes into the 487th Bombardment Group’s return flight to Suffolk, the Heavenly Body flew into propwash while turning away from a target, flipped onto its side, and collided with the Liberty Belle, shearing the Belle‘s starboard wing clean off. Sgt. Nelson, Lt. Jackson, and five of the other crew members died upon impact. The two men who survived were taken as prisoners of war by the Germans, as was the one surviving member of the Heavenly Body.
Nelson made the ultimate sacrifice having left many people behind at home — chief among them his grandparents, Bertha and Peter Nelson, who had raised him since he was less than a month old; his brother Robert Stock; and his fiancée, Marilyn Kerns.
Today, at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, a cross bearing the name Laverne W. Nelson stands in the soil he gave his life to protect.
By Phoenix Jindrich
8th Air Force
487th Bomb Group
Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial
Margraten, Eijsden-Margraten Municipality, Limburg, Netherlands
To visit the cemetery, click on his Headstone
