Lester P. Glaser

Rank: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces

Serial Number: O-761292

Unit: 570th Bomber Squadron, 390th Bombardment Group (Heavy)

Hometown: Collingswood, New Jersey

Killed in Action: July 7, 1944, over the Zuider Zee, Netherlands

Buried: Plot M, Row 4, Grave 7, Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten, Netherlands

Awards: Purple Heart

Second Lieutenant Lester P. Glaser was born on July 21, 1923, in New York, the son of Charles P. and Bertha Glaser. His father had emigrated from Germany in 1904. By 1930 the Glaser family had moved to 159 Richey Avenue in Collingswood, NJ. By the late 1930s they had moved to a first floor apartment at 709 Harrison Avenue, and later to 224 West Franklin Street.

Lester Glaser was a 1940 graduate of Collingswood High School. While at Collingswood High he was interested in the “Colls High News,” band, and the noon dances. He was a member of the National Honor Society and the Quill and Scroll. He was attending the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania when he enlisted in the Air Corps during his junior year. He left for basic training on April 11, 1943, at Nashville, TN, after which he was sent to Santa Ana, CA, for pre-flight training. He completed pre-flight on July 29, 1943, with the 3rd highest average out of a class of 2,000 men. On December 4, 1943, he graduated as a navigator-bombardier at Deming, NM, with the highest average in his class, and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. He completed final training at Avon Park, FL, on May 5, 1944.

Lester Glaser was the bombardier and navigator of a B-17G Flying Fortress flying out of England as part of the 570th Bomber Squadron, 390th Bombardment Group. On his 3rd mission, he was killed while returning from an assignment to bomb Merseburg-Kolleda, near Leipzig, Germany, when another plane collided with his over the Zuider Zee in Holland, on July 7, 1944.

Lester Glaser was survived by his parents and a sister, Audrey Glaser, also of Collingswood. His name appears on the World War II War Memorial at Knight’s Park in Collingswood, NJ.

Lester Glaser flew on B-17G Flying Fortress, serial #297983, as part of Crew #51. Propeller wash caused the mid-air collision that took his life. Crew members in the rear of the plane were able to bail out. Four men served out the war in German POW camps, and waist gunner Arthur F. Brown managed to evade capture and, with the help of the Dutch Underground, returned to England.

390th Bomb Group Website — 390th Memorial Museum