First Lieutenant Edwin Hurlbut Bicksler was born on 26 February 1920. Our picture source claims that he was born in , Indiana, USA, and this location is supported by two separate family trees on ancestry.co.uk. However the claims he was born in , Ohio, USA. Using the information on the public family trees we learn that he was the second of the four children of Harry Edward Bicksler (1887-1966) and Margie Bicksler née Hurlbut (1889-1979).
In 1940 he was training as a service pilot at the in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA and later that year joined the in Canada. He was assigned to at , Kent, as a Pilot Officer. In 1942 when the squadron was disbanded and became the of the United States Army Air Force he transferred to the new squadron. As a First Lieutenant he was attached on 8 March 1943 to the , and subsequently to both the and the .
He was killed, aged 24 years, on 19 April 1944 when flying a aeroplane during an attack on German transport aeroplanes. As he has no known grave he commemorated on at the , 553 rue Roosevelt, Site archéologique de Carthage 2016, Tunisia.
He was posthumously awarded the , the with and the .
2024: We received an interesting request from Jennifer Wilson: “I work as a liaison at a retirement facility in Lancaster Pennsylvania USA. An elderly resident here, Mr Wolf, has asked me to try to locate a booklet about Edwin Hurlbut Bicksler. Written by Edwin’s grandfather, Reverend Daniel Bicksler (b.1854), this was self-published in 1943-44 and titled ‘Bix’. The cover featured a photo of Edwin Bicksler in his flying suit, standing in front of a P-40 Mustang fighter plane. Shortly after publication the Rev. gave a copy to his wife's nephew, Mr. Wolf, but it’s now lost. Mr. Wolf would dearly love to see this booklet again.”
Jennifer has allowed us to publish her email address here so you can contact her direct with any information: [email protected] .
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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