Date of birth:

August 14th, 1915 (Marion County/Ohio, USA)

Date of death:

May 1st, 1945 (Near Leinawald/Thuringen, Germany)

Buried on:

Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial
Plot: b. Row: 7. Grave: 4.

Nationality:

American

Daughter of Leroy Burdge and Lilian A. Bouscein, from Marion County Ohio. Sister of Grace and Edna Burdge. Was a resident of Canton, Stark County Ohio. Trained as a teacher until she volunteered with the American Red Cross for deployment to the army in 1943.

That year, she and her sister Grace left for England where both were assigned to Group F of the Clubmobiles. Their Clubmobile bore the name “Atlanta”. Converted as Clubmobiles, these GMC trucks manned by the Red-Cross “girls” were driving canteen cars. They travelled directly behind the front and provided the soldiers with coffee, refreshments and some entertainment.

Her unit arrived at Utah Beach on 16 July 1944 and spent the next 9.5 months travelling with the troopsof the 8th Army Corps through France, Belgium and into Germany. By the end of April 1945, the front stabilised and Dorothy and Grace's group stopped southeast of Leipzig.

On Tuesday 1 May 1945, the sisters were working at Leinawald airfield. Lieutenant L. Branch, a very experienced fighter pilot, was making sightseeing flights there in a captured German Storch aircraft that had been fitted with American identification marks. After several trips, first Grace, and then Dorothy were also allowed to go along. While attempting to fly under a power line, the plane hit a tree and crashed. Both Dorothy and Lieutenant Branch did not survive the accident.

Dorothy was initially buried in Eisenach and reburied at Margraten in 1960. She is also the only non-military person, one of four women buried in this cemetery.

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• Photo 1: American Air Museum in Brittain (CC Attribution Share Alike 4.0)
• Photo 2: Jan de Jager
• - https://www.margratenmemorial.nl/dossier/dorothy-jane-burdge/overview.html

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