Robert H. Harmer Jr.

SECOND LIEUTENANT ROBERT H. HARMER JR. was born in Pennsylvania in 1923 to Robert and Mabel Harmer. His father was an insurance broker in Camden NJ. Sometime in the late 1920s the Harmer family, which included sisters Myra and Roberta, moved to Collingswood NJ, where they purchased a home on Ogden Avenue. Sister betty was born there in 1929. The family later moved to 241 West Pine Street in Audubon NJ, where Robert Harmer grew up and went to school. He was a 1941 graduate of Audubon High School. He attended college at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia before entering the Army in June of 1942. 

After entering the United States Army, Robert Harmer Jr. qualified for flight duty. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in March of 1943, and went overseas in July.

The 1st Fighter Group's history has the following comment about Lt. Harmer:

 "Escorted the Forts to Athens where they really blasted the hell out of Eleusis Airdrome. Too bad there were not more fighters on the field. Coming home was not so good. The weather closed in on some and we have 15 unreported. Four ships were lost and three pilots. The fourth one is in the hospital in a very serious condition."

Returning from an escort mission to Greece, Lts. Harmer, Lipowicz, and F/P Charles Brown, all of the 94th crashed into the hills were after the weather had closed in on them. The 27th lost Francis Mackle in the same manner.

Robert Harmer Jr. was reported as having been killed in Italy on December 20, 1943 in the the evening edition of the Camden Courier-Post on January 25, 1944. After the war, he was brought home, and he rests at Harleigh Cemetery in Camden NJ.

AUDUBON'S TRIBUTE TO THOSE WHO SERVED IN WWII

AUDUBON'S TRIBUTE TO THOSE WHO SERVED IN WWII