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Sergeant Meyer Levin, Kelly’s Jewish Bombardier, Gets Another Japanese Ship

August 16, 1942
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The parents of Meyer Levin, the New York Jewish boy who as Captain Colin Kelly’s bombardier bombed and sank the Japanese battleship Haruna in the first American victory of the war, today received the cheerful news that their son has hit another 12,000-ton Japanese ship in the Coral Sea Battle.

The twenty-five-year-old Jewish hero who was a corporal at the first sinking, has now been promoted to sergeant, he wrote to his parents here. He said that returning from the Coral Sea battle to Australia, his big Flying Fortress encountered heavy weather and the fuel ran low. When two of the engines cut, the commander ordered the crew to bail out. A cattle driver helped Sergeant Levin round up his comrades, all unhurt.

Meyer Levin received the Distinguished Service Cross for the sinking of the Japanese battleship Haruna soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He is a graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School and was a student of the Brooklyn Engineering School for Aviation. He enlisted in the Air Corps on June 6, 1959.

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