- Henry W. Antheil, Jr.
Henry William Antheil, Jr. (
September 23 ,1912 -June 14 ,1940 ) was born in 1912 inTrenton, New Jersey , USA.Henry W. Antheil, Jr., younger brother of noted composer
George Antheil , was a clerk at the U.S. legation inHelsinki . He was killed onJune 14 ,1940 while serving as a diplomatic courier when the Finnish passenger plane Kaleva was shot down over theGulf of Finland nearTallinn ,Estonia at 14:05 on Friday,June 14 ,1940 approximately ten minutes after taking off fromTallinn ’sÜlemiste Airport . [ [http://helsinki.usembassy.gov/antheil.html Henry W. Antheil, Jr.’s] at usembassy.gov]Two Soviet bombers downed the passenger airplane on the day the Soviet blockade of
Estonia went into effect. [ [http://www.afsa.org/fsj/may07/lastflight.pdf The Last Flight from Tallinn] at American Foreign Service Association] According to anAssociated Press wire story that ran the following day, Henry was serving as a diplomatic courier when his plane exploded en route to Helsinki.Henry was carrying several diplomatic pouches from the U.S. legations in Tallinn and Riga. Soviet troops had already been based in Estonia since
October 18 ,1939 as a result of the secret protocol to theMolotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Some Estonian researchers believe that Henry’s diplomatic pouches included secret information detailing the Soviet Union’s future plans for the Baltic region that the Estonian General Staff had turned over to an unidentified U.S. government official earlier that same day. Back in the United States, the news of the Soviet blockade and the loss of the Kaleva were overshadowed by a much bigger story that broke on the other side of Europe on June 14: the German occupation of Paris. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,764083,00.html TIME ] ]Henry W. Antheil, Jr., was recently honored at the
American Foreign Service Association ’s Memorial Plaque Ceremony at the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Lobby. The event, part of the annual Foreign Affairs Day celebration, honors those U.S. Embassy employees who have lost their lives while serving their country overseas in the line of duty. Members of Henry W. Antheil Jr.'s family were present.An article was published in
The Trenton Times on the 68th anniversary of Henry's death, which can be read here: [ [http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1213418759297810.xml&coll=5 Story not found - NJ.com ] at www.nj.com]References
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