Even after this long time it's good to know for the families what happened to these men. My uncle also searched for his father (my grandfather) who was MIA in WWII some (30?) years ago until he finally found his grave in East-Prussia, only then his mother found some peace.
There is another son of a member of this crew - Sgt. Thomas G. Deitman - who is looking for information in armyairforces.com's forum:
http://forum.armyair...4986-print.aspx. Perhaps one of you has the time to contact him or the forum with the news from the Cicago Tribune? I'm ready to depart so it's my last posting these days. Perhaps also the decendants of the other crew men are interested in more information which I have found something in the "Thuringian Aviation & Aeronautics Network" (http://www.luftfahrt...-1945-iiwk.html) about this plane and it's crew. I have tried to translate it (a bit shortened, quick & dirty), please feel free to inform the relatives if you want:
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Plane crash at Neustädt
Date: 13.10.1944
Type of Incident: Fall
Accident: Neustädt
Cause: fire
Aircraft registration number: 42-31250 "Mag the Hag, the 2nd"
Manufacturer: Boeing
Werk-/Bau-Nummer?
Luftfahrzeugart: 4-engined bomber
Aircraft Type: B-17G
Operator: USAAF
Occupants (crew): 8
Occupants (passengers): -
Victim: 8 dead
In summer and autumn of 1944, the defeat of the German Wehrmacht was clearly visible. Day
and night bombers of American and British air forces flew over the shoals of our country.
When the material of the Allied air superiority (in the fall of 1944 about 1: 10)
succeeded only German fighters suffered heavy losses on the bomber streams commercially.
Sometimes it went well as direct threats to the villages of this region. This happened on
13 September 1944 when a U.S. bomber crashed near Neustädt. This report on the witness
Alfred Goepel and Erich Sode from Neustädt / Werra:
The machine came from the direction Gerstungen. At the "bubbling" engine noises could be
heard that something was wrong. You could see that behind the bombers, which formed east
of Neustädt a loop and then flew back toward Gerstungen, a plume of smoke. It is likely
that the pilot wanted to try an emergency landing on the Werra river meadows. Flying just
5 to 10 m heigh above the roofs of Neustädt the Flying Fortress lost more and more
altitude. Just before the railway crossing towards Gerstungen they came down, and pulled
off a power pole and crashed the plane into the top of the embankment. It blew the engine
and the wreckage were scattered in the broad environment. The explosion damaged some
houses. Not to imagine what would have happened if the plane was crashed in the village.
The then active female members of the Fire Department Neustädt under the leadership of a
committed evacuees from the Rhineland tried to erase the still burning machine with a hand
sprayer with water from the Werra. It appears from today's perspective very unusual,
especially since there was another explosion. The burning of aluminum caused a sparkling
fire, as if on fire on New Years Eve fireworks.
One U.S. soldier survived the crash who jumped on time with a parachute and was captured.
Sitting on a military truck he was forced to watch the recovering of the charred body
parts of his comrades which were laid before him on the street. The fallen bomber crew
has been buried by foreign slave laborers in the New Town Cemetery. Prior to the
occupation of Thuringia by the Soviet troops, the dead were dug up by order of the U.S.
Army back to a central memorial to give them (possibly even in the U.S.) a final dignified
resting place.
More information from official sources
Walter Hassenpflug from Ludwigsau has worked for many years closely with the air war
events in Hesse and Thuringia area. He has discovered in the archives of the U.S. official
sources as follows:
Early in the morning, 1015 Bombers (673 B-17, 342 B-24) of the 1st, 2nd and 3 Bomber
division start in three major groups to attack targets in southern and central Germany. An
escort of 477 fighters (31 P-38, 34 P-47, 312 P-51) accompanied them. The 3rd Major unit,
consisting of 297 B-17 of the first Bomb Division, had the hydrogenation plant in
Merseyside and Lützkendorf assigned as targets. 274 fighters escorted this unit (36 P-47,
238 P-51). From 12:08 to 12:55 the bombers 522.7 threw tons of bombs on the main
objectives and 519.9 tons of bombs on the alternate targets Eisenach, Gera, Altenburg, and
another unknown destination. The bombs were thrown from a height of 8300-9500 m. At 12:30
a Flying Fortress fell near Neustädt on the embankment at km 184.8. The B-17 G belonged to
the 327th squadron of the 92nd Bomber Group of the 1st Bomber Division. Their airfield was
Podington in England. The aircraft had the serial number 42-31250, his nickname was "Mag
the Hag, the 2nd". The 327th Season with seven aircraft will have dropped their bombs from
17.5 to 12:15 clock at Altenburg. The crews did not detect results. When departing the
crew of another aircraft observed that the B-17's pilot had turned off the third engine
and broke away from the formation. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the squadron bombers
were attacked by German fighters. The Fortress was never seen again.
The crew of the B-17 aircraft included the following:
1st Lt. Eck, Harry W. pilot
2nd Lt. Wren, Clyde L. Co-Pilot
2nd Lt. Sauer, John R. Navigator
2nd Lt. Wasilewski, Emil T. Bombardier
S / Sgt. Keeney, Clifford E. Best Turret Gunner
S / Sgt. Bono, John J. Ball Turret Gunner
S / Sgt. Hogan, John E. radio operator
Sgt Deitmann, Thomas G. Tail Gunner
Sgt Clark, George F. Waist Gunner
Only Clark, who was wounded, was able to save with a parachute. All others died and were
buried. Clark, who was at home in Santaquin, Utah, was taken into custody by German
soldiers. He stated after the return from captivity, that the machine had lost heavily in
height and was on fire. About 15 minutes after departure from the target area it crashed
close to a small village whose name he did not know. The German soldiers had told him that
the rest of the crew had crashed but one with the airplane. Clark had been taken away by
the soldiers with a truck. Previously they had collected parachutes and other items of
three crew members.
Pilot Eck came from North Dakota. It was his 13th action. The eight dead were buried on
14/9/1944 in the cemetery in Neustädt. After the war, they were exhumed by the Americans.
In Thuringia and Hesse region and especially in the area between Hersfeld and Homberg/
Efze there were fierce air battles that day, which involved on the German side groups
of Jagdgeschwader 3, 53, 76 and 300 with more than 100 fighters. For the German Air
Force, it was a momentous defensive action. The loss of the "black 13th September" as
Colonel Walther Dahl, former commander of Fighter Squadron 300 called it in his book " ramming hunters" were 36 machines.
The Americans lost 14 B-17 (Flying Fortresses) and 7 P-51 (Mustang-fighter). Most of the
losses were, however, on account of the flak. Some aircraft were lost due to technical
reasons.
School essay by Hans Schellenberg, Herleshausen (b. 1931)
Again air raid! Today at 11 clock, we just had music lessons, a boy came and said, "Mr. Head Teacher, there is already an air raid!" We put our books under the bench and ran home. I put on the radio to listen where zhe planes were. But I had not
yet heard five air messages, as the aircrafts even buzzed. I quickly ran with my mother, my brother to Bracks, for here was a cellar which protected us for incendiary bombs.
When we arrived here, Ruscher, Rimbachs, Rauschenberg and Knops were already there.
Suddenly it thundered a few times. Mr. Brack said: "These were bombs." In the sky now enemy bombers flew continuously, which were trailing almost all long contrails behind them.
Soon, very little silver dots appeared. There were fighters. Suddenly I heard a rattle. I
saw a German fighter-bombers flew between the round. Soon solved a bomber from the
group and was therefore flying very low. Suddenly he crashed. I then saw a
parachute. The hunters came in own whistles and fired again from a couple of shots. As
I've heard is the four-engined bomber in Anglo-American Neustädt crashed. This afternoon I
was there and saw that it was burned out.
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Enough for now,
Kind Regards
Christoph 