It's Tuesday...you've got nothing going on today right?? Good, now grab some popcorn and a drink and sit back and read this post about my Grandparents. It's pretty cool.
Back in August I started posting about My Grandparents, Wayne & Norma and their experiences during WWII. I meant to post this on Veterans day but never got around to writing it.
You can read about why I'm doing this
here and read about Part I
Here and Part II
here.
Part II ended with Wayne and Norma and Ronnie in Sioux City Iowa. Wayne had just joined a crew as Co-Pilot for a B-17 bomber plane. After waiting a few months to deport and waiting out a few snow storms on the way overseas, he landed in Stone, England, 20 miles south of London where he joined the 384th Bomb Group. This was around October of 1944.
He was sent on 18 missions over Germany. He had many different targets, ammunition dumps, ball bearing factories, rail yards, and any other places where they thought the Germans were building airplanes or army vehicles or tanks. Six of the eighteen flights the weather was so bad, they were diverted to another air field and have to wait their until the weather cleared so they could get back to the 384th homebase. This is one of his letters to home.
England Jan 24
My Darling Wife and Son
Hello Darlings, How's my little old sweet family doing tonight. Babe, I didn't write you last night because I wasn't at my base and still I'm not but I managed to get some Vmail tonight. We went on a mission yesterday and couldn't get back to our base. I didn't fly with my crew yesterday. I flew with a brand new crew on their first mission to check the pilot out on how we fly missions over here. I kindly got a kick out of it because they sure were scared just like us on our first mission. They were a pretty nice bunch though. Honey, I sure am missing you two tonight. I've been listening to Dagwood and Blondie and it makes me think of when we used to listen to them together. Darling you know that cigarette case you bought for me out at the p.x. there at Sioux city. Well, I have carried that ever since I left you. I carry anything you ever gave me darling because it reminds me of you. Kiss our little man for me baby and tell him how bad I'd like to see him and his mom. (I have 17 missions) I love you all always,
Wayne
Granddad's crew safely completed 18 bombing missions and on the 19th mission He was assigned to fly with the 8th Air Force as a part of a 2000 plane armada. They were to fly into Berlin and try to bomb all the rail yards. February 4th 1945 was the date. It was a cold winter day over Germany. Wayne and his crew had just dropped the last bomb they were carrying over their target. Wayne remembers every time they dropped a bomb the plane would lift from loosing the weight of the bomb. The plane lifted as they bomb was dropped and was immediately hit by FLAK (German air force defense cannons). If they'd have been hit 5 seconds earlier their plane, with the bomb inside, would've exploded. Since they had just released the bomb no one was killed, they just knew they were going down and had to bail out.
They made a radio call to the deputy lead. The crew reported two injured, two engines out and the plane on fire. They said they would bail out, that's the last they heard of them over the radio. Grandad says the last thing he remembers was bailing out and seeing his Lt. Hat on the dash of the airplane (that's what he called it, I don't know if airplanes have dashes or not??) Anyway he remembers seeing his hat as he bailed out and thought, "Man, I should've grabbed my had, I sure would like to have that."
I found an article that BLEW MY MIND. In the article German author Wilhelm Zimmermann wrote to someone asking about a B-17 that crash landed in a field during early February of 1945. He had a photo of the plane with the fuselage letters visible, and guess who's plane it was!! If you guess My Grandad's you are right!! Wilhelm had made contact with Jurgen Korte and the following (edited) information is from a letter written to Wilhelm in June of 2002.
"Between the days of 5th and 9th of February 1945, I drove to Furstenwerder and discovered the crashed down Boeing B-17G. The plane was guarded by a soldier of deutsche Wehrmacht. I walked nearer to inspect the wreckage and then had a discussion with the guard. The plane seems to be not vandalized at this time, but seriously damaged. Returning to my platoon on February 14th 1945, I again passed the wreckage on my way to station of Woldegk, north of Fürstenwerder, which was still resting on the meadow in an unchanged condition. After return to my unit I was on duty again until becoming a POW of the US Army in May of 1945." Jurgen Korte
I have looked all over the internet for this photo that Korte writes of and can't find it. The photo of the aircraft shows serious crash damage as well as fire damage on the #3 engine, as reported by the pilot before bailout. The top turret guns are still in place, but various holes and broken Plexiglass are evident.
Grandad's entire crew did exit the aircraft and landed near the town of Templin, Germany. The aircraft continued on by auto-pilot for approximately 20 miles and crashed near the village of Fürstenwerder, Germany. The crew remained a mystery to the town's people. All that remains, today is what appears to be a piece of radio equipment.
How cool is that!?? His plane is still there! or at least the Radio Equipment is.
Stay Tuned to Part IV and I'll tell you a little about Wayne in the POW Camp
