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The First Americans at Gusenburg and Hermeskeil
by Roland Geiger, St. Wendel, Germany
"On 29 January 1944, I was a boy of 12 and visiting the High School for Boys at
Hermeskeil. Before high noon the sirens screamed. Air alert! We were ordered to run
into the school’s basement, a structure declared asan air shelter after erecting
wooden beams for pillars. Some of our comrades were declared "keepers" and wore
arm signs. Without hesitation and without anyone noticing us, two friends and I left
the building to find better shelter in a near-by bunker just outside of Hermeskeil. On
the way to that bunker we heard the latest air reports by radio from some open
windows. But even without the radios we realized something was going on over the
clouds – we heard the deep humming of heavy bomber engines and the howling of the
fighters and the „ack-ack-ack“ of machine guns.
We stopped in front of the open door to the bunker where we had a good view over
Hermeskeil and its western surroundings. Suddenly, a black something came out of
the clouds and crashed into a nearby forest. An old man said that was the landing
gear of a plane (most probably it was an additional gas tank). But soon after that the
sky began to rain debris, big pieces of an airplane going down near Gusenburg. It
happened so fast we didn‘t even realize what was happening. Sometimes fighters
roared above our heads and disappeared into the distance or climbed back into the
clouds.
Finally, the alert ended and we returned to the school. On the way we met comrades
telling us about the crash of two 4-engined-bombers near Gusenburg. Together we
ran to the site. It was a terrible view not only for us as kids but even years later as
nightmares.. Big smoking parts of debris lay left and right of the road. A biting smell
from burned and carbonized parts hung in the air. Some yards off to the left in a field
and covered with parachutes lay a row of dead flyers from the bomber. To the right,
four surviving crew members who had had the luck to bail out and were captured
around Gusenburg. They sat in a square facing outwards with each one looking in a
different direction to avoid eye contact. SS-soldiers from the nearby concentration
camp Hinzert posted guard near them..
We had to leave, get back to Hermeskeil to gather our belongings and catch the train
back home to Eisweiler where we lived, about ten miles away. On a road going down
to the village we met a weird couple. A German soldier riding a motorbike very slowly,
beside him walking a captured soldier wearing his flight overalls and his parachute on
his shoulders. A belt with a pistol lay over the bike’s handlebars.. Behind them, a
gaggle of onlookers curiously watched this unusual trophy.
The next day our English teacher told us they had been American flyers. She had done
the translating during the interrogation.
On that 29th of January 1944, we kids were shown the war by its atrocius way. There
was nothing left for us of the glory we’d been told by the Nazi propaganda."
Johannes Ganz, St. Wendel
The Mission
In the early morning of Jan 29, 1944, from the bases of 8th Air Force, 863 heavy
bombers - Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortress" and Consolidated B-24 "Liberator"--took off
for another mission to Frankfurt, Germany. One by one they became airbone and
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assembled in the sky- three planes to an element, four elements to a squadron, three
squadrons to a group. This group went higher and higher on a calculated course to
meet with the planes of other groups. Gradually, these large assemblages formed
wings and finally all 15 wings formed three strong attack formations.
One of these three formations was led by the 96th Bomb Group. As Europe was
covered with clouds that Saturday morning, the lead navigator had no landmarks on
the ground to find his course. When his navigation equipment failed, he took his last
known fix and estimated the rest of the way to the target – a technique they called
„dead reckoning.“ But it didn't work. The plane went south of the estimated course
and the formation followed. Shortly before reaching the Initial Point, the lead planes
of the following bomb groups realized they were too far south and turned north to
bomb Frankfurt. The 96th Bomb Group and a few others stayed on the old but
incorrect course and bombed Mannheim -Ludwigshafen through a small hole in the
clouds.
After dropping their bombs, the other formations turned back toward England, met
their escort fighters, and flew home. About four hours after the target of about 1500
hrs, 806 bombers landed back home on their bases. Twenty-nine planes didn't return
(the rest had taken off but were spares or aborts).
Eleven of the 29 belonged to the formation which attacked Ludwigshafen. After the
bomb run they turned west to meet their expected escort. But those fighters came
from another direction than expected. The 3rd Fighter Group (Jagdgeschwader
3),commanded by Major Dahl, was alerted at their base in Bad Woerishofen, Bavaria,
and took off with their Me-109s, heading for the departing American bombers.
Eleven bombers were damaged so badly that they crashed or had to be abandoned.
The lucky crew members who reached the escape hatches bailed out and landed with
their chutes. The others died with their planes which crashed or exploded in mid-air
between the Rhine River and the English Channel.
These bombers didn't return from the raid against Frankfurt on Jan 29, 1944:
BG = Bomb Group, BS = Bomb Squadron, # = Serial Number of air plane
B-17
Pilot
Holdren
Fowler
Rhyner
Moses
Hoverkamp
Mohnacky
Mickow
Beers
Nicklawsky
Tannahill
Van Syckle
Allen
BG
92
303
379
379
379
381
381
401
401
401
401
447
BS
407
427
525
525
527
534
534
615
615
612
610
709
#
42-30711
42-39786
42-31050
42-29886
42-31040
42-38045
42-37884
42-31193
42-40057
42-31486
42-38012
42-31108
crash site
Westende, Belgium
Soire-St-Gery, Beaumont, Belgium
Houffalize near Bastogne, France
Blankenheim, Germany
south of Prüm, Germany
west of Frankfurt, Germany
near Worms, Germany
near Worms, Germany
Bad Kreuznach, Germany
Rockenhausen, Germany
Börrstadt, Germany
Gondershausen, Germany
page 3
B-24
Maynard
Pinder
Podolak
Germany
Dout
Stukus
Usury
Taylor
44
44
389
66
67
565
41-29157
42-7547
42-40795
Ilsfurth, France
Mont /Luxembourg
near Eimsheim near Rhine River,
389
392
392
482
567
579
577
814
42-72833
42-7484
42-100005
42-7669
ditched into English Channel
near Waterloo, Belgium
mid-air-coll. with Taylor over England
mid-air-coll. with Usury over England
plus these B-17 which bombed Ludwigshafen
Farris
Kandl
Sisler
Hammond
Bostick
Palmer
Notestein
Hennessy
Harding
96
96
96
96
385
385
385
388
390
339
413
337
413
550
549
549
562
570
42-3552
42-30859
42-31151
42-31436
42-97506
42-30354
42-30251
42-3285
42-30334
Güdesweiler, Germany
Hermeskeil, Germany
Gusenburg, Germany
Charleville, Belgium
Gonnesweiler, Germany
Chaleroi, Belgium
Kaiserslautern, Germany
Cambrai, France
Friedrichshafen, Germany
Harding headed for Switzerland after a mid-air collision with another plane. The crew
bailed out and the plane crashed into Lake Constance. Lt. Notestein's "Piccadilly
Queen" crashed into the city of Kaiserslautern after being rammed by a Me-109. Four
of the ten crewmembers survived plus the German pilot.
The route of the formation after passing Kaiserslautern led over the northern part of
St. Wendel County. Here Lt. Anthony's plane disintegrated in mid-air after a frontal
collision with a Me-109 and crashed without any survivors Schwarzerden. Lt. Bostick,
pilot of "Thunderbird", was the last of his crew to bail out high above Tuerkismuehle
and the plane crashed near Gonnesweiler. The Claude Farris crew bailed out over the
Palatinate and its "Flying Ginny" crashed into the woods above Guedesweiler. Two
other bombers - Sisler's "Kitty" and Kandl's "Skylark" - crashed near Hermeskeil und
Gusenburg.
page 4
Sisler near Gusenburg
B-17G 5 BO
initials AE-S
Serial-# 42-31151
Unit: 96th Bomb Group (H) 337th Bomb Squad, based at Snetterton Heath, England
Pilot
Copilot
Navigator
Bombardier
Radio Operator
Top Turret Gnr
Ball Turret
Right Waist
Left Waist
Tailgunner
Darrell C.
Clarence K.
Montidier N.
James L.
Philip M.
Raymond F.
Arthur J.
Lawrence T.
Thomas E.
Walter L.
Sisler
Johnson
Estes
Kelly
Rousse
Lewis
Brown
Rothholz
Price
Wilde
1Lt
2Lt
2Lt
2Lt
TSgt
TSgt
Sgt
SSgt
SSgt
SSgt
O-797196
O-740824
O-682161
O-679176
3115580
32449434
36376220
12155252
38190361
19086684
KIA
KIA
KIA
POW
POW
KIA
POW
KIA
KIA
POW
KIA – killed in action; POW – prisoner of war
Philip M. Rousse from Windsor, Vermont, was the radio operator of Sisler's plane
approaching Hermeskeil from the southeast. His daughter, Raina A. Maynard, relayed
to me her father‘s experiences as he had told her:
"The mission my father and his crew members were on at the time of the crash
originated from Snetterton Heath Air Force Base in England. They had successfully
bombed the target and were returning to England. They were flying in diamond
formation. That was the way in which the planes lined up to fly together in a cluster. A
lead plane and then the rest formed behind him in the shape of a diamond. While
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dropping the bombs the diamond was very large so as not to drop the bombs on each
other. Before or after the boming the formation closed in. Thus no enemy planes could
enter the formation.
On the return trip, a hole (described as about three feet wide) had been shot into the
area behind my father's position. My father got up from his seat and began to throw
things into the hole to close it up and to stop the wind. He used things that they were
not using, such as their big fur coats. As he was doing this, Brown came up from the
turret and was standing in the doorway to the radio room. He reported that the turret
was not working and had come up to see what was going on. They figured that the
electrical system to the turret had been blown out by whatever caused the hole. The
pilot then radioed my father and instructed him to look out his window and asked if he
could see the German plane that was flying along side of the formation. It was flying
at an angle that they were not able to shoot and hit it. While my father was watching,
he saw the wing of the plane tip up and a big flash followed by smoke came out of its
wing. He could see a rocket headed into their formation. My father was standing up
and saw the rocket fly over his plane and hit the wing. The rocket knocked off the
engine and broke the wing. Their plane fell down hitting the plane flying in formation
just below them. When the two planes collided, my father's plane cracked from the
first hole, right over to the open area that he was shooting out of, and included the
wing. My father and Brown were standing in the radio room facing each other. He had
on his parachute and he knows that Brown had his on while they were talking to each
other.
When it split the plane, the tail end started to go away from the plane and my father
fell through the floor of the plane. He blacked out. When he regained consciousness,
he was flying on his back through the air. He pulled his rip cord, the parachute opened
up and he slowed right down. Clouds were below him and he could not yet see the
ground. Clouds were all around him and he felt like he was barely moving. He looked
and could see one other guy there with a parachute. He started to call out names. All
of his crew members' names. He called and called. Not an answer, just echoes. All of
a sudden he went through the clouds and the ground looked like it was coming right
up to him. He was still very high up and could see farmers standing around pointing at
him. He spotted a railroad track with a brook running through a culvert under the
track. On the other side of the railroad track was a huge corn field. He landed in the
brook and hid his parachute under the railroad. As he was fixing his boots to get ready
to run into the corn field, he was halted by a German pointing a gun on him. My father
said he didn't look like a soldier but maybe a type of "home guard".
People from Gusenburg told me there was a farmer from Gusenburg named Peter
Koch who worked his meadow near the recent Blasius Mill. He excavated small
drainage ditches. Suddenly an American flyer came down with his chute a couple of
yards away. Koch was a big and strong man but he got so much terrified that he "took
his legs in his hands" and ran away. He alerted the police which came to arrest the
flyer. After the war when he was asked about his being a hero as his alert resulted in
the capture of a flyer he smiled and asked whether they knew the color of the blood of
a hero - brown or red. The answer was "red". Then he always said: "Then I must have
sh... into my pants!"
They walked a short distance, about a half a mile, and came into a small
town(Gusenburg). He was taken to a school house and put in a class room. The school
teacher could speak English and asked him all kinds of questions. None that he could
answer except name, rank and serial number. Apparently my father's hand was
injured during the crash. This kind lady helped clean his wound and was apologetic
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that she did not have any bandages. My father told her he had a first aid kit (medical
supplies) attached to the parachute. He told her where it was and she sent someone
out to find the parachute. They returned with it and she then bandaged his hand. He
was always touched by her show of kindness and wished that he knew her name. He
said that she was quite old, so I am sure she has been dead many years.
They left him with a guard at the door. Then they brought in James Kelly. My father
didn't recognize him because his head was all cut up, his nose was bent to one side
and his mouth was bleeding. He could not talk. He gestured to my father for a
cigarette and my father recognized the ring on his finger as belonging to Kelly. When
the guard realized that they knew each other he mentioned for them to stop talking.
They were then taken by a horse drawn wagon along with about five or six other
prisoners and about 10 soldiers to a bigger town and a bigger building. Then they
were separated and interrogated by the German authorities. They were then placed
on a train and sent to Frankfurt. Again they were interrogated. On to Nuremberg,
where it was believed to be the main interrogation headquarters. They were put in
small cells and after about 4 days they were allowed to mingle with the other
prisoners. This is where he again met up with Kelly. Kelly told him that when their
plane struck the other plane, his place crumbled and he was thrown through the
plexiglas window. That was how he got all cut up and broke his nose. It was here that
he also found Brown and Wilde.
He was there for about a month. A notice was posted asking for volunteer GIs to go to
an Air Force prison camp to work as orderlies for the officers. My father and Brown
signed up to go. About two days later, my father and Brown were taken by train to
the prison camp Stalag Luft III in Sagan. That was the last time he had contact with
Kelly or Wilde. He remained with Brown the rest of the war. He was a prisoner of
Stalag Luft III for about 10-11 months. My father reports that they were well treated
at the camp and that he was never abused or harmed in any way. Conditions were
poor and they had to do with what they were issued. If medical attention was needed
it was provided. They organized and were assigned work duties. Food was of course
the main focus of their lives since they had nothing else to occupy their time. My
father speaks about the tools they made and the stoves to keep warm that they
constructed from the waste and debris. They were resourceful. That always intrigued
me.
When the Russians neared, the POW camp at Sagan was closed. They had to walk to
Moosburg in Bavaria. The march started January 27, 1945 and they marched until
arriving at camp in Moosburg on April 13. It was during this march that my father
kept his diary. It was a daily log of where they were and what parcels they received
while on the move. It provides a description of the routine on a daily basis. There
were no significant events to record until close to the day he was liberated. At that
time there were rumors of being freed but they did not want to instill false hope.
However he records the increase of American planes sighted flying over camp and the
increased sound of artillery close by. Air raids were more frequent.
On April 29th at 12:40 a.m., the American flag was raised in the camp along with
British and French. General Patton visited the camp on May 1st.
On May 3rd, he boarded a truck that took him to Landshut. There he had to wait until
May 7th to board one of the American C-47 planes. They landed in Reims, France,
where he was taken by truck to LeHavre, France. He waited there until May 15th and
page 7
finally boarded a ship, the U.S.S. Santa Rosa. The ship docked at pier # 16 in New
York on May 29, 1945."
That was the story of Philipp Rousse, as narrated by his daugther. Also in that plane
was Walter L. Wilde from Crawford, Texas. He was the tailgunner.
"We were returning to England from a bombing mission on the Frankfurt marshalling
yards. We had been hit alternately by flak batteries and then the Luftwaffe all the
way. We were lead ship in a four plane element and had lost our "tail end Charlie" and
our right wing ship.
The entire incident happened so fast, perhaps in matter of only seconds, that I could
never understand how the ball turret gunner, Arthur Brown, was able to get out of his
turret and attach his chute before our plane blew up. I have flown in the ball and it is
a rather slow and cumbersome task to exit in flight (about this see Rousse's story).
I was flying in the "stinger" as the tail gunner when I feld our ship vibrate. What
seemed like the front half of a FW 190 sailed by my window. I thought some gunner
had hit a fighter, not realizing that is was our number four engine blown out of our
wing. A second or two later our right wing came off causing our plane to shake
violently and bank to our left hitting our left wing ship. We exploded on impact and
the other B-17 apparently went straight down. I realized our dilemma and keeled
backwards off my bicycle seat onto the catwalk.
The explosion caused a momentary blackout. When I came to, I found myself riding
the tail down like a glider without controls. At first I could not find my parachute and I
found that my feet were anchored under belts of ammunition that had apparently
dumped out of the trays. I freed myself, loosing a boot in the process. I was lying
backward on my parachute. I managed to pull ti out from under me and decided to
bail out with chute in hand ... hoping that I would have enough time to put it on the
way down. I must say I had one devil of a time trying to get that thing while falling
120 feet per second. I remember falling through the clouds, pulling the ripcord,
feeling my body come to what seemed an abrupt stop and then within seconds I hit
the ground.
The entire episode took only seconds. I made a perfect landing and when I looked
about me I could see pieces of our airplane floating earthward. After a futile attempt
at burying my chute, I finally stowed it under some brush. Over a hill I could see a
column of smoke, presumably where our left wing plane crashed (that's right!). To the
right of me and at some distance there appeared the main wreckage of what I thought
was our airplane. There was some activity in that area. I could make out people and
could hear voices.
Some minutes later I noticed a parachute. It was our ball turret gunner SSgt Brown.
It seemed like I waited for an eternity for him to finally hit the ground. I asked him
how he got out of his turret so fast and got his chute on. "I don't know, I just did!",
was his reply. I helped him ditch his chute and we ran across an open field into some
small first growth timber. We found a flat ditch where we jumped in and tried to be as
small as possible. Then we heard rifle shots not far away. Neither of us had a weapon.
It was my 13th mission and the boys over there in England had teased me about the
number but I told them I would leave back everything, my weapons, escape kitd and
everything to show them I was sure to return in good shape."
page 8
Walter Jakoby, native of Hermeskeil, narrates about Wilde's capture. He had watched
the crash of both planes after they came through the clouds. A wing came down in an
area opposite Gusenburg. Walter saw the clouds of smoke rising from the forest and
together with his friends ran to the site. When they approached the curve in the road
near the burning wreck, a small truck from the nearby concentration camp Hinzert
arrived, carrying about 15 soldiers with dogs. The civilians around were ordered to
form a long string to support the search for surviving flyers. They started in a line first a soldier, then three civilians, another soldier and so on. The first man in the line
had two big German shepherd dogs which were hard to handle. So he gave one of
them named "Prinz" to Walter. Prince was huge and as high as Walter's chest. A
command was given and they entered the woods. The dog was strong, stronger than
Walter, and soon there were a little in front of the main line, about five meters (15
feet). They went through the woods. Suddenly he came to a parallel path running
from left to right and about 15 feet wide.Walter looked left and right and wanted to
pass the opening when suddenly on the other side one of the flyers left the wood. The
dog barked and Walter let him go. Prinz jumped to the man and against his chest and
made him fall on his back. He lay on his back, the dog standing over him. He didn't
hurt him just fixed him on the ground. And the prisoner didn't move. Walter shouted
for help. The captors came from all around to see what was going on. The leader of
the party called the dog and the dog obeyed at once. He moved and the American
stood up and surrendered. He was checked for weapons but he only found some kind
of bag or bottle with water and the flyer was allowed to keep it. The prisoner and two
or three others were led back to the road opposite the burning plane. There they
stood not allowed to face each other. One of the American flyers tried to light a
cigarette but the chairman of the political party of Hermeskeil named Wickbold gave
him a smack right into his face wiping the cigarette into the dirt. One of the SS-men
saw that, jumped to them and pushed Wickbold so hard that he himself fell down. The
Americans were forced to enter a truck. Prinz, the dog, got a medal for finding the
American a couple of days later.
Walter Wilde continues:
"Shortly after my capture by a German shepherd dog we were joined with another
Kriegie, who I think was a survivor of our left wing ship that we crashed into when our
wing came off and went went out of control. He appeared badly burned.
I remember that Brown and I were driven (I think in an automobile) to some small
town (most probably Hermeskeil). We went into some sort of a building that could
page 9
have been a courthouse or some government building. There we waited in an austere
lobby. Brown was escorted down a hallway and into a room where he was
interrogated. I was then escorted down the hall to the same room. As we passed in
the ballway, Brown said "Don't tell them where we bombed!" We were effectively
separated and in the interrogation room I was asked over and over again what he had
said to me. The first thing that came to my mind was "when are we going to eat". So I
repeated that until the interrogators ran out of patience for a better answer.
I vaguely remember that there were a number of people in the room, some in uniform
and others in civilian clothes. They surrounded me in a wide arc. In the center was a
girl who served as an interpreter. She had been crying and it appeared that she had
cut or injured her hand or wrist somehow. The interrogation was brief and the
interrogators were quite disgruntled with the information they obtained from me and
pushed me from the room brusquely. Frankly, I thought that this was to be the end of
the trail for both Brown and me!
Later we were transported to a facility where other prisoners were being held. Some
said that it was an old chicken coop. It was there that we saw our bombardier and
radio operator. I didn't recognize the bombardier Lt. Kelly, as his head was
completely covered like a mummy. I was told by the radio operator, Rousse, that it
was he."
Hans Scherer from Hermeskeil worked at Hermeskeil Mayor's Hall. When the prisoners
were brought to the mayor's hall, his department "got" one of the prisoners for
interrogation. The prsioner was a tall man and Scherer's boss, Inspektor Schneider,
another clerk and Scherer tried to interrogate him. They sketched a plane on a piece
of paper, pointed on the sketch and asked how many flyers had been in the plane and
where their positions had been. He looked at them very much amused but didn't
answer.
page 10
The prisoners were taken to the Trier-Petersberg Barracks about an hour or two away
the same night.
Anni Hennen, Hans Schömer, Alfred Anell, Hermann-Josef and Maria Wahlen, all
citizen of Gusenburg, remember the crash very well:
"Both planes came from southeast, one smoking very badly. While the burning plane
crashed in the forest near the road from Gusenburg, the other disintegrated in the air
and came down in a million pieces.
Above the new soccer field a field path goes left from the main road passing a barn.
Above the barn is a big open field, then a forest. In the middle of the field was a
wooden watch tower of the German Luftwaffe.
The main part of the plane crashed in the field
while other parts came down in the area around it.
Four dead soldiers were found in the field, the
chutes still packed and one lying on his back. They
made big holes in the ground from impact.
The separated tail of Sisler's plane came down
near the main part of the fuselage in the field.
One of the wings came down on the other side of
the village above the new streetMühlenweg (a
street of Gusenburg). Another part - most
probably one of the engines - came down about
five miles south near Bierfeld. One of the .50caliber-machine-guns stuck in the ground, its
barrel pointing to the sky. Young boys stepped
against it and it started firing some rounds. No
one was hurt but some pants had to be changed.
One of the dead wore a wrist watch which stopped
working at 12 o'clock. There was a ditch along the
road to Hermeskeil. Right outside Gusenburg a
community worker took cover in the ditch when he
heard the roaring of the planes. He was absolutely
terrified when a single leg landed right behind
him. It belonged to the navigator, Montidier N.
Estes, whose body also came down 5 miles south
near Bierfeld.
While some kids watched a dead flyer lying in the
field, a women from Gusenburg arrived and told
them: "Pay attention, he may be alive. Look, he
moves his legs!" While the kids ran away terrified she started checking the body for
something useful.
The chutes were much desired. A man from Gusenburg carried home three of them
and a couple of weeks later his daughters got new dresses, made of white silk.
page 11
By chance I found Gerd Fuchs, a writer from Nonnweiler, south of Hermeskeil, who
now lives in Hamburg. He wrote a young people’s novel entitled "The Americans come
- a member of Hitler's youth experiences the end of WWII". There he writes about a
crash of a B-17. His model was the crash of Sisler's plane near Gusenburg.
In a letter he wrote:
"Dear Mr. Geiger,
Thank you very much for sending me the results of your research. They not only
interested but fascinated me. Nevertheless I didn't feel good about it. Somewhere
inside me that muddy brew of emotions came to existence again that I had when at
that time I approached to such a wreck, such a place of evil: luxuriance for
sensations, rankness for everything concerning death (you could see bodies or parts
of bodies), cheap triumphing like that "famous" Mr. Wickboldt or dentist Hector with
his big belly filling his SA-uniform and firing with his hunting rifle on a four-engined
bombers passing slowly over Hermeskeil, two engines out and smoking and
everywhere around those precocious fanaticized twelve year old little boys and I was
one of them ..."
Kandl near Gusenburg
B-17 F-125-BO
Initials MZ-0
Serial number 42-30859
nickname: "Skylark"
Einheit: 96th Bomb Group (H) 413 th Bomb Squad, based at Snetterton Heath, England
Pilot
Copilot
Navigator
Bombardier
Radio Operator
Top Turret
Ball Turret
Right Waist
Left Waist
Tailgunner
Louis C.
Brandon J.
Robert W.
Albert
Robert J.
Edward J.
Theodore A.
Theodore D.
Aaron E.
Charles E.
Kandl
Britt
Stanton
Combs
Scanlon
Knapp
Wagner
Brown
Shoop
Harbaugh
1Lt
2Lt
2Lt
1Lt
TSgt
TSgt
SSgt
SSgt
SSgt
SSgt
O-797550
O-680599
O-736416
O-2043755
11094721
13039641
36275721
32362081
17077156
13145658
KIA
KIA
KIA
KIA
KIA
KIA
KIA
POW
KIA
POW
Tail gunner Charles E. Harbaugh from Tiffin, Ohio, was the only member of Kandl's
crew I could locate.
"Dear Roland: I wish to thank you for your phone call and your letter and packet of
information I received yesterday. The information is interesting and brings back old
memories. I entered the service in November of 1942 and spent the next eight
months trainin g and was assigned to a B-17 crew as a tail gunner and aircraft
armorer. In September of 1943 I arrived in England.
In January of 1944 the crew of "Sky Lark" was assigned the position of squadron
leader. On the morning of January 29, 1944 after being briefed and assigned the
target of Frankfurt, during the warm up and preflight inspection of the aircraft, a
mechanical problem developed. While the problem was being rectified by the ground
crew, the squadron took off with the normally second plane in the lead.
By the time our plane was air worthy and we caught up with the assembling group, it
was too late to take over the lead and we filled in farther back in the formation.
page 12
After the bombs were dropped through a hole in the overcast (undercast to us) on
what we thought was Frankfurt we turned for home base. No friendly escort fighters
appeared, but scores of German fighters did. They attacked the formation and tried to
dive through the formation, a tactic used to loosen the defensive fire power and get a
bomber on the side by itself.
All of a sudden I heard over the intercom, "Look out", then a crash and I was in the
tail section alone, and the rest of the plane was gone. I had little trouble freeing
myself but when I jumped and rolled over to open my parachute the tail section was
following me down at nearly the same rate of speed I was falling. I waited as long as
possible to open my parachute and somehow the parachute missed the tail section
and we landed seconds apart in a small field. The tail section was not more than 200
yards away from me. "
Staff Sergeant Theodore D. Brown, the right waist gunner, was thrown out of the
plane when it was broken in two at the waist. He was wearing his chute and landed
safely. After returning home after the war he was interrogated about the crash and
reported:
"The collision happened at about 11:45 Greenwich Time at an altitude of 23,000 feet
on the way home near Belgium. Besides me only the tailgunner could bail out; he was
in the tail which had been separated. On the ground I met two crew members of the
other plane, the bombardier and one of the waist gunners.
Our pilot Kandl didn't bail out. He was caught in the ship. My last contact with him
was during the usual interphone conversation. When I saw him last he was not
page 13
injured. I think he must have been trying to straighten the ship out also he must have
known the tail was off. The controls were out and the ship was falling...
Ball turret gunner Wagner also didn't bail out, his chute was outside the ball. He was
not injured but trapped in the ball. I think the ball turret was cut off and could only be
worked manually. The ship was falling and spinning and he couldn't get out off the
ball.
Top turret gunner Knapp saw the wing ship coming toward us and started to warn the
pilot but it was too late. The ship went into a dive and he was not wearing his chute
and must have been trapped in the ship.
I saw Shoop, left waist gunner, the last time before I bailed out. He didn't wear his
chute and I asked him if he wanted to put his chute on and he shook his head "no".
Germans reported him dead. I think he either went out without a chute or stayed in
the ship. I personally think he went out. The slipstream was cutting the ship and he
stood near to the edge.
Due to the crash of the other ship colliding with ours and breaking ours in two, radio
operator Scanlon may have fell against something in the radio room and lost
conciousness and did not got out."
Charles Harbaugh about his capture:
"At the edge of a field there was a line of trees, about 50 yards long, behind another
field and then a hill. I threw my chute into the tail section debris, passed the first field
and hid under the trees. When I heard a search party approaching I left the trees on
the other side to run across the second field toward the hills. Reaching the middle of
the field, I saw a German soldier riding a motor bike around the edge of the line of
trees. He shouted "Halt!" and I stopped at once. He rode to me and I became his
prisoner. He asked for the chute, so we went back to the tail and took it. I wore my
.45 pistols but didn't even think of pulling it. Furthermore the soldiers wore a weapon.
He told me to walk on and showed the direction, so I walked. And he followed with his
motor bike. The time must have been about noon." (Remember the weird couple as
watched by Johannes Ganz).
Harbaugh continues:
"I was taken to a small village a short distance away. Times and distances are
deceptive, especially after all these years. I do remember a column of smoke rising
from the other side of a hill and what sounded like ammunition exploding in the fire.
That evening one or two others and myself were taken by truck to a place where we
met other American flyers and were kept over night. That is were I met Ted Brown,
our waist gunner. He was thrown from the plane but had his chute on and was
uninjured as was I. He drifted several kilometers away on the way down. "
Anni Kaspar from Bierfeld knows about the capture of an American flyer near Bierfeld
(Bierfeld is about 5 miles southeast of Hermeskeil). She was 24 years old. An
American soldier landed in the forest near the edge of the village with his chute, was
captured by some people and taken to the house of the mayor named Ramb, Anni's
father. Someone from the town came and said: "Ramb, come on, take your gun and
shoot him without further ado!" But Ramb was a veteran from World War One and
knew how to handle a prisoner of war. The young American was led into the kitchen.
His neck was injured and bleeding. Anni cleaned the wound with water and bandaged
it. He mother had cooked some soup and the American was asked to eat something.
He also was offered a pill against his pain. But he declined. A German soldier who
page 14
knew some English talked with him. But he didn't dare to answer. Finally Anni ate
some soup and also took half of the pill and as it didn't hurt her, he "surrendered" and
ate the soup, consuming two cups of it. Later some German soldiers came and
carried him away.
He was not the only flyer to come down at Bierfeld that day. On the other side of
Bierfeld another flyer landed - but without parachute and one of his legs missing. It
was Estes from Sisler's plane. He was buried at Bierfeld Cemetery.
About him there is a paper from a KU-file # 734 (filed at Oberursel at German
Interrogation Center). It says:
"Flieger-Ersatz-Battalion XII
Trier, Feb 19, 1944
Attached please acknowledge receipt of form #1 plus 2 dog tags from an American
crew member shot down during the air battle above Gusenburg on Jan 29, 1944, and
buried at the community cemetery of Bierfeld near Hermeskeil:
M o n t i d i e r, Estes N.
dog-tag number O-682161 T 43
The body was buried on 29.1.44 at 1800 hrs at the community cemetery of Bierfeld.
Gravesite: Single grave in the left lower corner of the cemetery as seen from the
entry. The grave is marked.
We received this report on Feb 19, 1944, by the mayor of Nonnweiler.
sign. illegible
Oberstleutnant and CO"
Harbaugh continues: "The next day we were put on a train and taken to the Dulag
Interrogation Center in Frankfurt. After having been bombed a day or two before it is
needless to say the civilians were not happy. We were protected by the army guards
and were not mistreated at any time. After being interrogated by the Luftwaffe I was
taken by train to Stalag Luft III near Sagan. I was in custody until January of 1945
page 15
when the Russians were moving into Germany from the east. At that time we were
moved out and taken to Stalag VII A where I was liberated April 29, 1945.
I have never been able to get in touch with Theodore D. Brown. The remains of the
crew members were returned to the U.S. in the late forties. I was notified by the War
Department and attended the internment at a National Cemetery and met their next
of kin but Brown did not attend and no one knew his whereabouts then."
Hermann-Josef and Maria Wahlen from Gusenburg remember the plane wreck very
well:
The crash site is located to the right of the road to Hermeskeil north of Gusenburg
shortly after you enter the woods. In the middle of a small curve to the left a field
path goes down to the right. Ten yards later you leave the field path to the left and
there you can see the old road to Hermeskeil. Follow it 50 yards and you come to a
tree-nursery with fir-trees. Here the main part of the fuselage crashed and burned
out. The pilot and copilot died in the plane at their positions. People remember they
were the size of little dolls. The pilot was sitting at his controls, the control stick still in
his hands. The copilot sat near him, his hands holding a pouch. Both were carbonized
from fire. About 250 yards away they found five more bodies. Hildegard Blasius from
Blasiusmühle saw another body, hanging from a tree under his chute.
A couple of years ago Edmund Schömer from Hermeskeil did research for a Roman
temple not far away from the crash site and found live rounds of ammunition.
The bodies were recovered and buried at the cemetery of Gusenburg, identified by the
dog tags they wore. After the war they were exhumed by US collection teams and
reinterred at the huge military cemetery outside German soil. Most of them were
returned to the States.
Sisler
Johnson
Estes
Lewis
Rothholz
Price
Kandl
Britt
Stanton
Combs
Scanlon
Knapp
Wagner
Shoop
Luxemburg (Hamm), E-14-4
Michigan, USA
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, TX
New York
Long Island National Cem., Farmindale, Long Island, NY
Oklahoma
USA*
USA*
Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, CA
Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, CA
USA*
USA*
Luxemburg (Hamm), H-7-50
Montana
* Kandl, Britt, Scanlon and Knapp could not be individually identified and received a
group burial at Zachary Taylor National Cemetery, Louisville, KY.
The wrecks were carried away and recycled. Aluminium was rare in those days and
the Luftwaffe needed airplanes.
Sisler's plane is gone but from Kandl's Skylark you can find some bits and pieces. But
more or less only small fragments a inches long. All that is left from a big airplane.
Some small fragments and this story.
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_____________________
Acknowledgement:
Thank you very much to the surviving members of both crews I could contact and also to the
eye-witnesses. I did the translation by myself but proofreading was again done by my good
friend Heather Tyreman, now residing at Seattle, Washington, USA. Also she always states my
English to be excellent, well, I see reality in her corrections. J
Sources:
US National Archives, College Park, MD, USA: Missing-Air-Crew-Reports 2377 and 2381; KU
734
"Hermeskeil - Aufstieg zum zentralen Ort", Hermeskeil 198_, page 213 (photo)
Collection Klaus Zimmer, St. Ingbert
Eye-witnesses:
USA:
Raina A. Maynard, 36 West Shore Road, Grand Isle, VT 05458, USA, for her father, Philipp M.
Rousse
Walter Lee Wilde, 2668 Galaxy Road, Crawford, TX 76638, USA
Charles E. Harbaugh, 2182 E. Township Rd 86, Tiffin, OH 44883, USA
Germany:
Anni Hennen, Hans Schömer, Alfred Anell, Hermann-Josef and Maria Wahlen, all from
Gusenburg
Herbert Schmitt, Walter Jakoby, Hildegard Blasius, Edmund Schömer, Hans Scherer, all from
Hermeskeil
Johannes Ganz, St. Wendel
Anni Kaspar, Bierfeld
Gerd Fuchs, Hamburg
Helmut Ludwig, Nonnweiler
note:
A similar German version of this article will be published in "Der Schellemann", issue 1999.
Charles Harbaugh and the author meet at Fostoria, Ohio, on Sept 23, 1997