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In mid-August, 2000, a piece of B-17 wreckage was
returned from Germany to the Control Tower Museum at Thorpe Abbotts.
The five-by-three-foot wing section from the left wing was recently
recovered from Burstadt, Germany. I became interested in this B-17
and crew during 1989 after reading Martin Middlebrooks excellent
book, The Schweinfurt – Regensburg Mission. What intrigued me was
that the crew was on their first mission and the aircraft was called
the "Waac Hunter" so typical of the flavor of the nose art during
the period. An E-mail to our wonderful historian, Jan Riddling, and
the ever-busy Mike Faley indicated there was very little archived
written or photographic information on this aircraft. Although over
the years I have communicated with Charles Thompson, co-pilot, and
Roy Butler who was the right waist gunner, both have given me
their stories as far as memory serves them, but a photo of this ship
has eluded me.
Lieutenant Charles Thompson (later, Major, USAF
retired) arrived at Thorpe Abbotts in July 1943. His ambition was to
finish his tour of 25 missions and return home to his family for
Christmas. He was the co-pilot on "WAAC Hunter" during the notorious
Regensburg Shuttle mission, his first mission and certainly no milk
run. During the flight over German territory, the Luftwaffe
repeatedly attacked the 100th Bomb Group with unprecedented ferocity
and determination. Following repeated frontal attacks by ME109s and
FW190s, the vertical stabilizer was shot away, there was fire in the
No. 2 engine and left wing, acrid smoke in the cockpit, jammed
controls, and no intercom. The old story about the Luftwaffe
singling out crippled aircraft was true and another particularly
hard attack struck home "causing the aircraft to shudder and bounce
like an auto hitting a ditch at high speed." Twenty minutes from the
target, the pilot, Lt. Shotland, ordered the crew to bail out. Eight
other B-17s were lost from the 100th BG formation that day which
makes it an even more poignant story.
Lt. Thompson and the engineer, S/Sgt. Lloyd
Field, were at the front hatch looking down at the peaceful farming
country 17,000 feet below. Neither one much liked the idea of
jumping until S/Sgt. Field said to Thompson in a joking manner "Is
this trip really necessary?" a quotation from wartime posters in
England and the U.S. With that comment, the tension was broken and
the two men jumped. Lt. Thompson recalls looking back up at his ship
and seeing it explode in a big ball of flame. Pieces of debris were
falling and barely missing him.
I was fortunate to meet the co-pilot, Charles
Thompson and his wife, Jane, at the Thorpe Abbotts reunion in 1992.
Through that miracle of communication, the Internet, I was also able
to meet Roland Geiger of St. Wendel, Germany on the Heavy
Bombers.com discussion board. I asked Roland if he knew anything
about the "WAAC Hunter" which crashed at Roxheim near Worms. Three
months later Roland replied saying, "Yes." He had been to the crash
site and had learned from a local researcher that part of the wing
had been found by a local farmer, Herr Helmut Schader. Apparently
the piece of debris was impaled on a branch high up in the canopy of
a large tree. When the tree fell down in 1994, Herr Schader was able
to recover the piece of wing and assumed it was very valuable. If
the wing had not been lodged high up in the tree it is likely that
the scrap kommando gangs would have taken the wreckage away
completely.
Some people maintain that a B-17 had a spirit,
almost a personality, and I wondered, "Did this B-17 want to make it
back to Thorpe Abbotts, even in partial form?" Once this question
occurred to me, I knew I just had to go to Frankfurt to check out
the report.
On June the 23rd I was off, flying over the towns
and fields of Germany. Viewing this scene gave me an eerie feeling
and I thought of all the airmen who had flown in exactly this
direction during World War II.
Roland Geiger met me and took me to Burstadt
where we met with Herr Hans Held and Herr Edwin Hess - both
local researchers into the many allied aircraft crashes in this area
of Southwestern Germany during the course of the war. We met
Herr Schader and he told me, "There is the wing." And there, leaning
against a wall, was a piece of the "WAAC Hunter" B-17 42-30002,
radio call sign, F for Freddie, and once a proud member of the 349th
Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group (H). Now she leaned there - twisted,
faded and forlorn in a German farmyard. The piece was dominated
by part of the American blue insignia with the faint lines still
visible where the white star had once been. I examined the piece
with the same degree of excitement, as Dr. Ballard must have when he
initially found the Titanic.
We were taken next to the crash site and, using
the accounts of eyewitnesses, I was shown where the wing was found
and also where the main wreckage was found - now overgrown with
saplings. Apparently the body of tail gunner, S/Sgt. Foster Compton
from Hartley, Kentucky, was found in his plane position, which had
detached from the main wreckage. The remaining nine-crew members
were able to bail out just in the nick of time and became prisoners
of war. Colonel Bill Thompson (USAF Ret.), who was shot down
on the 18 March 1945, provided me with the Missing Aircrew Report on
this aircraft from his large database on missing crew members of the
100th BG.
Roland negotiated to give Herr Schader twenty
German marks for the piece and I gladly paid it as I wanted to
secure it for the 100th BG Museum where it would be cherished and
displayed in a dignified manner. The farmer’s wife had urged him to
throw away the piece of "scrap" in his yard so it was all the more
important to obtain the wing. Roland just managed to fit it into his
car and then we drove back to St. Wendel.
The next logistical problem was - How do I get it
back to Thorpe Abbotts? Roland quickly suggested, "Why not ask the
USAF from Ramstein to fly it to Mildenhall?" With that thought I
contacted S/Sgt. Art Hoven, who was the liaison between the 100th
Air Refueling Wing at Mildenhall and the Museum at Thorpe Abbotts.
Art has put in many hours of dedicated free time helping the Museum
out any way he could. He replied that he was leaving his job at
Mildenhall with the 100th Aircraft Regeneration Squadron for a new
posting in Nebraska but he kindly put me in touch with Capt. Chris
Comeau who, luckily, had a proud interest in the history of the
original 100th and was interested in helping get the wing back to
England.
Following approval from the commanding officer of
the 100th ARW, Colonel John Butcher, I asked Roland for one last
favor – would he take the part to Ramstein to meet a 100th Air
Refueling Wing KC135 that would come over from England? Roland duly
obliged and met Capt. Shannon Yenchesky who was Commander of the
aircraft. Roland expressed great respect that this lady was in
charge of such a large craft and she promised to try to dip her
wings as she flew over his home approximately 30 miles from
Ramstein. Thus, on Friday, 14 July, Capt. Yenchesky and crew brought
this piece of 100th BG heritage safely back to England. I contacted
Carol Batley, who stated that Ron was very busy with the harvest but
they certainly wanted the wing part for the 100th BG Memorial
Museum. Chris Comeau and his wife attempted to deliver the part to
Thorpe Abbotts, but almost tore their car upholstery to shreds with
the sharp aluminum edges! Therefore, using a larger vehicle driven
by Dan Yenchesky, the part finally made it back to Thorpe Abbotts on
the 12 August 2000.
So, just five days short of the 57th anniversary
of the "WAAC Hunter" roaring down the runway at Thorpe Abbotts on
her first and last mission, part of her was back home - much to the
delight of Jim Gintner and the many other tireless volunteers who
make the museum what it is today, a proud symbol and a memorial to a
fine breed of men and women who believed in a cause and gave their
all to ensure that victory was achieved.
I was lucky enough to take my family to the home
of Charles and Jane Thompson in Roosevelt, Utah at the end of July
2000. Our nine-year-old daughter, Megan presented Charles a plain
brown paper package which I had taken off the wing. Charles opened
the package and was visibly stunned. "Is this a piece of my plane,"
he asked. We assured him that it was. Charles sat silent for a few
moments while his memories reunited him with an old friend.
It was quite an honor for us to be able to do
that and was, in a small way, our method of saying a profound "Thank
you" to one of the many veterans who contributed to the hard-won
freedom we enjoy today.
Without the help of Roland Geiger and his
colleagues, the 100th Air Refueling Wing personnel, the 100th BG
Historical Staff, and the volunteers at Thorpe Abbotts Museum, this
recovery would not have been possible. I am indebted to them for
their help. Oh, I guess I must thank that German tree that, for so
long, kept a piece of the "WAAC Hunter" from the smelter! |