PERSONNEL:

PERSONS WHO ARE BELIEVED TO HAVE LAST KNOWLEDGE OF AIRCRAFT

PERSONNEL WHO ARE BELIEVED TO HAVE SURVIVED

EYEWITNESS DESCRIPTIONS OF CRASH

"A/C was hit by flak between #3 engine and the fuselage shortly after bombs away. #3 engine began smoking. The A/C peeled off to the left making a slow spiral decent. Reddish smoke poured from the cockpit or from the inner right wing panel. No chutes were seen as the A/C disappeared from view."

Lt. Harry H. Hempy

DESCRIPTION OF SEARCH EFFORT

PREPARING OFFICER

PREPARED BY: WALTER G. BURKE 1st Lt. Air Corps Assistant Adjutant

DATE PREPARED: 1944-08-13

TRANSCRIBER NOTES

From information given to U. S. A Intelligence Officer by L'Abbe Masquelez, Cure de St. Francais, De Sales Su Hant, Clamart.

"On 11 Aug. , 1944 a B-17 was badly crippled by anti-aircraft fire and shot down but before it crashed it exploded in the air. The Cure stated that before it exploded, French civilians counted nine men who parachuted from the plane. All of these men were shot at by the Germans as they descended and two of them are known to have been killed. All the others are believed to have been taken prisoners by the Germans.

When the plane crashed to the ground it is believed that two men still remained in the craft. The reason for this belief is that the Commanding Officer of a nearby German Airfield brought four American bodies to the Cure for burial. Two of these bodies were burned beyond recognition while the other two were not.

All four men had been stripped of all identification by the Germans. The German officer gave the Cure a slip of paper bearing the name of 2nd Lt. Alf Aske 0-764584 and indicated which was his body. No information was given as to the identity of the other three bodies.

French civilians in the community took up a collection for the burial of the four Americans and they were placad in the Clamart Cemetery. All four graves are clearly marked and the one of Alf Aske bears his name.

Before the men were buried their bodies were measured for their height. One body measured lm68, the other 1m76. The third was too badly burned to be measured. Nor was the body of Lt. Aske measured. On Lt. Aske's finger there was a ring with the initials R. A. F.

The Cure also turned over to the investigators from this group, an emergency package found near the wreckage of the craft a short time after the crash. The package contained 2, 000 francs, a silk map of France, a hack saw blade and a small compass. It was found by Lyvas Alexine, 3 Rue L'acvetelle Prolongee, Paris No. 15.

The Cure stated that the French people in the vicinity believed that all the men could have parachuted from the plane, as it circled around before exploding. They believe that the men who remained in the plane sacrificed their lives in an effort to bring the plane down in an open area away from the town so that homes or lives would not be impaired.