Absturzstelle Herxheim, Consolidated B-24D Liberator

"Evelyn the Duchess"

25.02.1944

Operation "Flutwelle, Ölfelder Ploesti/Rumänien  https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tidal_Wave              Bodenpersonal, Evelyn The Duchess"

Wartung durch Bodenpersonal Cpl. Boyd Cooper, Private Charles Striegel. Im Hintergrund B-24 "Evelyn the Duchess", Absturz Herxheim

Ein damals 13-jähriger Zeitzeuge, Hermann R. aus Herxheim, verfolgte aus der Bodenperspektive, was sich da oben genau abspielte: „Das Flugzeug flog über Herxheim und drohte, in das Dorf zu stürzen. Es zog abrupt mit viel Gejaule hoch und machte eine sehr steile Linkskurve. Das Flugzeug flog fast auf dem Kopf. Fallschirme wurden sichtbar.“

Die meisten Insassen hatten es geschafft, noch heil herauszukommen. Ein Fallschirm verfing sich ein paar Sekunden vor dem Einschlag des Bombers im Leitwerk und blieb am  Flugzeug, das sich bereits in extremer Schräglage befand, hängen, löste sich dann aber doch noch. Mit beschädigtem Fallschirm fiel das Besatzungsmitglied rasch kopfunter zum Boden. Er war sofort tot (und hinterließ ein ca. 50 cm tiefes Loch im Acker). Ein weiterer Insasse verstarb ebenfalls. 

Acht Mann überlebten den Absprung und sahen das Flugzeug am anderen Ende von Herxheim in einem Feld explodieren. Die acht Überlebenden wurden nach der Landung durch deutsche Soldaten gefangen genommen. Dort erfuhren sie vom deutschen Übersetzer, dass zwei Mann den Absturz nicht überlebt hatten.

Den Absturz überlebt haben:

1st Lt. David W. Thompson - Pilot

(O-675380)

Kriegsgefangener, Stalag Luft 1, Barth

Capt. Miles R. League - Co-Pilot

(O-734111) South Carolina

Kriegsgefangener, Stalag Luft 1, Barth

1st Lt. James A. Ivain - Navigator

(O-798811) Connecticut

Kriegsgefangener, Stalag Luft 1, Barth

1st Lt. Robert L. Warner – Bombardier/Bombenschütze

(O-734768)

Kriegsgefangener, Stalag Luft 1, Barth

T/Sgt. Henry A. Clauser – Engineer/Bordingenieur & Top Turret Gunner/Turmschütze

(13029090) Pennsylvania

Kriegsgefangener, Stalag Luft 3, Sagan

T/Sgt. Evert A. Ollie - Radio Operator/Funker

(33264046) Pennsylvania

Kriegsgefangener, Stalag Luft 4, Gross Tychow

S/Sgt. John D. Glucs - Right Waist Gunner/Rumpfschütze rechts

(12146972)

Kriegsgefangener, Stalag Luft 4, Gross Tychow

S/Sgt. Royce O. Magee - Tail Gunner/Heckschütze

(14061305) Tennessee

Kriegsgefangener, Stalag Luft 4, Gross Tychow

Beim Absturz gestorben sind:

S/Sgt. Thomas F. McDermott - Left Waist Gunner/ Rumpfschütze links

(31057180) Rhode Island

Beerdigt: Lorraine American Cemetery, Frankreich

2nd Lt. Waldron L. Snyder, Jr. - Co-Pilot & Observer/Photographer

(O-795658) Massachusetts 

Beerdigt: Lorraine American Cemetery, Frankreich

Am 4. März 2019, ein stürmischer und regnerischer Tag, 75 Jahre nach dem Absturz, konnte die Absturzstelle mit Hilfe des oben genannten Zeitzeugen gefunden werden. Nachdem er uns die Stelle gezeigt hatte, konnten bereits Minuten später erste Kleinteile des Flugzeugs (Plexiglas, Aluminium- Flugzeugteile, Munitionsreste, etc. ), die durch den Pflug hochgepflügt wurden, von der Ackeroberfläche aufgelesen werden. Weitere Maßnahmen sind geplant.                                                                                                                                                    Erik Wieman

Ausgabe Dahäm Magazine November 2019

Mit freundlicher Zustimmung von/ published with the kind permission of Mrs. Elisabeth Breeze, descendant/Nachfahre von Lt. Col. David Thompson

Translation/Übersetzung:

Duchess Evelyn´s last flight

In 1944, a US bomber crashed near Herxheim. Eight of the ten crew members survived, including the pilot. His granddaughter was searching for clues in the Palatinate and met a contemporary witness.

It was a grey, cold January day when four people met in a field on the northern outskirts of Herxheim: Elizabeth and David Breeze from California, Karl Adam from Herxheim and Erik Wieman from Waldsee. The reason for the meeting was a sad one. On February 25, 1944, an American plane of a United States Air Force Bomb Squadron crashed at this spot. A very emotional encounter took place at the crash site, as the pilot's granddaughter met the last eyewitness to the accident. Karl Adam, who was six years old at the time, was out in the field with his brother that afternoon when they saw four planes in the sky. Suddenly one of them crashed and burst into flames, the other three flew away. Airplane parts were scattered all over the field, but they were not allowed to go near it because Wehrmacht soldiers had cordoned everything off, the Herxheimer citizen remembers 80 years later.

After the crash in German captivity

What happened to the Liberator bomber, which the crew had named "Evelyn the Duchess"? Up until that day, the young men, led by pilot David Thompson and co-pilot Miles League, had participated very successfully in the war, taking part in daring operations in Africa and southern Europe. From autumn 1943, they flew missions over the Reich. But unlike the British, who mostly dropped their bombs at night, the Americans relied on attacks in broad daylight. This meant that the German interceptors had a good chance of shooting down the enemy aircraft. At least until the Air Force provided escort for its bombers. In February 1944, the Duchess took off from her air base in England and flew over Belgium to Fürth to destroy an airfield there. One of the four engines already had some problems on the outward flight, but the mission could still be carried out. However, there were many anti-aircraft guns (flak) near industrial facilities and the plane was badly hit by bomb fragments. On the flight home, which was to take her over the southern Palatinate and France, she was already badly damaged and pilot Thompson had to leave the formation. The Duchess lagged behind her comrades. It was not long before German fighter planes attacked and riddled the fuselage and cockpit of the plane with their machine guns. Thompson had no choice but to give the order to bale out, which Thomas McDermott and Waldron Snyder did not survive. The other crew members had to watch as the plane exploded in the field near Herxheim. They were then arrested and interned in prisoner of war camps.

Former RHEINPFALZ employee is an eyewitness

The Rhineland-Palatinate Local History Research Interest Group, founded in 2016 by Erik Wieman, has meticulously researched the events. He and his colleagues have made it their mission to remember the soldiers, fallen soldiers and civilians of the Second World War, regardless of their nationality. "They fought on German soil in the last great war and made great sacrifices liberating Germany from the Nazi dictatorship, for freedom and peace," says Wieman. RHEINPFALZ employee Hermann Rieder, who died in 2022, alerted him to Duchess Evelyn's crash: "The plane flew over Herxheim and threatened to crash into the village. It pulled up abruptly with a lot of howling and made a very steep left turn. It flew almost upside down, parachutes became visible," he said 75 years later. After the crash site was located, Wieman's work began. First, permission had to be obtained from the heritage authority and the landowners, then the area could be narrowed down and searched using metal detectors. This revealed a lot of small parts of the aircraft and equipment that had partially been ploughed up. This spring, he will scan the ground with Ground Penetrating Radar "to see what is hidden deeper in the ground." The heritage authority will then decide how to proceed.

Local historian wants to erect a memorial stone

In the meantime, Wieman is looking for relatives of the crew who died in the accident and is making contact with them. His experience shows that they cannot come to terms with the past until their questions are answered. What exactly happened where and why? He did not have to find Pilot Thompson's descendants, however, because the search also works the other way round, he says with a smile. After he had reported on Duchess Evelyn on the interest group's homepage, Pilot Thompson's granddaughter contacted him. Elizabeth Breeze, 35 years old, is visibly moved by her visit to Herxheim. She has learned a lot of new things about her grandfather and can better imagine what he experienced as a young pilot in the war. She herself only knew him as a loving family man because he never spoke about his war experiences. It was only shortly before his death at the age of 92 that he spoke in an interview about his terrible experiences in the "Stalag Luft I" prison camp in what is now Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, from which he was liberated by the Red Army after 15 months. For Erik Wieman, this story will only end when a memorial stone is placed at the crash site to commemorate the brave soldiers. So that they are not forgotten and as a warning for future generations.

Info

Erik Wieman is looking for contemporary witnesses who observed a plane crash near Herxheim-Hayna in the last years of the war or who can report on it. If you can help, please call 0173 8241746. More information about the work of the interest group can be found on their website www.ig-heimatforschung.de

Photo: The crew of the american aircraft that crashed near Herxheim in 1944 

Photo: The photo of pilot David Thompson was taken in a German POW camp

Fortsetzung folgt/to be continued!