Excerpt “missions by Lothar Günther and destinies “from the book 25 The continuation of the attacks the U.S. Air Force on the German fuel industry
THURSDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 1944
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Mission 652: 1,049 bombers and 724 fighters are dispatched to hit oil and military vehicle factories in Central Germany using PFF means; they claim 37-8-18 Luftwaffe aircraft; 34 bombers and 7 fighters are lost:
1. 445 B-17s are dispatched to hit the Magdeburg/Rothensee oil refinery (23); 359 hit the secondary at Magdeburg and 35 hit targets of opportunity; they claim 10-7-5 aircraft; 23 B-17s are lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 126 damaged; 8 airmen are WIA and 208 MIA. Escort is provided by 263 P-38s and P-51s; they claim 24-0-13 aircraft in the air and 1-0-0 on the ground; 5 P-51s are lost, 1 damaged beyond repair and 4 damaged; 5 pilots are MIA.
2. 342 B-17s are dispatched to hit the Merseburg/Leuna oil refinery (301); 10 others hit targets of opportunity; 10 B-17s are lost, 4 damaged beyond repair and 251 damaged; 4 airmen are KIA, 15 WIA and 92 MIA. Escort is provided by 212 of 231 P-51s; they claim 2-1-0 aircraft in the air; 1 P-51 is lost (pilot MIA).
3. 262 B-24s are dispatched to hit the Kassel/Henschel motor transport plant (243); 1 hits a target of opportunity; 1 B-24 is lost and 86 damaged; 10 airmen are MIA. Escort is provided by 171 of 195 P-47s; 1 P-47s is lost and 3 damaged; 1 pilot is MIA.
(Courtesy of www.8thafhs.org)
As B-17’s of the First and Third Air Division were hitting Cologne, Ludwigshaven and Mainz and B-24’s of the Third Air Divisions were bombing the region of Kassel on September 27th, the Eighth U.S. Air Force planners back in England were already focusing on potential strategic targets to attack the following day. After Headquarters of 8th Air Force (nick named Pinetree) had reviewed the results of the days mission reports along with weather reports teletype across England began to type out the Field Order for mission 652. On Thursday, September 28, 1944 a total of 1,049 four-engine bombers and 724 fighter escort were launched once again towards targets deep in Germany with one purpose, destruction of the German fuel industry.
On this day, the German defenders had gathered south of BRAUNSCHWEIG to wait for the bombers. They consisted of parts of Jagdgeschwader 300, 3 and 4. In the meeting the defense focused almost exclusively on the B-17 the 303rd Bomber Group. For a second day in a row, the B-24’s of the 2nd Air Division were given the task of bombing the Henschel aircraft factory in KASSEL. The 1st Air Division had 23 B-17’s shot down. But Luftwaffe had also high losses caused by the American escort fighters.
The 3rd Air Division launched 342 B-17 bombers on September 28th. Their target was the oil refineries of Merseburg/Leuna. Because the German fighters grappled with the 1st Air Division in the region BRAUNSCHWEIG this space was dependent on the defense by their dense and precise firing anti-aircraft batteries. Besides Berlin, Merseburg was the most heavily defended and feared target by the bomber crews of the Eighth Air Force. *
301 bombers arrived at the destination. 10 B-17’s (with 90 men) were shot down by intense German anti-aircraft fire.
Among them, the Flying Fortress B-17G with No. 44-6306 and the identifier XR-G. It was from the 349th Bomb Squadron of the 100th Bomb Group (H), which had earned the nickname “The Bloody Hundredth “.**
Flown by the 24-year-old 1st Lt Raymond E. Harney, the aircraft on that day started from their home base Thorpe Abbotts in Norfolk, England. It was the eighth mission for the crew. After the arrival in the target area at 12:10 clock, the B-17 was hit by flak in the left-hand inboard engine (#2 Engine), it started burning. The pilot steered the aircraft under the group formation, in order to reduce danger for the other aircraft.
In addition the right outboard engine (#4 Engine) stopped working. After it could be started again, all crews drew new hope that the machine can be brought home.
The bomber was about 20 to 30 minutes following the formation, but fell further and further behind. Several P-51 Mustangs were escorting him. At 12:50 clock at Rudisleben 50 ° 51 ‘N / 10 ° 57’ O, it was seen last time by another bomber crew, before it was under a 70-80 percent cloud. Lt Harney was now alone slowly trying to get his crew back home. During its several hundred kilometers long flight, the B-17 moved into a wide arc to the south more and more away from its flight home-route. Behind its very much hanging down left wing it drew a fiery red and jet-black tail behind itself as it flew over Bibra close at MEININGEN.
One of the engines was burning and the other stood still. With only two intact engines the bomber flew at low altitude over of the church tower of Bibra and in a wide left turn at Arnsberg. Jim Sorenson says that the plane lost engine #1 prior to his bailout and was flying on only one engine (#3-relayed to Michael Faley by Jim Sorenson on July 28, 2014). After passing the border to Bavaria, the bomber flew over the district cities MELLRICHSTADT and OSTHEIM. When he turned to the east, in the rear of the plane, there was growing concern, the right waist gunner S/Sgt James Sorenson, the tail gunner S/Sgt Jack D. Francisco and the ball turret gunner S/Sgt Melvin Cordray seemed to be having headphone communication problems and the plane was getting lower. The three gunners were joined by the radio operator S/Sgt Herbert Burleigh.
*The Americans estimated, that the heavily hit by bomb attacks Region of Merseburg, was defended of about 2,000 anti-aircraft guns.
** The 100th Bomb Group was nicknamed “The Bloody Hundredth” because of their exceptionally high losses in the past. Only a few days earlier, on September 11, they had lost 12 of its 38 bombers in the Battle over the Erzgebirge.
Lt Harney realized he could not make it back to England on one engine and could no longer keep the plane in the air. Lt Harney raised the question whether a crash landing was preferable vs. bail out? Apparently none of them wanted the crash landing option and the bail out bell was rung. Immediately the crewmen above left the aircraft over the forest of Ostheim. First to jump was Sorenson, then Francisco and after him Cordrey through the side hatch. The radio operator S/Sgt Burleigh jumped through the bomb bay a bit later since S/Sgt Sorenson only saw two other chutes in the air after his parachute was deployed. Burleigh landed between Ober- and UNTERWALDBEHRUNGEN, while the first three mentioned came to the ground in the area of FRICKENHAUSEN.
Although the bail out bell was rung, the officers were still on-board, 1st Lt Raymond Harney (Pilot), 2nd Lt William Kimball (Co-pilot), 2nd Lt Charles M. Hamrick (Navigator) and 2nd Lt Warren M. French (Bombardier).The flight engineer S/Sgt Robert C. Minear also hesitated, to follow the bail out command. It is possible that they did it to give their pilots backing, while he tried to spreading among them fields to risk a landing. Harney completed the full circle, so that the burning bomber again was seen from Bibra for a short while against the background of the Hopfenberg. Over the Arnsberg, Kimball, Hamrick and Minear understood that they now had their last chance to leave the stricken bomber with an adequate amount of distance to open their parachutes. In short order they all jumped.
A few seconds later Harney completed a closely flown half-circle, and around 14:00 clock he put the lumbering flying fortress down in a field of turnips just before Schwickershausen. During landing the left wing snapped off. An engine hurled upon impact 50 m away. Deep furrows caused the bomber to stop 100 meters before the village. The crash site was located approximately 50 m away from the road leading to the neighboring community NORDHEIM. Today on the roadside new buildings are lined.
In the fire of the burning B-17, the ammunition exploded with a loud clatter like firecrackers. Dutiful to the bitter end, the pilot 1st Lt. Raymond lost his life with third degree burns in the fragmented cockpit of the machine. * The bombardier 2nd Lt Warren M. French body was lying on the wing, his body also had third degree burns and his parachute was torn open from the impact… One of the surviving crew members replied in his later survey ** that French most likely was injured prior to crash. This could be the explanation for the pilot preferring to stay with the plane out of concern for the fate of his comrade and belly landing instead of his own Jump 269
- He left behind his pregnant wife in the 2nd month Cleo with her then yet unborn son Ray.
- ** Individual Casualty Questionnaire
In the fields around Schwickershausen were many Farmers and their family members involved in the potato and beet harvest. Understandable is their horror when suddenly the low flying and burning aircraft appeared in the sky and crashed directly in their neighborhood. The shock wore off slowly. Fearfully, initially people kept distance cause of the danger of explosions if bombs were still in plane.
When they looked south into the sky above Arnsberg, the saw crew members Kimball, Hamrick and Minear * coming down with their parachutes near present-day lake.
* The two corporals flight engineer Thadeus L. Gotz and tail gunner S/Sgt John H. Bundner had been removed from flying status. S/Sgt Minear was moved from waist gunner to Top Turret, Flight Engineer while S/Sgt Jack D. Francisco replaced Bundner in the tail gun position. The left waist gunner position remained unoccupied.
While some of the present farmers dared to approach the wreckage of the aircraft, others rushed to the landing site of the three parachutists. They were arrested and led in the direction of the plane wreck. They were now relegated to their fate. In previous hours the dominant panic and uncertainty of ones own survival dissolved, they were alive and Prisoner of War. Their joy was short lived as their eyes respectfully looked over to the terribly disfigured pilot who was working until the end for their survival.
They suffered with the certainty that two fallen Mates luck had run out and with whom they had just a few minutes ago, shared a common destiny. None of the rescued could have guessed what terrible things would happen some hours later. A witness told the author of the “sympathetic young men”, which she as a young woman 270 faced and provided them with something to eat. She saw clearly the joy in their eyes, that for them War was over.
The Mayor of Schwickershausen agreed with a Wehrmacht service in SCHWEINFURT, which contained the three in his custody Prisoners will be picked up. But the Landrat of Meiningen Gommlich complaining its jurisdiction. He sent four Police officers to Schwickershausen. The three prisoners were passed over in the yard of mayor Rudolf Thomas. The converged residents looked to the gendarmes armed with rifles, when they exaggerated the not shackled prisoners Old Wine Road.
It was strange that this path to the 19 km remote district town MEININGEN in the afternoon was started by foot. The explanation did not let have to wait long. The escort had only a few minutes previously entered the Rehberg of the forest of Nordheim, as gunshots in the neighboring communities were heard. Contrary to the rules of war, commander Captain of the Gendarmerie Salzmann, let assassinate be shot near a quarry the prisoners. Later, the killer justified with the claim that the copilot 2./Lt Kimball would have tried not to follow his instructions. It was obvious that the walk has already begun with this intent.
Hours before the young men were still happy about their salvation as well as the happy ending of their combat missions. The population of (which city is outraged? Nordheim or Schwickershausen) was outraged at the murders. Farmers from Nordheim had to transport with carts the bodies to the cemetery of Nordheim. There, the three Americans (Kimball, Hamrick and Minear) were buried and stayed there until their Exhumation/repatriation. * 271, 272
The report of the gendarmerie outpost Rentwertshausen tells, which Zeitgeist created the cynicism and the office assiduity of an official. His statement that three prisoners “… on the run shot … “were, he later includes a few sentences the Comment on: went through the crash of the plane at the accident scene several hundred weight of potatoes and beets based. *
In his letter of November 13, 1944 wrote a comrade from the 559th bomber squadron, the 2nd Lt. Julius H. Krepismann, to the anxious wife of the first missing Navigator 2nd Lt Charles M. Hamrick, Jr. et al:
… We were both involved in the attack on the last September 28 Merseburg was. Over the target we met most vehemently anti-aircraft fire that I have ever experienced. *
We cruised a full 15 minutes to get outside the area. Due to the evasive maneuvers the aircraft were everywhere scattered across the sky. All tried the shelling to withdraw.
My pilot informed me that he radioed would have collected, with which the pilot of Charles to escort fighters has called, because two of its engines by Results were failed and he feels compelled to leave the formation. At that time we were not very far from safe territory, and I thought surely they would try on an Alternate aerodrome to land. It was initially rumored that they had successfully landed in Belgium. But it was never confirmed, I often also in the office of the military Intelligence inquired. I trust still, that everything went well, Charles is alive and healthy. Its pilot is a veteran, has to have thousands of flight hours and in the situation is extreme in the emergency landing of a bomber to master situations. Perhaps they are Published 2 months in captivity … 273
Meiningen, 28 9, 1944 Gendarmerieposten Rentwertshausen reports around 17:00 clock that 200 meters from the place Nordheim a 4-engined enemy Bomber crashed. The bomber burned completely. 3 parachutists are in the direction Berkach pursued. Captain of the gendarmerie Salzmann reported at 18:20 Clock. The four-engine bomber was manned by 9 men. 2 men burned. 4 Man put on the Bavarian border. 3 shot in the hallway (what is a hallway?) Schwickershausen. Notified Standörtälteste, because detachment the guard.
- The cross was kept by the community member and eyewitness Harald Gänsler. It is handed over by him in September 2014 to representatives of the 100th Bomb Group for its museum officially.
At this time, both had no knowledge of it, that the missing person was one of the three crew members, who were shot by German gendarmes.
The chipped radio operator S / Sgt Hubert W. Burleigh could hide at first. Only towards the evening of the following day he was between Unter- and Oberwaldbehrungen at the Dachsberg tracked by children. Excited and zealous children reported to the village blacksmith Otto Keuling of their discovery. This took Burleigh firm and delivered him at 20:00 clock to the Gendamerieposten in Bastheim.
The then 15-year-old witness Otmar Müller from Bastheim remembered the arrested 25-year-old Burlight. He was standing on Sebastian fountain in the village center of Bastheim and interested in the inscription the well studied. The young man had on him a very “awakened impression” made.
No one could have guessed what terrible fate of now took his run.
Police Commissioner Gustav Hofmann raided the unarmed Flyer and contacted afterwards by telephone with the Landratsamt MELLRICHSTADT. His superior, Kreisführer Repp, instructed him to deliver the prisoner to Bad Neustadt, since the Mellrichstadt prison was full. His additional Call the Criminal Investigation Würzburg revealed that he had to treat the airman with the known secret order, which does not transfer to the next airfield, but meant to the district leadership of the Nazi Party. However, Gustav Hofmann ignored this statement and brought the prisoners to the gendarmerie station BAD NEUSTADT.
A short time later to the astonishment of Hofmann, Mayor and NSDAP district leader Andreas Ingebrand and his deputy Norbert Endres appeared. They were informed by District leader Repp. After a brief Survey of Burligh in English, they called Hofmann to enter together with the prisoner the company car.
The police officer, that wanted to take the course towards the prison in Bad Nested, was instructed to drive direction Schweinfurt. On his reference, that he still needs gasoline, fuel was promised to him. After each 21.15 clock about half a kilometer have removed them from BAD NEUSTADT, Hofmann was asked by Enders, to stop the car. All occupants left the car. While the policeman looked after the defective headlights of the car, his three passengers moved about 150-200 m in the direction of “salt”. Suddenly, in the darkness fell several shots. As Hofmann came near, the prisoner was lying dead on the ground. “Wanted the guy to flee!” was everything Hofmann said. Then he drove these two party leaders back to town. They gave the gravedigger Bardroff the instruction to bury the dead in “Säurüsselsgraben”. Endres recommended to the Police Commissioner in his report to note about the crime was committed: “… has been on escape. “Quite a few residents of the area were horrified when this shameful act was verbally spread.
These violations of martial law remained the Americans not hidden. After the occupation of the region organized they state court proceedings. The execution of the at NORDHEIM involved gendarmes Friedrich Salzmann and Albert Singer were to death by hanging and William Anding and Walter Schneider for lifelong Imprisonment.
The volatile district leader Ingebrand captured the Allies on 17 June 1945 in a Bamberg hospital in which he concealed as a patient. First, they brought him to Bad Neustadt back before he finally because of the shooting of the pilot, was brought to an American Military Court as Kriegsverbrecher in Dachau.
District leader Andreas Ingebrand accused heavily Gauleiter Dr. Otto Hellmuth at the military court in Dachau. He said: Either in autumn 1943 or spring 1944 Gauleiter of his closest associates in a so-called Head of Conference in Gelchsheim at OCHSENFURT announced an order from the highest authority.
Therefore “terror fliers” are standing outside of international law and should be killed on the spot. The accused continued, that Hellmuth wanted to get this order executed, and that the district leaders in their circles for this Commands would be held responsible.
Hellmuth would have him (Ingebrand) declared that he does not want other airmen no longer captured alive.
In fact, on 31 May 1944, Martin Bormann, in a secret circular announced to all NS-regional and district managers, that lynched Allied fliers by “police or the civilian population “was in sight.
Also the high command of the armed forces under the chief Field Marshal Keitel formulated on July 9, 1944 formulated a secret order. In it for German Soldiers was forbidden, to work against the civilian population when they are lynching Anglo American Terrorist attack flyers. 274
On August 10, Himmler stated that it could not be the task of the German police, “in disputes between German citizens and the bailed English and American terror fliers interfere “, 275 which effectively includes an encouragement to tolerate the lynching. Lynching was tolerated as an expression of the people’s wrath and thus impunity provided. More or less open these machinations were continued by the Nazi leadership.
Ingebrand was sentenced to death by hanging. On the morning of November 26, 1948, the judgment was in Landsberg am Lech enforced. 276
The death sentence for Norbert Endres was in lifelong Adhesion converted. He died after on November 11, 1950 serious illness in a prison in Landsberg. Commissioner Hoffmann committed suicide in a Nürnberg prison because he could not bear that he, acting against his conscience, a serious war crime had abetted.
Gauleiter Dr. Otto Hellmuth was sentenced on October 17, 1947 for “participating in the killing of an American Prisoners of war” also to „death by hanging”. Reason: He had the Himmler’s and Bormann’s murder orders, not to take action against lynching, of the Party Chancellery to the lower levels of the party passed. The sentence was reviewed in 1948 and in a life imprisonment converted. The penalty in 1951 reduced to 20 years. Otto Hellmuth Imprisonment did not last long. Already on June 5, 1955, he came free. He first moved to his family in KASSEL. 1958 he settled in Reutlingen as a practicing dentist down. He died there in 1968.
The shot dead Sgt Burleigh was laid to rest in the Cemetery Vicksburg Mississippi. 277, 278, 279, 280, 281
The in the district FRICKENHAUSEN landed Cordray, Sorenson and Francisco were lucky to get in the right hands. They were still in the afternoon of September 28 after SCHWEINFURT to the transit camp Air transferred. They were the only survivals of the crash of the Flying Fortress B-17 44-6306.
Jim Sorenson’s recollections:
” We were hit by flak on bomb run – dropped bombs, then took direct hit in engine #2 which caught fire – then #1 took direct hit, knocked it out – then #4 had to be feathered, Jim wasn’t exactly sure what happened there – so plane went from full power to 1 engine in short period of time – plane lost power, fell out of formation, went into lower cloud layer – pilots probably overwhelmed with how to keep plane flying, plane went into spin – Jim, BTG Mel Cordray, and TTG Jack Francis defied gravity, crawling to waist exit door, bailed out (Jim, Jack, Mel – in that order) – were picked up quickly by a German officer (not Luftwaffe, he thinks Wehrmacht) – while being marched to makeshift jail, German officer pointed to black smoky cloud on the horizon and said “Das is your machine, all is kaput” – Jim then believed all but the 3 of them died in the crash – by the way, they did not hear “bail out” order, but knew they were going down – the next morning Germans escorted them by train to Dulag Luft, stayed there a few days, then moved by train to Stalag Luft IV in Poland – train was very crowded with women, children, soldiers and the captured airmen were in middle surrounded by German guards – Jim says at one point he looked out the window and saw massive piles of aluminum scrap, all obviously remnants of US B-17s, B-24s, P-51s…. All he could think about was that he hoped crews survived – When he arrived at Stalag Luft IV, all newcomers were herded into a room, told to strip so that they could be searched and were given explicit order not to sit – after awhile, Jim said, he began to sit (without really thinking…) and the guard who he soon learned was the notorious “Big Stooge” came after him – (this guard was killed at end of the war, was feared by Germans as well as Allied POWs) – Jim was then separated from Jack and Mel who went to other camp compounds – Jim assigned to the one British barracks, got along well with all – stayed there Oct- Jan, the non Feb 7 all POWs were marched from camp, kept on marching without any consistent food or water or shelter until end of March when they arrived Stalag Luft VIIA – a few weeks later they were marched again away from Allied advancing lines, and were finally liberated May 5 on a road by a British tank unit which happened upon them…
