Personnel

CREW

 

2ND LT ROBERT L. ESTES           P KIA 5 APR 45    NURNBURG

2ND LT FRANK J. MARCHUN, JR  CP KIA 5 APR 45    NURNBURG    # 0-930369.

2ND LT WILLIAM R. LEWIS      NAV KIA 5 APR 45    NURNBURG 

    F/O DALE W. GIEBELHAUS  BOM KIA 5 APR 45    NURNBURG

   SGT BERNARD SLAVKIN       ROG KIA 5 APR 45    NURNBURG 

   SGT ROBERT A. CRAWFORD TTE KIA 5 APR 45    NURNBURG 

   SGT LESTER E. WEBER        BTG KIA 5 APR 45    NURNBURG 

   SGT LASHBROOK D. COOK    WG KIA 5 APR 45    NURNBURG 

   SGT FLOYD C. MITCHELL       TG KIA 5 APR 45    NURNBURG    # 38599695



418th Sqdn.  This crew joined the 100th on 22 Mar 45. A/C # 43-37636  MACR # 13849  FICHE # 5055



EYEWITNESS REPORT:   

"This A/C was last seen near Liege on the route from the target; formation dispersed going through clouds. There appeared to be nothing wrong with the A/C, may have been a fuel problem. Nothing was seen or heard from this A/C after it entered the clouds.  The body of F/O  Dale W.  Giebelhaus was washed ashore sometime later."



The following burial information courtesy of Jack O'Leary (12/18/04)

· William R. Lewis is memorialized on the Wall of the Missing at Cambridge, England.

· Frank J. Marchun and Robert A. Crawford are buried in the Ardennes American Cemetery.

· Bernard Slavkin is buried in the Luxembourg American Cemetery.

· Floyd C. Mitchell was buried in Liege, Belgium. His remains were returned to the United States and reburied in a family plot near his hometown in Calhoun County, Arkansas (According to Mitchell's sister)



Re: Frank Marchun, 351st Squadron 

Posted by Michael Faley on 7/6/2001, 7:09 pm, in reply to "Frank Marchun, 351st squadron"



Hi Joe. We also have very little information on the events surrounding the loss of this aircraft and crew. Everything we have on this crew can be found on our website by entering Lt Estes in the Search engine on the front page. I can tell you that the crew did hit the target and the group did encounter flak. The last time this plane was sighted was going into the clouds and never being seen again. The A/C appeared to be under control and showed no visible signs of damage before entering the cloud cover. There were no bright flashes or explosions witnessed by members of the group during let down through the clouds. My best guess would be that the pilot became disoriented in the clouds and plunged into the North Sea or a fuel problem as speculated below. Your relative was part of the 418th Bomb Squadron not the 351st. Now I did get an interesting bit of info from another relative's family from the crew, She said the plane was named "Malfunction Junction".



A/C 43-37636 was a B-17G built by Boeing. She was natural finish (Silver) and her call sign was LD (for 418th Bomb Squadron) W (call sign). She was assigned to the 100th Bomb Group at Thorpe Abbotts on June 20, 1944. She completed a tour of duty with the Crew of Lt Schaffhausen in November 1944 (unconfirmed reports say that the this crew called her "Miss Conduct". We have no other info as to which Crews flew the plane up until your Brother's (F/O Dale Giebelhaus) Crew took her.

Crew arrived at Thorpe Abbotts just 10 days before