(SECRET) – (1944-2016) – Lady Jeannette – B-17G #42-97904

A series of articles, laying out the true events behind the creation of: The Best Kept Secret Of World War Two. In December 1945, when it became known that Gen George S. Patton had told his staff he was quitting the Army so he could speak freely and after New Years 1946 he was going to tell the American public the truth about what those who were attempting to destroy him had done. He was positive, once that truth was known, he could live freely and it was their careers that would be destroyed. A series of day by day articles beginning on Nov 9 2015, which is the 71st anniversary of the crash of the Lady Jeannette, B-17G, SN: 42-97904 (November 9, 1944). I will describe the shooting down and the crash of two American bombers in France. One was the Lady Jeannette, the other, a top-secret B-24J which was flying a top-secret night mission while attached to the top-secret 100th Group Royal Air Force. The B-24J also crashed in France, early on the morning of Nov 10, 1944, 138 miles from the crash site of the Lady Jeannette.

Crew Members #42-97904

2/Lt Joseph F. Harms Bombardier, 729-BS / 452-BG – 8-AAF (Heavy), New York, USA Air Medal, Purple Heart

T/Sgt Russell W. Gustafson Flight Engineer, 729-BS / 452-BG – 8-AAF (Heavy), New York, USA Air Medal, Purple Heart

1/Lt Daniel J. Gott Pilot, 729-BS / 452-BG – 8-AAF (Heavy), Oklahoma, USA Medal of Honor, Air Medal, Purple Heart

2/Lt William E. Metzger Jr Copilot, 729-BS / 452-BG – 8-AAF (Heavy), Ohio, USA Air Medal, Purple Heart, Medal of Honor

2/Lt John A. Harland Navigator, 729-BS / 452-BG – 8-AAF (Heavy), Illinois, USA Air Medal, Purple Heart

T/Sgt Robert A. Dunlap Radio Operator, 729-BS / 452-BG – 8-AAF, (Heavy), California, USA Air Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, Purple Heart

S/Sgt James O. Fross Belly Gunner, 729-BS / 452-BG – 8-AAF (Heavy), Texas, USA Air Medal, Purple Heart

S/Sgt William R. Robbins Gunner, 729-BS / 452-BG – 8-AAF (Heavy), Massachusetts, USA Air Medal

S/Sgt Herman B. Krimminger Tail Gunner, 729-BS / 452-BG – 8-AAF (Heavy), NC, USA Air Medal, Purple Heart

On Nov 9, 1944, the 452-BG (729-BS – 8-AAF), was assigned a support mission ahead of Patton’s 3rd Army in Army new push into Germany. The day’s target was located along the German border in the area opposite the Metz – Thionville regions of France. One of their B-17G bombers was the Lady Jeannette, piloted by 1/Lt Donald J. Gott.

(Note) The 452nd Heavy Bombardment Group (USAAF)(45th Combat Wing) was activated on June 1, 1943, at Geiger Field, WA. The group was immediately sorted into four squadrons: 728th Bomber Squadron, 729th Bomber Squadron, 730th Bomber Squadron, 731st Bomber Squadron. The Cadre formation took place at Salt Lake City Army Base. During training, the troops would be sent to various locations, including Ephrata, Walla Walla, and Moses Lake (Washington); Rapid City, (South Dakota); Lincoln and Grand Island (Nebraska); Sioux City (Iowa); Wilmington (North Carolina); Shaw Field (South Carolina); Oklahoma City (Oklahoma); Pendleton Field and Redmond (Oregon); Peyote (Texas); and Great Falls (Montana). They would become one of twenty-four B-17 Heavy Bomber Groups in England.

On Jan 2, 1944, the 1st wave of 452nd troops embarked from Camp Shanks (New York), many on the Queen Elizabeth liner, arriving in Scotland on Jan 8. The servicemen experienced cramped quarters, taking turns on deck, and eating meals twice a day. Many flight crews assigned to Station 142 started their journey in a B-17 via Newfoundland and Labrador. The troops spent a month getting used to the British weather, attended classes, and received tips on how to operate their ‘Stove Pipe’ heaters, and warm beer. Although the 452nd arrived late in the war, it proved critical timing. February 5, 1944, the 1st mission was flown, target Romilly, France.

After take-off from Deopharm Green (AFFB #15) the Group joined the mission stream and crossed the English Channel into France. Over the Channel, each of the gunners tested his weapon and the bomb bay doors were opened to verify they were operating properly. Their bomb load that day was eight 500 pound bombs in the bomb bay and two 1,000 pound bombs, one under each wing. As they approached the IP (Initial Point) of the Primary Target, the Group in front sheared off and went toward the IP of their Secondary Target, the marshaling yards at Saarbrücken, Germany.

The mission plan varied little, except they would fly south toward the new target, drop their bombs and circle around to the east to begin their flight back to base. As they left their Secondary Target Initial Point, they opened the bomb bay doors and went on automatic pilot under the control of the bombardier. Unable to change altitude or position, the crews felt most vulnerable as they approached the black clouds of exploding FLAK (Fliegerabwehrkanonen – Antiaircraft Artillery) in front of them.

As they approached their Secondary Target, the pilots sat with their hands lightly on the controls as the controls moved automatically by the automatic pilot, ready to take over, if necessary. Each man, in his position, followed the routine of their previous missions, except for the co-pilot, 2/Lt William E. Metzger Jr, who was on his second mission with the Gott crew to obtain combat experience and the bombardier, 2/Lt Harms, who also was on his second mission, as a fill-in for the normal Gott crew bombardier, who failed to report for the mission. Each of the gunners scanned the sky for any approaching German fighter, however, their minds were on the bank of exploding German FLAK staining the sky ahead.

It appeared to be exactly at the same altitude as they were and now they were on the bomb run, they had to maintain the same altitude. In their previous 27 missions, the crew had never seen a German fighter, however, at every target they had seen other B-17s crashing due to FLAK. All they could do was hope, Lady Luck would be with them again.

In another B-17, in the formation behind them, 2/Lt Collins, their normal co-pilot was flying with Lt Metzger’s normal crew, to give them a battle experienced pilot during their first missions. Lt Collins was watching the Group approach the FLAK cloud and suddenly, he saw a FLAK burst on the right-wing of the Lady Jeannette. Immediately, it began to move around, as the pilots attempted to regain control. Aboard the bomber, each of the crew experienced the FLAK burst differently. The pilots immediately tightened their hands on the controls, as the plane began to pitch up on the right side, due to the explosion. The men in the nose, Lt Harms, bombardier, and Lt Harland, navigator, were shaken in their seats and turned to see if they could find out what had happened.

The intercom was suddenly full of everyone talking at once, asking what had happened or reporting what they had seen. In the rear, the tail gunner, S/Sgt Krimminger, was badly shaken as the tail whipped back and forth and suddenly, he saw a stream of fire to his left. The waist gunner, S/Sgt Robbins, was thrown to the floor and was getting back up to find out what had happened. The radio operator, T/Sgt Dunlap, could not see what had happened, but he had his right hand at his radio controls, in order to broadcast what the pilot might order.

In the top turret, the flight engineer and gunner, T/Sgt Gustafson, looked to his right to see what had happened and was astonished to see the number four engine, the outboard engine on the right wing was missing. He had seen B-17’s that had returned with engines missing, but the engine mount and cowl back to the wing was still there.

Their engine, its mount, and the engine cowling was gone all the way back to the wing, leaving a large hole in the leading edge of the wing. He also saw a large fire flowing back into the slipstream and at first, he expected to see the wing was melting and they would crash, but taking a second look, he realized the engine had been blown down and off the wing, taking the fuel line with it, until it broke and the escaping fuel caught fire. Fortunately, the fire was below the wing and it was no immediate threat to the bomber.

Gustafson attempted to contact the pilots via the intercom to find it was not working, so he swiveled around to be able to get off his turret seat and tell the pilots the fire was not going to make them crash. As he put his weight on his right foot, suddenly there was another loud FLAK explosion. A fragment of the shell, which had exploded under the numbers 2 and 1 engines, on the left-wing, broke through the fuselage, cutting the bomb bay controls, and slicing through Gustafson’s leg, just above the ankle and cutting out an inch and a half of his leg bone. It then broke into the hydraulic oil tank behind the copilot, allowing the hydraulic oil to flow down and over the flight engineer’s parachute.

The belly turret gunner, S/Sgt Fross, had been looking ahead in order to count the bombs as they fell, so the bombardier would know all the bombs had cleared and the bomb bay doors could be closed when another FLAK shell burst within 15 feet of his turret. He was badly shaken, and small fragments of the shell had broken through the turret and embedded in his skull. However, his training kicked in and he began to turn the turret to a position where he could climb up into the waist.

In the radio compartment, a fragment flew up through the floor and struck Dunlap’s left thigh, then it continued up through the radio operator’s table and through Dunlap’s right arm, just above the wrist, almost cutting his hand away from the lower arm, leaving it hanging by sinew and muscle.

In the rear, Krimminger, had released his seat belt and was making his way to the tail gunner escape hatch, when one third FLAK burst occurred. As soon as the second shell burst, a fragment killed the number one engine, leaving its propeller blade in the flight position, causing a great drag. In addition, another fragment or two, flew up into the number two engine, where they blew the cylinder head off two or more cylinders. This allowed engine oil to flow out and turn into smoke that flowed back along the slipstream.

At the same time, the engine lost its ability to provide full power and this left the Lady Jeannette with only two working engines, the number three, inside, engine on the right wing was undamaged and the damaged number two, inside, engine on the left-wing. The sudden change in power and the FLAK explosions caused the B-17 to dive out of the formation. Lt Collins saw his crew’s bomber began to spiral down and out of the formation and to him and all those who were watching, it was going to crash from the damage they could see. There was a large flame streaming back behind the right-wing and heavy smoke was flowing from the left-wing. These men had seen other bombers, with much less damage, fail to regain control.

Collins called the navigator and told him to mark the position where the Lady Jeannette had been seen and then, he and the pilot began to tighten-up the formation. As another B-17 closed into the same position the Lady Jeannette had been in, that B-17 was also hit by FLAK, killing one engine. It did manage to maintain formation long enough to drop its bombs and turn with the formation to circle to the east, as they began their western return to their base, this B-17 left the formation and parachutes were seen, as it dove to the earth. Along the same route, a third B-17 that had been less damaged by the FLAK over Saarbrucken, also crashed.

As the Group continued on its bomb run, aboard the Lady Jeannette, pilot and copilot struggled with the controls. Sitting on the deck behind them, in agony, Gustafson thought, they were going to crash. However, they were an excellent team and as they dropped in altitude the wings gripped the heavier air and the control panels, allowing the spiraling dive to end.

Due to the large hole in the right-wing, the number three engine had to be sped up to emergency RPMS to balance the hole, the left wing’s un-feathered numbered one engine props created a great drag which almost overcomes the pull the damaged number two engine could provide. The damage was extensive, from both FLAK explosions, the bomb bay doors were open, the two outside bombs and the eight bombs in the bomb bay were still aboard and all they had was one and a half working engines to keep her above stall speed, so they could keep flying.

As control was being obtained, the navigator dropped the nose escape hatch and the bombardier went up the crawlway to the cockpit to see if he could help. By this time, Gustafson, had pulled on the sleeve of the copilot, to let him know, that he was wounded and he had gotten one morphine shot out of the first aid kit and was attempting to inject it. The bombardier realized his problem and helped him open his pants to inject the morphine into his leg. Having realized, when he tried an emergency bomb drop, that the system was no longer working, he moved past the flight engineer and hand dropped the large bombs under each wing. Then, he went into the bomb bay to try to manually drop the bombs. Realizing this, he tried to kick the bombs out, but their shackles had jammed, so he went back into the radio compartment, as the pilot had requested, to find out the condition of the men in the back.

In the waist, S/Sgt Robbins had just gotten to the belly turret to help S/Sgt Fross get out when the second FLAK burst took place. He held on, as the plane went through a violent shaking and he felt the plane begin a dive which made him think it might crash. As it settled down, he looked down the fuselage and saw Sgt Krimminger crawling out of the tunnel to the tail and he looked very shook up, with his bell badly rang. Immediately, Robbins, opened the turret hatch and helped Fross climb out. Fross looked and acted like his bell had also been rung and he was hardly able to talk. Realizing he had not see Dunlap, Robbins told the two, to go to the waist escape hatch and prepare to bail out, as he turned and opened the door between the waist and the radio compartment.

He was shocked, as he saw blood spattered all around the compartment and Dunlap was collapsing onto the deck. Then, he saw that Dunlap’s hand was hanging by shreds of muscle and skin and blood was squirting out with each beat of Dunlap’s heart. Robbins immediately knelt down to help Dunlap and at the same time, he saw the door from the bomb bay to the radio compartment open and an officer that he had never seen came into the compartment and knelt down to help.

Between them, they got a tourniquet on Dunlap’s arm and used a bandage to hold his severed hand to the stump of his right arm with the hope it could be sewn back on and saved. It was obvious, Dunlap had lost a lot of blood. He must have tried to get up and get help, then spun around several times before falling to the deck. They had pulled his arm out of his flight jacket to work on it and all they could do now was to zip up his jacket with the right arm inside and tell the pilots of his condition.

Lt Harms, told Robbins to join the other two and wait for an order to bail out and he would go tell the pilots what had happened. On his way back through the bomb bay, he tried to kick the shackles to release the bombs, but gave up and went into the cockpit, where Gustafson had been talking to Metzger, who had just handed Gustafson his parachute. After Gustafson had a chance to review his situation, he reached for his parachute to get ready to bail out. He always stored it under the hydraulic tank behind the copilot and the same FLAK fragment that cut the piece of bone out of his leg had entered the tank and the hydraulic oil had soaked his parachute.

Realizing, it might work, Gustafson had tugged on Metzger’s arm and when Metzger turned and realized what Gustafson was saying, as Harms entered the cockpit, Metzger was handing Gustafson his own parachute. By then, though they were much lower in altitude, the two pilots had realized they now had control of the bomber again. They could not turn it, they could not climb and they had to lose about 450 feet of altitude for each mile they gained, in order to keep the airspeed above their stall speed, around 118 MPH.

Their flight was not in a straight line to the west, it was turning into a large right turn, which in due time would return them back to Saarbrucken. However, they realized its diameter was large enough, they could still reach the allied front lines, if only they could keep it airborne. Realizing they were about an hour from the front lines, the pilots thought they could keep her going until they reached allied territory and there, they might be able to crash land where both the radio operator and Gustafson, who could not bail out on their own, could receive proper medical treatment. Otherwise, all they could do is drop Dunlap out and hope he landed somewhere, where the Germans might give him the medical help he needed. However, they had all heard of what happened to some crews who had bailed out over Germany and no one wanted to risk that if they had any option at all.

Gott, then asked Metzger to go back with Harms to see if they could kick out the bombs and tell the crewmen to dump all the weight they could to help extend the distance they could fly. When done, they were to stay by the escape hatch and wait for the order to bail out. With Metzger’s help, the bombs were released over Germany and they tried to close the bomb bay doors, however, the doors were damaged and remained open. Harms then returned to the nose, while Metzger informed the men in the waist to dump all the weight they could and get ready to bail out, then he returned to the cockpit.

A major dead weight at that time was the ball turret and there was a special wrench that was supposed to be attached to the assembly at all times. It was to be used to allow the turret to drop free. When Sgt Robbins attempted to drop the turret, he found the wrench was gone and all he could do was to get Fross and Krimminger to help him to throw out all they could, then get to the rear and be ready to bail out when ordered.

At the 563rd Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion plotting center, their radars began to report an unknown target approaching from Germany. As additional plots of the aircraft’s location were plotted, they realized it was on a path that would bring it right over their location. They had experienced German aircraft flying down the radar beams to find and destroy the radars. It was becoming an urgent concern when a forward observer in a fox hole on the front lines, called in to report a damaged B-17 with smoke and fire flowing behind it, was approaching the front lines and the Germans were firing at it.

This report, changed the unknown target to a probably friendly target, however, just in case, the members of the unit that was stationed in the small village of Hattonville, Department of the Meuse, were told to start up their engines and be prepared for dispersal was ordered. A villager told the author years later, it was always quiet there and suddenly, one day the Americans became disturbed, like a bunch of bees around a damaged hive.

• Lady Jeannette Damages: consisted of the right-wing, #4 outboard engine and cowling went, with fire blowing past the tail. The #3 inboard engine was the only engine that was undamaged and was providing emergency power. The #2, left-wing, inboard engine had one or more cylinder heads gone and was pumping smoke out, leaving a trailing smoke trail. The #1, left-wing outboard engine had been killed by the second FLAK burst, with its propeller blades unable to be feathered, they created a drag to the airflow around the engine. The bomb bay doors remained open, helping to increase the drag. When reviewed by Boeing engineers, who had helped build the B-17s, all of them agreed, she should have crashed immediately and she only kept flying because of the skill of the pilots and, if the damage had been different in any way, she would have crashed, except it all balanced out.

Located across from the World War One American Cemetery at Tiaucourt – Regnieville (France), 8.4 miles to the southeast of Hattonville, the 606th Mobile Hospital was in operation. They were located on a hillside that opened a view of many miles to their east and north. Personnel that day, who were outside helping new arrivals and some, just off duty, heard the FLAK explosions to the east near the river and when they looked, they saw a B-17 coming, with smoke and fire streaming behind it.

As there was a lull in arrivals, Pfc Lindsey stood and watched the bomber as it passed to their north. When interviewed sixty years later, he told the author that, I had never felt so helpless in my life, there were large hills to the west and it was obvious the bomber had to crash. It was lower than I was, on the hillside to the south. People were going to die and there was nothing I could do! Three-point six miles to the east of Hattonville, a farmer was working in his field gathering a late cut of hay with the help of displaced Polish people brought from Poland by the Germans to be forced labor in France.

They all stopped and watched, as the Fortress came from the east and was going to pass about a mile north of them. Its right-wing appeared to be burning, leaving a blow torch of flame streaking behind it and its left-wing left a broad plume of back smoke which flowed back as far to the east, as they could see.

(Note) : At the time, all the French people referred to all four-engine bombers, as Flying Fortresses. At the time, the farmer did not know if it was a B-17 or a B-24. It was just a Flying Fortress and it could not fly much further.

Suddenly, it began a very sharp climb and he thought, it might roll over on its back and crash. Instead, a man appeared and the climb stopped and it began to dive as if it was going to crash. The man’s parachute opened and then, just when they thought the Fortress would crash, it leveled out for a second and began another sharp climb. Again, suddenly, a man appeared and again the Fortress dove toward earth. Again, as the man’s parachute opened, the Fortress leveled out, but it was a lot lower and then it disappeared over the National Forest to his west.

The farmer had seen several crashes and he decided, he had to keep his workers busy and as the two parachutes disappeared to their north, he told the men to get busy. He heard the roar of the damaged engines fade and then, the sound got louder as if the Fortress was flying back toward Germany. All this happened within three minutes and then, he heard the sound of an explosion, not an explosion of bombs, but one that sounded like he had thrown a can of gasoline over a pile of limbs and threw a match on the pile. It was a whooshing noise, not the sharp sound of bombs going off. At the same time, a column of smoke rose above the National Forest two miles to the west of his position. The farmer went back to work and except for discussing the Fortress in the bars for some years, he had forgotten about it, until the author found him in the same field, many years later.

Aboard the Lady Jeannette, Lt Gott and Lt Metzger had realized they were going to crash immediately. They had now lost too much altitude to fly over the hill in front of them where they could see a field on top where they might have safely slid into a soft crash. Now, if they maintained the same flight pattern as they had since regaining control, they were going to crash into the village at the top of the hill or into the side of the hill or a village at the bottom of the hill.

Gott, told Lt Harms to go back and tell the men to be ready to bail as soon as Gott ordered it. He wanted them to bail out where they would not land in the forest, instead, they could land in an open field in front of them. As Harms crossed the bomb bay into the radio compartment and started to open the door, all of a sudden the bomber began a sharp climb and Harms held on to keep from falling down and possibly out of the open bomb bay. He managed to start to open the door and when he looked down through the radio compartment and waist, he could see that there were only two men there and one of them was going out the hatch as he looked. Harms turned around to go back to the cockpit, suddenly, he had to hold on again, as the bomber started another dive, that became a climb and was followed by another dive.

As the plane began to level out, Harms entered the cockpit and told Gott, that one man was gone, another was leaving and the last man was ready to bail out when he began to come back to the cockpit. Gott told Harms and Gustafson to get forward be ready to bail out, as soon as they cleared the woods.

Fross was the first survivor to land, he landed in an open field and saw an American army tent with a red cross some distance away. He wrapped up his parachute and began to walk to the tent. As he approached the tent, Americans walked out to meet him, as civilians from the nearby village approached both groups. They took him to the tent and realized his bell had been rung. After a physical check, they put him in an ambulance to take him to the nearby hospital that could be seen on the hill to their south.

Robbins saw he was going to land in a woods and he crossed his legs and arms with his hands in front of his face as he had been instructed for such a landing. He only felt light limbs brushing against him as he landed standing up in the middle of the woods. He was near the edge of the woods and he hears a motor coming and then he saw a jeep coming across the field toward the woods. Robbins released his parachute harness and left the parachute hanging in the trees, as he walked out to meet the jeep.

Just before he landed, Robbins had heard the bombers engine noise getting louder and then, as he entered the woods, he heard the whooshing explosion. As he walked out of the woods, he looked to the west and realized the smoke column he saw, had to be from his B-17. When the jeep arrived, the driver told Robbins to get in and he started back across the pasture toward some houses. The jeep headed to the smoke column and Robbins thought the man was going to take him to the crash site. Instead, as they passed between the house and a barn, the driver turned right onto a road and started driving north, away from the crash site. When Robbins asked where the man was taking him, he told Robbins, that he was stationed at the Etain Army Air Base and he was taking Robbins there, so the medics could check him out.

Upon arrival, about 15 miles north of the crash site, the man dropped Robbins off at the medics and as they were checking him, the unit commander came in and Robbins told him all about his B-17, its crash and the condition of the men on board when he bailed out. He also talked about the man who was hanging under the tail. The commander told him, as soon as the medics were finished with him, he was to go to the flight line, where they had made arrangements for a light airplane to come and pick him up. As they had direct orders to get downed aircrew members back to their base as soon as possible.

Robbins arrived at the control tower and they told him, it would be some time before his ride arrived. He saw two P-61 Black Widow Night fighters close to the control tower and he told the operator he was going to go look at them, as he had never seen one. When he arrived at the two planes, the men working on them saw the blood on his clothing and asked what had happened. Suddenly, they were more than anxious to show him their two-night fighters.

After a while, they heard a light planes motor. He shook the men’s hands and arrived at the small plane, as it came to a stop. The pilot told him to get in and told him, they were on their way to Paris, where he would be set up for a flight back to his base in England. His November 9, 1944, was not complete.

Inside the Lady Jeannette, Harms was out of the escape hatch before Harland, who was at the hatch could get out. Gustafson had thought about what he could do to get to the hatch, so he picked up his right leg by the cuff of his pants and crabbed down into the nose and followed the others out. Gustafson was the last survivor to leave the Lady Jeannette as it approached the village of Hattonville. The hill was now less than two miles away and the B-17 could not clear the hill.

By that time, in the village, the Americans were beginning to drive their vehicles out of the village and yet, some were held in place by what they were watching happen. These men were ground pounders, who helped aircraft conduct their missions, but most of them had never seen a B-17 or B-24 up close. Especially, one that was flying directly at them and each thought, it was targeting them.

The Battalion doctor was standing at the village hall & schoolhouse, which had been taken over to become their operations plotting center and when the first man bailed out, he told the ambulance driver to head to where that man was going to land. As the ambulance driver headed toward the road out to the field where the man would land, he saw one of the women of the village, with her son in her arms, running to the south away from the village center and he told the author, he remembered her skirts were flying and she was really moving. Then, just as he was ready to turn off onto the road to the field, she stopped and was gazing at the bomber as it was now very close to the village.

When the author first visited the village in September 1998, he met the boy who had been in his mother’s arms. He was now the Mayor of the village. As everyone watched the approaching bomber, they were realizing it might crash on them. Many found they could not move as they watched the flaming smoking bomber approach them. Then, they saw another man fall from the bomber, followed by a third and at that time, none of them knew if anyone was left in the bomber. Was it under human control or just continuing toward them?

After the second sudden climb, dive and bringing the B-17 back under control, the two pilots realized something had changed. All of a sudden, they did not have to hold the controls to the right, now they could feel the possibility of actually turning the bomber to the right. As the last three survivors bailed out, the sudden loss of weight was going to allow them to fly a short distance further. As Gustafson left the bomber, they were about 1.75 miles from the village. The pilots thought they had no choice, they were either going to crash into the village or overfly it. Obviously their conversation had to be, with each agreeing, they now had the possibility of flying further and with the sudden, additional control of the bomber, they could continue toward the village. They quickly agreed, if either of them thought they would not clear the village, they would dive into the ground before reaching the village!

Based on all the members of the Battalion, the author was able to contact those French still living in the village, all of them were amazed as the flaming, smoking Flying Fortress began a turn and passed over the village church steeple with no more than three hundred feet clearance. All of them had expected the bomber to fly north toward the fields there, but it continued its turn until it was flying back toward Germany.

Back along its flight path, the three survivors, still hanging under their parachutes, saw their bomber was now flying back east, about a thousand feet north of where they were going to land. Before the turn, both Gott and Metzger had realized they were passing over a large field complex where they could have slid in for a crash landing, if only they could control their altitude. Then, as they made the turn to the north, they saw the area in front of them was full of trees, offering no safe place to slide in. So, they completed the turn, thinking they could make another turn to the right and slide into the field they had passed over, to make a safe crash landing.

As they completed the turn, Metzger looked out at the field and realized there were people in the area where they would have to crash. In that area were Americans from a radar unit that had moved the day before, who were completing the move. With the vehicles and people, it was obvious they could not attempt a safe crash there. So, they continued to the east and out in the distance, they saw large fields where they might crash, if only they could clear the forest they were now flying over. Both realized, they did not have the altitude to do that and their last opportunity to save their lives was to immediately turn to the right and crash into the field just beyond the forest below.

However, when both realized that landing there would require them to fly into the location where the last crew members had bailed out and were still in the air suspended bellow their parachutes. Managing, if, to have the plane flying between the two men, the prop wash and air disturbance generated by the Lady Jeannette would probably cause both men’s parachutes to collapse. Neither, Gott or Metzger were prepared to risk another man’s life to save their own and they continued east.

Watching closely, as soon as they thought they might circle back to the field and avoid the first man who bailed out, they started the turn. They were about halfway through the turn, when the bottom of the B-17 began to clip the top limbs of the Hattonville Forest. What neither pilot knew, was what had enabled the additional control, was their tail gunner, S/Sgt Krimminger. He had been the first man out of the waist because he had accidentally opened his parachute inside the waist and as it blew out the hatch, the parachute went over the tail and pulled Krimminger out of the arms of Robbins and Fross.

As he cleared the hatch, his body swung down and under the tail, where his body slammed up into the tail control plane. Forcing it up, which caused a sudden climb. Then, as his body fell down and away, the dive began. Only to have his body slam up against the control plane again, forcing the second climb. Both Robbins and Fross told the author, there was nothing they could do and they had to bail out, listening to the screams of Krimminger, asking them to help. As the bomber lowered into the wood, the limbs began to tear at Krimminger’s body as it hung under the tail. He had been pulled out of the B-17, still wearing his helmet with its ear protective clam shell ear flaps.

Fifty-five years later, the author found one of those flaps about 400 feet from where the B-17 came to rest in four large pieces. Both wings had broken off and the tail had broken free of the forward fuselage. The forward fuselage had stopped about 135 feet from the broken end of the tail. Lt Harms had watched after bailing out, as the B-17 flew to the west, turned and flew back toward them. He was just above tree top level when it began its turn to his north and he followed the ongoing crash and suddenly, the nose of the B-17 was pointing right at him. It stopped moving 227 feet from where he was now landing. The fuel cells in one wing had broken and spread fuel over part of the crash site and a large whooshing sound occurred covering a large part of the crash site with fire. Harms, hit the earth, not being sure he was in a friendly area and having seen two men running toward him, he dropped his chute and ran to the north to get into the forest and hide for a while.

Harland landed seconds later and he too dropped his chute and ran to the north into the forest where he found an old German World War One artillery position at the edge of the woods and took cover there. Gustafson, who still to this day, does not think he passed out, woke up to see the bomber to his north and then, he watched it start a turn, disappear into a woods and he saw and heard the flashing explosion as he hit the ground. The pain was extensive when his right leg hit the ground and he fell over, to find himself being pulled across the freshly plowed field by his parachute. He was attempting to follow the instructions on what to do when a Frenchman and an American ran up to him.

The Frenchman grabbed him and had stopped his movement. Gustafson pulled his favorite hunting knife out of a sheath on his parachute harness and handed it to the soldier and asking him to cut the parachutes shroud lines and so, stop the wind from pulling him across the field. Seconds later, the US soldier was rolling up the parachute when an ambulance pulled up and two men got out, approached Gustafson and toke over.

They quickly checked his wound, got a stretcher out of the ambulance and lifted the wounded airman onto it when Harland came walking up. With both in the ambulance and unable to see anyone else the ambulance driver left for the hospital near the World War One cemetery. It had not gone very far (as Gustafson told the author) when he realized that the US soldier didn’t have given the hunting knife back. Anyway, 15 minutes later, Gustafson and Harland arrived at the 109th Mobile Hospital.

• They were the patients who were remembered years later when the author attended their reunions. Of the over 25,000 patients they had treated during the war, the survivors of this B-17 crash, that many of then had watched take place, were the only aviators the hospital had treated.

As the ambulance arrived at the hospital, Pfc Lindsey helped remove the man on the stretcher and watched as two nurses talked to him and sent him to the casting tent. As he was being taken away, Lindsey asked, if he could have a piece of the parachute as a souvenir. Gustafson, told him sure, go ahead. And, when he arrived in the casting tent, he was put to sleep. November 9, 1944, became then a memory. Harland, had stood by while the nurses checked Gustafson out and both had said their goodbye, never to meet again.

Harland’s face had been stripped by the parachute shroud lines as it opened and he was told, they were going to keep him overnight for a complete checkout and then he would be evacuated in the morning, up the line to the next higher hospital located in Paris. When done, they put him to bed, gave him a sedative and November 9, 1944, also quickly ended for Lt Harland.

Lt Harms, still not sure about being in enemy or friendly territory, had continued to hide in the forest. However, as he went from tree to tree, he saw an access road running through the forest. Very carefully, he decided to move east along the road until he heard an engine and hided again. Minute later, as he went along the road, he reached a point where he could see through the trees and saw in the distance some large pieces of his B-17. He could even hear people talking. He moved a little closer and then heard someone speaking American English. He then started to walk through the trees toward the crash site. Off to his side, to the east, he began to see tree limbs and pieces of the bomber spread along the forest floor leading to the crash site. There were some very white and red items, however, he did not realize what they were.

Soon after Harms had run away to the north from the approaching Frenchmen he had seen, the first Frenchman soon arrived where Harms had landed and he could see the nose of the bomber in the smoke of the fading fire. The fire had lasted for less than five minutes, though an engine was lying near the front and it was still burning.

To its left, he could also see a tire that was going to burn for some time. His friend had not arrived yet, so he went into the woods and with the fire burned out he walked up to the fuselage and he could see through the tree limbs that had broken into the cockpit, the two pilots were in their seats. As he moved some of the smaller limbs and could actually reach the man in the copilot seat the Frenchman realized the man was obviously dead, as his face had been smashed by the limbs and in the other seat, he could see the same had happened to the other pilot. His friend arrived and they walked around to the open end of the fuselage. They saw that it was spattered all over with blood. He told his friend, that he was going to crawl up into the plane and go to the front and check again on the pilots. His friend said he was not going to do that, but he was going to the broken-off tail to see if anyone was there.

The man had just reached the two pilots and verified how they had died when his friend called and said, he had found another body. He went back to the opening and his friend took him to see a man who had landed between the tail and the forward fuselage and was lying there, also dead. They discussed it and thought, he must have bailed out very late and had landed in the fire which had killed him. At that time, the Frenchmen heard English and they turned and walked out to meet the Americans who were arriving at the site. They saw the Commander, the second in command and the doctor. All the French in the village knew the medics and the doctor, as they had never had better health care than when the Americans were stationed there during World War Two.

No matter, what was wrong, if they went to the building where the doctors were at, one of them would find out what was wrong and bind cuts and burns, or give them medicine which always helped. If one required more attention, they would bring the doctor who wore the gold leaves on his shoulder. They had been there for two months now and everyone in the village, knew every one of the Americans, if not by name, by the job they were doing.

The Frenchman who was the Americans translator was with them and he filled the Americans in about what the two men had found. As soon as they arrived at the site, the Commander told one of the enlisted Americans to build a fire, not too far from where the wing leaning a tree had come to rest. The six men stood by the cockpit and discussed the two dead men inside and then, they showed them the body they had found. The officers asked the Frenchmen to help get the dead men out of the cockpit and recover the man lying in the bush.

The American doctors (enlisted and officer, medics were thought of as doctors) entered the cockpit and started to remove the bodies. As they pulled the first one clear of the seat, another man grabbed his flying jacket at the collar and began to pull him through the cockpit and radio compartment. There, the two Frenchmen helped lift them off the deck and carried the bodies to place them on a canvas the officers had placed near the fire. Then, they went back to help with the second body found in the cockpit. The medics had been unable to free his safety belt clasp, so they cut through the seat belt to free him and then, they pulled him out.

All four men had helped carry that body and placed him next to the first, then they went to get the body they had found in the brush. The Frenchmen saw the second in command, take the coat off the body of the man they had just recovered. Soon the French from the village began to arrive. After some time, three boys who were pushing their bicycles arrived. One of the officers, now wearing a flying jacket, reached into a pocket and pulled out a stick of gum for each of the boys, then he told the French, they had to leave. At the same time, he told the other Americans to place the site under guard and keep any more the French away from the site.

As the boys walked their bikes out of the wood, they told arriving French people to turn around and go back to their homes and as they rode toward the village, after clearing the woods, they told everyone they met to turn around and they talked about what they had seen. There were three bodies lying on a cover in the woods, two had broken faces and the only damage the other seemed to have suffered was a light burning, except for where his coat had been and they each remarked, seeing one of the Americans wearing a matching, slightly burned jacket.

At their airbase back in England, the men and officers discussed the loss of the Lady Jeannette. All of them were certain it was going to crash and instead, it came under control and was last seen, heading west with no parachutes seen. It was another day of combat and another day of what was considered fairly light casualties, thus the 9th of November, 1944, came to an end. The author and his wife, Carol, asked each survivor of the Lady Jeannette to sign the drawing to show they agreed with the author’s research. Each did, except for S/Sgt Fross, who died before the drawing was completed.

Why was a B-24J flying over France in the middle of the night on a top-secret mission, would be a very good question. One that could have been answered by a member of the 36th Bomb Squadron! However, it was a question that the answer you received, would not have answered your question. The required information maintained its top-secret listing until the 1990s. The following will supply some background information required if you might decide you have to question the author’s conclusion. Please, re-research the following before contacting the author.

• When first we got to Cheddington the thing they told us that we had to be completely aware of that (our) operation was absolutely TOP SECRET. We were not to divulge to anyone what kind of work we were in. We couldn’t send any word back home about what we were doing. If we ran into some of the other crews that we might have known in training in the states and they asked us what we were doing, to just tell them we were just flying like they were, and not divulge that we were in the counter radar top-secret squadron. (Page 146, Squadron of Deception : The 36th Bomb Squadron in World War II by Stephen M. Hutton)

On March 31, 1944, after discovering what the English bomber streams were using to confuse their radars, which consisted of thin lengths of aluminum foil cut to match their radar’s search beam frequency. The British called the secret weapon, Window, while the Americans called it Chaff. When discovered, the Germans changed all their radar’s frequency to overcome the problem. That night, the Royal Air Force lost over ten percent of its bombers to German night fighter attacks. The losses were so great, the RAF stopped all missions until a solution could be found. To continue, would have meant there would have been no Royal Air Force Bomber Command left, in less than ten days. As fate would have it, that same day, the first aircraft from the American 36th Bomb Squadron (RCM – Radar Counter Measures) was transferred to the 100th Group, Royal Air Force. On the first mission, flown with the protection of the electronic countermeasures provided by the radar jamming aircraft, the RAF lost no bombers.

• The Lichtenstein radar was among the earliest airborne radars available to the Luftwaffe in World War II and the first one utilized exclusively in the air interception role. Developed by Telefunken, it was available in at least four major revisions, designated FuG 202 Lichtenstein B/C, FuG 212 Lichtenstein C-1, FuG 220 Lichtenstein SN-2 and the very rarely used FuG 228 Lichtenstein SN-3. (FuG is short for Funk-Ger?t, German Radio Set). The Lichtenstein series remained the only widely deployed airborne interception radar used by the Germans on their night fighters during the war — the competing FuG 216 through 218 Neptun mid-VHF band radar systems were meant as a potentially more versatile stopgap system through 1944 until the microwave-based FuG 240 Berlin could be mass-produced; the Berlin system was still in testing when the war ended.

German night fighters had a radar unit mounted on its nose, once it was vectored to the general area by the German ground radars, it could lock onto the British bomber on the darkest of nights. Normally, they would approach from below and behind and the British crews had no indication until their bomber was struck by the fighters fire. A detection unit was created, that would indicate they were being tracked, so they could attempt to evade. However, the combination of ground radar control and the on-board targeting radar of the German night fighter was deadly. Just, as the same combination enabled Allied night fighters to overcome German aircraft that flew at night.

• (Note) As a former Air Force Radar Operator and a Nike Missile Fire Control Maintenance Man, this book provided a wealth of information, that was still secret when I served. Stephen’s father was in the squadron and during his research and squadron receptions, he interviewed many survivors and fleshes out the members of the squadron and their individual experiences. Stephen and I met, as he was completing his book, and on page 185 you will find this author’s name in connection to the installation of a memorial in France to 226, and her crew. Not far away, in the village cemetery of Cartigny, Department of the Somme, France, is the grave that started all of this for the author on Christmas Eve, 1991, when my friend and I were asked, to visit the grave of an Unknown American of WW-II. The Frenchman had been tending the grave for some years and he requested, that the author identify the grave, so the person within could be honored during the 50th Anniversary of D-Day.

On November 10, 2000, this memorial was dedicated by the same audience that later dedicated the grave Memorial (below) later that day. The plaques memorialize a B-26 that later crashed near the memorial location, which is about 3/4 mile from the exact B-24J crash site, which is in a working field. The B-26 actually stuck the exact B-24J crash site, bounced over an electric line, bounced again and then slammed into the woods very close to this memorial. During the crash, the radar navigating unit broke loose, crushing two of the crew to death. The two pilots were awarded the Soldiers Medal for their action in removing the bodies from the burning wreckage. The author interviewed the two pilots and each told him, if we had not removed the bodies, we would have been stuck in the burning plane and died.

The bomber belonged to the 1st Pathfinder Squadron, on the day it crashed (January 22, 1945), it marked the bridge over the Our River (Belgium) blocking thousands of Germans and vehicles on the west side of the river. It is documented as being the most successful day of the 9-AAF. They flew so low down the Valley of the Our to successfully mark the target. As they were marking the bridge, German anti-aircraft guns were firing down at them from the valley banks.

The lower left memorial plaque is to the Americans who were stationed in the Bois de Buirre, which is the woods behind the memorial. They participated in the drive to the east during WW-1, fighting with the Canadians, Australians, and British. The American Bony WW-1 Cemetery is located about ten miles to the east. The lower right memorial plaque is to the 452nd Bombardment Group, as many French citizens, as did the author had, that the Lady Jeannette had crashed where the top-secret B-24J had actually crashed.

On November 10, 1994, we dedicated a memorial stone on this grave. The dedication was attended by T/Sgt Russell W. Gustafson, a Lady Jeannette survivor, two nieces of 1st Lt Gott, CMOH, pilot of the Lady Jeannette and many French citizens. The Honor Guard consisted of members of the Le Souvenir Francais, a volunteer organization of French military veterans who maintain military graves and cemeteries across France.

In May 1998, after everyone else had accepted the author’s research, fundamentally based on the description of the crash of the bomber these dead belonged to in the Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for 1/Lt Gott and 2/Lt Metzger, Jr. It is a well-known fact, due to extensive research prior to the award of these medals and unless totally supported by facts and eyewitnesses, no one would be awarded that medal. The author proved that the two medal citations contained false information and every signor from 2/Lt Harms, the required eye witness officer knew or had to have known, the medal applications contained this false information. The families of the three men were fully informed of the existence of the second combined grave of their family members and they requested that American allow the grave to remain where they are, as the French cared more about their loved one than the American military commanders who were directly responsible for the original hiding of their combined remains.

On November 10, 2000, with the sister of 2/Lt Metzger, Jr., present, we dedicated a new memorial on the grave, with the Honor Guard being provided by the USAF, identifying the grave with the proper identification of the three men, of which the grave contains approximately two-thirds of their combined remains. Recovered from a hidden grave created by American military personnel by the village Priest on November 23, 1944.

The village elders and the Priest (Mr le Curé Etienne Serpette), had discussed the situation and had determined these men in the hidden grave who had died for the Liberty of France and had been discarded in a hidden grave by the United States military, deserved a marked grave of their own in a consecrated cemetery. After the war, when the American Graves Registration units were searching for isolated graves, they asked the Priest, if he knew of any unrecovered war graves around the village, the Priest answered no. They felt they could not trust the same people who had hidden the men’s remains once and might do so again and these men had Died for the Liberty of France. He was at ease, they asked about graves “around” the village, when the grave in question was “in” the village cemetery, he had not lied in the eyes of God, as he had answered the question correctly.

At midnight, early on the morning of November 10, 1944, a B-17J began its night’s mission. Several of their squadron B-24’s were scheduled to form a line from Belgium on down to the south of Verdun. They were to fly to an assigned location, arrive at an exact time and begin the pre-arranged operation, which consisted of flying a figure ‘8’ flight path. The point was located fifty miles to the west of the western boundary of the free-fire zone that ended twenty-five miles west of the front line.

The American radar unit’s assigned mission was to keep the skies swept of German aircraft, anywhere to the east of that boundary line. There were two radar battalions in the area of the eastern front line in the Metz area (France), one of them being the 563rd Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion. The 563-SAWB, was comprised of several separate individual radar units, located in a line behind the front line. The 563rd’s area of responsibility was from the city of Nancy (France) to their south, then to the north with their northernmost unit in southern Belgium.

Another Battalion’s coverage overlapped in the Belgium area to the south and continued to the north. The radar’s coverage, depending on the weather and the height of the target, could track a flying object in a circle for fifty to seventy-five miles in the direction the rotating antenna was pointing. Overall, each radar unit could cover a full circle with a diameter of one hundred to one-hundred-fifty miles.

Their main search areas covered the free-fire zone, on the east as far as their radar could track. At about 0145 in the morning, the 566-SAWB, one of the overlapping radars unit, reported a probably friendly target flying from the west to the east. As the British normally flew in line instead of formation, the first target appeared to be a British bomber heading to the east to bomb Germany. Soon, another target appeared with the new target basically following the first target’s flight path. At that time, the Hqs 563-SAW Plotting Center at Hattonville was informed of the new target that was just far enough north for the next actions to be determined by the 566th. For the next few minutes, history continued in its stream with no reason to divert or divide into a different future. Then, the target that had been heading east, passed over the free-fire boundary. Then, an astonishing thing happened, the target turned right and was heading south inside the free-fire zone.

Aboard the target, which was suddenly declared as ‘Unknown’, instead of a 'Probably Friendly', the pilot, 1/Lt Joseph R. Hornsby and the copilot 2/Lt Robert H Casper were listening intently for the navigator to call out a new course correction. The Navigator, 2/Lt Frederick G. Grey, was the only person aboard the B-24 who knew what all the electronic equipment on board was intended to do. When it was time to take off, Lt Grey would tell pilot and copilot what runway to use. Then, Lt Grey gave them ongoing instructions to reach a certain altitude, fly a certain direction and when Lt Grey was ready, Lt Grey would give the pilots orders to begin the figure ‘8’ flight pattern orbit. It was normally fifty miles from one end to the other and about ten miles wide. Once, they began the orbit, one of the gunners normally worked with him, by sitting by the stack of electronic equipment which had many marked switches on its panels.

Sgt Mears, one of the gunners who normally flew in the nose turret, would listen for Lt Grey’s instructions and follow the indications which would be throw switch one then it might be turn on switch two and turn off switch one. Sgt Mears, as none of the crew, had no idea of what they were doing. They would usually spend a couple of hours orbiting in the figure ‘8’, with Mears flipping the switches dozens of times, all at the direct order of Lt Grey. Then, Grey would give the pilots a new course and they would begin the return to their base in England.

• (Note) One thing, each crewman the author interviewed, supported by Stephen Hutton’s research, was the pilots and crew had no idea of where they were at or what they were really doing. All they knew, is they left their base and in due time, the navigator would guide them back.
• When the Hornsby crew reported to an airfield in Maine, for their next flight over to Iceland and then England, they were told new orders had been received. They were to go to Maryland and report at a base there. Upon arrival, Hornsby was told, that the navigator was going to a special school and in about two weeks, he would return and then, they were to make their way to England. However, during that time, the crew would be given a temporary navigator and they would spend the two weeks learning a top-secret flight pattern, flying first during the day and then, during the night. Plus, the crew’s job, especially the pilots, was to never question the navigator, and they were to never discuss what they were doing with anyone, not even among themselves.

Their first mission was a daylight one and the fill-in navigator told Hornsby when to start the engines when to start their taxi to a certain runway when to stop and run up the engines when to turn onto the runway and begin their take off. Upon clearance of the runway, the pilots were to fly a certain compass setting, gaining so many feet per minute and so on. Then, the navigator would give them a compass course to fly for so long and then he led them through a new orbit pattern in the shape of a figure ‘8’. They would do this for a length of time then the navigator led them back to the base. This went on for two weeks and after a couple of daylight missions where they could tell where they were at due to landmarks and such, they began night missions. At first, they flew a couple of daylight missions and then it was three or four, mostly night missions. When interviewed by the author, the pilots both stated, unless it was daylight, they never knew where they were once they left their runway.

• Hornsby and the rest of the crew interviewed, told the author, it was the strangest flying from day one to the day they crashed. They never knew where they were and never knew what they were doing. The author interviewed the radio operator, T/Sgt Joseph Danahy, several times. As with all the author’s research that began many years ago, the living completed their final transfers and are no longer available to help the author.
• The flight engineer/top turret gunner was T/Sgt Jack Chestnut; the normal nose turret gunner was Sgt Raymond G. Mears; the waist gunner was Sgt Robert Veliz; the ball turret gunner was Sgt Pete Yslava, and the tail gunner was Sgt Frank A. Bartho.
• As with all their other missions, the Hornsby crew quickly settled in, they were going to fly only in a friendly territory so the gunners had little to do, but sit at their position and observe whatever they wanted. On this mission, for some unknown reason, the normal tail gunner, Sgt Bartho and the normal nose turret gunner, Sgt Mears switched positions. Then, the normal waist gunner, Veliz, manned the tail turret, while Mears went to the bomb bay to work the switches on the stack of electronic equipment, he knew nothing about. If, one thinks about it, what is the best way to protect secrets, keep it secret and that way, if in any way one of the men becomes a captive, they had no knowledge to give up.

In about two hours, the Navigator told the pilots to change course to the south and be prepared to start the orbit. The position they were supposed to be at, was over the Belgian, the French and the Luxemburg borders. However, due to the weather, the navigator had been unable to use positive landmarks to verify their true position in the air. In fact, that night, something they knew nothing about had settled lower over Belgium, Luxemburg, and France.

Called the Jet Stream, well known today, instead of their normal easterly wind to factor in, the Jet Stream had pushed them about 55 miles to the east of the position they were supposed to be at. At the time, Hornsby, saw the moon which was partially blocked by clouds, reflected off a large river in front of them. He assumed it was the Meuse River, which they often completed their figure ‘8’ over a river which ran from the south to the north roughly 75 miles to the west of the next large river, the Moselle.

As the clock reached 0200, the B-24 turned south while Grey and Mears had the top-secret equipment ready to broadcast, whatever it was going to broadcast. At the 566-SAW Plotting Center, a Probably Friendly suddenly became an Unknown and all Unknowns in the free-fire zone were to be attacked by their night fighters.

The officer who controlled the night fighters put an alert call out to the Maupertus (France) Airfield where the 422nd and 425th (P-61 Black Widow) Night Fighter Squadrons were based. He learned that one of their P-61 Black Widow night fighters just happened to be flying a circular orbit waiting for some action, this, just a few miles away from the new Unknown Target. The controller immediately gave the night fighter a flight vector and quickly, the ground radar operator locked onto the target in the sky ahead of them.

On the ground, the controller asked for verification to issue a shootdown order and when given, he told the night fighter to shoot down this Unknown Target. The P-61 approached from the 4 o’clock position, climbing toward the Unknown Target. When it was within range, the gunner opened fire with its four 20-MM cannons. Instantly, in the light of the tracers and the explosions on the inboard, #3 engine on the right-wing of the target, the P-61 pilot identified the Unknown Target as a B-24J.

It was a B-24J, where no B-24J’s were supposed to be. The US Army Air Force did not fly night missions and especially, they did not fly into the free-fire zone at night, unless it was an American night fighter. Otherwise, the Allies would be shooting down with friendly fire, their own aircraft.

The pilot broke off his approach and contacted his controller, telling him that the unknown appeared to be an American B-24J and it had turned to the west, as soon as it had been hit. At the Plotting Center, they were already getting new radar position reports, showing the target was quickly losing altitude and was flying directly back toward England. The pilot of the P-61 was immediately vectored back his original orbit position to wait for any other possible targets.

Back to the B-24J. Once, the shells struck the engine of the plane (42-51226), an event had started which, if Gen George S. Patton had returned to the US after New Years, 1946, used his ability to use the American media to tell what he knew, the world would be an extremely different place today.

Using his fame, his natural ability and if he had the desire, I believe that, in 1948, the new President would have been Gen Patton instead one of those who were attempting to destroy him and had managed to cover up what had been verbally ordered on November 10, 1944: keep the crash of the top-secret B-24 and the existence of 8,000 pounds of America’s most top-secret electronic on the French ground, secret. And, it had to be kept secret, even so secret, that no German spy could obtain anything from this B-24 crash site, which might enable the Germans Engineers to duplicate what we were using against them. Should this happen, we would still win the war, but the Germans would shoot down hundreds more Allied aircraft meanwhile, tens of thousands more civilians would also die.

Thus, whatever it took, it had to be done and it had to be done with Eisenhower’s protection or major commanders, unit officers and enlisted men who did what they were verbally told to do, would be open to immediate court-martial followed by the loss of their careers, jail time and total public humiliation and then, the direct hatred of the American public.

When this series of articles and especially, if you read the books to learn the research base foundation of this series, in the end you will and I mean, you will realize, that General Patton could not have been allowed to return to the United States and tell the American public what he knew, supported by the absolute evidence he had to support his truth.

At the end of this series, you will know exactly what Patton knew and if you, the mother, the father, the sister, the brother, the wife, the children, a relative or just a friend of a soldier who had not returned and you were told, you may never have that information and you must accept that fact. Then you listen to Gen Patton’s speech and you hear, what he could prove, from the eye witness officer, who would have stood next to Patton to provide his story and his support, tell how two Congressional Medals of Honor had been awarded to two pilots, who would have deserved the awards, if the truth of their death had been presented, had been used by the highest military commander to hide the truth of how his orders led to the burial of American War Dead in unmarked graves and his verbal order that a false description of their death and heroism be the foundation of the award of the medals, when he knew from the first day, the men awarded the medal and the men who died with them, did not die as stated.

Then, Lt Harms, would step forth and hold up his medical records that proved absolutely, their B-17 did not crash as described, nor did the men who died, die as described. Then, he would tell, how his squadron and group Commanders and a colonel from Gen Eisenhower’s headquarters had ordered him to sign the applications without questioning their contents, or he would be sent to the front line as an infantry officer. He was a flyer, with no infantry training and he had a pregnant wife at home and he would tell the American public while holding up his official medical records proving his truth, I was not a damn fool then, and I am not a damn fool now, so I signed the two applications, as the required Eye Witness officer, verifying the description of crash and death of the men, saluted the three officers, walked outside the office and became a non-flyer accounting officer in the 452nd Bombardment Group.

Gen Patton would then ask the American public to remember how he had been punished by Gen Eisenhower and his Chain of Command, for slapping a soldier that he truly thought would gain his courage back from that slap. Then, he would remind the American public about his successes in combat, in Africa, Sicily, France, and Germany, and during his Victory Tour in May and June, across the country, he was met by large crowds of Americans who appreciated his service to his country.

While touring the country, in every newspaper, he read of two Congressional Medals of Honor, being awarded on GO #38 May 16, 1945, to the pilots of a B-17 that had crashed in his area of command. He had learned of that crash the day it happened and early the next morning, he was told of the crash of a top-secret aircraft, loaded with our most secret electronic equipment. Then, he learned of steps being taken in the field, that could only have happened with the approval of Gen Eisenhower. His friend, Gen Wendover, the XIX Air Force Commander, had kept him briefed of what was being done and why it had to be done. The fact is, at the time I agreed with what had to be done, for the very reasons given by Gen Eisenhower. If that was all that was done and I had approved of what was done, I would fully understand the wrath that would be placed upon me and my career.

However, as I had time to realize what I had learned during my tour, and I was continually being mistreated by those who had been attempting to destroy my career, a month ago, I made my mind to quit the army and stand here before you as an equal citizen, to tell you that I feel the misuse of the medal our country values so highly, by commanders who knew the truth and passed to our government and President, who most likely never knew the truth, cannot be allowed to go unpunished. Thank you and I promise, I will help you obtain the justice due to those who may never return and especially, those who never returned and will never return unless those responsible are held responsible for their actions in hiding American war dead and the deceitful use of our highest military medal, to coverup their illegal actions while in command.

If Patton had returned and gave a speech somewhat like the above, every signor of the application from Squadron Commander to the highest position that knew the truth and then lied as they passed the application up the line would have had their career destroyed and legal action brought against them. If, that truth had been hidden from the Congress and the President, think about it. It is obvious, that Patton must not return and follow through with his plan. The car accident was just that, it was an accident, no matter what Bill O’Reilly might claim in his book The Strange Death of World War II’s Most Audacious General.

I believe, Gen Patton would have not returned alive from that day’s planned pheasant hunt!

At the 566th, the on-duty highest-ranking officer and at the 563rd, which was monitoring the action, both were placing calls to their commanders to inform them of the situation. This was quickly passed on to their reporting command, the XIX USAAF, the in-country. Aboard “226,” the pilots and crew, who were flying with no light, other than the instrument panel and the limited lighting required in the navigator’s compart and in the bomb bay, where the switch switcher was waiting to be told by the navigator, the next switches he was to turn on or off. The #3 engine, provided the major power to the interior of the B-24J, including the electric motors that drove the hydraulics which provided the power to operate the chin and tail turrets.

Suddenly, their left-wing was lit up and loud explosions were heard. The engine suddenly shut down and a fire started within the cowling. At the same time, the bright light ruined the night vision of the pilots and immediately the electrical power to the interior, died. The pilots immediately switched on the emergency power that was supposed to be provided by the #2 engine emergency generator and even though the power meter showed it was providing the interior of the bomber with emergency power, it was obvious none was being supplied. The emergency power check was one of the pilots conducted when preparing to take off. Without that emergency power, they were not supposed to fly.

However, the B-24’s top-secret electronics were being constantly updated and each upgrade required more power. The original power was supplied from large forklift batteries, however, after some missions, one night, the top-secret equipment shut down which caused that night’s mission to fail. Upon discussion by the ‘genies’ who maintained the equipment, they realized the equipment now required additional power. As the normal emergency generator on the #3 engine was rarely used, the decision was made, without the crew being told, to install a hidden connection on that emergency generator’s supply line, that diverted the emergency power to the top-secret equipment.

One night, during a main generator problem, the pilots switched to emergency power. The voltage flux in the top-secret equipment caused it to fail and they had to shut down the mission early. Upon their return, the ‘genies’ discussed the problem and decided, the engine mount for the emergency power generator was the same as the main generator, so they replaced the normal emergency power generator with a larger main power generator and at the same time, they rigged the power switch, so the crew would think they had the required emergency power, when in fact, it was no longer available.

That greatly increased the power available to the top-secret equipment and it would prevent any emergency switching that may damage the equipment. So, without informing the flying crews, that they no longer had emergency power, if required, they wired the switch to give a false indication. In fact, with the obvious knowledge of the electronics officer, the executive officer and the commander of the squadron, a decision was made, that the top-secret electronic equipment was more important than the lives of the aircrew!

Hornsby felt the plane begin to buck and want to dive due to the sudden unbalance of power, so he had to gain control and with Casper working the other engine’s power output, he told Casper to set off the fire extinguisher to put the fire out. As Hornsby began to regain control, Casper told him, it was not working and the fire was growing. If it continued, it could break into the wing, melting the wing and setting the fuel on fire and then the wing would break free and they would fall to their death. Hornsby hollered at the radio operator to get back and warn the crew in the back to get ready to bail out, as the intercom was as dead as the generator. Then, he was to go to the nose and tell the men there to be ready to bail out. He and Casper then made the decision, their only hope was to dive as quickly as they could and build up their airspeed to a point where the fire would be blown out. At that time, their eyes were beginning to adjust to the lack of light, however, the phosphorus dots on the instruments were beginning to fade and if he could not see their altitude, he might dive them into the ground. Casper got the flashlight and used it to shine on the instruments so Hornsby could see them.

Due to the engine being out, and the interference of the airstream, the bomber had been bouncing up and down and rocking back and forth. However, he started the dive and as Casper called off the lowering altitude, they were able to blow the fire out and then, both of them had to pull back on the controls to stop diving and regain as much altitude as they could. While they were doing this, the number four, outboard engine began acting up, probably due to damage occurred at the same time the #3 engine had been destroyed.

Until Hornsby was interviewed by the author, he had always believed what he had been told by his commander when he got back to his unit. They had flown so far to the east, they were over the Rhine river when the German anti-aircraft artillery had destroyed their #3 engine and damaged the #4. He remembered seeing the moon reflected off a big river and he believed the lie he was told.

The pilots got the bomber under control, however, they were in a pickle. With no lighting in the bomber and with the one engine dead and the other hurting, Hornsby knew they did not want to try to cross the Channel. A B-24J did not fly well with an engine gone, it was worse when the remaining engine on the same wing was failing. So, they had to bail out before they got too far to the west. He told Danahy to go back to the nose compartment to check with the navigator to find their location and to tell them, he was going to keep her in the air as long as they could fly west, as that ensured they would crash in Liberated Europe. Casper had to keep the flashlight on the instruments, as the blow buttons would dim very quickly if the light was taken away. The only problem was, a couple of times he accidentally flashed Hornsby with the light and each time, he lost his night vision.

Unknown to the pilots, Sgt Bartho, in the hydraulic driven nose turret had immediately rotated his turret to the right to see what had caused the explosion. Then, when the power went off, all of a sudden, he had no hydraulic power and he could not turn the turret. Bartho was a taller man and when the author interviewed several B-24J nose gunners, they told him, if you were tall it was impossible for you to follow the emergency instruction in case of such a failure. The gunner was supposed to bend down, reach toward the rear of his seat and disengage the hydraulic drive from the gear drive. Then, he had to reach an emergency handle that was clipped to the back of his seat. Once he had the handle, he had to insert the end in a small hole in the bottom of the turret. This would then allow him to hand crank the turret back to its neutral position and allow him to open the turret door to exit. At the same time, in the nose of a B-24J, one of the crew had to be inside the nose, near the turret and he had to open an inside door that had to be open so the hatch door could open and the gunner could get out.

At some point, Lt Grey had to have realized Bartho was not able to move the turret and with the intercom out, he could not communicate with anyone to help. I believe, as the only man who knew what the top-secret equipment was capable of doing and he had been ordered not to be captured.

In the cockpit, Hornsby and Casper agreed it was time to bail out, as they did not want to accidentally fly out over the Channel. They knew they did not have the ability left to cross the Channel and they did not want to die in the Channel.

It had been about a half-hour since the engine damage had happened and when Danahy returned, he said the navigator had no lights, other than a flashlight and he actually had no idea where they were, except they had to have flown far enough to the west, it was time to bail out. Hornsby, then gave the order to bail out, telling Casper and Danahy, he would stay in for five minutes or until the plane had less than 10,000 feet and then, he would follow. Casper, immediately stood up, opened the escape hatch above the pilots, and bailed out. Danahy and the flight engineer went to the waist, everyone had their chutes on and they started to drop out the waist emergency exit. The flight engineer headed for the nose, hollered for them to bail out and he went down into the nose escape hatch, past the nose wheel and fell free.

Back at the waist hatch, Danahy had sat down on the edge with his feet out in the slipstream, when Mears asked him if he had seen Bartho. Mears and Bartho were good friends and tonight, they had exchanged their normal positions. Danahy hollered, no, he had not and Mears hollered back, that he was going to the nose to check on Bartho. Danahy really did not want to bail out by himself and he tried to pull himself back up, but the slipstream would not let go and it pulled him down and out. That was the last time, any survivor saw Mears and the following is based on what must have taken place in the nose, for what happened to have happened.

Mears arrived in the nose and it is obvious that he and Grey continued to work to help Bartho. One has to question the actions of Lt Grey. He knew they had been told to bail out, he had his parachute on and yet, he did not drop down and out of the nose escape hatch. Mears arrived and realized that Bartho must have turned his turret away from its home position, just as the hydraulic power went out. With the intercom out, they would have been unable to communicate. Even though they had been told to bail out and both had parachutes on and both were a couple of steps from an escape hatch. Both, were staying in the nose and both had to know, they were going to die when the B-24 crashed.

Lt Grey, the author believes, stayed with the bomber, as he was the only one aboard, who knew exactly what the electronic equipment was capable of doing and it is most likely, that he was ordered to end his life if he thought he might be captured. In the cockpit, Hornsby looked at his watch and when the time was up, he climbed up out of the pilot's escape hatch, slid down and off the bomber and pulled his ripcord. In the nearby countryside, the French woke up to the sound of laboring engines, then a sudden shriek as the aircraft went into a dive, followed by an explosion, the sound of the bomber hitting the earth, then another explosion and all was silent.

At the nearby, A-72 American Air Base, the home of the 397-BS, Pvt Barney Silva woke up in his bunk as he heard what sounded exactly as the movies portrayed the diving crash of an airplane. There were two explosions and then, silence. He had just pulled the covers up over his head, when the intercom speaker came alive, with the announcement: Pvt Silva, get your ambulance and report to the headquarters at once. He checked the time and it was just 0230 on the morning of November 10, 1944.

Lt Casper had been the first one out and as he was higher and the wind was blowing, he landed the furthest to the west. He had been falling through the sky when he saw dim lights and suddenly, he landed on the slate roof of a building. He began to slide down one side and his parachute went down the other. Inside the building, the office of a sugar factory, the night fireman heard something on the roof and sliding tiles. He had been looking out a window to the northwest after hearing the approaching plane.

When he heard something land on the roof, it was sliding down the roof, along with some loose tiles. He started toward the door and heard a knock. Casper had slid off the roof and was falling straight down when his parachute shrouds tighten and he came to a stop, standing in front of the door. At the same time, his parachute slid clear and as it fell, he collected it. When done, he knocked on the door, which was immediately opened by a Frenchman. The man could speak enough English to understand Casper and he went to a telephone and made a call. In a few minutes, the telephone rang and the Frenchman told Casper, that the nearby American base was sending a vehicle to pick him up.

Danahy and Chestnut had bailed out very close together and landed in a pasture. They immediately got together and hearing people talking, a short distance away they saw the doors of some houses open and they walked over, they were invited in, told they were sending someone to a house with a telephone, who would call the nearby American airbase to have them picked up. Just before the men began to land, they had been tracking their bomber by the sparks blowing out of the damaged engine, then the sound changed and it was diving to the ground, looking in that direction, most of them saw two flashes and heard the explosions, then there was a flash fire and they knew, “226″ had met her end.

Danahy landed near a road and the bomber appeared to have crashed a short distance away. He decided, the safe thing to do, was to walk away from the crash site until he knew he was safe. He soon came to a stream and heard someone crossing the steam, whistling ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’. He hollered and Chestnut came over and they discussed their situation. They decided, they would go back to the road and walk down it, away from the crash site. They had gone a short distance, when they heard someone coming from the other direction, the crash site was still providing a little light and they saw a boy on a bicycle riding toward then. Danahy told Chestnut, he had studied French in school, so he would try to talk to the boy. He stepped out and spread his arms apart and began speaking French. He later told the author, the boy's eyes opened up to the size of a plate, he leaned over and peddled as hard as he could, skirted Danahy and rode as fast past as he could, down the road.

They continued to walk down the road and soon saw a man coming toward them carrying a lantern. The man approached them and they told him, they were Americans and he motioned they should follow him. Soon, they approached a small village and the man went to a house, opened a door and invited them in, where the man’s wife offered them coffee, with bread and butter. Unknown to them, the boy was hiding in an outbuilding and the man went out and told the boy to go to the next village and tell the policeman about the two men. After a while, the boy came back and told the man to take them to the village hall where the policeman would be. He indicated the two should follow him and he took them to the village hall. There they were told, a man who had a working car would pick them up and take them to the next location.

In a few minutes, a small car, kind of like a Model T Ford, pulled up and Danahy remembered, it had the most chrome he had ever seen on a car. The fellow drove a few minutes, stopped alongside a small hill, indicted the men should get out. As he left the car, Danahy realized, the man was carrying a pistol and instantly, wished he had his own Colt 45. However, after a couple of missions, the crew realized they were just in the way and they never went where a gun would be needed. The man came around the car, pointed the gun at them and indicated they should start up the hill. Danahy, told the author, he was certain, the man was taking them to the woods on top the hill to kill them.

As they approached the hill they could see the trees had a lot of camouflage draped in them and that were were several American trailers. As they approached an American came toward them, asked if they were from the crash he had seen. They told him they were and the man told them, there were only two men on duty and they were the radio unit for the nearby airbase. That way, if the Germans flew down their radio beams and dropped bombs, the base would not be damaged.

He told them to wait a minute and he would call in and report they were there. In a couple of minutes, he came out and asked the Frenchman, if he could take them to the base. Now, that he knew they were real Americans and not German spies, he was all smiles and the gun was put away. He agreed to do so and the radioman gave them instructions. Follow the road they were on, turn left where the burned-out tank was located, watch for the plane crash site and turn left again and they would arrive at the base. When the Frenchman returned to his home, he told his story to his family and his nephew, Gaetan Chaulieu, the main part of his story was the men telling him and the American radio operators, that they were flying in a B-24 and not a B-17. He had asked them about being in a Flying Fortress when they told him, there was a great difference and they were B-24 men.

Hornsby, had landed near a small clump of brush and he went to ground to wait to see what might happen. His parachute shroud lines had sliced his face when his parachute opened and he realized he had been cut fairly deeply. He saw a growing amount of traffic on the roads, mostly heading toward the crash site, where the fire was dying out, to be replaced by vehicle light glowing in the dark.

The geographical layout of the area all this took place, is such that it was a low valley area with higher hills to the north and south, so from his position, during the daylight, he could have seen the airbase to the south and the crash site to his east. As it began to get lighter, he recognized all the vehicles were American and decided to walk down a nearby road and flag one down. A driver picked him up and brought him immediately to the airbase. He was the last one to arrive and when the base commander told him, that they had found three dead at his crash site and gave him a list of the names of the men who had been brought to the base, Hornsby felt sick in that, he was certain he had stayed in long enough for all of them to get out.

It must be remembered, no one had informed the pilots that Bartho was stuck in the nose turret. Then, the base commander demanded that Hornsby, like his crew, tell the base commander everything he knew. All Hornsby would tell him, was his name, rank, and squadron. Having seen Hornsby’s facial cut, the commander told him, he was going to be taken to the base hospital to have the cut sewn up and he would be given a basic check to ensure he was okay.

When he arrived at the hospital, they took a quick look at him, assigned him a bunk and gave him a sedative to prepare him to go into surgery. When he went to sleep, all the beds in the ward were occupied, then when he later awoke, he was the only one in the ward. In a while, he heard two people talking outside the ward’s closed door. One was telling the other about the coward that was in the ward. He was the pilot of the plane that crashed and as it had been flying to the east when it crashed, that proved he was a coward as he had landed further to the west than any of the survivors. He was the pilot and he had to have been the first man to bail out, leaving three men to die in the crash.

Hornsby told the author, that he got absolutely furious because they thought he was the first out, instead of the last one. But, he could not say anything, that was the orders, so he bit his lip and waited to be released.

When Hornsby was released, he was taken to the isolated barracks where the rest of the survivors of his crew were living. Due to the constantly stated orders to never talk about their job, the survivors never discussed the crash between themselves and when they returned to duty at their base in England, no one talked or asked them about what happened in France.

As the hours had passed, within a couple of hours, all the survivors had been taken to the airbase, where the Base Commander insisted they tell who they were and what they were doing. Each of the men refused to tell him anything, no matter what punishment he had threatened them with his Officer in Charge, had reported up the chain of command, that the crash had happened nearby and within a half-hour, the commander had been gotten out of bed to directly communicate with the telephone calls from their commanders. In effect, the crap had hit the fan and spreading. He was bewildered, as he reported the arrival of the men, how they would not tell him anything other than their name, rank and serial number. He was told to place them in an isolated location and limit their contact with anyone. Then, he received a call from his highest commander, informing him, that he was to expect the arrival of a colonel from Gen Eisenhower’s staff and he was to do exactly what the colonel told him to do and if, he wanted to question what he was to do, say so now and Gen Eisenhower would be placing a direct call to him to discuss the situation. A career military person, it was obvious something was going on, that was way above his position in the chain of command and he was not going to do something stupid.

About now, the reader is wondering, how the hell does this fellow know about any colonel and where and what he was doing. During the research and discussing all the locations with many involved people, such as Silva talked about this young colonel who arrived, talked to their officer and left. Then, the officer ordered to do things that they knew were against Army regulations. Each was told never to question what they were doing, you will do what you are told to do:

AND YOU WILL NEVER TELL ANYONE ABOUT WHAT HAS HAPPENED. EVEN WHEN YOU ARE OUT OF THE SERVICE, IF IT IS FOUND OUT YOU HAVE DISCUSSED THIS, YOU WILL BE SUBJECT TO A DEATH SENTENCE!

In the early 2000s, when the author was seeking answers, he began to receive a series of emails from an unidentified person. Over a period of communication, the person refused to identify themself. However, the research was told, their father had been a driver on Gen Eisenhower’s staff and he would never talk about what he had done. After he had died, they found a diary that described a period in November and December 1944. Their father had sealed it tightly and placed a note on it, Do not open until I am dead! The father had recently died and when they opened the diary, their father had been assigned as a personal driver for a colonel on Gen Eisenhower’s staff. During that time, he laid out their travels, including the various stops.

When they had Googled the locations, the author’s name came up for all of the locations and they wanted to compare what their father had written and what the author knew. After a series of emails, when the diary entries had been covered, the email address became inactive.

He had been gotten out of bed early on November 10, 1944, go to the motor pool and pick up a staff car, go to the mess hall and pick up what would be ready and meet a colonel outside the operation center. He would be issued with a group of trip tickets, authorizing him to go where ordered and when ordered. They provided orders, that whatever service the vehicle might do, it had priority over anything else. There were open passes, that authorized him to drive anywhere in France, where his passenger ordered he could expect to be gone for several days at a time and he would continue in the assignment until directly released by the colonel.

He arrived at the operations center, an unnamed colonel, but an officer he recognized, had him load some luggage and told him, to get to St Quentin (France) as fast as he could. He was authorized to use the siren when needed and if required, he (they) could command any military police to help them break through traffic. He had arrived at a base hospital, the colonel went in, he came out soon with another colonel and he was told to take them to a nearby building. There, a cart arrived with three bundles on it and he asked for a couple of extra blankets to put on his trunk floor, so the messy bundles would not stain the floor. The other colonel seemed very unhappy but waved after as he left the staff car at his headquarters.

They left the hospital and went to a nearby airbase, with small recon planes. One of them was running with they pulled up and the colonel got out and went and talked to the pilot. Then, the driver helped load the three bundles on the plane and as they drove off, the plane had started to taxi. The colonel told him to take the road toward Amiens and make the best time he could. They arrived at an airbase with B-26 bombers parked around it and when he drove up to the headquarters, a colonel was waiting for them. His colonel got out, asked the other where the mess hall was, told the driver to go have a delayed breakfast and if they gave him any crap, tell them to call the base commander at once and as soon as he was done, return and wait for him. He had been severed a personal breakfast by very unhappy mess hall people and was soon back at the headquarters.

He had only been there a few minutes when both colonels came out and got in the back. His colonel told him to head for the gate and their passenger would give him directions. In about 15 minutes, he drove through a small village, over a crossroads and had arrived at an obvious aircraft crash site. The whole time, the two colonels in the back were holding serious discussions. He was told to park by the hole and they got out. Both went into a close by, small woods, relieved themselves and then came back out and watched a long line of civilians circulating the crash site. They walked off to see scattered parts of the plane and came back and talked to the officer at the ambulance.

They only talked for a couple of minutes and the colonels got back in the car and he was told to head for the base. There, the colonels went into the headquarters for some time, then his colonel came out, got in the car and told the driver to head toward St Quentin. It was mid-afternoon when the cleared St Quentin and the officer told him to pull over, he had some maps for the driver to see. They were all French road maps and much better maps than he had seen to date. The colonel explained they had to make their way from where they were at to a small village to the southeast of Verdun. As he, the driver, knew the main roads, or MLRs, were full of military convoys and such, it was impossible to make any time using them. The colonel told him, he had been born in American to French parents who had become American citizens. He had spent a lot of time in France visiting the families and touring with them, the World War lines. What they were going to do, was to use the small roads that spiderwebbed across France from village to village. If one knew how to do it, you could cover a lot more distance, than you could following the Roman roads, which were still the main roads of France.

The rest of that day and until just before midnight, when November 10 ended for them, they had arrived at a village named Hattonville. The colonel had told the American Sgt Of the Guard to take good care of him and for him to hit the sack and get rested for tomorrow. The Sgt Of the Guard sent him off with a soldier, who took him past the mess hall and to a home where he would bed down. Then, as he was walking off, the Sgt Of the Guard had driven the colonel off to the house where the three majors, the commander, the executive officer, and the doctor were staying. When he arrived, he was met by the majors and the 10 of November, ended for them.

Back in England, the crap had also hit the fan at the 452nd Bombardment Group concerning their B-17G, the Lady Jeannette that had crashed somewhere in France that day. At the 36th Bombardment Group, the news of the loss of ‘226’ had been reported and unit’s commanders had received calls for the commands above them, telling them to be prepared for special instructions, that were to be followed exactly. All the men and citizens involved that day, ended the day mostly confused and unsure of what was going on, all some of them knew, they were expect to be puppets and God help them, if they failed.

Thus ended November 10, 1944, For All Those Involved In England!

Pvt Silva, arrived at his squadron HQ, to find Capt Judson and the head medic waiting for him. As they climbed, Judson told the men, they had drawn the short straw and for Silva to head to the crash site.

• Silva told the author: It was easy, at every intersection, there were French houses and people were standing outside looking at the fire in the distance and as he approached, they would point down the road he was to take.

Within fifteen minutes, they had arrived at the crash site, it was about a quarter-mile north of a village named, Tincourt-Boucly. As they approached the site, there were some American vehicles parked in a field with their lights shining out over the crash site. There was really nothing to be seen, except for a large hole in the field beyond which one could see there were larger pieces of the plane, showing the direction of the plane when it crashed. Capt Judson told Silva to pull up close to the hole and leave his lights on. They got out and some Americans joined them, telling them they had found small pieces of human remains spread in and around the crash site. Capt Judson immediately told them to back away from the site, leaving their vehicles with the lights on and to ensure all the French were kept out of the actual crash site. They could stand outside the area, but not to enter it. He then told Silva and the medic, to get a set of blankets out of the ambulance and spread it out in front of the ambulance. Once, that was done, he told them to start searching the crash site for human remains and to place them on the blanket. About 0630, after slogging through the mud of the freshly plowed field, stirred up by the crash and people walking, Capt Judson asked a military policeman who had arrived, if they had contact with the base. He had his command jeep pulled up the ambulance and Judson used the radio to inform the base commander what they had accomplished.

During their search, the two men had located some personal items and five ID Tags, there were two sets and one single tag. As the men brought in the pieces of humans they found, Judson kept a mental image of what they were. By that time, they had recovered what Silva estimated to be, about 150 pounds of human parts, were lying on the blanket when Judson stopped their search. Judson told the commander, that he felt they had to stop searching. By moving around in the crash site anymore without daylight, they were stepping on and hiding as many remains as they recovered. He now had enough information from the ID tags and personal items found, to be certain three men had died in the crash, their names were Grey, Bartho, and Mears. And, he felt it was time for them to quit, take the remains found to their next higher hospital in St Quentin and return to base. Adding, that another recovery detail should be sent out when it was full daylight to recover the rest of the remains.

The commander told Judson to report to him when they got back to the base and he would go ahead and set up his recommended second recovery and he would see him in a few hours. Judson turned to Silva and the medic and told them to get two more sets of blankets out of the ambulance and lay one on each side of the collected pile of human remains. When they had done that, Judson told them to divide the one pile into three equal groups of human remains, which they did. When that was done, Judson told them to wrap the three bundles of remains and tie them tight. When that was done, Judson attached a ditty bag of personal items and tied the ditty bag and one ID tag to each bundle with one string, adding the second tag on a separate string on two of the bundles.

When done, he told them to put the bundles in the ambulance, which Silva and the medic did, after Silva insisted, he first lay down the fourth set of blankets on the floor to keep what they found from transferring to his ambulance floor, which he would have to clean up. They left for St Quentin and was at the base hospital there by 0700, Judson went in to report to the hospital commander and soon, they came back out and Judson told Silva to follow him. They drove a short distance to a building, where an enlisted man met them and they transferred the three human remains bundles to a cart he was pushing. Judson told them, to head to the mess hall and he was going to breakfast with the commander and to meet him back at the HQ, in 30 minutes. They had breakfast and Silva dropped Capt Judson off at the base HQ by 0845. He drove by his squadron HQ and was told to report to his station, where all the ambulances and some medics waited by the control tower while the daily missions took place.

Silva arrived after everyone else was there and they asked what he had been doing. He described how he had spent hours picking up pieces of people, slimy and bloody and placing them in a pile. He added when they had to load the bundles the two newly created bundles were no problem, however, they had to remember, he had no gloves and was doing all this barehanded. When they picked up the third, original bundle, they found the fats and slime from the human pieces had soaked through the blankets. He remembered and chuckled as he told the author: When I was done, they were all looking at me and one said, sure you did. I put out my right hand and told him, if he did not believe me, he could shake my hand and remember, what I had just said that hand had been doing. He looked at me, looked at the had I had extended and told me, that he believed me. Then, we sat down and watched the B-26s bomber stream leave the base. That ended Pvt Silva’s involvement with the crash of the B-24 near his base on November 10, 1944.

He told the author, in one way it was not the end of that involvement in plane crashes. Due to how he and the medic had handled the collection of remains at the crash site, every time there was another crash, he and the medic were sent out to recover the dead.

Then, one day, in November 2000, he and his wife arrived at Branson, MO, to see the shows there. They had driven there from their home in California, stopping to visit friends along the way. The night they arrived, they had gone out to dinner and when they returned, every parking place was gone. They had been assigned a numbered parking place, but someone had parked in their place. He drove around for a while and found a place to park, a couple of blocks away. As he went to open his wife’s door, he happened to look down and see a bumper sticker on a van. On it was printed, 397th Bomb Group, which was the unit he had served in when he was in France.

As an ambulance driver, he was not actually a member of the Group, he was part of the attached medic unit and Capt Judson, the medic, along with him, were attached to a squadron of that group. He walked his wife back to their room and went back to where he had seen the bumper sticker. It was in a numbered parking place and he went to that room in the complex. He knocked on the door and when a man came to the door, he told him, that he was the ambulance driver attached to one of the squadrons. The man told him, he had been attending a group reunion and was leaving in the morning and wait, he had some nut in Seattle, who had been calling him for years about some B-24 crash.

At each reunion, he asked the men in attendance, if anyone knew anything about such a crash and so far, no one had. Silva told him: Sure, I remember, I was the driver of the ambulance that picked up the remains. The man asked him to come in and have a drink, he then turned on a tape recorder and the two of them talked about the crash.

As soon as Silva left, he telephoned the author and told him, he would never guess what had just happened. I had to admit, I had no idea and he told me, how the only group member who remembered the crash had not attended the reunion and if, someone had not blocked his parking space and if space had not been open in front of his van, he would not be calling me. Then, he told me, he had recorded it all and the man had given his permission for his contact information to be sent to the strange fellow in the Seattle area. A couple of days later the package arrived and within an hour, the author and Barney Silva were talking about a bomber crash in France. It had taken, ten years, ten months and twenty-four days after the author had started his search for someone in the group who knew anything about the crash at Tincourt-Boucly to when he received the call from the man at the reunion. Not only did I find someone who knew about the recovery of the remains, but I was also talking to the man who had driven the ambulance.

The first thing, we discussed, was the other two men. Silva had kept in contact after the war and he knew both were dead, leaving him as the only living man directly involved recovery team. Then, he told me about what they had done and that, there was to be a second recovery team. He had no idea of who that was and as he had been sitting with the other squadron ambulance drivers, it much has been someone who worked at the small base hospital. Biff, bang, blewwwy, I knew immediately, why the grave at Cartigny existed!!!

In the following articles, I am no longer going into full descriptions of all the events I will discuss. That information is available in the two books and in a third book, that will be in the same autobiographical format as the first book, proving the Lady Jeannette crashed, where she did not. It will layout, beginning where the first book stopped, most of the research steps required to reach the final positions laid out in the second book, The Best Kept Secret Of World War Two!

Realizing, most readers would have a hard time understanding a book that skipped back and forth as many as ten years, ten months and twenty-five years to solidly tie two events together. The Best Kept Secret Of World War Two! used the author's license, to write about what was done, in a direct timeline.

Beginning with the background of a young full bird colonel, who was on Eisenhower’s staff and what he had done at the various locations where eyewitnesses all agree, a Colonel arrived and suddenly, their commanders were ordering them to break numerous Army and moral regulations.

The following events are placed in the timeline of that day when all of a sudden calls to the next higher command began when an American bomber was shot down by friendly fire. At first, it was a search to find out what had happened after the bomber was hit, then when the crash site was verified, all hell broke loose. Being a private publication, The Best Kept Secret of World War Two can be obtained directly from the Author and can even be dedicated as you would like it to be dedicated: for you, a friend or a relative. To order an exemplar on the book just use the form below. You will then receive and emailed Paypal Bill including the Book price and the shipping costs (from USA).

At the 563 and 566-SAWB Headquarters, calls were received for them to isolate all logs concerning the shootdown of an Unknown Target, by a P-61. Suddenly, the men were informed to stop celebrating the shootdown and to forget about it, except the Unknown Target had turned out to be a British Mosquito. At the nearby base of the 397-BG, the base commander began to receive calls from the 9-AAF Commander, who was passing on what he had been told to do, by calls from Gen Eisenhower’s Headquarters, to be prepared for a visit from someone, who would be speaking for Gen Eisenhower and if they knew what was good for them, they would do whatever they were told to do, or suffer career consequences. Each of them passed that information to every one of the people, they had to involve.

At the Group’s main hospital in St Quentin, the remains had been placed in the safe storage required by Grave Registration regulation, when a second recovery had to or will take place. Sgt Silva gave absolute testimony, that the hospital commander had been informed of their being forced to stop their recovery and another was going to take place. It was a standing regulation when more than one recoveries were required, all the recoveries must be placed in a secure location. Graves Registration had to be notified and only after the circumstances had been evaluated by a visiting board of investigators, could the remains be combined and forwarded for official burial. At about 0830 that morning, the hospital commander had been notified that a colonel would arrive. When there, the colonel ordered the hospital commander to turn the remains over to him, when legally, they were bound by the standing Graves Registration regulations, not to do so. The colonel, then moved to the nearby airbase, met with the pilot of a light plane, placed the three bundles aboard and left. The plane took off, flew to Belgium and the pilot delivered the three men’s remains to a Graves Registration representative, to be buried in a temporary cemetery under direct verbal orders they did not want to fail to follow or suffer the problems that would soon come their way.

Note (Doc Snafu) - I have never published an archive on Linkedin and I have no idea of the number of words you can post. The text above is quoted from my website and to make sure that you can read the entire archive I will stop here and give you the direct link to page N° 3 on the site.

Copy the link below and past it into your browser.

https://www.eucmh.be/2018/04/24/secret-1944-2016-lady-jeannette-b-17g-42-97904/3/

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