American Aircrafs
American Aircrafs
American aircraft over Southeast Drenthe
On March 6th 1944, the American Air Force undertook their first big raid from England on Berlin or “The Big City” as it was generally called. 1200 bombers, the majority being four-engined Boeing B17 Flying Fortresses, each carrying 10 crew, and 600 fighters for protection took part in the raid.
Aircraft of 561 and 562 Bomb Squadron (388 Bomb Group) flying over Southeast Drenthe on their way back home around 14:45 were “welcomed” by German fighters that had taken off from the airfields of Leeuwarden and Eelde. Heavy aerial combat followed in which four American aircraft crashed.
“Blitzing Betsy” crashed in one piece near Zwartemeer. Of this aircraft three people died: right waistgunner S/Sgt. Raymond E. Hess, ball turretgunner S/Sgt. Robert H. Sweeney and tailgunner S/Sgt. Harold A. Brassfield.
42-40054 came down in pieces in the Schonebekerfield,near Weiteveen, taking five crew with her: formation leader Capt. G.C. Job, observer 2/Lt. J. P. Liechowski, formation navigator 1st Lt. J. W. Duprey (with 21 combat missions to his name), ball turretgunner S/Sgt. E. W. Pfanner and left waistgunner S/Sgt. W. S. Reed.
“Suzy Sag Tits” found its end south of Erica at the Dommelskanaal. Waistgunner S/Sgt. Willard R. McGee and tailgunner T/Sgt. Jack Edgar Karr died in this crash. Navigator 2nd Lt. Kenneth Hanley Betts was reported missing in action.
The fourth aircraft crashed just over the German border in Schöningsdorf, killing four crew, a fifth was reported missing in action.
The same day the human remains of a Sgt. Walter Ziegler were found near the farm “De Hoge Bulten”, west of Zuidbarge, heavily mutilated by the shooting of German fighters while he was jumped for safety. Mysteriously enough however this man did not belong to any of the crew of the 338BG aircraft that came down. We are very interested in any information we can get about the whereabouts of Sgt. Ziegler, so please mail us if you know anything.
The American Air Force lost 80 aircraft that day of which were 69 bombers and 11 fighters. The German losses that day were 38 fighters.
All five crewmembers were buried in Nieuw Dordrecht next to the RAF graves already present.
On October 26th, 1945, the five human remains were dug up by the American War Graves Commission and transferred to other cemeteries, e.g. the American War Cemetery in Margraten, in the south of the province of Limburg. This explains the open space in between the 24 RAF graves in the cemetery of Nieuw Dordrecht.
