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Historic 8th AF 445th BG Kassel Mission Grouping


445th Bomb Group
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flyingtigerfan

Thanks for sharing the history of your uncle's service. Well done research and background info really brings these artifacts to life.

-Rob

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What a tragic battle. Thank you for bringing it to light. I find what you've done for your uncle and all the research you've found to be truly remarkable.

 

-Artur

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Fantastic post, and a very nice honor to your uncle too.

 

I agree 100 percent that the mission is little known. But, I guess in a war with so much tragedy and so many tales of huge losses, this one was like so many others, just terribly sad all around. I suspect also that Air Corps was also very much interested in NOT having this story told, as I think it was ultimately a case of a horrible mistake made by one officer which led to a staggering loss rate which never should have happened.

 

I have the Purple Heart and Air Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross of Staff Sergeant Robert Shay who was also KIA on this mission. Shay was a waist gunner on the group lead aircraft, the one which led everyone off from the main route. In my research, from what I recall reading, the group leader who led them to oblivion was repeatedly told by other crews that he was mistaken - he ignored them all and led them to their deaths. Arrogance, a firm belief he was right and everyone else was wrong, I guess no one will probably ever know for sure, I just remember after I finished my research that I thought "what a terrible, tragic waste that did not need to happen." There were other squadrons on the same mission which did not follow and went against orders in doing so, but they survived. Some of the downed crews had men murdered on the ground by German civilians once they came down. Bad.

 

Again, thanks for your original post and for telling folks about The Kassel Mission.

 

MW

 

 

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Not sure if it is still on line or not, but in addition to at least one published book on this mission, the June 2009 issue of Flight Journal magazine had an excellent story about the Kassel mission too.

 

MW

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445th Bomb Group

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments. One of my reasons for starting this thread is to try to honor all the airmen who flew this mission. If anyone has any medals, uniforms, documents or other artifacts from men who flew the Kassel Mission please feel free to post them here, I would love to see them.

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Thanks for posting your families items. Have you ever heard the interviews that Aaron Elson did on this mission? He was selling audio CDs at the SOS a few years back and I bought a set of them (titled the Kassel Cassettes). Extensive interviews (couple dozen CDs) with members of the 445th who were on this mission. Absolutely fascinating interviews, I think I've listened to my set 5 or 6 times.

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445th Bomb Group

Aaron Elson’s interviews are outstanding. The transcripts of those interviews along with several other crewmen’s accounts used to be posted on the Kassel Mission website that I mentioned earlier (kasselmission.com). Unfortunately, the website was changed about a year ago and the veteran’s interviews disappeared. I’m not sure what the reason for that was since the interviews were the best part of the website. You can still find them though, you just have to do a Google search for “Kassel Mission True Accounts” or “Kassel Mission Interviews” and the old version of the website will come up. Anyone who is interested in learning more about this mission should look up those interviews, they’re really fascinating. Two of the interviews are particularly interesting to me: Walter “Eugene” George, the co-pilot of my uncle’s plane, and Ira Weinstein, the bombardier who recovered and identified many of the dead crewmen from the 445th.

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I would agree, these interviews are a real treasure for anyone interested in the air war. My grandfather was a B-24 gunner in the 466th Bomb Group and it really gives you insight on what these crews went through (in this case on a very bad day). Just a quick glance at the kasselmission.com website looks like they sell them there. Worth every penny (non-compensated endorsement, haha). Again, thank you for posting your Uncle's items.

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445th Bomb Group

Check out the old version of the Kassel Mission website. In addition to the transcripts of the Aaron Elson interviews there are several other crewmen’s accounts that I don’t think are on the CDs. I think the website also still sells the Kassel Mission Reports, which are reprints of the articles on the mission that were originally published by the 8th AF News magazine in the late 1980’s. It’s another great source of info on the mission.

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AAF_Collection

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments. One of my reasons for starting this thread is to try to honor all the airmen who flew this mission. If anyone has any medals, uniforms, documents or other artifacts from men who flew the Kassel Mission please feel free to post them here, I would love to see them.

Thank you for sharing your Uncles items and the story of the Kassel mission. I have a uniform to a Radio Operator in the 703rd-445th who was with the group at the time of the Kassel mission,however his crew did not fly the mission(they had flown their 2nd mission on the previous day to the railroad marshalling yards at Hamm,Germany). One can only wonder at the impact such losses must have had on those who survived.

 

Matt.

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Some of the downed crews had men murdered on the ground by German civilians once they came down. Bad.

 

 

 

Hi MW,

 

 

Indeed, some of the crewmen were murdered after their planes had been downed. I myself am in the posession of a uniform/document grouping of another airman who participated in the Kassel mission. 2nd Lt. William E Flickner, 703rd BS, 445th BG, was a nose turret gunner/navigator on B24J 5-DT 42-51342 "Fridget Bridget", piloted by Lt. Joseph E. Johnson. The Johnson was flying as deputy lead crew. Deploying qualified navigators as nose turret gunners was a fairly common practice amongs lead crews. The navigator in the nose turret was a qualified gunner who could assist the 1st navigator when required.

 

 

On route to target, the bomber stream was attacked by fighters. 2nd Lt Flickner was thrown out of the plane when his nose turret was torn away by a shell that exploded under the belly of the plane. The explosion was so fierce that surviving crewmembers assumed that Flickner must have been instantsly KIA. This was not the case. Flickner must have somehow been able to deploy his parachute after being blown out of the nose turret. The 1st navigator, Lt. Herbert Bateman, who was also in the nose of the plane when the nose turret was blown away, was less lucky. He was hanging half out of the ship and was eventually pulled away by the slipstream. Since he was not wearing his parachute, Bateman fell to a horrible death.

 

 

The faith of William E Flickner becomes quite obscure after he had landed in enemy territory. What we do know is that he must have been captured by the Germans. Eventually, 2nd Lt Flickner was shot and killed by a German policeman...

 

Fridget Bridget crashed near Breitau, Germany. 8 of the crew became POW. 2 crewmembers were KIA. 2nd Lt Flickner is buried at the ABMC cemetery at Saint Avold, France. Lt. Herbert M Bateman, who fell to his death, is buried at the Arlington National Cemetery.

 

 

You hit the nail on the head: “Bad”... very very bad indeed.

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445th Bomb Group

The Kassel Mission Reports has some information about 2Lt. Flickner, which comes from German researcher Walter Hassenpflug. In discussing the crewmen who were killed on the ground Mr. Hassenpflug states:

 

“Another case deals with 2nd Lt. Flickner from Lt. Johnson’s crew. During the night of 6-7 October, Lt. Flickner, together with another unidentified person, supposed to be an airman from the 445th BG, was captured in a small village approx. 21 miles west of his landing site by two elderly men. The two prisoners were supposed to be locked up in a near-by village. On the way there the unknown individual was able to escape. The next morning, Flickner was picked up by a policeman who was supposed to take him to a Police or Wehrmacht Station. On a secondary road, which was leading past a forest, Flickner was shot and killed by the policeman with a pistol. The policeman stated that the prisoner was shot “while trying to escape”. After the war the policeman was apprehended and committed suicide while under arrest”

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Eric, since you noted it was OK to post other things from the Kassel Mission, here s the group I have in my collection.

 

Staff Sergeant Robert Ellard Shay was from Mount Vernon, South Dakota, although his National Archives information notes him as being from California - he enlisted in Los Angeles in late December 1942. His family actually was from Elliott Township in Sanborn County, if memory serves me right famous politician George McGovern was from the same county. Say was a waist gunner on the group lead aircraft piloted by Captain John W. Chilton and Major Don W. McCoy, they were a 703rd Bomb Squadron lead crew, flying as the group lead. It was them, their aircraft, that made the fateful "wrong turn" which led the rest of their group to disaster. Their aircraft that day was a B-24J Liberator, serial number 42-51541, I don't know what its name was, if i had one at all. This mission was Shay's 27th mission - he had almost made it through. He received the Air Medal and three OakLeaf Clusters and the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart too obviously, since he was killed in action.

 

The Chilton / McCoy crew that day was quite "heavy" since they were group lead, it consisted of those two as pilots, two men listed as co-pilots, two navigators, then the usual compliment of the bombardier, radio operator, two waist gunners, a ball turret gunner, and the tail gunner. Of the crew of thirteen that day, pilots McCoy and Chilton were KIA, co-pilot 2nd LT Harold E. Southerland was KIA, co-pilot 1st LT. Raymond E. Ische was KIA, and waist gunner Shay was KIA as well. Their aircraft went down about 1145 hours, 5km from Friedlos and 10km north northeast from Hersfeld. One crewmember, navigator 2nd LT. Cloys V. Johnson, was reported as wounded when captured. When the crash site was found, German reports noted that McCoy and Chilton were two known dead, with two other dead from the crew being listed by the Germans as unknown; the dead were buried in the Friedlos Civilian Cemetery by members of a local German Army Reserve unit - Motorcycle Troop No. 9 - they training nearby; they were buried with military honors according to reports from the local burgermeister. From German reports, Chilton apparently died when he tried to bail out by his chute did not open, the two unknowns were in the wreckage with a third "known" - McCoy, those three were badly burned but McCoy was able to be identfied. Since Shay was identified later, I am unsure who the third found in the aircraft was - LT Sutherland or LT Ische, nothing in the material I have says one way or another. It appears that the Army began working on Shay's case, or rather the case of the unknowns in the Friedlos cemetery, in February 1946. His case was active through sometime in 1947, he was finally identified in the fall of that year, he had been temorarily interred at the St Avold Cemetery in France, his family chose to have his remains say there, it was not until April 1949 that his family finaly received word he had been permanently interred at St Avold in a different location than the one his remains were in when he was still an "unknown".

 

I do not have the general orders for SSgt Shay's Air Medal and DFC awards, the Air Force Historical Research Agency informed me that they have a lot of gaps in their 8th Air Force 2nd Bomb Division general orders, so what exactly he did to get them remains a mystery. I have the GO numbers, just not the actual GO's or citations for them.

 

The article I mentioned in the Flight Journal issue was called "Calamity Over Kassel" by Captain William R. Dewey (USAAC Retired) and James P. Busha. Dewey was one of the pilots who flew the mission, he was from the 701st Bomb Squadron, he was in one of the small handful of aircraft to actually make it back to England.

 

As Eric noted in his original post, the Kassel Mission is quite a story. And quite sad too.

 

MW

 

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The ribbon bar is British made, I am not sure if the ribbons themselves were too - I think they were as they are slightly different in hand.

 

The Air Medal is not named, I suspect it was his "field award" and was sent home at some point. The Air Medal is a wrap broach type, the interesting thing about it is that the broach assembly actualyl looks like it is copper perhaps?

 

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Interestingly enough with Shay's IDPF, the MACR on it is very very basic, and a typewritten copy versus the usual copied standard MACR usually see. It also is the thinnest on details of any I have ever seen, simply noting his a/c was lost to enemy fighters near Friedlos. Could be there was no one to report details at all I guess.

 

What happened to the group is interesting too, some of the stories seem to think Chilton & McCoy made a mistake, their Mickey guy made a mistake, navigator made a mistake, they turned to hit an alternate target, etc. I guess no one will ever know for sure, I suspect the surviving navigator off their aircraft may have had some insight, I have never seen any reports.

 

Anyone know what the final review or report on the mission actually noted for why they turned when they did?

 

The mission must have been a staggering number of aircraft, Dewey in the Flight Journal article stated that the bomber "stream" on the mission was 60 miles long. 60 miles! No wonder the Luftwaffe did such damage, everywhere they turned there were probably 8th Air Force aircraft to shoot, and one group all off on their own with no fighters.

 

MW

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