445th Bomb Group Posted December 30, 2012 Author Share #51 Posted December 30, 2012 That is a superb grouping and excellent research! I’m really glad to see items from other Kassel Mission airmen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cantar Posted December 30, 2012 Share #52 Posted December 30, 2012 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” Thanks for the information about 2nd Lt Flickner. I had already heard the story of the policeman who committed suicide after he was apprehended in relation to the killing of 2nd Lt Flickner. I always wondered if this story could be true, since official records state that Flickner died on September 27th. Accoring to mr. Hassenpflug's research however, Flickner staid out of German custody for over more than a week (a remarcable achievement, considering he came down on German soil) and was subsequently killed on October 7th. I can only guess that the confusion about his date of death might have been caused by the surviving crewmembers, who claimed that Flickner must have been instantly killed when the nose turret was blown to pieces... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWalsh Posted December 30, 2012 Share #53 Posted December 30, 2012 I have personally never tried to get copies of any of them, but I know NARA does have war crimes case files in their holdings. Was that where the info on Flickner came from or was it locally obtained knowledge from people where Flickner was killed? I have had one other Purple Heart in the past which was war crime related, the IDPF in that case mentioned and referenced that fact but had no substantial information on the war crime part. Can anyone weigh in on that at all? MW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
445th Bomb Group Posted December 30, 2012 Author Share #54 Posted December 30, 2012 Regarding the killing of airmen by civilians; there were a number of crewmen from the 445th who were killed on the ground. Many crewmen landed in an area with an obviously hostile civilian population and stories of prisoner abuse can be found throughout the accounts of the Kassel Mission. In the Kassel Mission Reports, Walter Hassenpflug lists five airmen who are thought to have been shot to death on the ground: 2Lt John W. Cowgill, 2Lt. Hektor V. Scala, and T/Sgt. James T. Fields, all from 1Lt. James Baynam’s crew on B-24H #42-50383 ‘King Kong’ and T/Sgt. John J. Donahue from 1Lt. Oliver Elder’s crew on B-24H #41-29579 ‘Clay Pidgeon’. The fifth man is believed to be 2Lt. Newell W. Brainard from Lt. Raphael Carrow’s crew on B-24J #42-110022 ‘Patches’. He states that the perpetrators were a German soldier on leave and the commanders of a nearby hard labor camp. He further states the perpetrators were tried for war crimes after the war and executed. In addition to Lt. William Flickner’s case, he also relates that 2Lt. Harold P. Allen from 2Lt. Howard Jones’ crew on B-24H #41-29542 ‘Roughhouse Kate’, who died in a field hospital on Sept. 27, may have been killed by civilians. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
445th Bomb Group Posted December 30, 2012 Author Share #55 Posted December 30, 2012 There are other cases as well, but after so much time it would be difficult to know what really happened and who was involved. I’ve mentioned S/Sgt. Smisek, S/Sgt. Watts, and S/Sgt. Linkletter from Lt. Brent’s crew who are believed to have been killed by civilians on the ground. In fact, Lt. Brent may have been killed by civilians on the ground as well. Lt. Weinstein in his interview and in MACR 9391 tells of seeing the pilot of his plane, 1Lt. Myron Donald, killed by civilians while still in his parachute harness. I’m not sure what the investigations in these cases determined, if anything, but I don’t think there were any prosecutions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
445th Bomb Group Posted December 30, 2012 Author Share #56 Posted December 30, 2012 As far as researching war crimes investigations and trials, that is an interesting subject. In looking trough MACR 9388 (Lt. Brent’ plane) and MACR 9391 (Lt. Donald’s plane) the surviving crewmembers made statements that they had witnessed killings of crewmen from their planes by civilians or believed that such killings had taken place, but there is no mention about any further investigation in those MACRs. I’m sure there are files on war crimes investigations and trials held by the National Archives or as historical records by the Army or Air Force, but I don’t know how to obtain those. I assume that Mr. Hassenpflug used war crimes files, either from the US or Germany, to determine the names of the airmen who he thinks were killed by civilians and the results of the trials and the suicide of the police officer accused of murdering Lt. Flickner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWalsh Posted December 31, 2012 Share #57 Posted December 31, 2012 Not sure if this is the right place to start or not, or if this is more applicable to things like concentration camps? http://www.archives.gov/iwg/declassified-records/ MW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWalsh Posted December 31, 2012 Share #58 Posted December 31, 2012 http://www.archives.gov/research/captured-german-records/war-crimes-trials.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croix de Guerre Posted December 31, 2012 Share #59 Posted December 31, 2012 I just read through the whole thread and I just wanted to say thank you for sharing this with us and to commend you on your fine research and wonderful presentation. A great and terribly sad story. Thank you again. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
445th Bomb Group Posted January 7, 2013 Author Share #60 Posted January 7, 2013 Updating this post with the Kassel Mission flight formation. This diagram was scanned from the Kassel Mission Reports and posted on an aviation website, which is where I got it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
445th Bomb Group Posted January 7, 2013 Author Share #61 Posted January 7, 2013 The key to the flight formation diagram. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDK Posted January 8, 2013 Share #62 Posted January 8, 2013 Nice groups MW! Eric, Interesting mission charts. Thanks for posting them. JD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
501stGeronimo Posted January 8, 2013 Share #63 Posted January 8, 2013 Here is my Kassel Grouping: Belongs to SSGT James R Paul who was a waist gunner on Percy with the Krivik Crew. The plane crash landed at Old Buckenham near Tibenham. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDK Posted January 9, 2013 Share #64 Posted January 9, 2013 Nice Uniform! Love the combat blue backing! Thanks for adding to the thread. This has been a fun one to follow. JD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
445th Bomb Group Posted January 9, 2013 Author Share #65 Posted January 9, 2013 501st, That’s a great uniform, thanks so much for showing it. I love that blue backing behind the gunners wings! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
445th Bomb Group Posted January 9, 2013 Author Share #66 Posted January 9, 2013 As mentioned, B-24J #42-100331 ‘Percy’ was the only 702nd squadron plane to return to England, the others all having been shot down over Germany. 1Lt. Stanley Krivik would bring it back to Tibenham on two engines but was unable to land due to personnel and vehicles on the runway. Without enough power or altitude to come around again, they would crash a few miles away. One of Aaron Elson’s best interviews is with T/Sgt. John Cadden, the radio operator on that plane. In the interview he mentions that S/Sgt. Paul and the other waist gunner, S/Sgt. William Rand, as well as the tail gunner, S/Sgt. Henry Puto, were all wounded in the fighter attack over Germany. All of the crewmembers would receive serious injuries in the crash, and the plane’s navigator, F/O Daniel Dale, would be killed. Despite his own injuries, 1Lt. Krivik would return repeatedly to the burning wreckage of his plane to pull his injured crewmen to safety. I understand that he was awarded the Soldier’s Medal for his actions that day, a superb pilot and a true hero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cantar Posted January 9, 2013 Share #67 Posted January 9, 2013 Updating this post with the Kassel Mission flight formation. This diagram was scanned from the Kassel Mission Reports and posted on an aviation website, which is where I got it. Thanks for sharing this with us. A very interesting chart. You can clearly see that especially the 700th and 702nd BS were almost entirely annihilated. This chart makes it soo very visual... Kristof Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manayunkman Posted January 12, 2013 Share #68 Posted January 12, 2013 An amazing thread. I will have to go through it again to really catch what is going on. I must say that if some foreign power were bombing the day lights out of my country I might resort to cruelty. I have never been in that situation but my dad has. Very soon after the war he came to some kind of peace with his experience and has had many close German friends since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
445th Bomb Group Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share #69 Posted February 16, 2013 Forum member Cantar sent me some photos of 2Lt. William Flickner’s uniforms and documents from his collection, and with his permission I’m posting them here. As discussed, 2Lt. Flickner was the pilotage navigator/nose gunner on B-24J # 42-51342 ‘Fridget Bridget’ and was killed by a German police officer on Oct. 7, 1944. It’s a great group of items, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Bugs Bunny gunnery certificate before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
445th Bomb Group Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share #70 Posted February 16, 2013 London Times memorial book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
445th Bomb Group Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share #71 Posted February 16, 2013 Aerial Gunnery Certificate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
445th Bomb Group Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share #72 Posted February 16, 2013 Uniform Jacket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
445th Bomb Group Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share #73 Posted February 16, 2013 Uniform Jacket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
445th Bomb Group Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share #74 Posted February 16, 2013 8th AF Patch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
445th Bomb Group Posted February 16, 2013 Author Share #75 Posted February 16, 2013 Jacket Tag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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