I am looking for information on my father.  I believe this is the correct unit from the information I retrieved on POWs.  I think he was shot down and captured on March 19, 1944.  This would correspond to a bombing mission over Klagenfurt, Germany.

Did your father die in the POW Camp? What was his middle initial and home state?
Regards

Mickey
Devoted Sister of S/Sgt George L. Winkler
13th Air Force/FEAF/Jungle Air Force
KIA 3 April 1945 Cebu, Philippines

"A Place Called Home"
WWII Families

He survived the war.  He was a POW at Stalag Luft 1.  He never talked about the war, and died some years back.  I am trying to track down what I can find about him.   His middle initial was G. and he was from New Mexico. 

kedmonds52     I have a limited listing of POWs that were in Stalagluft 1, liberated by the Russians on May 1 1945 and flown out to France By American Bombers on May 12-14 1945 that shows a Lt C. G. Edmonds Navigator, B17 home address as Box 195 Las Vagas New Mexico.  Located in North Compound 1 of Stalag 1 May 1945. I have no other info.
 
RossT

Pilot, P47, 9thAF, 406th Gr.,513th Sq., POW Stalag Luft 1

Kenneth,
From the 'official' 463rd history book, "The Fighting 463rd", I found that 2nd Lt. Charles G. Edmonds was listed as prisoner of war and was shot down on 19 March 1944.
 
From "Allyn's Irish Orphans....775th Sq., 463rd BG" booklet:
"A second mission which cost the 775th Squadron seven combat men was that of 19 March 1944 to Klagenfurt, Austria, where 2nd Lt. Harold Wolquitt, nav. was (later determined) killed and six men were reported missing:  Capt. Wilson E. Burrill, pilot; 2nd Lt. Christopher T. Kelly, pilot; 2nd Lt. Charles G. Edmonds, nav; 2nd Lt. Daniel A. Thomas, bomb.; Sgt. Coleman D. Moberly, right waist; and Sgt. Paul F. Johnson, tail gunner, the latter who returned safely some time later."
 
Apparently on that day, the missing men were flying as a composite crew with the 2nd Bomb Group, 429th Sq.  The crew is listed as follows:
Jennings Marshall (2nd BG)
Killy (463rd BG)
Edmonds (463rd BG)
Thomas (463rd BG)
Freel (2nd BG)
DeBersky (2nd BG)
Moberly (463rd BG)
Schamlriede (2nd BG)
Johnson (463rd BG)
 
Right now, that is all the information that I have found but I will continue looking to see what further info I can turn up regarding Charles Edmonds.
 
 

Joel Swindlehurst
463rd Bomb Group Historian
www.463rd.org
Proud son of 1/Lt Leroy J. Swindlehurst (1921-1950)
Navigator, 772nd Sq., 463rd BG

I tried to pull up the MACR for that date, and I cannot identify the plane they were on.  The report does not show any 463rd group aircraft.  It does show a couple from the the 2nd BG.  I am wondering if our fathers knew each other.  They were both navigators from the same BG.

Ken,
The A/C tail # was 231446, named "Lil Pete".  The MACR would be with the 2nd BG and the number was 3289, according to my records.
 
And it is very doubtful that your father ever met my father.  Your father had been shot down for about 5 months before my father ever set foot in Italy.  My dad was one of the replacement crews and arrived in Italy in late August.
 
I'm still looking for additional information from what little official archives I have.
 
Take care,
 
 
 
 

Joel Swindlehurst
463rd Bomb Group Historian
www.463rd.org
Proud son of 1/Lt Leroy J. Swindlehurst (1921-1950)
Navigator, 772nd Sq., 463rd BG

My hometown is Klagenfurt. It is in the southern part of Austria, close to the border of Italy. I didn't know that Klagenfurt was bombed during WW2. Do you actually know where the plane crashed?
 
regards,
Kurtl

According to "B-17 Flying Fortress Units of the MTO" by William N. Hess (p53), on 19 March 1944 the 2nd bomb group was on their way "to bomb the ball bearing plant at Steyr [Austria]. Poor weather was encountered en route, so the [5th] wing headed instead to the Austrian town of Klagenfurt to attack its airfield."

According to my father, the crews from the 463rd (at least the 775th) flew a few missions with the 2nd BG to gain experience. The 463rd crews were generally distributed one or two men per 2nd BG plane. The 2nd Bomb Group website database has the 463rd crew members listed as belonging to the 463rd. On the 19th of March 1944 my father was flying with the 429th BS in A/C 41-24366 "K.O." Here are my father's recollections.

"We left the Adriatic and ...we no sooner got over land for a few minutes...next thing you know these planes are coming up behind us...Me-110s...I saw the whole damn thing light up, the wings on it...they fired rockets at us! They stayed a long way behind you and they lobbed these rockets into your formation,…not a very accurate way of doing it, but effective because it took the plane out on one side of us. Next thing you know...they dropped the bombs and dropped the wheels and started peeling out of it. I don't know where it got hit, I didn't see any smoke or anything but he dropped back awful quick with the bomb bay open and the wheels down and he was going out in a hurry."

This was what my father remembered in the 1990s so it may not be entirely accurate.

Steve