September 13, 1944 - 97th BG losses over Blechhammer

I'm looking for any inormation on 97th BG planes lost over Blechhammer on Sep 13, 1944 in unclear circumstances (Mid-air collision ?, accidental bombing of friendly A/C ? Flak?)
There were 4 B-17 that went down in target area that day:

42-97648, 1st Lt. Farryle B. Waters, MACR 8729
44-6265, 2nd Lt. Donald R. Reardon, MACR 8730
44-6274, 2nd Lt. Stephen C. Shelton, MACR 8954
44-6354, 1st Lt. George Tomkovich, MACR 8953

I have  MACRs of these crews, but would like to know something more particularly as there is very liitle information in some of them.

Thanks in advance,
Edward
 

From Dick Drain's 5th Wing History of Aircraft Assigned :

42-97648   340  PFF a/c. Xfr from 2nd BG 30-5-44. MIA Blechhammer 13-9-44. flak. crashed at Gross Strehiltz.Farryle Waters crew.(.MACR 8729)

44-6265     340  assigned 3-7-44. MIA Blechammer 13-9-44. flak. crashed near Blechhammer. Donald Reardon crew.  (MACR 8730)

44-6274     342  assigned 13-7-44. MIA Blechhammer 13-9-44. flak. crashed near Gross Strelite. Steven Shelton crew. (MACR 8954)

44-6354     340   Xfr from 301st 14-8-44. MIA Blechhammer 13-9-44. George Tomavich  crew. (MACR 8953).

Jim :-)

James S. Peters Sr. T/Sgt B-17 Flt Engr, 27 missions 99 BG, 348BS, 5th Wing, 15th AAF Tortorella, (Foggia#2), Italy My Tour was from 12/03/44-06/19/45 M/Sgt USAF (Retired)

Thanks Jim,

At least I now know 42-97648 was a PFF ship :-)

Edward

I was flying with a crew in another squadron on Sept. 13, 44, at Blechhammer. I didn't see the explosions, but heard muffled booms, then saw a bunch of smoke and debris as we passed through it. There have been several serious efforts to gather and analyze information to try to fix the reason for the explosions and resulting loss of aircraft, but so far as I know  it has been determined only that it was one of three reasons: a direct flak hit in a bomb bay,  a bomb dropped accidentally on another plane, or one plane ramming another. I doubt that it will ever be ressolved further because there is no way to re-enact the incident, of course.  I can add one thing: the group was turning at the time, and it's always possible in a tight group turn for one squadron to override another.

Hello,

Looks like you missed one Jim and aardvark37,

From Drain's book I see that there was also
44-8166 from 340 BS, Damaged by flak, crashed nr Krakow, Bruce Knoblock crew.
MACR 8726.

see the database here too.

Alex

Yes, the record shows the 97th lost 5 aircraft on that mission to Blechhammer, Sept. 13th 1944.
Also 3 a/c with major damage, 15 with minor. Total casualties-? 1 killed, 3 wounded and 51 MIA.
5 ships went down in the general area and a 6th did not return to base that day.
My father (Lt. Elsworth Minner) piloted this 6th plane (tail # ....457) from the 414th Sqdn.
"The formation encountered an intense barrage of anti-aircraft fire and Lt. Minner's aircraft suffered a direct hit which partially disabled the number one and number 4 engines." With reduced power they continued toward the target and still were able to dropped the bomb load, on target.
Dropping from formation due to reduced air speed, Minner and crew attempted the return to base alone. Flying on 2 engines for over 3 hours, they were able to reach the Dalmatian coast and then landed, with limited fuel, at the emergency landing field on Island of Vis, Yugoslavia.
The crew were listed as MIA for 24 hours, but returned to Bari, via partisan efforts on a fishing boat. As mentioned in Jack Botts' book, Straight and Level, a ship from the 414th was sent down to Bari to retreave this crew. All members finished their tour and a few months later, Lt. Minner became the Operations Officer for the 414th Sqdn.
The aircraft, #...457 was a brand new B-17G that suffered no additional damage on landing and was not counted as a loss. It was repaired and returned to service at a later time.   ...and that's the rest of the story.

Alex,
 
I knew of Knoblock's crew (44-8166), but I mentioned only the ships that went down in the vicinity of the target .
I have also gathered some new information since my first posting in this thread.
The most interesting is a testimony of Edgar Sherbenou, the Navigator of Lt. Stephen Shelton's crew.
He said, that bombs dropped from his plane accidentally hit planes from second wave.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.02550/
 
Edward