13 NOVEMBER 1943 TARGET: BREMEN MISSING AIRCREW REPORT: #01165 AIRCRAFT: #42-7477 "WHISKERS" "K-Bar" 2nd Mission AIRCREW: D’AOUST * SQUADRON: 579th CREW POSITIONS AND STATUS: P l/LT D’Aoust, Wallace W. KIA CP 2/LT Marshall, James W. KIA N 2/LT Winzenburg, George T. KIA R/O T/S Ethendge, Mart T. KIA EnG T/S Dahlen, Russell E. KIA NG T/S Anderson, Thomas (NMI)POW AE S/S O’Neill, Christ D. KIA NG S/S Jereb, John F. POW WG S/S Sutton, Ralph H. POW TG SGT Blanc, Alex D. POW MISSION LOSS CIRCUMSTANCES: The Group eye-witness accounts noted this ship peeling off to the left just after the bomb run and gradually losing altitude though all engines appeared to be operating. Seven (7) crewmen were seen to bailout around 22,000 feet and (2) chutes of these were seen to open at about 20,000 feet. This account placed the downing of the aircrew immediately south but in the target area as verified by the mission route map annotations (which later was clarified somewhat from testimonies given by two surviving crew members after the war). INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTS OF CREWMEN FATES: On 12 January 1949, the Office of the Quartermaster General of the Army was able to contact two of the survivors -Sgts. Anderson and Sutton-to learn facts about this mission and losses. Sgt Sutton’s account in summation noted that: He was wounded (shot) in the elbow and leg and losing a great deal of blood was ordered to bail out after the ship was hit by enemy fighters and flak and caught on fire. The ship lost altitude very fast, and as best known crashed finally on the edge of a waterway channel near a town named Hergem-OK-Zoon, Holland. He also noted that Pilot D’Aoust and others in the front had been shot up pretty badly and did not know whether these men bailed out or not. The Liberator had been damaged badly right over the target by flak, and then finished off by fighters. Sgt Anderson’s reply was very similar in recall noting that it was doubted that the Pilot and Bombardier Etheridge ever successfully exited the crippled plane. He had seen the ship crash right on the edge of the water at the North Sea. He noted further that the surviving men who parachuted and were taken POW had landed near GOES, Holland. BURIAL RECORDS: One German report in the MACR noted that the ship was shot down at Desberg on Walcheren Island and one man who had bailed out (which was the only person this report covered) - Sgt. O’Neill - was badly wounded and taken to a German Hospital Midelburg but died of his injuries the following day, 6 November. This report located Sgt. O’Neill’s interment at Vlissingen Memorial cemetery, Grave # 214. U.S. National Cemetery listings overseas record the following on later interments and remembrances: Buried at the ARDENNES, U.S. Cemetery, are: Marshall (Grave D-12-37); Winsenburg (Grave A-39-32); and O’Neill (Grave B-l 7-19). On the WALL OF THE MISSING at the U.S. Cemetery of NETHERLANDS (Margraten), Netherlands are the names of D’Aoust and Etheridge. D’Aoust; Marshall; and O’Neill are recorded to have had the Air Medal and the Purple Heart awarded, but there is no notation as to a medal posthumously for Winzenburg on these burial listings. NEXT OF KIN IN WWII: The records indicate only the home States for the following deceased crew members: D’Aoust (Minnesota); Marshall (Nebraska); Wizenburg (Minnesota); Etheridge (Kentucky); and O’Neill (Pennsylvania). The WWII homes-of-record for the (4) survivors are recorded as: Anderson (Caryville, Tennessee); Blanc (1214 Race Street, New Orleans, Louisiana); Jereb (Box 236 Beaverville, Pennsylvania); and Sutton (Beloit, Kansas).