Interesting P-38 pilot mystery ...

[chicoartist]

Here's one for ya ...

A while back, I painted Twin-Tailed Dragons (see below). I chose Lt. William G. "Bill" Baumeister Jr's IRISH LASSIE simply because I had a picture of the plane (also below), courtesy of my friend Jack Cook. Other than Bill's Ki-43 "Oscar" damaged claim, he had no other victories, and in my research for the painting I was able to find only sketchy details about Bill - nothing referring to his apparent disappearance and long captivity in the USSR. This was simply a portrait of an average plane in markings I've been wanting to do for some time.

Tonight I get a very interesting email, which reads, in part:

Mr. Meyers,
My great aunt is Lt William "Bill" Baumeister Jr's sister, the plane's pilot that you painted for your Twin-Tailed Dragons painting. Bill landed with manifold problems safely in Burma in 1944, he was seen alive on the ground by another P-38 in his squadron and was never seen again until a released German POW said he was captive in Russian hands, numerous cables between the US government and the Russian government who denied they had him continued on until 1993 when the US stopped inquiring about him. He was sighted at 3 different camps in Siberia over the years. So for me to find a actual picture of his plane and your paintings of his plane on your website was thrilling for her as she spent thousands of fruitless hours trying all means to get her brother returned. Any info you can provide to her would be greatly appreciated . . .

I've asked the guy for copies of any documentation he may have so that I can add the story to my site. If true, I'm guessing Bill must have possessed some kind of special technical knowledge like other "special guests" alleged to have fallen in Russian hands from Korea and Vietnam.

Anybody else ever heard of Bill's mysterious disappearance?


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Chicoartist/ttd_canon20d_complete_web_masked_fi.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Chicoartist/william_baumeister_459fs.jpg

Wade

[Pilot]

To regret i did not hear anything about this disappearance but I have hear about the other... also USSR.

BTW- painting is very nice, as all yours :)

[Franek Grabowski]

I recall hearing in Voice of America, I think between 1986 and 1988, that some 12,000 American and British PoWs were interned by Soviets and never returned. Apparently both governments were fully awared of this situation after one British PoW escaped from Odessa area, but did not react in order to not to spoil relations with the Soviet Union.
Also I have heard somewhat first hand that eg. PoWs from Barth were considered some sort of hostages and were allowed to return only after Soviet PoWs had been returned back.
I am deeply disgusted that both governments do not press on Russia to finally solve those mysteries as well as the ones from the Cold War.

[Amrit1]

There are five references to Baumeister of 459th Squadron in the third volume of Shores' "Bloody Shambles". If you would like the relevant entries, I could copy them out. And I think his claims were:

one Ki 21 destroyed on the ground (4th April 1944)
one Ki 43 probably destroyed on the ground (shared with Lt Wood - 23 April 1944)
one Ki 43 destroyed on the ground (shared with Lt Goodrich - 15 May 1944)

[chicoartist]

There are five references to Baumeister of 459th Squadron in the third volume of Shores' "Bloody Shambles". If you would like the relevant entries, I could copy them out. And I think his claims were:

one Ki 21 destroyed on the ground (4th April 1944)
one Ki 43 probably destroyed on the ground (shared with Lt Wood - 23 April 1944)
one Ki 43 destroyed on the ground (shared with Lt Goodrich - 15 May 1944)

Thanks ... any info will be valuable. I have a ton of documents coming my way from Bill's sister. The historian in me can't wait to dig through those! Further information convinces me that there's something to the story. Why would a German POW come out of Russia with an American pilot's name? One of the documents coming to me is a transcript of the interview with the German former POW. His sister is convinced that not only is the name correct, but the description as well.

Of course, with the passage of time nobody's saying Bill's going to come walking out of the trees one day, but it would be nice to know the truth of what happened.

The Ki-43 damaged claim I refer to was his only aerial claim. Source: Olynyk.

Wade

[Franek Grabowski]

Why would a German POW come out of Russia with an American pilot's name?
Why not if they were in the same camp and the German spoke English?

[Amrit1]

You've probably read "Last Seen Alive: The Search for Missing Pows from the Korean War" by Laurence Jolidon but have you been in touch with Texas University to see if you can access Jolidon's papers?

Box 4La137 includes stuff on Baumeister. But I'm probably telling you stuff you already know.http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/images/icons/icon11.gif

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00375/cah-00375.html

I will scan the relevant pages of the aforementioned pages tomorrow.