Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hallo RSwank


Thank you for the information about Samar.....but we can't really be sure with this information.
I'll send you a private message regarding AFHRA's CDs...

Best regards
Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,

I agree we are not 100% sure about Samar and also Koker. We think the crew was:
John T Hopkins, Jr. Pilot
John E Lidicker, Co-Pilot
Donald Merle Wolberg, Bombardier/Navigator
Emory Jacob Koker, Jr.
Andrew Samar
Warren J Dwyer, (KIA).

Got your message re: AFHRA's CDs

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

I ordered via e-mail the CD from AFHRA which contains the mission reports for April. Within a few hours they had provided a 420 MB file, B0262. which I downloaded (it took about an hour). The file is a single pdf file of 1938 pages. Starting on page 613 is the mission report for the attack on Aschersleben. Here is a brief extract of some of the relevant info from the file. I will spend more time going through it this weekend. On some pages the handwritten part is very light and hard to read.

322 BG: (April 11 - Aschersleben Marshalling Yard)
Crew for Plane 030:
2nd Lt Hopkins, J.
2nd Lt Lidicker, J
2nd Lt Wolberg, D
Sgt Samar, A.
Sgt Dwyer, W
S/Sgt Koker, E.

44 a/c dispatched, 35 dropping 276 x 500 GP on and in vicinity of Primary. 3 a/c dropped 24 x 500 GP on Other target. Bomb disposition unknown of 1 a/c which was lost.

5 a/c failed to bomb; 1 mechanical failure; 4 other (1-Flt. Leader could not make sighting operation at Primary due to haze and smoke; PDI went out when he attempted to bomb another target. 3-leader did not drop.)

1 a/c/ lost to flak; hit in left engine at F550450, 5 miles N of Bonn. Ground forces report the following: a/c crashed at F478483 on east bank of Rhine river, in enemy territory. 1 crewman was killed, 4 wounded, 1 uninjured crewman is a prisoner of war. Due to the fact that the enemy had no medical facilities, a momentary truce was arranged. Ground forces evacuated wounded by boat to friendly territory and they are now in 124th Evacuation Hospital.

Aircraft lost was 030 P, NO 4, 3rd FLT, 2nd Box
1 A/C MISSING – A/C NO 030 P, NO 4, 3rd Flt, 2nd Box. The flight made 3 bomb runs. After leaving target, due to the number of bomb runs and evasive action taken, the flight got off course and went to Marburg instead of the briefed return route. At Marburg they called for a QDM which, combined with the wind from the south, carried them north of the briefed route. At F-550450, approximately 5 miles N of Bonn, the flight encountered light flak fire and a/c 030 sustained hits which put the left engine on fire. Altitude of the flight was between 4 and 5,000 feet. The a/c was observed to spin in and one observer reports that it crashed in vicinity of Wahn F-550500. No chutes Observed. Flak from area of F-550450 lasted no more than 30 seconds.

Light fire scored hits on a/c left engine, started smoking- (also) Fire on leading edge of wing between fuselage and right nacelle, (plane) went into a shallow dive-crashed on ground and burst into heavy flames. No chutes, blew up.

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hello Roland, this is great and interesting information !

According to eyewitnesses from that time the plane came from Porz. According to your new information here, the plane was hit by the flak at Kriegsdorf F-550450 and crashed in Lülsdorf.
So it must have taken a completely different flight path. Do you have information which route the plane took from Marburg ?

The G2 reports also show that immediately before the crash the village of UCKENDORF F-530 470 was hit by bombs from a B-26 and the village is in flames. Did the crew possibly carry out an emergency release of their bombs ? Questions upon questions... I'm really curious what else you can find on the AFHRA CD....

Greetings
Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,

I put the part of the pdf file from AFHRA on the April 11 attack on Aschersleben (139 pages) on a shared Google Drive.

This link should allow you or anyone to look at it (or I believe, download it). The more of us that can look it over the more we may find.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...pu?usp=sharing

Let me know if you can access it, if not I will try something else.

If the Google Drive works, I will add more things as we go.

I have found the the same crew flew a mission on April 9 in plane 225 X to Naumberg. On that mission they carried 8 x 500 lb bombs. The crew is listed in the same order as the April 11 mission: Hopkins, Lidicker, Wolberg, Samar, Dwyer and Koker. That might mean Koker (listed last both times) was the tail gunner. Just a couple of comments on terms (as I understand them). A "Box" consisted of 3 flights, each flight had six planes. The file includes a map which shows the flight paths of both the main group and Hopkins group which went too far north on the return.

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Roland,
A thousand thanks for the information. I was able to open it without any problems and download it to my PC. But promptly some questions arise to me again:

1.) is it possible to see the flight map somewhere in the WEB? Then I could follow the flight path with the three flight sketches available.

2.) Eyewitnesses from here report that there were two or three planes, the one Hopkins shot down. But now I have not read anything in the documents about the flight to Aschersleben, that there were several planes which went off course......maybe my English is not good enough for that ;-))....

3.) I also assume that Koker was a tail gunner, just like you assume. Dwyer was probably the shooter in the bow, the function of Samar I cannot determine.

Greetings Manni

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,

We will have to work up the flight map ourselves. There is actually a lot of information in the file, spread among different pages besides what is on their 3 page version of a "map". I will start to work through it.

The gunner in the nose of the ship would have been the bombardier/navigator, Wolberg. If Koker operated the tail gun then the top turret gunner may have been Dwyer.

Here is a diagram for the bailout positions for a 7 man crew of a B-26.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lightning72/3972129164
The 7th man (man in yellow) was a "tunnel" gunner that could move to either side in the rear of the plane and operated one of the waist/belly guns on that side. His position had been eliminated. So with a six man crew, assuming they are listing the enlisted men from front to back it may be that Samar was the radio operator, Dwyer was the top turret gunner and Koker the tail gunner.

Now that I know you can see the file, I will work up "our" version of the flight map and know I can refer to various pages in the file. It is the 2nd Box (with which Hopkins flew) that went off course on the return. They had a lot of trouble at the target.



Regards,

Rolland

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,

I have added a partial "transcription" of the first 22 pages of the Mission Report on the Google Drive. (Link given in post #45 above). I will work through the rest of the pages over the next few days and add more pages as I go. I will also work up a better mission map. (I will make any additions or corrections that anyone finds. They use a lot of abbreviations that may be somewhat "obscure".)

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

I uploaded Dwyer's IDPF file to the Google Drive. A few things of interest.

While he was first buried in Lulsdorf, the army moved the body to Ittenbach Cemetery #1 (a temporary military cemetery) on April 16, 1945. His grave there was marked as X-18 (Unknown). He had been badly wounded in the right thigh (open wound, compound fracture - comminuted) and the body still had a belt used as a tourniquet on the leg when recovered. He was later identified through his fingerprints.

In 1991 his grave at Margraten was adopted by a woman who "may" have tried to contact the family. She was given the names (but not addresses) of Dwyer's mother and sister and his birthday by the army. She had contacted AFHRA because she wanted to know his birthday (November 26, 1923). She wanted to put flowers on the grave on that date. (The Dutch also put flowers on all the Margraten graves on Memorial Day.) Both Dwyer's mother and sister are now deceased and there is nothing in the file to indicate the adopter ever made contact with his family. (His grave may still be adopted by the same Dutch family, these "adoptions" often pass down the generations) so perhaps that is something to follow up on. We would need to go through the Margraten Foundation to find out if the current adopters would want to make contact.)

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hello, Rolland,

i'll never be able to make up for all the trouble you've taken with my subject ! thank you very much...

Very interesting are the documents about Warren Dwyer, it's amazing what you can find about him if you, like you, know the right sources. Unfortunately the funeral documents do not show which job Dwyer did on the flight.
I'll be in Holland next week and will visit Dwyer's grave, maybe I'll find out something about the family who is taking care of Dwyer's grave before that...
Is there a way to get to the records of the rest of the crew to find out about their injuries, especially Hopkins, Lidicker and Wollberg ?...........

until next time greetings
Manni

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,

There are individual records and even medical records we can request. We will need their serial numbers to to that. We don't have serial numbers for Hopkins or Lidicker. We have their enlistment numbers, but not the serial numbers they would have received when they were commissioned.

Also, many records were destroyed in a fire in Saint Louis in 1973 and are no-longer available. (Medical records were not lost.)

https://www.archives.gov/personnel-r...nter/fire-1973

I will request one more CD from AFHRA which might have the DFC citation for Hopkins and serial numbers for Hopkins and Lidicker. It may also have info on positions in the plane and who was on (or not on) the boat.

Here is a better picture of Hopkins' grave than is shown in findagrave.
Click on the upper green star and then click the photo.

https://ancexplorer.army.mil/publicw...zEgRKb2huGgFU/

Note the grave says Hopkins had received:
The DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross), PH (Purple Heart)
AM (Air Medal) with 5 OLC (Oak Leaf Clusters)
and was a Prisoner of War.

(The Air Medal was typically given after the first 5 missions and an OLC for each additional 5 missions. Hopkins apparently had flown between 30 and 34 missions.)

I checked the POW records and it appears that Samar is listed. There is a John T Hopkins, Jr listed but he is listed as in the infantry, so maybe a different Hopkins. (These records sometimes have errors.) I don't think any others are listed in the POW records. We need to get the officer's serial number for Hopkins.

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hello Rolland

thank you for your great summary of the flight to Aschersleben, it is comprehensible and understandable for me.

And thanks for the photos, especially the photo of the crew in the cockpit.....how cool the guys must have been to sit in the front of the cockpit and comfortably smoke a cigarette. They all had a damn lousy job........
Can you please tell me the source of the plane pictures?

Interesting also the photo of Hopkins grave, it must be a new gravestone, because on the other photo are not all his awards listed....But I couldn't find it in the Roll of Honor to the DFC....is that possible ?

I already had the photos of Cologne and Lülsdorf, but thanks anyway....

Greetings Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni, the photos are mostly AAF photos from fold3.com. I think the picture of the men in the plane is also an AAF photo. It can be found in many places on the web.

For those trying to follow this discussion, we are talking about a shared Google Drive about the crash here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...1QKeLKMxgLXWpu

I am continuing to add material to the Google Drive as we go.

The linked videos (on youtube) are from various sources. The video showing the April 1945 missions appears to have been taken in the 323rd BG as the squadron codes are squadrons in the 323rd BG, i.e. WT - 456th BS, VT - 453rd BS, YU-455th BS.

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hello, Rolland,
Concerns Aschersleben Mission Report:

This is exactly the question I ask myself....was it just Hopkins plane or was it the whole box that got lost and went off course ?

According to our school chronicle of April 11th, 1945, there is only talk of one plane. Also Martha Gellhorn describes only one airplane.....However, I also know a statement of an eyewitness who speaks of a " unit of three airplanes " .

The G-2 report also states that at the same time Hopkins plane crashes, the town of UCKENDORF is in flames after a B-26 bomb was dropped. Uckendorf lies exactly in the flight path from Kriegsdorf ( Flak ) to the crash site. I cannot imagine that Hopkins dropped bombs in the last second.......So I assume at least a second plane......


greetings Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,

I have made it though the Mission report and uploaded a "first pass" of the complete Mission Transcription on the Google Drive.

It was only the 3rd Fight of Box 2 that flew off course on the return, 5 planes. The sixth plane had engine problems on the flight in and had returned early, it never made it to Aschersleben. The remaining 5 planes led by Kent as lead pilot and Libby as navigator made three passes over the target and did not drop. (The planes in a flight were to "drop on the leader", i.e., only the lead plane was using a bombsight. When the leader dropped his bombs the other planes in the flight (in this case the remaining 4 planes) were to drop.) Smoke and haze obscured the target on every pass. Kent/Libby then went to a "casual" target (or target of opportunity) to try and bomb a railroad "choke-point" at Guston rD670630. On the bomb run the PDI (Pilot Direction Indicator*) went out so the bombardier could not direct the pilot to steer the plane correctly. The 5 planes in the flight started home, all still carrying 8 bombs each. This flight went off course on the return and flew over/near the flak site . Hopkins was shot down and the remaining 4 planes all returned to the base with their bombs.

Upon return, they reported Weak (not very much), Accurate, LFF (Light Flak Fire) which struck Hopkins plane. They watched Hopkins go down. At this point, I would say that Hopkins released his bombs before he crash landed.

A couple of comments in the mission reports for the 4 returning planes are interesting. One man thought that it was friendly fire that had downed Hopkins. Another commented that "More navigation instruction needed for flight leads." "More" was underlined four times. This last comment was included again in the final page of the mission report.



*The PDI was connected to the bombsight and as the bombardier adjusted the sight to hit the target, the bombsight moved a needle on the dial of the pilot's PDI to indicate which way the pilot was to turn the plane (either left or right). In heavy bombers (B-17s and B-24s), the bombsight was connected to the auto-pilot so the bombardier actually "flew" the plane on the bomb run. In medium bombers, it was found to be better if the pilot flew the plane on the bomb run. One reason was that medium bomber flew very short bomb runs, the final straight and level run was for 30 seconds. (Even prior to the final "run", medium bombers typically changed course every 30 seconds, to throw off radar directed flak.) Medium bombers did not respond quickly enough to the autopilot corrections. (Heavy bomber bomb runs lasted for many minutes so the bombsight/autopilot system worked well for them.)

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Rolland,

Thank you very much for the very detailed transcription of the Aschersleben Mission. I will read and analyse it in the next few days. But the assumption has been confirmed that several airplanes have gone off course. And that Hopkins dropped its bombs shortly before the crash. For this I will try to find eyewitnesses in UCKENDORF, maybe someone knows something about this event ....

Greetings
Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,
I received the 2nd CD I ordered (B0241) again via a large (512MB) free pdf download. This CD/pdf has most of the history of the group. It probably will not be any help to us. There is no mention of any of the Hopkins crew prior to April 11. As to the Aschersleben mission it says:
“In a morning mission this group sent 44 aircraft against the Aschersleben marshalling yard with poor to good results. Two aircraft of the 450th separated from the rest of the formation, by mistake flew over the southwest corner of the Ruhr pocket and drew light accurate flak fire. One of the planes, piloted by 1st Lt. Hopkins, received a direct hit and crashed in enemy territory. With the exception of Sgt. W. Dyer, [sic] , all crew members survived the crash. They were 2nd Lt. Lidicker, 2nd Lt. D. Welberg [sic], Sgt. E. Koker, Sgt. A. Samar”

Their own mission report (which we saw in the prior download AFHRA file) show it was not just “two” aircraft that got separated, but rather five. This report may be the cause of the misspelled names of Dyer for Dwyer and Welberg for Wolberg. We still don’t have serial numbers for all the crew and are still not sure which crewmember was held as a POW for at least one day.

If we go back to the 82nd Airborne G-2 reports for April 11 and April 12 (which I have posted on the Google Drive) there are several comments as to a B-26 bombing. April 11 reports are in a pdf file of 75 pages, and on pdf page 46 is the first report of the crash of the B-26 at 1400 at location 47804839. They also mention “1400 Ammo dump blowing up at 559497. Cause bombing by B-26.”
This is logged as message No. 845 at 14:10.
On the next pdf page, 47 there is mention of the men lying around at the plane (at 480485). Then the mention 5 big explosions, one is Kriegsdorf (550460) and the other 4 explosions at Urkendorf, 530470. Then “1 big explosion between URKENDORF and LIBUR. A long building blew up with a big flash and is “now burning with black smoke rising from area.” Another explosion is reported behind Wahnheide, 560510.” The also say that “2nd Bn reports that each time a plane goes over PORZ a great deal of FLAK is thrown up from this locality.
Report 851 on pdf page 50 mentions:
1445 at Urkendorf (Uckendorf?) whole town in flames.
1455 American tanks “50? in number” reported shelling Libur and Wahn. Flags hanging outside of Wahn”.

We can try to plot these various locations as given for the explosions and allowing a little “wiggle room” for the probable inaccuracies in the reported locations, (and maybe the times) come up with a possible final flight path. It is quite possible that not all the reported explosions were caused by the B-26 but I do think Hopkins did drop his bombs and he did not salvo them unarmed or SAFE. The bombs then should have exploded before the plane crashed.

Normally, either the bombardier or the pilot could have salvoed the bombs SAFE but it is possible that there was some flak damage that prevented that or perhaps they just didn't have time. I think it was a very short interval from the moment they were hit to when they made the decision to crash land instead of bailing out and then to putting the plane on the ground.

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Rolland,

I already had the text about the mission to Aschersleben from the book "The Annihilators 322nd Bombardment Group ( M ), Book II". Also in this book there is no further mention of the crew or parts of it.
I have also searched all archives I know and have access to for the names of the crew, but I could not find the missing serial numbers anywhere.

In documents of the German Wehrmacht I also could not find anything about the capture of one of the crew members. But this happened two days before the American troops finally occupied the left side of the Rhine, there was a lot of confusion and the Wehrmacht was on the retreat.......And besides, a lot of documents and records on the German side were destroyed during these days.

About the bombing and the resulting explosions:
The explosion at Wahnheide, 560510 is in my opinion not caused by the bombing. An ammunition depot was blown up here by the Wehrmacht during the retreat. The other explosions I think are due to the bombing of Hopkins. They fit together in time and geography, even if the times of the individual reports vary by a few minutes.

I found something on ancestry about John T. Hopkins:
SVN: 577 265 477and John E. Lidicker

SVN: 384 186 519...... I think it's the social security numbers...... Does that tell us anything?

Greetings Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Yes, those are social security numbers, though Lidicker's was 348-18-6519. Hopkins' was 577-26-5477.

Besides Wolberg I have sent letters to 3 more different family relatives. We will see where it goes.

Lidicker had no children and I know two of the nieces mentioned in his obit (see post #2) have also died. One was the daughter of his brother and the other of his sister. I will see about the other one mentioned.

I have some leads on relatives of Dwyer but these would all be somewhat "distant" so perhaps they will not have any interest.

UPDATE: Letter sent to the 3rd niece of Lidicker, so at this point I have tried to contact 5 of the six crew families.

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

I received a reply from the son of Emory J Koker. He sent a crew photo and his father's discharge papers which I have added to the Google Drive in a new "Crew" folder.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...1QKeLKMxgLXWpu

His father's brother is still alive and may have some more information. Here is the son's e-mail reply.
----------------------------------------------------Start of E-mail-------------------------------------
Hi Rolland,

Yes, my father was Emory J. Koker Jr. In the attached photo, he is on the far right. I'm not sure where in Germany he was shot down; I'll have to dig out the old Western Unions to see if they say anything. As I recall, Jack Hopkins was the pilot and I think our family visited his home in 1967. My father's closest friend was Andy Samar. They kept in touch regularly until Andy passed away in the early 90's, I think.

I believe there are some pictures of a birthday party / reunion for Jack Hopkins that took place some time in the 80's: I'll see what I can find if you wish.

My father service records are still around here somewhere. Maybe they'll have more information on where he was stationed. I'm actually not even sure what plane they flew in. Maybe you can tell from the photo.

Also, as the story goes, my father was in a POW camp for one day and the camp was liberated the next day. He was injured at the time and I don't remember him saying if the rest of the crew was at the same place. Pop was questioned by some SS guy who in the end instructed some officer to have him shot. The officer took my dad in to a back area, motioned for him to keep quiet, then shot a round in to the dirt. The officer told my dad that the Americans were close by and that he (the officer) just wanted to go home.

It is quite possible that I'm mixing up names and after digging through some of the old material, I may have more to offer or maybe have to make corrections.

Are you related to any of the crew? Just wondering.

Please let me know if any of my blathering is helpful or not.

Best Regards,
-----------------------------------------------------------End of Email-----------

Note that his discharge record on Google Drive says he was a POW at Cologne from April 11 to April 12, so Koker was the crew member held until the 12th.
He also received a Purple Heart and an Air Medal with six Oak Leaf Clusters (indicting completion of 35 missions).

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Rolland,

that's fantastic you tracked down the son of Coker. I'm thrilled ! I'm sure he can tell us a lot about Andy Samar, we haven't been able to find out anything about him yet. I'm curious what other information he has for us.

I have compared the photo with the crew, where you can see Koker, with other photos. I have photos of Wolberg and Lidicker for comparison, there are no similarities. I don't think it shows the crew that crashed here.
Maybe the son of Koker still has some surprises for us !?

It is shocking to hear the statement with the SS-officer who wanted Koker to be shot. Please ask if Koker was really in a PW-Camp, which I can't imagine for the 24 hours. Or if he was just in a building behind enemy lines, which was used for PWs.

Also, at this time 11.04.45 I do not know of any SS-unit in Porz and its surroundings. But it was a hectic time, many soldiers from different units were pulled together to new units and all of them were in retreat...But I will get to the bottom of this.

Greetings
Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni, I have also contacted the son of the woman that Samar married late in life. The son said he knew that Samar had been shot down but nothing else. Samar didn't talk about it. The son did look at the photo and thinks Samar is the 5th man in the row, next to Koker but he can't be "absolutely" sure. I have looked at several of these Lake Charles photos and the crew is always standing in the order, left to right as:
Pilot, Co-Pilot, Bombardier/Navigator, Fight Engineer/Top Turret Gunner, RO/Gunner, Armorer/Tail Gunner. Thus the enlisted men are not in the order they sit in the plane (front to back) but more likely in order of rank as the flight engineers are typically Technical Sergeants.

I don't think Lidicker is in the picture as I believe he joined the crew in Europe. I am not sure about Wolberg. I believe Hopkins is on the left.

I may talk with Koker's brother this weekend.

I found some medical records for Samar on Ancestry of all places. I will get them posted to a Samar folder on the Drive today or tomorrow. Samar had a broken leg along with broken bones in his face and hands.

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hi, Rolland,

Sorry I haven't called in a while, I was on vacation.
I have to read all news from you now, I am pleased about the contacts you could find to the descendants of the crew. I'm curious to know what else is new.

Greetings Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,

I agree that Koker was not in the POW camp as he was only a POW for 24-30 hours. From corresponding with his son, I do have a "theory" on where that story may have come from.

I have also been working on the route of Hopkins’ flight.

They flew the same route the BG took to the target at Aschersleben at the which they tried 3 times to bomb.

Then they flew on to Gusten (about 7 kilometers ENE further on) to bomb location rD670630, which they described as a rail “choke-point”. Again, they could not bomb as the PDI in the lead plane failed. That location translates via echodelta.net to 51.80357N, 11.6096E . That precise spot is the middle of a field, but about 200 meters to the south there appears to be the remains of a railroad overpass, with what was one pair of tracks going north by crossing over via the overpass another pair of tracks going roughly to the east. Today it looks like the tracks going north now end at the overpass and only the railbed is visible further to the north.

Here is the location on Google Maps.
Location of rail over-pass: 51.799806, 11.608472

You can zoom in and out and drag the map around to see the target.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/51...1!4d11.6084721

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,

Did you ever try to contact the Margraten Foundation to see if they would be willing to pass on any of the information we have on Dwyer and the crash to the adopters of his grave?

I have added a map on the Google Drive showing my best guesses on Hopkins’ Final Flight path near Cologne. It is in a section called Maps. The green arrow shows the flightpath of the 5 returning planes as they traveled through the flak zone (shown in yellow). The path in red shows Hopkins getting hit in the flak zone. He then goes south to pass over Uckendorf (which was hit when the bombs were salvoed armed). Then he turns north west for a flight to Lulsdorf. There he crash-lands the plane. The path in black is an alternate path which shows Hopkins flying a loop which passes over Uckendorf, then flying on to Lulsdorf. The black path would allow for an actual approach to Lulsdorf from the north which would agree with your statement that some in Lulsdorf thought the plane came from that direction. (Of course, it is also possible that people saw the flight of the four planes to the north and assumed that Hopkins had approached Lulsdorf from there, even if he actually flew something like the “red” path.)

Google Drive Link, see Maps: https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...1QKeLKMxgLXWpu

I have had no further replies on the contact letters I sent. None of the letters were returned, so I assume all five were delivered. Of the five families I tried to contact I have had responses from three. Two of them could not contribute much but the son of Koker was able to help.

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Rolland,
I had planned to go there a fortnight ago. But the weather was too bad, we had a violent storm. I planned to go there in early March. But before that I will contact the Margraten Foundation by mail....

The map with the flight routes is very informative, thank you for that.
There were other flak positions, they were below Uckendorf at the level of Kriegsdorf 540 450 and above Uckendorf 531 486 ( Lt. G2 report 505 PIR from the beginning of April 45). But since the reports always speak of "light flak", your assumption that the flak got Hopkins in madness 518 514 is partly correct.
In the school chronicle of Lülsdorf it is only written that " an American large fighter plane has to make an emergency landing between Lülsdorf and Langel and goes up in flames "... Nothing is noted in it about an approach direction.
Also Martha Gellhorn describes only the crash, not the direction of approach.

In 1997, in the context of a school exhibition on the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, a contemporary witness is quoted literally. He speaks of "a group of three American aircraft flying west from Porz, one crashes near Lülsdorf and goes up in flames". This is the only place where an approach direction is described.
I am also more willing to see the black approach route with the arc over Uckendorf than the actual route. We will probably never be able to clarify it exactly, and those we could ask are unfortunately no longer among us.
In the meantime I have looked at the school chronicle of Uckendorf, the records end on April 9th and will only be continued on April 15th. There is no mention of the bomb dropping on 11.04. in the chronicle.
But I will contact an older gentleman who might be able to tell me something.....
Concerning the arrest of Samar: There was an SS-unit in Zündorf, which guarded foreign workers and prisoners, dug the trenches and mined the banks of the Rhine....so I will now investigate if there is any information.

The son of Koker wanted to check some boxes again, maybe he'll contact you and send you a photo of the crew


The best
Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Rolland,


I have contacted Margraten Cemetery. The lady who looked after Warren Dwyer's grave in the 90's is no longer alive. No new caretaker for the grave is known.

So I've been trying to figure out the exact crash site of the B-26. On the basis of several aerial photographs, which I compared with today's photographs and by a visit on site I can say with certainty that the indication 50.829090, 6.998740 is the correct one. This area was an open, undeveloped field in 1945. In the immediate vicinity there was an anti-aircraft gun position of the Wehrmacht. ( today it looks completely different there, everything is built up with houses).
The other location 480 480 ( 50.827353N, 6.999083E) is not a crash site, because there were two farms there in 1945, which would have been destroyed in the crash. But the old buildings still exist today. And witnesses on site assured me that these buildings have not suffered any damage from the war, except by shelling.


Regards
Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,

I just received a letter from a niece of the co-pilot, John E. Lidicker. My letter to her back in January 2020 “got misplaced and then with Covid, things got crazy”. She did not hear a lot about the crash but she knew Lidicker had crashed at Cologne. I will quote from her letter:


“Over my life I did not hear a lot about the crash. I do know, my uncle, John E Lidicker was burned and did have a broken back.

The German people put him into a wheelbarrow and delivered him to the American Soldiers.

I was told he spent a year in a body cast. He suffered from back pain the rest of his life.”