9.th AF loss, 23.02.1945
 

Gentlemen,
according to a German police report an US-a/c was shot down by Flak while strafing a railway station near Weilmünster on 23.02.1945.

There was found a trouser waistband with the inscrption "Harris J..." or something similar. Was there any 9th AF pilot with such a name killed on this day?

Thanks in advance

Heuser

Re: 9.th AF loss, 23.02.1945
 

Good evening Heuser !

Do you have a time of the incident ?. Helpful would be a type of a 9th AF a/c like THUNDERBOLD, HAVOC, MARAUDER, INVADER e.g.
Where is Weilmünster located at ?. Can you give a confirmation, that the name of the crew-member, you provided us, has found his death in this incident ?

Best regards !

Horst Weber

Re: 9.th AF loss, 23.02.1945
 

Hi Mr. Weber,

my copy is hard to read, but it should've been around 1600 hrs German time. The location was the railway station of Grävenwiesbach near D35789 Weilmünster, between Camberg and Wetzlar.

Yes, the pilot of this a/c was killed, his remains were buried in Rohnstadt. The police report from 24.02. mentions an "US-Fighter of unknown type, single-seated".

Best regards,

A. Heuser

Re: 9.th AF loss, 23.02.1945
 

Good Morning, Heuser !

Your man is 2nd Lt. Lawrence F. Meyer, 359th FG, 369th FS, in P-51 MUSTANG AAF s/n 44-15394. This a/c came down at about 13:25 hrs near Grävenwiesbach, 20 km WNW of Nauheim. MACR 12630 and the attached J-3109 provide more information.

Have good sunday !

All the best,

Horst Weber

Re: 9.th AF loss, 23.02.1945
 

Hi Mr. Weber,
thank you very much for your efforts, the a/c shoud be the mentioned one. Even without any Harris J...

Best regards

A. Heuser

Re: 9.th AF loss, 23.02.1945
 

According to the ABMC and "WWII MIA Database from the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office" Meyer is still listed as MIA - any idea why?

Best Regards

A. Heuser

Re: 9.th AF loss, 23.02.1945
 

Herr Heuser, Meyer is still MIA, well not really, he is buried in Neuville, BE as an unknown. He was not identifiable so they buried him as an unknown. Danny

Re: 9.th AF loss, 23.02.1945
 

You can scroll down for a list of MACR's for Feb. 23, 1945.

http://www.accident-report.com/MACR/1945/m194502.html

Re: 9.th AF loss, 23.02.1945
 

Gentlemen,

thank you very much for your replies.

What was not known to me when I started this thread back in 2008: two P-51 where shot down in this area and mixed up in the German report.

The first one was Lawrence F. Meyer, who crashed near Grävenwiesbach. This is confirmed by MACR 12630 and the attached J-reports.

The second one was Capt. William G. Hargis (354.FG, 355.FS), who was shot down only 5 km away. There is no J-Report attached to MACR 12644, but in 2012 there was an article regarding this loss:

http://timesfreepress.com/news/2012/...atal-crash-of/

So the trouser waistband of "Harris J..." (mentioned in my first post) obviously belonged to William G. Hargis.

@ Danny Keay:Thank you very much for this additional information! In general: do you know if is it possible to trace back the initial burial location of an unknown? And: is it possible to locate reports about the work of grave registration units or War crimes invesigation teams?

Best regards

Heuser

Re: 9.th AF loss, 23.02.1945
 

Herr Heuser, the waistband thing means little. I have had reports where soldiers were found wearing equipment and clothing for four or more different men. Harris J. might have rotated back to the States, or was killed in combat or taken prisoner and then his military gear would have been divided between the survivors. His personal gear would have been returned to the family.

Whom I believe to be Meyer was buried at Graevenwiesbach and was recovered on or around 20 February 1946 by members of the 6888th QM G.R. Co (Prov).

Hope this helps. Danny

Schoenes neues Jahr noch :)

Re: 9.th AF loss, 23.02.1945
 

Hi Danny,

thank you very much for the additional informations about the initial burial location of Meyer and the regarding Grave registration unit, which is very helpful.

One of the German reports from 1945 mentioned in my first thread back in 2008 gave as time of the crash around 1615 hrs near the railway station of Audenschmiede and the initial burial location with the nearby village of Rohnstadt.

This matches exactly with the time of Hargis' loss, while Meyers crash occured two hours before and is confimed by the MACR and your additional info about his burial location. Further I don't believe that Meyer had a ring with Hargis' name engraved inside, as mentioned in the timesfreepress-article.

I'll scratch both from my list of (more or less) unfinnished cases...

Also a happy 2014 from my side

Alexander