Hello, During my research I came across a story from the last days of the war in 1945, which I cannot prove 100 % historically on the basis of suitable documents, I very much hope that you and your archive can help me solve the story.

At the beginning of April 1945 American troops liberated Cologne on the left bank of the Rhine. Units of the 82th. Airborn Division, in particular the 505th PIR were located on the left bank of the Rhine in the area of Wesseling, Godorf, Sürth and Weiß.

On the other, right side of the Rhine, which was still occupied by German troops, are the villages LÜLSDORF, LANGEL and ZÜNDORF.

According to my research a B-26 bomber crashed on 11.04.1945 between Langel and Lülsdorf ( near Cologne / Bonn ). One crew member died, four crew members were wounded. All of them were rescued by the citizens of Lülsdorf and taken care of. Since there was no doctor nearby, the local priest went to the bank of the Rhine and called the American soldiers on the other side of the Rhine and asked for help. They took a boat to the right bank of the Rhine and picked up the injured soldiers.

It is very likely that these were the B-26 Bomber 42-96030, 332th BG / 450Th BS Pilot 1st Lt. Hopkins, 2nd Lt. Lidicker, 2nd Lt. Welberg ( Walberg ) , Sgt. E Koker, Sgt. Samer, Sgt. W. Dyer (KIA).

The " Group History 322nd Bombardment Group (M) AAF For the Month of April 1945 notes this crash. In the book " The Annihilators 322nd BG(M) on pages 177 and 302 the deployment and the crash is also described. Also the American war reporter Martha Gellhorn describes this crash in her book " Das deutsche Volk ". But I don't find any references to the crew or the rescue of the crew by the American units in the internet and archives. Also in the archive of the 82th Airborn Div. resp. the 505 PIR is noted a little bit above.

Can you help me with information about the crew and their rescue ? I would be infinitely grateful if you could help me bring light into this darkness. I would like to thank you and your staff in advance for your efforts.

Units of the 82th. Airborn Division, in particular the 505th PIR were located on the left bank of the Rhine in the area of Wesseling, Godorf, Sürth and Weiß. On the other, right side of the Rhine, which was still occupied by German troops, are the villages LÜLSDORF, LANGEL and ZÜNDORF.

best regards from Cologne
manni

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

Re: Crash B-26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Lidicker was John E Lidicker. This appears to be a reference to the crash:

https://books.google.com/books?id=4f...dicker&f=false

And his obit: https://www.meaningfulfunerals.net/o...69?fh_id=12328

Note it was the 322nd BG, 450th BS (not the 332nd BG).

"Dyer" was actually Warren J Dwyer. Here is his grave. He was from New Orleans, LA:

https://www.abmc.gov/node/531539

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...n-joseph-dwyer

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,

Somehow B-26 42-96030 reportedly flew with 394 BG/585 BS?

See http://www.ww2buddies.com/BG394.html

Regards,

Leendert

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,

Lt Lidicker (322nd BG) and his crash are mentioned in the online book "The Flying Prostitute" (p. 176) by Lawrence J. Hunter.

It is written there that German medics took him to the front line "and left him for dead".

Regards,
Leendert

Re: Crash B-26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hello RSwank,
thank you very much for the great information!
I've been researching this story for almost two years now, your answer is the solution to the story.
Of course it was the 322nd BG, the mistake was mine! Do you have any more information about the rest of the crew ? I will now try to find the descendants of Dwyer and Lidicker, maybe they will give me more information about the crash and the history of their rescue.
Thanks again, you helped me a lot!
Best regards
manni

Re: Crash B-26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Nick, not sure about the dates you give. Here is an interesting account of the PIR patrols crossing the Rhine at/near Cologne in the early April time frame. I was hoping the account might mention the rescue but it stops on April 9, two days before the 11th.

The co-ordinates they are giving are in the Nord de Guerre, wF map square. (see http://www.echodelta.net/mbs/eng-welcome.php )

The PIR account:

http://ww2tribute.blogspot.com/2014/03/

(NOTE: the patrol reports in the link above were retrieved apparently from an on-line "virtual" Fort Benning library which contained a large pdf file called D97_I2031.pdf.
Unfortunately, the link addresses given for that file no-longer seem to work. That file "may" have information on the rescue. I will try to contact the library and also the author of the blog.)

Here are some maps which shows the front on April 1, 1945 and April 15, 1945. Note that Cologne (east bank side) was in a "pocket" (the Ruhr pocket) with Rhine crossings both to the north and south.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...frontAtlas.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...frontAtlas.jpg

Re: Crash B-26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

I believe this man is another possibility for the crew, Donald M Wolberg.

Search for Wolberg on this link: https://wwiiflighttraining.org/?page_id=596

I have found another articles that mention he was in the 322nd BG and was in action in April, 1945. Several articles mention he was wounded, apparently in April and was "released", with some confusion as whether he was a POW.

This next link, (search for Wolberg) shows him on crew #39D in the 322nd. Interesting that none of the crew listed seem to have been with Wolberg at Cologne.

https://www.391bombgroup.org.uk/docu...ript_fold3.txt

Donald Merle Wolberg was born 18 March 1923 in Chicago, IL and died 8 January 1994 in PA.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4079...ald_m_wolberg/

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

NOTE: I’ve edited two threads on the same subject into one. I hope that what remains removes the duplication and still makes sense.

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hello, RSwank,

thanks for the further information about the crew. The second link to the 391th BG is from 11.09.1944......I spoke with the Brtitisch Air Museum months ago and they explained to me that it happened very often that crews were exchanged among themselves or individual members were transferred to other BGs or Sq.

To the 505Th PIR I also tried to get information about the 11.04.1945, until today without any result. I have the daily reports until 10.04 and then again from 13.04.1945, in which the handing over of the places by the mayors is mentioned......It is amazing that the crash and the rescue of the crew is not mentioned anywhere officially. But even Martha Gellhorn described this story in her book.....Is it possible that the story of the "good German civilian" who rescues American soldiers did not fit into the time? Everything that was published had to be censored by the press.....it is just a consideration.

I am thrilled that you are so committed to my questions, I am curious what else you have for me.

Greeting
Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

It was mentioned in the first post that Martha Gellhorn described the incident in her book.

Starting here and on the following page is that description:

https://books.google.com/books?id=wk...gne%22&f=false


UPDATE: It looks like Google has decided to block some of the book pages. This morning you could see both of the pages where Gellhorn fully described the incident but when I checked this afternoon, you are only allowed to see the first page. Apparently, if too many people look at a page in a short period of time, Google will block viewing of the page.

Here is what it said.

"“Yesterday it (ack-ack) operated effectively and a B-26 was shot down and a column of black smoke rose straight and mountain-high. It looked like a funeral pyre to all of us. Tanks of the Thirteenth Armored Division were moving up across the river, behind the burning plane, but the crew was there in a belt of Germans, and no one could reach them. From a 505th Regimental observation post, some paratroopers had seen four men get out of the plane. That was at about one o’clock on a soft clear day. At six o’clock began one of the strangest episodes anyone had yet seen in this war—and there were a few men present who had survived all four 82nd Airborne missions and the Battle of the Bulge and could be expected to have seen everything.
Across the Rhine on the green bank someone started waving a white flag. This was ignored, because it does not necessarily mean anything. Then a procession came down to a landing pier. They carried a Red Cross flag. Through binoculars, we could see a medic, a priest, and two German soldiers carrying a stretcher. A landing craft put out from our bank, well covered by our machine guns in case this was all a sinister joke. Presently on both banks of the Rhine there was an audience; normally no one would move in this area in daylight, and even at night you would be careful. Now we stood in the sun and gaped. Slowly three more stretchers were carried down to our boat. We could see civilians over there, children, German soldiers; everyone was out staring at everyone else. We could not quite believe it and were still prepared to dive for cover quickly. The little boat was launched into the current, but it drifted farther downstream and we followed it on our side, like people streaming along a racecourse to watch the horses come in. The boat landed and our medic, who had gone over to get these four wounded men, the survivors of the B-26 crew, shouted to clear the banks because the Krauts said they’d give the ambulance time to load them then they would open up. The war had stopped for approximately and hour on a hundred-yard front.
“I never saw the Krauts act so nice,” one soldier said, as we wandered back to the buildings where we would not make such tasty targets.
“They know our tanks are coming up,” another soldier said. “Krauts don’t act nice for nothing.”"

A couple of observations. I don't think the tanks of the 13th Armored Division would have been "in sight" at this time. They were moving up from the south on the east bank of the Rhine, but they would probably have been still miles away on April 11th. Gellhorn may just mean that she "knew" American tanks were moving from the south to cut off this part of the "pocket".

I read Gellhorn's description to mean that the plane actually crash landed and the 505th soldiers saw men "get out" of the plane after it had crashed and started to burn. I don't think the crew parachuted out. If they had, I think she would have used phrases such as "bail out" or "jumped out", etc. A crash landing would also possibly account for the serious injuries (and burns) of the crew.

This B-26 supposedly had a crew of six men. We know that Dwyer died (possible in the plane before it crashed or at the crash site). Gellhorn describes four injured men on stretchers. Was the final (sixth) crewman able to walk and he was also on the boat?

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Good evening Manni !

There is no entrance in the MACR listings day-by-day for B-26, AAF-s/n 42-96030.

This a/c doesn't appear in the 9th AF listing of MIA a/c's for April 1945. But it appears in the following listing, named SAL BD (salvaged battle-damaged) and with the operator 322nd BG dated April 12th, 1945 (AFHRA microfilm A5686, page # 760).

My conclusions in this case are:

The crew and the mentioned a/c flew the mission as described in the 322nd book.

The a/c received Flak hits and the crew bailed out at the most southwest place of the Ruhr-pocket, just on the Rhine-river banks east of the Rhine, which were German held.

The story of Mrs Gellhorn is reliable.

Some hours later, U.S. troops entered the crash location, reported the situation and no MACR was compiled.

Best wishes !

Horst Weber

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

I updated post #10 to include Gellhorn's description of events. The link to her book given in that post no-longer gives the full story.

While I am at it, here is some info from the book Leendert mentioned earlier:

From The Flying Prostitute, but Lawrence J Hunter (page 176)

"Later, on 11 April, 1945, Lidicker participated in a morning mission with the “Annihilators,” who sent 44 aircraft against the Aahereleben marshaling yard with poor to good results. Two aircraft of the 450th Bomb Squadron separated from the rest of the formation and, by mistake, flew over the southwest corner of the Ruhr pocket and drew light, accurate flak fire. One of the planes, that was carrying now 2nd Lieutenant John Lidicker as copilot, received a direct hit and crash landed in enemy territory. Lidicker was blinded and burned with the explosion of the 1000 gallons of 100-octane gasoline the plane carried. The German medics brought him to the front lines and left him for dead. He survived but has spent years recuperating and undergoing a multitude of operations in our hospitals."


I am going to order Dwyer's IDPF file. I am curious as to on which side of the Rhine his body was recovered.

I am also following up on some leads to contact relatives of the crew. This sometimes takes a while, we will see where it goes.

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

I believe that "Sgt E Koker" was Emory Jacob Koker, Jr.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...ry-jacob-koker

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

The pilot of the plane was John T Hopkins, Jr. Here are some articles about him. He died in 1978.

https://books.google.com/books?id=I1...%20air&f=false

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-854063a84d92/

https://virginiachronicle.com/cgi-bi...t-txIN--------

Note he received a DFC for crash landing his plane and saving wounded crewmen.

The articles state he "escaped" which we believe may not be "quite" correct.

Graves of John and his wife Helen:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...john-t-hopkins
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/..._irwin-hopkins

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hello, RSwank,

thank you for your comprehensive response...

I have the book by Martha Gellhorn both in the English original and in the German translation here in my bookcase.
The tanks she describes really can't belong to the 13th Armored Div., especially since they can be seen "behind the burning plane". I assume that these were tanks of the German Wehrmacht, which was already on the retreat towards Hoffnungsthal (Bergisches Land) at this time.

The plane definitely crashed in flames and exploded on the ground, according to contemporary witnesses. All five crew members were actually recovered from the debris, according to eyewitnesses from the area.

As an addendum: The B-26 crashed in close proximity to a large 8.8 Flak position. These soldiers and civilians from Lülsdorf recovered the crew. Among them was the catholic priest of the village. He insisted that the wounded were not treated as prisoners of war by the Wehrmacht soldiers, but were brought to the village and treated there with makeshift care. A German paramedic and a Belgian forced labourer paramedic treated the wounded Americans. The Catholic priest then went to the bank of the Rhine with a white flag and called the American troops of the 505th PIR on the other side of the Rhine. They then used boats to bring the four wounded and the dead Dwyer over to the left side of the Rhine...

Actually the B-26 was occupied by 7 crew members, about the whereabouts of the other two crew members nothing is known. It is also not sure whether the plane started with only 5 crew members. The crew is mentioned in all sources with only 5 crew members. An inquiry at the American-Air-Museum in England did not bring any further information, the crew is only mentioned there with five persons.
In the meantime I have found information about the pilot John T. Hopkins Jr. he was born on 20.09.1923 and died on 08.08.1978 in Virginia ( source. www.findagrave.com ).
But there are still some questions left unanswered. Unfortunately, it is not easy from Germany to research the National Archives in DC. Do you have a possibility to search for the crew there ?
Thanks again. I wish you a merry christmas already now
Greeting
Manni

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

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

G-2 reports, 82nd Airborne Division.
This is the link to a large 1006 page report called the “G-2 Journal and Message file for 7 April 1945 to 28 May 1945”.
https://mcoepublic.blob.core.usgovcl.../D97_I2031.pdf

Regarding the B-26 crash on April 11 there are several different entries for that date. Entries for April 11 start on pdf page 325 and the first entry about the B-26 appears on pdf page 331 which is a page where messages are logged.

At 14:18, message #845 from the Division Artillery is logged. Looking at the actual complete message on pdf page 369 it states "1 B-26 crashed at 47804830. Three members of crew tried to escape and were machine gunned." (Added in parenthesis after that statement is a word in a different handwriting which appears to be the word (Erroneous)

At 14:40, message #849 from the 505th (see pdf page 370) reports the B-26 down. It states: "13:50 B-26 crashed at 480485. 3 men left plane and are lying around plane now.
1 crew member walked off with civilian in direction Lulsdorf."

Messages continue throughout the afternoon.

On pdf page 386 is a report by a Lt Novik. He states:

“Left DIV CP (Division Command Post) at 1800 with public address system for the 505 CP. Met 505 S-2 and proceeded down to I Co. (Company). Was informed at I Co CP that white flags that were displayed on E bank of River was for a boat from friendly shore to pick up 4 American members of air crew that crashed in B-26 today. Germans had no medical supplies to treat men with. Boat was dispatched and men returned to friendly shore at approx 1910. Did not use Public Address system for Germans did not want to surrender. Ey (enemy) were described as young and in good health. Returned to Div CP at 2030. 4 wounded airmen brought back. 1(one) believed left in German hands not seriously wounded.”
Several of the individual reports have other details. One airman appeared to be not as seriously injured and was seen to walk off with civilians into Lulsdorf. The men lying in the field around the plane were treated by civilians and soldiers.

Another summary appears on pdf page 420. “Ey AA fire successfully caused a B-26 to crash today vicinity 47804830. Four of the members of the crew of 6 were evacuated from the East Bank during day light by men of the 505. One crew member was killed during the crash, another taken as a PW by the enemy. The other four received injuries which were treated by our 307 Medics.”

Another account appears on pdf page 421.

“At 1350 unlocated AA gun shot down a B-26 bomber which fell E of the RHINE. Three or possibly four men were observed to get out of the crashed plane. German soldiers and civilians were observed to run to the plane and administer first aid and then take the injured Air Corps men into LULSDORF. At 1430 a 456th Prcht FA EM from Btry “B” (456th Parachute Field Artillery Enlisted Man from Battery "B") got into a kayak and crossed the RHINE of his own volition to try and get the airmen. He walked along the beach and into the town of LULSDORF. At 479479 he received rifle fire, and was seen to enter a trench and emerge with one PW. He later stated he missed another when his gun jammed. FA man went to river with PW and got into another boat and started back. Out in the river about 50 yards he turned back as the boat was about to sink, and went back along the beach about 300 yds, obtained his original boat and returned to the West Bank. He turned his PW over to the 505 at 1530.”

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Continuing on information in the G-2 report. This is from pdf page 504.

On April 12 at 18:20 the town of Lulsdorf surrenders. A Lt Jacques J Saunder crosses the river and talks to the town mayor. He learns that 40 Germans pulled out of the town at noon that day, taking the one airman from the B-26 with them as a PW. (There were still a few soldiers hiding in the town and Saunder and the Mayor convinced them to surrender.) The civilians in Lulsdorf had buried the 6th man in the plane who died in the crash. The 40 German soldiers who pulled out made it to Porz, where they were all captured. The airman was still with them.


I have not seen any references so far to the names of any of the airmen in the G-2 report.

I did a quick scan to the end of the file but did not see anything else on the B-26 story.

(There are some other interesting incidents and interrogation reports included toward the end of the file.)

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hello, RSwank,

My joy knows no bounds over this find of the G2-journal of the 82nd Airborn Div. I have searched for a long time for this, but found nothing. This was a really nice Christmas present. I thank you very much for this help, now I can finally tell the story of the crashed B-26 completely and truthfully.

Only with the crew members there are still some ambiguities, but there I will continue to research .

Is this G2-Journal also available for the month of March 1945 ? And can I also read it as a PDF ?

Thank you again for this very nice cooperation, we will certainly hear

( read ) from each other again
Best regards
Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Yes, there is a 719 page file from 9 February to 6 April 1945 here:

https://mcoepublic.blob.core.usgovcl...31_PartA-F.pdf

All these files are located on this page:

https://www.benning.army.mil/Library...ilm/index.html


Have you ever requested any CDs from AFHRA? CDs are $30 each: https://www.afhra.af.mil/

They would have files on the 322nd BG and the 450th BS. It can be a little tricky to figure out exactly what to order but I am willing to do that if you have not done so. Sending the CDs overseas may also be problematic. Hopefully we can find a complete crew list for the April 11 mission and possibly also the citation for the DFC for Hopkins.

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hello, Rswank,

again, I can only say thank you for your help. Very interesting, but I need some weeks to analyze all this in peace...
As for the DFC for Hopkins, I haven't found anything yet either,
It is not listed at https://dfcsociety.net.

As a further crew member I got another Sgt. Samar mentioned by the AAM, but also did not find any suitable information. Also the guys from B26 could not help me.

I have some CDs about the 82nd Airborn-Div. and yes, it is right, the transmission was not easy, but finally successful.
I would be interested in more details about the Lt. Jacques J. Saunder. He was the one who conducted the surrender negotiations with the towns of Lülsdorf and Langel. I believe that he was a native German, especially since he was an interrogation officer. I found the following on fold3:
www.fold3.com/record/86035259-jacques-j-saunder.
Only further information I have not found yet.

Thanks again for your effort, if I want to have CD's, I will contact you.

Best regards
Manni

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

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Jacques James Saunder was born in Berlin on 8 June 1920. His family was Polish. His name then was Jacob Szuchman. He came to the US in 1938. He joined the army on August 7, 1941. He became a US citizen on 2 Nov 1942. It was at that time he changed his name to Saunder. After the war ended he served for a few years with the Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) in Berlin. He is buried in Arlington:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...acques-saunder

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hello, Rswank,
can you please still tell me the source from which you got the information about Jacques Saunder!?
Do you have his Army Serial Number ?
I found something else on Jacques Saunder at ancestry:

His original name was SHULMAN or SHUCHMAN, both names are listed there.
I didn't find any entry about his parents in the old Berlin address books, not even in the Jewish address book of 1931. And his birth certificate is unfortunately not accessible due to privacy issues.

Hello Horst Weber,

you have the page SAL BD ( AFHRA Microfilm A5686 page # 760 ) described by you or you can tell me the exact link to it. This document would be very interesting for me.

Greeting from Cologne
Manni



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

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni, Saunder's naturalization application was found on ancestry.com searching for Jacob Szuchman, born 1920. The papers were filed in Tennessee 2 Nov 1942. He gives his enlisted serial number as 32164207. He was then in the Army Signal Corps. He lists his name as Jacob Szuchman and is also changing it to Jacques James Saunder. He emigrated to the US on 4 November 1938, arriving on the ship Nieuw Amsterdam, sailing from Antwerp.

https://www.ancestry.com/interactive...258.1525548626

Information on him being in Berlin post war is from some OSS/CIA files. (OSS officers were not impressed with his work in Berlin, and managed to have him removed.) References to Jacques Saunder start on the bottom pdf page 53 and following.

https://ia800303.us.archive.org/10/i...es/Berlin1.pdf

(For those with an interest, there are 6 Berlin files (Berlin1.pdf to Berlin6.pdf) that can be viewed/downloaded, although the 5th file is called BERLIN5.PDF.)

UPDATE: Saunder's officer serial number: O-1997942 found on a roster list here: http://www.usairborne.be/Roster/ROSTER-505PIR.pdf

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni !

This was from an AFHRA microfilm, I ordered about 24 years ago from AFHRA at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. Since I don't have a microfilm reader/printer, it's difficult to send prints of the desired pages. In this particular case, the pages are bad legible.

Here, I can't give you an (online) link, since I don't know anything about the progress in digitalisation of files and microfilms from AFHRA and their presence online.

Maybe the forum friends can help with general information in that matter !

Best wishes !

Horst Weber

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,

I think the file Horst is referring to is this one:

http://airforcehistoryindex.org/data/000/216/785.xml

The IRISREF is A5686

There may well be a single CD with all these files, which includes the above file. They all have the same IRISREF and reel number.

http://airforcehistoryindex.org/search.php?q=A5686

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hello, everyone,

thank you for the information, I will get these documents from AFHRA.

I wish you all a happy new year, I will be online again on 2 January
Greeting
Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,

Had to bring back life in an old computer, but could print out the relevant page of the April 1945 loss list Horst and Rolland are referring to.
As Horst wrote, the quality is not super.

If interested, just PM me your home address and you'll find it in your letterbox soon.

Grüss,

Leendert

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

An online 1943 Digital Map of the Cologne area (which is square wF of the Nord de Guerre Zone) can be found here:
https://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/i...acrepo%3A27070

When your cursor is on the map you can use the cursor to drag the map around or zoom in or out with the mouse wheel. 4 small circles appear in the upper left corner of the map when viewed in the viewing window. These circles can be sometimes hard to see. Clicking the 4th circle moves the map to full screen, for a much better view. You can also use the mouse to drag and to zoom the map in this full screen view. Use ESC to close the full screen view and return to the window view.

The value in this map lies in the fact that it has the grid lines marked in purple. The various locations given in the G-2 reports can be located directly on the map rather than using the http://www.echodelta.net/mbs/eng-welcome.php
site and the location translator. However, it is also useful to get an idea of the accuracy of the co-ordinate translator. At the bottom of the translation screen it says:
“Note : the imprecision of the determination is evaluated between 5 and 30 arc-seconds (this corresponds to an imprecision varying from 150 to 1000 meters on the field).”

To check on how accurate the translator is for locations on this map, let us compare the “location” of wF480480 as given by the map above with the location given as by the echodelta co-ordinate translator.
First, looking at the map, find the intersection of the horizontal and vertical “48” gridlines.
It appears to me that that location is about at 50.827353N, 6.999083E, (see red balloon) as given on this Google Maps.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/50...353!4d6.999083
(I think I can identify on the 1943 map Kirchstrasse and below it Uferstrasse both in red which helps find the location.)

So wF480480 is at:
50.827353N, 6.999083E

Now use the echodelta translator for wF480480 on the Nord de Guerre Zone. It converts to the location:
50.82909N, 6.99874E
https://www.google.com/maps/place/50...2909!4d6.99874

The difference in the two “locations” for wF480480 is about 200 meters.

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Thanks for the cautionary note about the co-ordinates translator. Add to that the lack of GPS in 1945. Airmen and troops reading maps weren’t always able to fix their positions with the kind of accuracy we take for granted now. That means that map references given in reports aren’t perfectly reliable either.

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hello, Roland,
first of all, a happy and healthy new year....

But now my head is smoking, I haven't gone that deep into it yet.........
This digital map of Cologne is of course great. So far I only had this American map of 1940 in printed form, which makes it very tedious to find the individual places.


One problem is, of course, that a lot has been built here since the 50's, especially on the outskirts of LÜLSDORF. If you open the Google-maps of Lülsdorf, there was all field to the left of Bachstr, there was no house except the Schneppenhof at the bottom left of the Rhine bank.


I had assumed the crash site (according to eyewitnesses) to be where BARRYNEALS is today, about in the field above. In the square field over there was a 8,8 cm FLAK with big ramparts and barracks...I have aerial photos from 1944 where you can see all this quite well......
Today I will work through the whole thing in peace and quiet and hopefully understand it :-))

But I have another question: The attack on 11.04.45 on ASCHERSLEBEN took place on a previously determined approach and return flight route......I have already looked through some things, but found nothing in this regard. Do you perhaps have a source on this.
Thanks again and have a nice day
Manni

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Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Another resource for some of these investigations is the collection of recon photos at NCAP.

NCAP aerial recon photos. https://ncap.org.uk/

I took a look at what is available and there are about 7 photos of the Lulsdorf area, all taken before 1945. You mention you have already seen such photos, so this may not be of much help.


There are two July 1943 photos which show the town pretty well. I have not seen the full size pictures but these are the links to the “thumbnails”. I don’t know what the cost is for the full size image or whether the cost is worth it. What I think you get even from these thumbnails (which you can "snip" and enlarge a little on your computer) is a better idea of the size of the town in the 1940s. First click the "download" option to get the thumbnail by itself, then enlarge the resulting thumbnail a little on the screen and then "snip" it to a PNG image file which you can save and enlarge a little more.

https://ncap.org.uk/frame/6-1-6-1-35?pos=3
https://ncap.org.uk/frame/6-1-6-1-34?pos=2


The BG flew two missions on April 11. These reports can be ordered from AFHRA.

http://airforcehistoryindex.org/data/000/083/031.xml

http://airforcehistoryindex.org/data/000/083/030.xml

I think both of these may be the on same CD (with lots of other things so you are "hopefully" only ordering one CD).

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

I have made contact with a daughter of the bombardier, Donald M Wolberg. She said she knew her father had been wounded in the war (broken elbow and burned) but did not know much else. As was typical at the time the war was just not discussed.

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

I have looked at the page https://ncap.org.uk/....einige of the pictures I already knew, but some others I did not. And on the pictures you can see very well, that where the plane crashed, there was only field at that time.
And I will order the CD soon at AHFRA.

A little astonished I am about the statement of the daughter of Donals Wolberg, that he didn't tell much about the war. I was always of the opinion that this would only have happened in German families. My father never talked about it, only in the last weeks of his life he told about the war again and again.
Do you still try to get in contact with other relatives of the crew?

Thank you until then for your nice cooperation, best regards
Manni

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Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hello Leendert,
I sent you a PM yesterday
Greeting
Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,
I will try to contact some other families, but it is always a slow process. I will post any new developments.

I have researched many other crashes and located veterans’ families. In a majority of cases, the war was not discussed. Most of the people I have contacted had only a vague idea of their father’s or grandfather’s war experiences. Details of a crash, escape or evasion or time in a POW camps was rarely, if ever, discussed. Some families would say “Dad sometimes talked with Mom about some of it but never with the rest of us”. Some of the veterans were suffering from what is now called PTSD. (Other European researchers I have worked with have also expressed surprise that the war was not discussed in veterans' families so your reaction is not unique.)

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Hallo RSwank,


I found an entry in the guestbook at b26.com today. There the stepson of Donald Wolberg is looking for information about his stepfather. The request is already from 20. March 2004, maybe he is still alive. Can you make a contact there ?

Greeting Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Manni,

Yes, I have seen the step-son's post and I am in the process of trying to make contact.

In regards to contacting other crew relatives, generally the e-mail addresses you can find are usually out of date. I have already had two bounce on this Cologne project, so I have found the next best thing is sending a short letter. Telephoning generally does not work. So many people here in the US get constant spam phone calls they just don't answer or they hang up. (And once they hang up on you, you have lost them forever.) A first contact by letter works better. It gives them a chance to think about it before responding, ask questions of other family members, etc. Also, if the address is wrong, the US postal service will generally return a 1st class US letter to the sender or even forward it to the correct address. They don't always do that for foreign mail.

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

I prefer to write to contemporary witnesses or their relatives, by mail or letter. One can explain oneself better and people don't feel as surprised as they do with a phone call.....thanks for your effort

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

the last crew member I haven't identified yet is Sgt. A. Samer.

I have now found by fold3 / ancestry the registration card of an Ernest Anthony Samar, born 23 October 1919 Serial No. 81 / Order Number S 2423.

It's the only Samar that could match in age. But I can't find any other military records on him......Do you have any idea __
Greeting
Manni

Re: Crash B26 on 11.April 1945 near Cologne
 

Samar is a bit of a mystery.

I have found an Andrew Samar, born 1922 and died in 1997. ASN: 12156601

He is listed as a TSgt US Air Force WWII in one place and he is listed as a S/Sgt on a (rather incomplete) POW record. He is buried in Mt Hope Cemetery, Hastings on Hudson, NY. He had two brothers and a sister, all now deceased. I have not found much else yet about him.

What we need is more info from AFHRA, e.g. a loading list or a 322nd BG roster to confirm the crew names.

https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-...g=1&rid=587014

https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-...g=1&rid=110705


https://www.fold3.com/record/83619920-andrew-samar


UPDATE: Andrew may have married a widow sometime in the late 70s or 80s. She died in 2007 but her obit does not mention any of her husbands. She did have a son born in the late 30s or early 40s who I believe is still alive. Once we are reasonably sure this Andrew Samar was on the plane, I will try to contact the step-son.