[FrankieS]

B - 24 # 42 - 95298 IG " Trouble N Mind "
3 KIA 6 POW MACR # 13731
Pilot - Capt. John Ray Jr.
CP - Lt Alden Hershiser KIA
Nav - Lt. Ara Adams KIA
Toggleer / NT - S/Sgt. John Garrity
TT/E - S/Sgt. Wilfred Shilts
RO - T/Sgt. Hobart Chester
LW - S/Sgt. Edward Webb
RW - S/Sgt. Francis Hildenberger
TG - S/Sgt. Peter Fager KIA

On the morning of 4 April 1945, Ehrler flew his last sortie and achieved the last two of his 208 recorded victories. Major Ehrler, flying out of the JG 7 Airfield at Brandenburg-Briest accompanied by his wingman, was in the skies 50 kilometers east of Hamburg when B-24 Liberators from the 448th BG began forming their bombing run of Parchim. Ehrler attacked the lead 714th squadron, downing two B-24 bombers—Lt. Shafter’s “Miss-B-Havin,” and Lt. Mains’ “Red Bow.” At the time of the attack, two P-51s were pursuing Ehrler and he was being fired upon by squadron bombers, taking hits from the tail and waist gunners of B-24, “My Buddie” (piloted by Lt. Gordon Brock) who reported pieces of fuselage flying off the jet. The attack took place over Buchen at grid points 53°31N, 10°38E. Minutes later, as the 448th Bomb Group circled back towards their Group RP at Stendal, Ehrler engaged a third B-24 Liberator, “Trouble in Mind,” piloted by Captain John Ray, over Kyritz, at 52°57N, 12°23E. A reference is made by surviving crew members to a cannon hit in the fuselage that destroyed the Liberator, but Ehrler had only moments before radioed Major Theodor Weissenberger that he was running out of ammunition and intended to ram the bomber. In any case, both planes were destroyed in the ensuing explosion. The B-24 crashed at Krullenkempe, near Havelberg, as Ehrler’s’s jet fell to earth in the woods of Scharlibbe where he was killed. His body was recovered the following day at Scharlibbe, near Stendal where he was buried. Ehrler’s grave at Stendal confirms the date of death as 4 April 1945.

04 APRIL 1945
8th USAAF Mission # 926 of 968, 448th BG Mission # 248 of 262 total.
Target: Jet/Rocket Airfields in Northern Germany .
The maximum effort strike assigned 45 aircraft from Seething to attack Wesendorf.
Near the target the group received intense opposition; first due to German jet and rocket fighter aircraft followed by intense, accurate anti-aircraft fire.
B-24H-30-FO, #42-95298, TROUBLE N' MIND (MACR 13731) piloted by Capt. John Ray Jr.suffered a cannon burst in the cockpit which severed the oxygen and communication lines. While fire consumed the cockpit area the aircraft went into a shallow dive that increased into a spin.
Six of the nine crewmembers who parachuted were captured by Germans between Kyritz and Havelberg.
The three remaining airmen Lt. Alden J. Hershiser Jr. O768545, 1st Lt. Ara J. Adams O2000376 and SSgt. Peter J. Fager 396173211 did not survive. Hirshiser was last seen decending with his parachute deployed.
The aircraft finally crashed near the village of Krullenkempe narrowly missing the houses.
The violent jet opposition cost the 448th Bomb Group three aircraft with their crews in mere seconds on this raid on which they were unable to drop their bombs.