Mission 335 Dec 19, 1944 Blechhammer.
B-17 #44-6532 piloted by 1st Lt. Haddon Johnson Jr. My father who is still alive was the bombardier navigator on this flight his name is Richard Hugh Clarke Jr. , 0-751804B. On December 19,1944 this A/C was in the South Oil area at Blechhammer, dropped from formation and lost site. They lost the No. 2 engine and No 4 engine was on fire and lost altitude immediately. The A/C also sustained a direct hit through the right wing fuel tank. They set a south east course hoping to make it to the Russian lines. They skimmed over and around mountains in the Czechoslovakia and nearly crashed head on with a German command plane. They expected an attack from German fighters to pick them off, they didn't expect an attack by two Russian fighters near the Hungarian border. They all believed the attack was pure stupidity as all identifications were given. Kelly the upper turret gunner sent one Russian plane down in smoke and the a parachute. The other plan took off. They crash landed safely in Hungry behind the Russian lines. The crew with the help of the Hungarians, were evacuated back to Italy on Jan 15, 1945.
They were a make up crew:
Crew List
H. Johnson, B Campbell, R. Pilcher, R. Clarke, H.Kelly, E. Storrer, V. Slivka, L Francis, J.Cash
The Hungarian interpreter was a Yugoslav named Payle(Paul) M. Kavacevic, a mining engineer and graduate from the University of Leeds in England. The other interpreter was a Hungarian Jew from Budapest that they called "Joe". Joe was a chemical engineer who escaped from a German labor battalion and was employed in gold mine processing by the Russians. He hadn't heard about his family in Budapest for several years.
This is taken from my father to help anyone. If you would like to contact me please feel free to email me, Rick Clarke at
RClarke118@aol.com.
Source:
http://www.armyairforces.com/forum/m_6143/tm.htm