[RSwank]

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.