Radio Operator/Gunner Frank Boeing 1944 – a strange wartime reunion

[peter monasso]

Hello Col Bruggy
Thanks for the reply. The two brothers of Heinrich Boyng who emigrated to America around 1870 were Franz and Josef and however Hagen-Hohenlimburg is not so far away from Wuellen (Wüllen) we can assume that this must have been another branch of the family tree Boyng. Possibly it was a classic example of wishful thinking to have some famous family “over there”.
Apart from that the description in the Newspaper of the meeting of Heinrich Boyng in Vredens Hospital with a crew member named Frank Boeing sounds realistic. The article says that Heinrich asked the patient: “are you a Boeing?” and he knicked “yes”. There was no further discussion because Heinrich only spoke German and the airman only English. The only further info Heinrich received was that the patients father started his career in America as a bricklayer. Heinrich was arrested by the Police ( three days in prison) and one of the Gestapo agents told him the “Pilot” was not a relative of him but a descendant of another Boyng branch which Heinrich didn’t believe. Now it turns out that assertion to be correct. About the newspaper article: however a lot of info in newspapers arise from the fantasy of journalists as we know but should this have been the case with this story ?? The fact that not one record produces the name “Boeing” being ever involved in a "fatal" Bomber mission to Germany is strange and I would almost think that the whole story is fiction. If so anyhow then it is a nice anecdote isn’t it ?
Peter Monasso