Crash C-47 A at 09.April 1945 in Wahn

[Alex Smart]

Hello,
Can anyone give an explanation as to why the five "passengers " were not entered on the MACR originally ?
Alex

[RSwank]

The MACR was done by the adjutant of the 86th Transport Squadron at the airfield where the plane was based ( just outside of Paris). As far as he knew, the plane took off on April 9 with a load of fuel for Eschwege (deep in Germany) and never returned. He did not even (apparently) know the plane made it to Eschwege. He reports a last contact by radio but it is not totally clear if that was before or after the plane made it to Eschwege. (I think it was before as the plane was west of Frankfurt.) The unauthorized passengers were put on the plane at Eshwege and the plane was shot down by flak on the return flight. The airfield at Eschwege had just been made ready on April 7.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschwege_Airfield

I suspect the operations of Eschwege on the 9th were very hurried and confused and the record keeping may have been very poor. I don't know if the 86th Transport adjutant even tried to contact Eschwege to get any information since the plane's mission was to just go out and back and it failed to return on that mission he may have felt the way he wrote the MACR covered the mission of the plane.

[manniw]

I also think that things were going haywire in Eschwege, the airfield had just been repaired, all the troops were on their way to the Ruhr to round up the German Wehrmacht. So a lot of movement and improvisation......

But nothing in the military goes without orders, marching orders or the like. The five soldiers must have had marching orders from someone, probably higher up in the 285th QRC. Is it possible to see the daily reports of the 285th QRC somewhere?
Maybe there is something recorded about the crash and the reason for the trip...
I tried to find something in the National Archives in Washington, but unfortunately these documents have not yet been digitised and I cannot view them on my PC. Is there any other way to go deeper into this?


Manni

[RSwank]

We need to get the IDPF files, maybe one for a crewman and one for a passenger. Right now I believe only IDPF files for last names starting A through L are available. A commercial site can get them quickly but for a cost. I will investigate what is available.

[RSwank]

I have ordered two IDPF files from this commercial website:
https://www.goldenarrowresearch.com/


I ordered the files for:

Crew Member (co-pilot):
1st Lt John D Lampman, Jr, O-713798
86th Transport Squadron, Army Air Forces

https://www.abmc.gov/decedent-search/lampman%3Djohn


Passenger:
PFC Harvey G Larson, 37566309
258th Quartermaster Railhead Company

https://www.abmc.gov/decedent-search/larson%3Dharvey

It will take around a month to get them.

Typically the IDPF files for the rest of the crew and passengers will be very similar to the two IDPF files ordered. Usually the same investigators would have done all of them at the same time. Hopefully we will learn something new.

[manniw]

Rolland,

thanks for your effort, then I have to wait now ....I did not know this archive or service provider. Do you have to pay for its services ? I have found nothing like that on the web site....

Manni

[edwest2]

It's carefully worded. Yes, a payment is usually required based on the research requirements.

[RSwank]

Yes, they have quoted me a price of $50 per IDPF.

I am also looking at another company that may be able to get the April 1945 records of the 258th Railhead Company. I may get a quote and then decide whether to wait for the IDPFs first and then decide if we need the 258th records. If the IDPFs contain information as to why the 5 men were on the plane I don't think we would learn much more of interest from the company records.

[Larry deZeng]

Hmmm.................
This is pure speculation, but it seems to me that the 5 men had gone to Eschwege with the forward ground troops to survey rail connections, lines and equipment to see if rail traffic could be pushed forward across the Rhine to that location, and how long and what resources would be needed for repairs. Survey completed, they hitched a ride on the C-47 to return to their unit. This is a possibility in the event they weren't "just-released or freed POWs".

FWIW,

L. deZ.

[RSwank]

A quartermaster railhead company manned the supply dump at the frontlines and they issued out food rations, ammo, etc. to the frontline troops. They were at the "end" of the rail line or truck route that led to the front lines.