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  #1  
Old 15th March 2019, 14:32
peter monasso peter monasso is offline
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Radio Operator/Gunner Frank Boeing 1944 – a strange wartime reunion

Hi all



Did anyone of you ever heard of a Radio Operator/Gunner Frank Boeing ?
In a Dutch Newspaper dated 30 January 1954 appeared an interesting article about a Radio Operator Frank Boeing from Chicago. The article says that he belonged to a B-17 crew which took part in a raid to Germany and his a/c was hit by flak. The captain finally ordered the crew to jump as most of them did also Frank Boeing. He was hurt and came in a Hospital in the German village Vreden. His a/c possibly came down somewhere in the west part of Germany close to the Dutch border. A German farmer named Heinrich Boyng (born 1866) heard of this incident when visiting a local hairdresser at his village Wuellen which is not far from Vreden. He remembered two of his elder brothers -one of them was also named Frank- emigrated around 1870 to the USA being very successful in starting several companies which finally led to the Boeing Aircraft Corporation. Earlier –possibly when arriving on Ellis Island- their names were changed from the German “Boyng” into the American version of Boeing. When he heard the name “Frank Boeing” he was convinced that “Pilot” must be his nephew which indeed turned out to be so later when he met him in hospital. Heinrich Boyng went to Vreden and tried to visit Frank Boeing but the nurses refused to let him see the wounded airman. But Heinrich insisted in his attempt and finally they let him go and he spoke a few words with Frank which quickly led to the conclusion that Frank indeed was his nephew. The same afternoon Heinrich was visited by the Local Police and members of the Gestapo and came under arrest and he was accused for “helping escaping the enemy.” (enemy?? it was one of his nearest relatives ?!?!) He stayed three days in prison and was sent home later.
The newspaper article says the mission was on 3rd May 1944 but in Roger Freemans book Mighty Eight and also on Fold3 there were no USAAF Missions to Germany on 3rd May 1944. So I looked for an earlier Mission such as 29 April 1944 when the USAAF had a mission to Berlin. 38 B-17s went lost that date and of 36 of these I checked the crew lists but there was not one crew member named Frank Boeing. Is there anyone who has an idea or does there ring a bell ? It could be that the Mission when Frank Boeing didn’t return to his base was already in January or February 1944 ?

Peter Monasso
Dutch Air War 1940-1945 Historian
The Netherlands
info@crashmuseum.nl
www.crashmuseum.nl
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Old 15th March 2019, 17:44
Leendert Leendert is offline
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Re: Radio Operator/Gunner Frank Boeing 1944 – a strange wartime reunion

Peter,


If Boeing is the name as spelled here, then no record of him in the online NARA Prisoner of War Data File (either).


Groet,


Leendert
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Old 15th March 2019, 18:03
peter monasso peter monasso is offline
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Re: Radio Operator/Gunner Frank Boeing 1944 – a strange wartime reunion

Hi Leendert


Thank you for your reply. It makes the mystery only a bit bigger but the Newspaper wrote his name as Boeing and Heinrich Boyng did remember very well that his uncles after a difficult start were the ones who finally started the Boeing factories so there is no doubt about that. All very strange...
Anyhow thank you,
groetjes,
Peter
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Old 15th March 2019, 18:06
Col Bruggy Col Bruggy is offline
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Re: Radio Operator/Gunner Frank Boeing 1944 – a strange wartime reunion

Hello,

No mention of him here, either:

http://www.91stbombardmentgroup.com/...ID/FORTLOG.pdf

Col.
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Old 15th March 2019, 19:50
RSwank RSwank is offline
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Re: Radio Operator/Gunner Frank Boeing 1944 – a strange wartime reunion

The Boeing company was started by William Edward Boeing, (1881 - 1956). His father was Wilhelm Böing (1846–1890) who was from Hohenlimburg, Germany. Wilhelm immigrated in 1868. William was born in Detroit, MI.

More info here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Boeing

The Boeing company was started in 1916 by William and another partner as the Pacific Aero Products Co. William had only one son, William Edward, Jr.

The stories do not seem to "match up".

Last edited by RSwank; 16th March 2019 at 01:13.
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Old 16th March 2019, 12:29
peter monasso peter monasso is offline
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Re: Radio Operator/Gunner Frank Boeing 1944 – a strange wartime reunion

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
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Old 16th March 2019, 14:22
RSwank RSwank is offline
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Re: Radio Operator/Gunner Frank Boeing 1944 – a strange wartime reunion

Franz Boeing, born in Wullen in 1851 arrived in the US around 1880. He died in 1930 in Michigan (apparent suicide) and was buried in Skokie, IL just outside of Chicago.

Franz had a brother Joseph who also came to the US. Franz had a son, Frank Boeing (1886 – 1938) and Frank had a son (also named Frank) born in IL about 1917. The Frank born in 1917 in IL could possibly be the radio operator, but there does not seem to be any record found so far that shows he served in the Army Air Force. In fact, outside of the 1920 census where he shows up (at age 3), there does not seem to be any further record of him in Ancestry.com. His brother Walton F (Frank?) Boeing was born in 1909 and died in Florida in 2006. His sister, Margaret T (Boeing) Gabler was born in 1914 and died in Chicago in 1995.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...garet-t-gabler

Here are the "Boeings" who served in the army in WWII. (This archive list is known to have some names missing.) However, no Frank (or Walton) listed.

https://aad.archives.gov/aad/display...3=0&txt_24983=

Last edited by RSwank; 17th March 2019 at 01:32.
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Old 16th March 2019, 18:02
peter monasso peter monasso is offline
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Re: Radio Operator/Gunner Frank Boeing 1944 – a strange wartime reunion

Hi RSwank

Thank you for your two replies and interesting new details which fits very well ! The airman Frank Boeing came from Chicago as Heinrich said. And he also told that his two brothers Franz and Josef emigrated to America which you found out to be correct. Great that you found this info ! In fact it was Franks grandfather who emigrated to America so the sequence was: Franz born 1851, Frank born 1888 and Frank jr. born around 1917 and with his age of 27 years he could have been very well the one who was serving with the USAAF. So the mystery is still there why we can’t find him as having served in the Air Force. At the time (1944) was his name in a way too tainted for the Germans that they swopped him against a German PoW who was kept in England in stead of putting him in a PoW camp ?? Maybe a crazy idea but I try to find an answer a way out of this.
Regards
Peter Monasso
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