1.10.1943 Sopron area Hungary B24 /Lt. Olson

[Historesearch]

Hi.
Search for information regarding the crash of a B24 in the Sopron area on October 1. 1943.
1KIA, Lt. Olson.
Target Wr. Neustadt / MACR 15251
Thanks
Chris

[Rottler]

Hello Chris,

look for http://www.greenharbor.com/ROH.html. In the 44th Bomb Group Roll of Honor and Casualties, pages 140-142 you find details of this B-24 loss and the Lt Olson crew.

Regards
Leo

[Historesearch]

Danke.
Sehr interessante Informationen.
Ich suche die Absturzstelle. Vermutlich nahe Sopron (Ödenburg, Ungarn).
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Chris

[researcher111]

Back in the past I was in close contact with Terry's son inbetween the other he gave me photos and copies of his dad diary ( Olsen survived the Black Sunday just to die
several weeks later ) . From which source did you conclude the crash site was over Sopron ,Hungary ? Here is something which I hope it helps :

1 October, 1943

[Two months after the Ploesti raid, and on the last raid before the group was transferred back to England, Stan was lost in #857 on a second mission to Wiener Neustadt, Austria. Both the 93rd and the 44th Bomb Groups went, but unlike the earlier raid in August, great flak and fighter resistance was encountered. Of 25 B-24s, only nine made it back to base. Others crash landed at various sites. Six were downed over the target, including Stan, and two more were unaccounted for. It was his 23rd mission.]

This account is from Edgar W. Roberts, co-pilot with Stan on the raid to Wiener Neustadt, in a telephone conversation with Terry Olson in September, 1998:
“We were flying straight and level over the I.P. when Ole grabbed my arm and pointed to a ship to our left whose bomb bay was on fire. Ole said, ‘Boy that would sure be a tough situation to be in.’ No sooner had Ole said that, than one of the crew appeared on the flight deck to announce, ‘Our bomb bay is on fire!’” Sure enough, their own plane was ablaze as well. Stan hit the alarm to tell the crew to bail out, and kept flying the plane. Roberts went back to help the crew and found one man trying to climb out a top hatch. He convinced him to jump through the flaming bomb bay. Then Roberts looked around and said, “Your dad was visible, still flying the plane, and I jumped through the flaming bomb bay. I no sooner cleared the plane than it exploded. I had caught fire from going through the bomb bay flames, and hoped by not pulling the rip cord right away that I would be able to get the fire out.” Roberts landed safely and evaded capture for a time, but needed medical attention once he was a POW. He said he ended up in Stalag Luft III, and was transferred to a barracks new to him. On the first or second night there, he saw all these civilians coming into the room, and someone removed the stove to reveal a tunnel entrance. It was The Great Escape. This had to be in March of 1944.

Another account of the fate of the plane on 1 October, 1943, came from Steve Bugyie, a ball turret gunner with Stan’s crew that day. This account was given by telephone in the mid 1980s to Terry Olson:
“I heard the alarm to bail out and climbed out of the ball turret to see that the bomb bay was in flames. I had been hit by flak, and had liquid aluminum coming out my cheek, when I reached for my parachute hanging on the side of the fuselage. I grabbed a metal buckle which was hot from the fire, and I dropped the ‘chute into the ball turret. I had to reach down and retrieve it. I looked out the waist gunner opening and saw parachutes already open. I climbed out the waist gunner opening and began counting, one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, --and the plane exploded [This sounds like Bugyie and Roberts left the plane at virtually the same time, through different exits.] I decided I did not want to be strafed by German fighters, which had been rumored to happen occasionally, so I delayed opening my chute for almost too long. When I finally pulled the rip cord, the chute opened, I swung twice and then hit some trees. I had opened my chute so far away from the others that I eluded the Germans for four days before being captured, and then I was sent to a different POW camp than all the others on the crew.”

[HGabor]

As far as I know the 44 BG B-24D that went down at Kőszeg at 13:02 PM was 41-23811 with the 2Lt Richard W. Bridges crew. 7 POW, 3 KIA. 2Lt Bridges was captured at Velem, near Kőszeg, Hu. Later taken to Belgrade, escaped, then he returned to Bari, Italy on a SAAF C-47 in August, 1944. Hope this helps. His B-24 was the very first American plane lost in today's Hungary.

There was no other American plane crash that day in Hungary.

If there was another one in the Sopron, Hungary area, then this is a misleading statement and in fact it happened on the other side of the border still in Austria.

Gabor

[Alex Smart]

MACR 15251,
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/91164476

Also an old post of mine from a few years ago.

http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showth...ight=Zimmerman

42-41031, "43" finally went down on the 2nd April 1944 Pilot named Vogler. Hit by flak over Austria went down into Yugoslavia, MACR 4356.

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/90959048

Alex