During WWII a lot of allied aircrafts came down on the island of Terschelling, in the North of The Netherlands, were I live. Most of them came down in the Northsea, or in the Waddensea, and 24 people were killed in those actions. I want to tell you about one of those planes, a Boeing B-17, that was called a flying fortress, as it was enormous.
It was nr. 41-24589 ‘Texas Bronco’ of the 91st Bomb Group. The plane had been part of a group of 86 bomber aircrafts, that were set out for an attack in daylight on the German industrial city of Hamm in Nordrhein-Westfalen.
The group had left at 09.07 h. from a British airfield. The bombardment should take place at about 11.45 h. They flew over the island of Vlieland, over Workum and the south east part of the province of Drenthe to Germany. Through a coded message from England the commendants heard that the target area was overcasted totally, so they decided to attack a secondairy target, the harbourcity of Emden.
At about 12.30h. the 41-24589 was gone from the formation. This aircraft was flown by captain Eugene B. Ellis. After the attack on Germany, it had been damaged a bit. One of the engines was hit and gone crazy and one wing was torn apart. This was the cause for the plane to get behind with the formation.
The plane was spotted by five German Messerschmidts and they started to attack it. Ellis made the plane go down a bit into the clouds, but immediately there was ice on the plane, causing a delay in the speed. The captain decided to fly as low as possible underneath the clouds and try to get to England. The five German planes did the same thing, however, and attacked again.
From the American plane, two of the German planes were shut down. Again two engines were hit. Ellis decided to do an emergency landing on the first island in sight, which happened to be Terschelling. Meanwhile the three remaining German planes kept firing and killed bomber lieutenant Marvin H. Beisiker and radio man sergeant Michael LaMedica got fatally wounded.
The landing was a success, but when the survivors tried to get the dead and wounded men out of the burning plane, they were surrounded by German soldiers. The remaining eight crewmembers of the ‘Texas Bronco’ became prisoners of war. LaMedica was taken to a hospital in Leeuwarden, where he died and was burried.
The other people on board of that plane were capt. Eugene B. Ellis, technical sergeant Joseph L. Mastroberadino, lieutenant Howard M. Dunham, 2nd lieutenant Kenneth F. Nutch, N.L. Floyd, A. Gaeta, W.H. Howard and R.E. Demars. They were sent by ferry to the mainland. Beisiker was burried on Terschelling by the Germans with militairy honour in grave number 86 in the cemetery nearby the place the plane had landed.
Some of this info came from the book: “We vieren het pas als iedereen terug is” by Johan van der Wal, 2007.
Since I did this post, I have looked on the internet for more info and I now know Beisiker was burried about where the beach-lifeboat shed is nowadays, a lonely place in the dunes near the sea. There happened to be a graveyard. When I was a kid there were no signs that there had ever been a cemtery. If you didn’t know it was there, you wouldn’t have guessed. I just stayed away out of respect, but the graves probably were already emptied then.
My grandfather had to help the Germans burrying dead people there, that I know from my father. It had a great impact on him. I also learned from a forum that the grave of LaMedica is now in Margraten, in the South of the Netherlands, as some of the bodies have been reburried there and the graveyard has been empty here for a while.
There were 2 military cemetries on the island, the first one in the dunes, the second one near the village of West. The second one is still there, with some of the bodies that were first burried in the dunes as well.
My eldest son and friends once found some belongings at the spot of the first cemetery when they were having a beachparty and digging a hole, it is was probably from a soldier. It was a little box with some hairs in in, probably a souvenir from a loved one. My son took it to the museum here, the Behouden Huis. There is no telling of whom it was as there were many dead sailors washed ashore in those days were burried on that spot.
Plattegrond van het kerkhof bij paal 8, situatie 1940 – 1942/ map of cemtery
http://maps.google.com/maps?
A short while ago I got an email from a son of one of the surviving crewmembers! He had read my posting. He knew the story, but never knew where the plane actually went down. His father, W.H. Howard, died March 17th, 1995. Mr Keith Howard told me in a ps that the plane landed intact, but Captain Ellis set off an incendiary device (thanks David for explaining what he meant :) ) to destroy the Norton bomb sight in an effort to keep it out of German hands. In other words: the plane was set fire to by the captain himself.
Now thát is news! 
So Texas Bronco will keep me busy for a while I think.
The times they are changing. Tonight at 3 the time goes back one hour (here anyway) as wintertime starts. I always wondered what would happen if you got a twin during that mysterious hour, the first one born at 2.40 at night, the second one born 3.30 at night but that would be 2.30 then, which one is older if you look on the birth certificate? Hm. Has this ever happened?
