Operation: Mainz (Mission #683), Germany

Date: 19th October 1944 (Thursday)

Unit No: 733rd Bombardment Squadron (H), 453rd Bombardment Group (H), 2nd Air Division, 8th Air Force

Type: B-24H

Serial No: 42-95047

Code: F8:M+

Location: Near the village of Hofheim, some 16 km (10 mls) NE of Mainz, Germany

Base: Old Buckenham (Station #144), Norfolk, England

Pilot: 1st Lt. Lloyd Charles Carter O-742963 AAF Age 23. PoW * (1)

Co Pilot: 1st Lt. Arthur Llewellyn Mueller O-821332 AAF Age 21. PoW *

Navigator: 1st Lt. James Dutel Taylor O-700156 AAF Age 24. PoW *

Nose Turret: S/Sgt. Samuel Edward Scott 15327853 AAF Age 24. PoW ** (2)

Radio/Op: T/Sgt. Charles Cornelius Stahl 36404764 AAF Age 22. PoW **

Engineer: S/Sgt. Frank W. Holt 14180900 AAF Age 19. PoW **

Right Waist Gnr: T/Sgt. William Alfred Crandell 34665146 AAF Age 22. PoW **

Left Waist Gnr: S/Sgt. Stephen Swatko Jr. 32982971 AAF Age 26. PoW **

Tail Gnr: S/Sgt. Josiah Edward Lehman 34263814 AAF Age 28. KiA

Observer: T/Sgt. Thomas E. Bent 39855307 AAF Age 21. PoW **

Observer: S/Sgt. William Daniel Comstock 32605445 AAF Age 21. PoW **

The B-24 had 10 crew positions. Crew complements evolved during the war and generally comprised 9 personnel who were typically, but not always, Pilot, Co-Pilot, Bombardier, Navigator, Flight Engineer/Top Turret Gunner, Radio Operator/Waist Gunner, Nose Gunner, Ball Turret Gunner, Waist Gunner, Tail Gunner.

* Stalag Luft 3 Sagan-Silesia, Germany, now Żagań in Poland. (Moved to Nuremberg-Langwasser, Bavaria)

** Stalag Luft 4 Gross-Tychow, Pomerania, Prussia now Poland (Moved from Stalag Luft 6 Heydekrug. Moved to Wöbbelin near Ludwigslust and then to Usedom near Swinemünde)

REASON FOR LOSS:

On the morning of 19th October 1944 B-24H 42-95047 was one of 32 aircraft that took off from Old Buckenham in Norfolk on a mission to bomb the railway marshalling yards at Mainz in Germany.

The aircraft was hit by flak over the target after which it rolled over, caught fire and spiralled down in a slow spin. The aircraft crashed at about 12:53 hrs near the village of Hofheim, some 116 km (10 mls) NE of Mainz, Germany.

It was later established that all but S/Sgt. Lehman had successfully bailed out of the aircraft.

(1) 1st Lt. Carter parachuted into the river Main and landed some 3 m (10 ft) from the bank, in the vicinity of Griesheim, Frankfurt am Main. He was assisted ashore by a Christian Christ amongst others. He was then confronted by a Karl Jakob Stoll who shot him in the face with a pistol. 1st Lt. Carter fell to the ground unconscious. He was taken to a hospital in Frankfurt were he recovered from the gunshot wound. He was subsequently liberated by the advancing American forces during April 1945.

After hostilities ceased a General Military Government Court was convened at Dachau in Germany between the 3rd and 6th January 1947. Karl Jakob Stoll, a German national, was charged that he did, at or near Griesheim, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on or about the 19th October 1944, wilfully, deliberately and wrongfully, commit an assault with a deadly weapon upon a member of the United States Army, Lloyd C. Carter, 1st Lt., AC (Air crew), ASN O-742963, who was then an unarmed, surrendered PoW in the custody of the then German Reich, by shooting him.

Stoll was a former leader and member of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Workers Front - A Nazi labour organization).

The testimonies of two witnesses, a Karl Rauschenberg and a Karl Boddewing related to the court that Stoll had admitted to them that he had shot the airman. His defence that he was suffering from mental issues attributed to an automobile accident in 1930 was rejected by the court. He was found guilty of the charge and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment commencing on the 1st June 1945. He was released in December 1951.

German records from Dulag Luft, Oberursel document that 1st Lt. Carter was admitted to the Reservelazarett Hohe Mark, which served Dulag Luft, on the 27th October 1944.

We have been informed that some bullet fragments remained embedded for the remainder of Lloyd’s life. He passed away aged 80 and was interred at the Rush Springs Cemetery, Oklahoma (11th January 1921 - 27th May 2001).

(2) An entry in “Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces, Vol 5” for this aircraft recorded that S/Sgt. Scott was shot in the jaw and the bullet exited the back of his neck.

Susan Scott Meeks, the daughter of S/Sgt. Scott, has contacted Aircrew Remembered and corrected the above entry. S/Sgt. Scott landed in the middle of the Hofheim town square and was promptly captured by the local police and turned over to the military. He was not shot or injured and subsequently survived the “Death March” from Stalag Luft 4.

Burial Details:

S/Sgt. Josiah Edward Lehman. Air Medal (2 Oak Leaf Clusters), Purple Heart. Initially buried in Kelkheim Cemetery. Reinterred in the Lorraine American Cemetery, St. Avold in Plot RRR, Row 11, Grave 128. Relocated to Plot B, Row 16, Grave 32. Born on the 28th September 1916 in Logan, Oklahoma. Husband to Gertrude H. Lehman from Dennison, Minnesota, USA.

Researched by Ralph Snape and Traugott Vitz for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the relatives of this crew. Thanks also to Traugott Vitz for his work on the ‘VitzArchive’.

Other sources listed below:

Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them. Franklin Delano Roosevelt