Operation: Senonches fuel dump (Group mission #108), France

Date: 5th July 1944 (Wednesday)

Unit No: 573rd Bombardment Squadron (M), 391st Bombardment Group (M), 99th Combat Wing, 9th Air Force

Type: B-26C Pink’s Lady II

Serial No: 42-107834

Code: T6:?

Location: 5 km (3 mls) NW of Dreux near Vert-en-Drouais, France

Base: Matching Green (Station #166), Essex, England

Pilot: 1st Lt. Louis Edward Hartman O-684328 AAF Age 24. KiA

Co-Pilot: 2nd Lt. Kenneth Lincoln Arneson O-690884 AAF Age 26. PoW *

Bombardier/Nav: 1st Lt. Donald Edwards Collins O-669007 AAF Age 28. PoW **

Engineer/Gnr: T/Sgt. Donald Ray Shearer 15118030 AAF Age 22. Id No: 78332 ***, PoW No: 8192 **** (1)

Radio Operator/Gnr: S/Sgt. Adolphe L. Pavinski 6995330 AAF Age 27. KiA

Tail Gnr: Pvt. Edward Nelson Grove 13200930 AAF Age 18. KiA

* Reserve Lazarett (hospital) at Hohemark, which served Dulag Luft Wetzlar.

** Stalag 7a Moosburg, Bavaria (Work Camps 3324-46 Krumbachstrasse and 3368 Munich).

*** Buchenwald concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany in July 1937.

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

REASON FOR LOSS:

On the 5th July 1944 36 B-26 aircraft were detailed to attack an enemy fuel dump at Senonches in France.

The formation encountered heavy intense and accurate Flak in the target area near Foret de Dreux.

1st Lt. Hartman was last seen in his seat holding the aircraft steady to give the crew a chance to bale out. It was believed that he perished when the aircraft exploded.

1st Lt. Collins suffered burns when a hydraulic tank exploded and was last seen by 2nd Lt. Arneson being treated at the Beaujon hospital in Clichy, Paris for his injuries. 2nd Lt. Arneson was moved to another hospital in Chartres for treatment for his injuries.

The aircraft was seen to crash 5 km (3 mls) NW of Dreux near Vert-en-Drouais, France at 10:44 hrs. Pink’s Lady IIwas one of two B-26s lost on this mission.

The circumstances leading to the deaths of S/Sgt. Pavinski and Pvt. Grove are not known.

(1) T/Sgt. Shearer evaded capture for 14 days before being betrayed on his way to Paris.

He was then taken to the Fresnes prison located to the south of Paris. This was where French political prisoners were held and ordinarily Allied airmen, after questioning, were moved to a PoW Camp. In the summer of 1944, with the Allies having liberated Paris and closing in, the Gestapo guards started reducing the prison population by execution, and then relocating surviving prisoners to various concentration camps east of France. On the 15th August 1944 he was amongst 169 Allied PoWs and hundreds of French men and women who were packed into a freight train and transported to Buchenwald concentration camp on a journey lasting five days. Buchenwald was located 8 km (5 mls) north of Weimar, in the German province of Thüringen. It was established and administered by the Schutzstaffel (SS).

Fg Off. Joel Mathews ‘Tex’ Stevenson C27788 RCAF, the pilot of 419 (Moose) Squadron, RCAF Lancaster X KB727 VR:H escaped from the train and successfully evaded.

Sqn Ldr. Lamason and Fg Off. Chapman succeeded in getting all but two of the Allied PoWs transferred to Stalag Luft 3. Two airmen, 1st Lt. Levitt Clinton Beck Jr. O-736945, US AAF and Fg Off. Philip Derek Hemmens, 152583, RAFVR died in the sick barrack.

He was transferred to Stalag Luft 3 over the period 15th to 20th October 1944.

On the night of the 27th January 1945, with Soviet troops only 26 km (16 mls) away, orders were received to evacuate the PoWs to Spremberg which is to the West in Germany. The PoW’s were informed of the evacuation, which was on foot, at about 22:00 hrs the same night and were given 30 mins to pack and prepare everything for the March. The weather conditions were very difficult, with freezing temperatures, and it was snowing accompanied by strong winds. There was 15 cm (6 in) of snow and 2000 PoWs were assigned to clear the road ahead of the main groups.

The first groups of American PoW’s set out from the South Compound with the last PoW leaving at 23:00 hrs. The next group of American PoWs set out from the West Compound. At 03:45 hrs the North Compound left, followed by the Centre Compound. At 06:00 hrs the East Compound left. All the groups were accompanied by guards.

After a 55 km (34 mls) march, the PoWs arrived in Bad Muskau where they rested for 30 hours. The PoWs were then marched the remaining 26 km (16 mls) to Spremberg where they were housed in empty garages, storerooms and in military barracks. There they were provided with warm soup and bread.

During next days, PoWs were divided up according to Compounds, and they were led to railway sidings and loaded into tightly packed carriages.

On the 31st January, the South Compound prisoners plus 200 men from the West Compound were sent to Stalag 7A at Moosburg followed by the Centre Compound prisoners on the 7th February.

The camp was liberated on the 29th April 1945 by units of the 14th Armoured Division from Patton’s 3rd Army.

Recognition:

For decades the International Red Cross (IRC) had stated that there were no military personnel in Buchenwald despite the overwhelming documentary and anecdotal evidence. It was not until 1988 that the IRC eventually confirmed the airmen were illegally held at Buchenwald.

The Australian, New Zealand and Canadian governments also consistently denied that any of their service personnel were ever held in concentration camps and refused to investigate the claims made by a 'mere’ handful of men.

Reparations were made to the British airmen who had been illegally held at Buchenwald in 1965. Eventually in 1988 the Australian, New Zealand and it is believed the Canadian governments acknowledged that their airmen had been illegally held in concentration camps.

American airmen were among those receiving compensation and the US Air force have acknowledged the Buchenwald airmen with an exhibit at the Air Force Museum, albeit the airmen are shown in uniform rather than in civilian attire. Furthermore, there is no mention of decades-long denial of their experiences by other branches of the government.

Burial Details:

S/Sgt. Pavinski and Pvt. Grove were reported to have been initially buried together in an unidentified French Cemetery. 1st Lt. Hartman was found several miles from where the aircraft crashed. On the 1st November 1945 they were all recovered and reinterred in the US Military Cemetery St. André near Evreux.

1st Lt. Louis Edward Hartman. Air Medal (8 Oak Leaf Clusters), Purple Heart. Relocated to the Normandy American Cemetery, Plot A, Row 14, Grave 14. Born on the 17th August 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Son of Louis C. and Ethel A. Hartman of Andalusia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Above: Grave marker for S/Sgt. Pavinski. (Courtesy of Dominique Potier - FindAGrave)

S/Sgt. Adolphe L. Pavinski. Air Medal (8 Oak Leaf Clusters), Purple Heart. Relocated to the Normandy American Cemetery, Plot K, Row 10, Grave 182. Born on the 10th November 1916 in Jersey City, New Jersey. Son of William (deceased in 1920) and Minnie (née Drozd) Pavinski of Duryea, Pennsylvania, USA.

Pvt. Edward Nelson Grove. Air Medal (2 Oak Leaf Clusters), Purple Heart. Relocated to the Normandy American Cemetery, Plot K, Row 7, Grave 140. Born on the 22nd November 1925 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Son of Clarence Peter and Clara (née Kempff) Grove of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Researched by Ralph Snape for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the relatives of this crew (Oct 2023). Update to include forced-march information (Jun 2024).

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