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Archive Report: US Forces
1941 - 1945

Compiled from official National Archive and Service sources, contemporary press reports, personal logbooks, diaries and correspondence, reference books, other sources, and interviews.

We seek additional information and photographs. Please contact us via Helpdesk
8th Air Force
08.06.1944 374th Fighter Squadron P-51B 43-6982 ‘Bette of Brooklyn II’ 1st Lt. James D. Hastin DFC

Operation: Bomber support (Mission #400), Chartres area, France

Date: 8th June 1944 (Thursday)

Unit No: 374th Fighter Squadron, 361st Fighter Group, 67th Fighter Wing, 8th Air Force

Type: P-51B Bette of Brooklyn II

Serial: 43-6982

Code: B7:T

Base: Bottisham (Station #374), Cambridgeshire, England

Location: 3¼ km (2 mls) south of Anet, France

Pilot: 1st Lt. James Dales Hastin DFC O-676788 AAF Age 22. Id No: 78354 *, PoW No. 8140 **

* 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:

1st Lt. Hastin DFC took off on the afternoon of the 8th June on a bomber escort mission over the Chartres area, France.

At about 14:30 hrs his Mustang flew through an explosion resulting in the destruction of the control surfaces. He was forced to bail out and his aircraft crashed 3¼ km (2 mls) south of Anet, 16 km (10 mls) NNE of Dreux, France.

The after mission report by Capt. Shelby Jackson Harris, O-664526 provides additional information:

“I was leading Noggin Red Flight in the vicinity of Eureux, France at an altitude of about 4,000 ft. Lt. Haskin, flying #2 position in Noggin Blue Flight, reported engine trouble and said he was returning. I was escorting him home and a few minutes later he called again and said “My plane is on fire, guess I’ll have to jump”. He jumped and I saw his chute open and later saw him land in some woods.”

1st Lt. Hastin’s evaded for 20 days before being betrayed and arrested by the Gestapo on the 28th June in 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 August 1944. In early April 1945 he joined the forced march to Stalag 7a, Moosburg in Southern Bavaria. The camp was liberated on the 29th April 1945 by units of the 14th Armoured Division from Patton’s 3rd Army and he returned to the United States on the 28th May 1945.

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 who received 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.

Above: Courtesy of The Bellingham Herald, dated June 27th, 1945

Burial details:

None. The pilot survived

Researched by Ralph Snape for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the relatives of this pilot.

Other sources listed below:

RS 02.03.2024 - Correction to Buchenwald narrative

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Acknowledgments: Sources used by us in compiling Archive Reports include: Bill Chorley - 'Bomber Command Losses Vols. 1-9, plus ongoing revisions', Dr. Theo E.W. Boiten and Mr. Roderick J. Mackenzie - 'Nightfighter War Diaries Vols. 1 and 2', Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt - 'Bomber Command War Diaries', Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Tom Kracker - Kracker Luftwaffe Archives, Michel Beckers, Major Fred Paradie (RCAF) and MWO François Dutil (RCAF) - Paradie Archive (on this site), Jean Schadskaje, Major Jack O'Connor USAF (Retd.), Robert Gretzyngier, Wojtek Matusiak, Waldemar Wójcik and Józef Zieliński - 'Ku Czci Połeglyçh Lotnikow 1939-1945', Archiwum - Polish Air Force Archive (on this site), Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek - 'Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii', Franek Grabowski, Norman L.R. Franks 'Fighter Command Losses', Stan D. Bishop, John A. Hey MBE, Gerrie Franken and Maco Cillessen - Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces, Vols 1-6, Dr. Theo E.W. Boiton - Nachtjagd Combat Archives, Vols 1-13. Aircrew Remembered Databases and our own archives. We are grateful for the support and encouragement of CWGC, UK Imperial War Museum, Australian War Memorial, Australian National Archives, New Zealand National Archives, UK National Archives and Fold3 and countless dedicated friends and researchers across the world.
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Last Modified: 02 March 2024, 06:23

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