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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.

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8th Air Force
23.06.1944 38th Fighter Squadron P-38J Lightning, 42-67578 2nd Lt. Robert B. Hoffman

Operation: Glide bombing mission to Sens, France

Date: 23rd June 1944 (Friday)

Unit No: 38th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, 66th Fighter Wing, 8th Air Force

Type: P-38J Lightning

Serial: 42-67578

Code: CJ:?

Base: Wormingford (Station #159), Essex, England

Location: Prasville, 25¾ km (16 ml) SE of Chartres, France

Pilot: 2nd Lt. Robert Bruce Hoffman O-758172 AAF Age 22. Id No: 78350 *, PoW No. 8142 **

* 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:

2nd Lt. Hoffman took off from Wormingford on a squadron glide bombing mission to Sensin France. France. At about 14:00 hrs while flying at 10000 ft 19 km (12 ml) north of Dreux in France two Bf109s attacked from the rear and shot him down. The aircraft crashed near Prasville, 25¾ km (16 ml) SE of Chartres, France.

Major (Maj) Klaus Mietusch and Fähnenjunker-Feldwebel (Officer Cadet-Sgt) Joachim Zeller, from Stab III./JG26, claimed two and one P-38s respectively on this day. The claims were in the Chartres-Etampes area at 14:00 hrs, between 2000 m. and 3000 m. and the claims were confirmed.

However, there were only two P-38s lost on this day, at this time and in this location. So it is probable that one of the P-38s was claimed by both pilots.

P-38J 42-104284 was the second P-38 shot down. The pilot, 1st Lt. Grant H. Cory O-737735, was KiA. The aircraft was on the same mission as 2nd Lt. Hoffman and was also from the 38th Fighter Squadron.

The engagement was witnessed by two fellow pilots, the first by Capt. Clair W. Des Voignes DFC, O-743425.

‘Hellcat Squadron was reforming after a called break in the vicinity approximately 12 miles Northeast of Dreux, France. I was leading Hellcat White Flight who had lost me in the break and was behind and below the Squadron. I observed two Me.109's dive down in a line abreast formation upon an element to the rear of the Squadron. I called three times for Hellcat Squadron to break, but the element under attack took no evasive action. I observed the right engine of the rear P-38 burst into flames, and roll slowly toward the deck. When next observed this P-38 had crashed, apparently straight in, and was burning brightly. No chute was observed,

This action took place at approximately 10,000 feet at 1405 23 June 1944. The plane was later identified as that of 2nd Lt. Robert B. Hoffman’.

The second was 2nd Lt. Robert M. Littlefield O-758017.

‘On June 23, 1944 about 12 miles Northeast of Dreux, France, Lt. R.B. Hoffman and myself were bounced by two Me.109s. I heard someone yell “Hellcat break”. As I broke right I glanced over my left shoulder and observed a 109 on Lt. Hoffman’s tail firing. I saw strikes on Lt. Hoffman’s ship. That is the last I saw of Lt. Hoffman’.

2nd Lt. Hoffman managed to bale out of his P-38 before it crashed. He was helped in France by citizens of Ymonville which is some 3 km (2 ml) SE of the crash site and some 40 km (25 ml) NNW of Orléans. He was housed, clothed and fed for 4 days at a French farm. Two Frenchmen were shot and killed while helping him after landing. The family had previously helped a USAAF airman, Lt. Leonard Fink from New York.

This was 2nd Lt. Leonard J. Fink O-796510, Navigator aboard B-17G 42-30058, 546 BS, 384 BG which was shot down on the 26th June 1943. He successfully evaded with the help of the Bourgogne (Burgundy) escape line and returned to the UK on the 29th October 1943.

Arrangements were made for the underground to take him to Paris but was he and number of others were betrayed and captured by the Gestapo on the 19th July 1944. Hoffman was sure that the families that helped him were innocents and were not aware that the escape line had been infiltrated by traitors.

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 they were 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.

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.

Burial Details

None – Survived the war


Above: Beechcraft Travel Air D-95 crashed into a frozen creek (courtesy of The Evening Sun, dated January 28th, 1966)

Tragically Robert Bruce Hoffman, his brother Philip S. Hoffman and the pilot Raymond F. Devener were killed when their twin-engine Beechcraft Travel Air D-95 crashed into a frozen creek, within sight of the Port Erie Airport in Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of the 27th June 1966. It was reported that at that time there were scattered snow squalls and that one of the aircraft’s engines has failed.


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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