Operation: Bomber Escort to Sankt Pölten, Austria

Date: 1st April 1945 (Sunday)

Unit: 301st Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, 306th Fighter Wing, 15th Air Force

Type: P-51B Unaka

Serial: 42-106943

Code: No Sqn code issued

Base: Ramitelli air base, Italy

Location: Kematen an der Krems, Austria

Pilot: 2nd Lt. Walter Peyton Manning O-828053 AAF Age 24. Murdered

Above: Official photograph of 2nd Lt. Walter Peyton Manning taken 4th April 1944

REASON FOR LOSS:

Thirty-seven Mustangs from the 332nd Fighter Group, the Tuskegee Airmen “The Red Tails”, took off from the Ramitelli air base in Italy to escort B-24s from the 47th Bomb Wing on a mission to bomb the marshalling yards at Sankt Pölten in Austria. No opposition was encountered and the bombing mission was completed.

Eight Mustangs from the 301st Fighter Squadron flew a fighter sweep in the Wels area and tangled with ten Fw190s and six Me109s from Kampfgeschwader (KG(J)) 27 “Boelcke”. Twelve of the German aircraft were claimed as destroyed, however, the 332nd fighter Squadron lost three Mustangs.

KG(J) 27 “Boelcke” was originally KG 27, a medium bomber Wing flying Heinkel He111 bombers. Several Staffeln (squadrons) of KG(J) 27 flew out of Hörsching, Raffelding and Wels airfields. After losses sustained in trying to combat Allied bomber attacks the remnants of KG(J) 27 were disbanded on the 8th April 1945.

An after mission statement by 2nd Lt. Carl E. Caray, O-8353246 described the loss of two pilots from the squadron.

“While our squadron of eight (8) planes were engaged in a dog fight south of the Wels area I observed a P-51 type aircraft diving in from about 3000 feet. The plane was smoking badly and I observed flames under the wings. I did not see the pilot bale out, nor did I see the plane crash. I can't say whether the pilot was 2nd Lt. Walter P. Manning, O-826053 or Flight Officer (FO) William P. Armstrong, T-66139, the two pilots that did not return. The position was about a quarter of a mile south of Wels, Austria”.

The third Mustang lost was flown by 1st Lt. James H. ‘Jimmy’ Fischer, and had been damaged by flak whilst chasing a German fighter across an enemy airfield but manage to shoot down his victim. As 1st Lt. Fischer struggled to bring his Mustang home it was hit again in the wing as he passed over a small town in Yugoslavia. He was forced to bail out but landed among friendly partisans.

A second after mission statement by 2nd Lt. John B. Edwards O-835407 adds information regarding the location of two crash sites.

“On mission 1st April 1945 a dog fight occurred at 14:00 hrs in the Wels area at approximately 3000 feet. One plane a P-51 type aircraft, was seen doing a split S from about 1200 feet after two (2) Fw-190's had fired at him from a no deflection shot (stern). He didn't pull out of this dive. This occurred about a quarter of a mile South of Wels. I also observed a pilot bale out of his plane after having been attacked by enemy fighters about fifteen miles south of Wels. I was not able to identify either the pilots or the planes, except that they were our planes, in both of the instances. It is logical to assume that either 2nd Lt. Walter P. Manning, O-829053, was the pilot that spun in, and Flight Officer (FO) William P. Armstrong, T-66139, was the pilot that baled out, or vice versa since two (2) of our eight planes that engaged in the fight didn’t return.

2nd Lt. Manning last seen at about 14:00 hrs in same approximate area as FO. Armstrong estimated to be between 400 m (1300 ft) and 24 km (15 mls) south of Wels. The pilot seen to bale out safely was either Lt. Manning or FO. Armstrong.

2nd Lt. Manning was credited with shooting down a Fw190 before he himself was shot down.

FO. William Pickney ‘Will’ Armstrong, T-66139 was KiA. He was repatriated and buried in the Grace Church Cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island, USA.

The circumstances leading to the death of 2nd Lt. Manning were investigated by Georg Hoffmann (Ref 1). He determined that 2nd Lt. Manning baled out and landed at about 14:30 hrs, close to Kematen an der Krems, some 8 km (5 mls) ESE of Wels.

After 2nd Lt. Manning landed safely he was surrounded by a crowd of angry civilians and military personnel so he had no alternative but to immediately raise his hands in surrender. Some of the crowd wanted to shoot him on the spot but a few courageous bystanders prevented this from happening.

Word spread rapidly about the capture of 2nd Lt. Manning describing him in derogatory terms which portrayed the German propaganda and prejudices in how black African Americans were seen at the time.

Karl Kermer, an Oberzahlmeister (a chief paymaster) of the Wehrmacht, arrived at the scene and was the first to officially take custody of 2nd Lt. Manning. Up to this point, the airman had been standing in front of the angry crowd with his hands raised. Kermer immediately arranged for the American to be taken to the nearest police post in Weichstetten in order to remove him from the threatening situation.

Shortly after the airman had been taken away, an angry Ortsgruppenleiter (local group leader), who had also heard about the capture of the airman, arrived. An argument immediately ensued with Kermer, since the latter regarded the airman as a PoW, while the Ortsgruppenleiter insisted that he should be shot.

The name of the Ortsgruppenleiter was not revealed by Georg Hoffmann probably in deference to living relatives.

After his dispute with Ortsgruppenleiter, Kermer drove to the Gendarmerie post at Weichstetten where he found that 2nd Lt. Manning was still being held there. It was not until about 4 hrs before the airman was collected by Luftwaffe personnel and transported to the Hörsching airbase.

On the night of 3rd to 4th April 1945, at about 03:00 hrs, two officers from the resident Kampfgeschwader (KG(J)) 27 "Boelcke", squadron appeared in the guardroom of the air base and demanded that soldier on duty hand over the American to them. The soldier handed 2nd Lt. Manning over to the officers without further questions, who immediately dragged him into the open. He was severely maltreated before his hands were tied behind his back and he was hanged from a telegraph pole in the immediate vicinity of the office of the airfield commander.

About two hours after the hanging several people found the airman’s body and reported the incident to the barracks commander, who ordered the guard commander to investigate. However, it appears that pressure was brought to bear by Nazi party officials and the Gestapo and the entire affair was covered up.

Immediately after the end of the war the American military authorities launched an investigation and very quickly discovered 2nd Lt. Manning's buried body near a row of trees inside the airfield. However, further investigations were not carried out with any urgency and the two German officers, whose names were known, were not traced. Pursuing the case as a whole did not appear to be urgent, despite the wealth of information available. Then, inexplicably the investigation by the American authorities was discontinued altogether.

The authors wonder whether an investigation into the murder of a white officer in similar circumstances would have been handled in such a desultory manner and then so readily curtailed.

Burial Details

Above Grave marker for 2nd Lt. Walter Peyton Manning (Courtesy of Vindicator I , Scott Muselin - FindAGrave)

2nd Lt. Walter Peyton Manning. Air Medal (5 Oak Leaf Clusters), Purple Heart. Lorraine American Cemetery, Plot K, Row 36, Grave 37. Born on the 3rd May 1920 in Baltimore, Maryland. Son of Mrs. Winifred S. Manning, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

A memorial plaque to 2nd Lt. Walter P. Manning was dedicated on the 3rd April 2018 at the Linz Hörsching, Vogler Air Base in Austria.

The Congressional Gold Medal (CGM) was awarded to the Tuskegee airmen on the 11th April 2006. A single gold medal was struck and is retained by the Smithsonian Institution. US President George W. Bush presented the medal to Dr. Rosco Brown Jr., during ceremonies honouring the Tuskegee Airmen on Thursday 29th March 2007.

Researched by Ralph Snape and Traugott Vitz for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the relatives of this Pilot with thanks to Traugott for his work on the ‘VitzArchive’ (Sep 2024).

Other sources listed below:

Reference:

1. Fliegerlynchjustiz (Fallstudie XXVI: Der Tuskegee-Mord von Linz-Hörsching (3./4. April 1945)) - Georg Hoffmann. pp 293 - 297.

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