Operation: Melun airfield (Mission #508), France

Date: 1st August 1944 (Tuesday)

Unit No: 28th Bombardment Squadron (H), 93rd Bombardment Group (H), 2nd Air Division, 8th Air Force

Type: B-24H Lindie

Serial No: 42-95043

Code: RE:K

Location: Near Sheerness in Kent

Base: Hardwick (Station #104), Norfolk

Pilot: Capt. Paul Lewis Mathison O-421779 AAF Age 24. Returned (1)

Co-Pilot: 2nd Lt. Theodore Guzik O-827802 AAF Age 21. Returned

Navigator: 2nd Lt. James S. Anderson O-712748 AAF Age? PoW *

Bombardier: 2nd Lt. Thomas Leslie Boggan O-691612 AAF Age 27. Evader (2)

Engineer: S/Sgt. Donald Nickolas ‘Pat’ Kraeger 32449511 AAF Age 23. Returned

Radio Operator: Sgt. Ira Ingram King Jr. 14102629 AAF Age 23. Returned

Nose Gnr: S/Sgt. Edwin William Ritter 16070712 AAF Age 22. Id No: 78313 *, PoW No 8187 ** (3)

Left Waist Gnr: S/Sgt. Herman Greenfeld 12203930 AAF Age 22. KiA

Right Waist Gnr: Cpl. Ralph M. LaCarbonara 11116309 AAF Age 22. Returned

Tail Gnr: Pfc. Bruno L. Rybick ASN Unknown AAF Age? Returned

The B-24 had 10 crew positions. Crew complements evolved during the war and 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, Belly Turret/Tunnel/Ball Turret gunner, Waist gunner, Tail gunner.

* Reserve Lazarett (hospital) in Hohemark, served Dulag Luft, Oberursel.

** 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:

Operationally the moth of August b began with 385 B-17s detailed to attack a railway bridge and five airfields near Paris. B-24H Lindie took off from Hardwick on to join the formations to attack the Melun airfield.

Melun-Villaroche, 37 km (23 mls) SE of Paris and 8 km (5 mls) north of Melun itself. The airfield was the home of a bomber reserve training and replacement group. The airfield and its two satellite airstrips, Melun/I and Melun/II were attacked by 118 B-17s and B-24s.

After dropping its bombs and turning away from the target area the aircraft was hit by Flak knocking out #4 engine which also disabled the feathering of the propeller. Also at this time S/Sgt. Greenfeld was struck by a shard of Flak inflicting a severe injury to his left thigh.

Capt. Mathison gave the order to prepare bale out, but as the interphone had been hit there was no means of communicating with those in the nose compartment and three airmen, 2nd Lt. Anderson, 2nd Lt. Boggan and S/Sgt. Ritter misinterpreted the order and baled out. All three landed between Saint-Sulpice-de-Faviéres and Mauchamps some 11¼ km (7 mls) north of Étampes.

Soon after leaving the target area, one of the crew entered the nose compartment and found that the three had abandoned the aircraft.

At 18:13 hrs the B-24 was at about 3,500 ft when the #1 and #3 engines failed and the aircraft started down immediately. They broke out of the clouds over water and about 13 mins later the pilots made a successful forced landing on a sand bar at low tide near Sheerness in Kent, with no further injuries to the crew.

Despite efforts to save S/Sgt. Greenfeld he succumbed from blood loss and shock at 23:15 hrs in the Minster British Hospital in Sheerness, Kent.

(1) Capt. Mathison was the Co-Pilot aboard B-24J 42-50606 (328th BS, 93rd BG), lost on a mission to Osnabrück in Germany on the 12th October 1944. He was KiA along with 7 others from the crew. Two of the crew became PoWs.

(2) 2nd Lt. Boggan believed he landed north of Saint Denis which is the northern suburbs of Paris.

He was immediately helped to hide in some nearby woods where he was taken to a small cave where he was told to remain overnight. The next morning he was brought civilian clothes, shoes and some food. He put on the clothes over his uniform in the event that he was captured.

He was then handed off to a number of safe houses and eventually around the middle of August he was taken to a camp situated in the Forêt (Forest) Fréteval in France.

Note: This camp was part of ‘Operation Marathon’ which was a plan to hide evading Allied airmen in secret camps in France and Belgium. The Forêt Fréteval camp was code named ‘Operation Sherwood’ and eventually held more than 150 Allied airmen.

The camp was being run by Lucien Boussa who was a Belgian national and a Sqn Ldr in the RAF, who along with another Belgian Jean de Blommaert who was the head of Marathon in France, set up the camp.

The camp was liberated on the 11th August 1944 and after being eventually processed he was evacuated by air flight on the 19th August back to England. He reported to 20 Grosvenor Place, London on the 20th August 1944.

HQ ETOUSA was the Headquarters of the European Theatre of Operations US Army located at 20 Grosvenor Place, London.

Thomas Leslie Boggan retired from the USAF as a ‘Bird’ Colonel. He died on the 1st March 1980 aged 63.

(3) S/Sgt. Ritter evaded capture but was betrayed on the 9th August 1944.

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 Hermmens, 152583, RAFVR died in the sick barrack.

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.

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.

Burial Details:

Above: Grave marker for S/Sgt. Herman Greenfeld (Courtesy of Chuck Schubert - FindAGrave)

S/Sgt. Herman Greenfeld. Air Medal. Initially buried in the Brookwood Cemetery, Plot V, Row 3, Grave 1. Repatriated and laid to rest at the Mount Lebanon Cemetery, Iselin, New Jersey. Born on the 29th September 1922 in Brooklyn, New York. Son of Joseph and Ettie (née Schultz) Greenfeld of Newark, New Jersey, USA.

Researched by Ralph Snape for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the relatives of this crew (Dec 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