Operation: Hamburg (Mission #76), Germany

Date: 25th July 1943 (Sunday)

Unit No: 532nd Bombardment Squadron (H), 381st Bombardment Group (H), 1st Air Division, 8th Air Force

Type: B-17F Lethal Lady

Serial No: 43-30013

Code: VE:E

Location: Bay of Neustadt, Germany

Base: Ridgewell (Station #167), Essex, England

Pilot: 1st Lt. William Robert Moore O-665323 AAF Age? PoW *

Co-Pilot: 2nd Lt. Dale George Wendte O-735132 AAF Age 23. Killed (1)

Navigator: 2nd Lt. Phillip Phineas Dreiseszun O-670104 AAF Age 24. PoW *

Bombardier: 2nd Lt. James Hamlin Houck O-734691 AAF Age 22. MiA

Radio Operator: T/Sgt. Edward William Usher 36398685 AAF Age 27. PoW **

Engineer: T/Sgt. John R. Ivey 6389012 AAF Age? PoW **

Ball Turret: S/Sgt. Edgerton Philip Zahm 35312373 AAF Age 22. PoW *

Left Waist Gnr: S/Sgt. William Louis Fortier 39388979 AAF Age? PoW **

Right Waist Gnr: S/Sgt. Joseph G. Kralick 33234207 AAF Age 30. Killed (1)

Tail Gnr: S/Sgt. John Maldwyn Watkins Jr. 32369909 AAF Age 27. MiA

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

** Stalag 17B Krems-Gneixendorf, Austria.

REASON FOR LOSS:

The Lethal Lady took off from Ridgewell along with 23 aircraft from the 381st Bombardment Group tasked to join 123 other B-17s to bomb the diesel engine works at Hamburg.

The pilot and tail gunner from two aircraft who were flying to the left and right of the Lethal Lady witnessed the aircraft hit by flak after passing over the target. Flak was believed to have knocked about a foot off the left aileron, knocked off part of the left horizontal stabilizer and the left wing tip was on fire. They were later attacked by German fighters after which 1st Lt. Moore ordered the crew to bail out.

2nd Lt. Houck had been killed by cannon fire from German fighters before the aircraft reached the target. S/Sgt. Watkins Jr. was last heard on the intercom announcing incoming German fighters.

The aircraft crashed into the Bay of Neustadt at 16:30 hrs within 400 metres of the shore near the Neustadt Kriegsmarine base in Holstein, Germany.

2nd Lt. Wendte was uninjured and preceded 1st Lt. Moore out of the escape hatch over the Lübeck area. S/Sgt. Kralick had been hit in the back by shell fragments but this did not seem to unduly affect him, albeit that he had inadvertently opened his parachute before he was seen to bail out.

(1) T/Sgt. Usher told 2nd Lt. Dreiseszun that he saw S/Sgt. Kralick’s dead body wrapped in his parachute with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the forehead. In his opinion he did not see any injuries consistent with his parachute failing to deploy properly after being opened in the aircraft.

2nd Lt. Dreiseszun was of the opinion 2nd Lt. Wendte was killed by hostile civilians on the ground.

S/Sgt. Fortier submitted a casualty report regarding the death of 2nd Lt. Wendte but its content is unknown. It is not known if the deaths of 2nd Lt. Wendte and S/Sgt. Kralick were investigated by either the US or German authorities.

In Georg Hoffmann’s research (Ref 1 p. 177) he reported that S/Sgt. Joseph G. Kralick and 2nd Lt. Dale G. Wendte, were murdered but had no further information.

S/Sgt. Kralick was initially buried in the cemetery at the Neustadt Kriegsmarine base on the 26th July 1943. The initial grave site for 2nd Lt. Wendte is unknown.

Burial details:

Above Repatriation of 2nd Lt. Wendte (Courtesy of the Sioux City Journal, dated Sunday July 31st 1949)

2nd Lt. Dale George Wendte. Air Medal, Purple Heart. Repatriated and interred at the Silver Ridge Cemetery, Ponca, Nebraska. Born on the 9th December 1919 in Nebraska. Son of Herman Harry and Rose Marie (née Ehlke) Wendte of Ponca, Dixon County, Nebraska, USA.

His brother T/Sgt. Elmer Oscar Wendte 39165888 was KiA on the 20th June 1944, Aged 26. He is buried at the Ardennes American Cemetery Plot B, Row 9, Grave 20. Awarded the Air Medal, and Purple Heart.

B-24H #42-94834 from the 847th Bombardment Squadron (H), 489th Bombardment Group (H) was shot down by flak over Dunkirk. T/Sgt. Wendte and nine of the crew of twelve were KiA with two surviving as PoWs.

2nd Lt. James Hamlin Houck. Air Medal, Purple Heart. Commemorated on the Tablets of the Missing, Netherlands American Cemetery. Born on the 31st October 1920 in Rockford, North Carolina. Son of Claude Albert (deceased in December 1939) and Lucy (née Hamlin) Houck of Winston-Salem, Forsyth, North Carolina, USA.

Above Courtesy of the Pottsville Republican, dated Wednesday August 11th 1943

Above grave marker for S/Sgt. Kralick (Courtesy Dominique Potier – FindAGrave)

S/Sgt. Joseph G. Kralick. Air Medal (Oak Leaf Cluster), Purple Heart. Ardennes American Cemetery Plot D, Row 12, Grave 49. Born on the 28th May 1912 in Saint Clair, Pennsylvania. Son of Joseph (deceased in July 1930) and Mary Kralick (Kralickas), Saint Clair, Pennsylvania, USA.

S/Sgt. John Maldwyn Watkins Jr. Air Medal (Oak Leaf Cluster), Purple Heart. Commemorated on the Tablets of the Missing, Cambridge American Cemetery. Born on the 14th February 1915 in Utica, New York. Son of John Hugh and Corwena Watkins of Utica, Oneida, New York, USA.

Researched by Ralph Snape and Traugott Vitz for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the relatives of this crew. Thanks also to Traugott Vitz for his work on the ‘VitzArchive’.

Reference:

1. Fliegerlynchjustiz (4 Verbrechensdimensionen) (German Edition) - Georg Hoffmann (ISBN: 978-3506781376)

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