Operation: Épernon Railroad Bridge, France

Date: 4th August 1944 (Friday)

Unit No: 598th Bombardment Squadron (M), 397th Bombardment Group (M), 98th Combat Wing, 9th Air Force

Type: B-26G Marauder

Serial No: 43-34118

Code: X2:Z

Location: La Garenne 124 km (15 mls) SSE of Dreux, France

Base: Rivenhall (Station #168), Essex, England

Pilot: 1st Lt. William Henry Ryherd O-666356 AAF Age 24. Id No: 78358 *, PoW No: 8153 ** (1)

Co-Pilot: 1st Lt. Ira Ernest Vance Jr. O-812332 AAF Age 24. Id No: 78360 *, PoW No: 8157 ** (1)

Bombardier: 2nd Lt. Robert Foreman Yeager O-749995 AAF Age 23. PoW **

Engineer/Gnr: Pvt. Joseph Vincent Cullen 12041235 AAF Age 21. Evader (2)

Radio Operator/Gnr: S/Sgt. Selmer Theodore Thorp 19146904 AAF Age 20. Returned (3)

Gnr: S/Sgt. James Gust Skarles 39414251 AAF Age 23. PoW ***

* 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).

*** Stalag Luft 4 Groß-Tychow, Pomerania, Prussia now Tychowo, Poland (Moved from Stalag Luft 6 Heydekrug on 28th May 1944. Moved to Wöbbelin near Ludwigslust and then to Usedom near Swinemünde).

REASON FOR LOSS:

On the 4th August 1944 three railway bridges, a bivouac area, and an ammunition dump in France were attacked by 62 B-26s and A-20s.

The 397th BG were tasked with attacking the Épernon Railroad Bridge. Four eyewitness from other aircraft in the formation reported that they saw 43-34118 hit by flak enroute to the target. The right engine was set ablaze and six parachutes were observed to exit the aircraft, which was seen to spiral down and crash in open country.

The aircraft crashed at 19:50 hrs at La Garenne 24 km (15 mls) SSE of Dreux, France

La Garenne is some 16½ km (10¼ mls) west of Épernon and 16¼ km (10 mls) north of Chartres.

2nd Lt. Yeager and S/Sgt. Skarles were captured 1 km NW of Maintenon at 19:49 hrs and delivered to the prisoner collection centre at Chartres.

(1) The details of the escape and evasion of 1st Lt. Ryherd and 1st Lt. Vance are unknown. However, what is known is that they were betrayed and arrested by the Gestapo on the 10th August 1944 and 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.

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

They were 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.

(2) In his escape and evasion report Pvt. Cullen recorded the following:

"I was hit by shell splinters in left thigh and left lower leg before I bailed out.

When I reached the ground after bailing out I found myself in the middle of a wooded area in a muddy ravine from which I was unable to crawl as a result of weakness from loss of blood. I was picked up after 5 minutes by a German who was apparently a member of a searching party.

He got me first aid and injected morphine into my thigh and took me to an aid station in a cottage a short distance from where I had bailed out. Shortly after I was taken to a German hospital in Chartres (name of hospital unknown) where I was operated on almost immediately.

I stayed at this hospital, isolated, in a room by myself for 10 days until August 14th after which I was taken by ambulance to Clichy in the suburbs of Paris and placed in the hospital Beaujon, a Luftwaffe hospital.

This was Luftwaffe Lazarett (o) 5/XII, the largest Luftwaffe hospital outside of Germany with 1000 beds.

While at the hospital a man representing himself as war correspondent Gault McGowen of the "London Times" and "New York Sun" interested himself in our welfare and seemed merely curious, asking questions about units, groups, home addresses etc.

Alexander Gault McGowen was a leading war correspondent during WW2. On 15th August 1944, he had one of his closest brushes with death as he was captured, along with a couple of other correspondents, by two German light tanks firing machine guns at them. His friend William Makin, on the jeep with him, was critically wounded. MacGowan's capture was reported in daily newspapers in London, New York and elsewhere around the world. A couple of days later, he eluded his captors by leaping from a prisoner-of-war train in the middle of the night.

On the morning of 19th August, the German Medics turned all PoWs in the hospital over to the French doctors and nurses. I was protected thereafter until 28th of August by the French Forces of the Interior (FFI). On the 28th August American medics arrived and took us to an EVAC hospital and thence to the UK".

He was transferred to the USA on the 15th November 1944.

(3) No official information regarding the circumstance of S/Sgt. Thorp’s return to Allied lines has been found. However, the following newspaper clipping describes what transpired:

Above: Courtesy of The News Tribune, dated June 27th, 1945

Burial Details:

None. All of the crew survived.

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