10,000 Airmen and 800 Bombers

From March 1944 to June 1944 (emphasis added) the 8th Army Air Forces lost some 10,000 airmen, 800 heavy bombers (these are B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators) and 500 fighters. This according to Paul Manning's "Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile" publication(1).

While the context of Manning's publication is highly suspect (that Bormann survived the war, and lived in South America until the at least the 1980s), his report on 8th AAF losses is probably reasonable and realistic.

Note 1. See Page 108 of the 2005 (electronic) edition of the Manning publication here.

10,000 Lost Airmen

In Paul Manning's book Martin Borman: Nazi In Exile, it is reported that the United States Army Force lost 10,000 airmen, 800 heavy bombers and 500 fighters between March 1, 1944 and June 1, 1944 (Manning, Page 108). Our crew was lost almost in the middle of this period.

Certainly the loss of our crew wasn't without precedence and certaintly it wasn't an unusual time in the USAAF to become a casuality.

The Bernburg Memorial at Pooler, Georgia

Not that I concentrate on coincidences but thought readers would be interested in the following short story.

Appearing on Page 3 of The Heritage League Herald, Issue No. 37, January 2006 is a photo of a memorial at The Mighty Eighth Museum in Pooler, Georgia. The caption, written by Brian H. Mahoney, reads: "Great Resonance. Crew memorial plaque in Memorial Garden of the Mighty Eighth Air Force Heritage Museum placed by Gold Star Daughter (and Past HL President) Billy Sheely Johnson, and relatives. New members Robin and Mike Janton and current President
Brian Mahoney are all "united" in this crew, one of the original squadrons commanded by late James J. Mahoney. -Brian H. Mahoney."

While this won't necessarily strike a chord, it should. The memorial at Pooler is dedicated to the crew of "SUPERWOLF", a B-24 Liberator Bomber (Serial #44-40050), that went down over Bernburg, Germany on July the 7th 1944. There were exactly 7 KIAs and 3 POWs. The exact same number of KIAs and POWs as there were from "our" crew.

My interest in the memorial isn't with the meager coincidence, but with the tragic incident on July the 7th. The incident gives evidentiary support to the notion that our ship was shot down by flak too.

There isn't much in the way of documentary evidence showing flak concentrations around the target (the Junkerswerkes' JU-88 twin engine aircraft assembly plant near Bernburg) but we can indirectly obtain that evidence by examining the apparent cause of the loss of other Allied ships that went down in the same area.

Introduction

This blog will cover on going research into the events that lead to the loss of United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator Bomber B-24-42-7522 (522) "Southern Comfort" on April 11th, 1944.

Research in this matter dates back to 2003.

Current work involves the location of Prisoner of War (POW) photographs of the only three survivors of the crew, Command Pilot 1LT John D. Money, S/Sgt Wallace E. Kirschner and S/Sgt Donald L. Young.

Recent correspondence with employees at the National Archives (II) has not been fruitful. Typical of the correspondence is the following email (received 05 May 2006):

Dear Sir (Redacted Text, Ed.):

I am afraid we do not have any photos of specific WWII POW's. We have general views of some POW camps being liberated, but there is little or no caption information. Those that do have captions do not list any of the POW's.

I did check our Army Air Corps personality index for the names below, but there were no listings for any of them. If you know the camps they were in, you may submit a request for a search for up to three specific items/subjects per month. Currently our searches require two to six weeks to answer. Be sure to include your complete mailing address on all requests.

Thank you,

(Redacted Text, Ed.)

National Archives

Still Picture Reference

Introduction

This blog will cover on going research into the events that lead to the loss of United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator Bomber B-24-42-7522 (522) "Southern Comfort" on April 11th, 1944.

Research in this matter dates back to 2003.

Current work involves the location of Prisoner of War (POW) photographs of the only three survivors of the crew, Command Pilot 1LT John D. Money, S/Sgt Wallace E. Kirschner and S/Sgt Donald L. Young.

Recent correspondence with employees at the National Archives (II) has not been fruitful. Typical of the correspondence is the following email (received 05 May 2006):

Dear Sir (Redacted Text, Ed.):

I am afraid we do not have any photos of specific WWII POW's. We have general views of some POW camps being liberated, but there is little or no caption information. Those that do have captions do not list any of the POW's.

I did check our Army Air Corps personality index for the names below, but there were no listings for any of them. If you know the camps they were in, you may submit a request for a search for up to three specific items/subjects per month. Currently our searches require two to six weeks to answer. Be sure to include your complete mailing address on all requests.

Thank you,

(Redacted Text, Ed.)

National Archives

Still Picture Reference