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.