Crash Site B-17G Flying Fortress 42-40054 "Jinny"

Project Lost Wings '40 - '45 has placed Memorial Signs in the Municipality of Emmen on the places where airplanes crashed during the Second World War.

Returning from a raid on Berlin on Monday 6 March 1944, the B-17G 4-40054 "Jinny" was under attack by a German fighter near the Dutch border. One engine was damaged causing an engine failure, directly followed by a mid-air collision with the B-17G 42-31135 "Suzy- Sag-Tits". This collision ripped open the starboard fuel tanks and caused a fire, forcing the crew to bail out. Six of the crewmembers managed to escape safely but the others died in the crash. J.B. Blats was fatally wounded and died later in a prisoner of war camp. The crew members who didn’t survive the crash were temporary buried at the Municipal Cemetery of Schoonebeek and after the war repatriated to other cemeteries.

Crew Members:
Paul Eugene Brown USAAF POW pilot
Joseph Paul Lechowski USAAF KIA copilot
George Curtiss Job USAAF KIA group commander
John William Duprey USAAF KIA navigator
Rolland Turner Gill USAAF POW bomb aimer
John Basil Blatz USAAF DPOW wireless operator
Roy Elsworth Joyce USAAF POW flight engineer
Edwin W. Pfanner USAAF KIA ballturret gunner
Elbert Paul Moyer USAAF POW waist gunner[r]
Walter Scott Reed USAAF KIA waist gunner[l]
William Angelo Marcario USAAF POW tailgunner

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Source

• Text: SLO Drenthe
• Photos: Rob Wethly, SLO Drenthe (1, 2), Chris Bonhof (3)
• Stichting Luchtoorlog Onderzoek Drenthe