Memorial Sign Crash Location B-17G Flying Fortress 42-37886 "Blitzing Betsy"

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.

On March 6th, 1944, Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress 42-37886 ‘Blizting Betsy’ of USAAF 388 Bomb Group 562 Bomb Squadron crashes close by here in the moor. The aircraft takes part in its first big raid on Berlin. On the return to Honington, the bombers are awaited by German fighters over Southeast Drenthe. The Luftwaffe shoots down four aircraft. Burning Blitzing Betsy collides with the formation’s commanding aircraft, B-17G Flying Fortress 40-40054, which comes down on Schoonebekerveld. Four crewmembers perish in the crash, six are captured by the German Wehrmacht. No civil casualties have been caused nor have any buildings been damaged by the crash.

Crew Members:
Lowell Hoyt Watts USAAF POW pilot
Robbert Maxwell Kennedy USAAF POW copilot
Emmett John Murphy USAAF POW navigator
Joseph Bryan Ramsey USAAF POW flight engineer
Ivan Nathan Finkle USAAF POW wireless operator
Edward J. Kelley Jr. USAAF POW bomb aimer
Robert M. Sweeney USAAF KIA ballturret gunner
Raymond Edward Hess USAAF KIA waist gunner[r]
Donald Willis Taylor USAAF KIA waist gunner[l]
Harold Adrian Brassfield USAAF KIA tailgunner

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Source

• Text: SLO Drenthe
• Photos: Rob Wethly, SLO Drenthe
• Stichting Luchtoorlog Onderzoek Drenthe