Target: Zossen - 15 March 1945 - Mission #259

"Ditching signals were given and all the crew, except the pilot and co-pilot, assembled in the waist to take crash landing positions. The flaps wouldn't work so they hit the water at 120 miles per hour, causing terrific impact. Everyone got out of the plane one way or another. Vaughan and Yost were the only ones really conscious so they proceeded to get the life boats out. They had quite a bit of difficulty in getting them out and inflating them, otherwise all might have been saved. As it was, five were able to get on the boats and were rescued 3 hours later. The plane remained afloat 8 minutes. The currents carried them off very quickly. In a search the next day by planes and boats, they found the body of Cpl Stanley J. Poremba. All are accounted for except your son, Alvin, McElroy and my brother, Danny -- they were carried off together by the currents, which were extremely swift that day."

"I would like to say how happy we are to have our son alive and here in the states again but our happiness is touched with deep sadness when we think how the other Mothers feel without their loved ones and we so feel with all as we too went thru the trying ordeal of not knowing what was what for some time.

The government was very slow in notifying us in fact our first information was from the chaplain from the Hospital in England. He wrote us a V mail the day after the crash and told us that the plane made a forced landing in the North Sea and that our boy was in the hospital but could not write due to injuries and for us to be thankful that he was there as it was a miracle that he was rescued.

He told us his ship was hit going out to the mission with flak and after unloading their bombs at the city outside of Berlin. They noticed the fuel line was hit and they were losing gas too fast, so your son and Kelly tried to figure out a fast way to get out of enemy territory to land and the North Sea was the best. They threw out all the guns and supplies and the windows so that they could get out quicker but I guess the crash is a lot worse than we can imagine as they were all knocked out, but came to in time to inflate the dinghy but one wouldn't inflate and 4 of the boys were drifting around and when they did get to them or rather tried to the current was too strong and they didn't find them.

S Poremba, tail gunner 23 yrs old was found when they picked up our son and Yost, Kelly (Pilot), Vaughan (CoPilot) and D'Ambrosio (Nose gunner). Yost had lost his hand getting out but is getting along alright.

Your son and Reardon (waist gunner) McElroy (radio) were not found and like Wallace said, wouldn't it be wonderful should they have been picked up by someone and maybe be saved too. It's only a hope but as he told us no one could live longer than a hour in that cold water. Poremba was dead from exposure when they found him.

He said they hugged together before the crash and prayed but when it hit everything went black….

I forget to say that Wallace has been home for a 30 day furlough and although he still has his body cast he is doing well. The arms are better and also his legs and broken heel. He hated to go back to Cambridge, Ohio [to the hospital] but he has to wear the cast for 60 more days and then take treatments. I'm hoping and praying he won't see any more service.

I guess he was hurt the worst and is alive and as he said The Lord wasn't ready to take him yet and he always tried to tell us that if it were his time to die he would get it no matter where so I think we too have to look at it that way.

I'm sure they all were near to their Maker during their trying hours and although boys don't say much about those things they did pray. Son told me many times that the chaplain always said prayers with them before a mission and he always told us to have faith.

I only wish I could help you in your dark hours and tell you more but it takes time and I don't know just how much we should tell. This I know tho, he said the plane crashed at 5:30 in the center of the North Sea, 50 miles from either shore and that they floated around in the dark for 3 hours before the coast guards found them.

They had radio'd for help but all the planes were loaded and could only drop flares to mark the spot so that the boats could find them and I think if it had been light they would have found the rest too. He loves your son and spoke of him so much I too felt as tho I knew him… I know he could tell you so many things could he but speak to you in person and maybe some day it can be arranged. I know how I would want to talk to some one that was with my boy!

D'Ambrosio and our boy are in the states and they think the other two will soon be here.

I hope this will help you a little and I wish I could do more for you in some way…."

"After the crash I had a broken back, foot, arm and a lacerated arm… The 15th of March we flew our 13th mission to Zossen 20 miles south of Berlin. We made it o.k. to the target and started back when we got to the coast we discovered that we had lost some gas. The reason was unknown, but probably due to a line being cut by flak. We attempted to cross the North Sea but halfway across our gas gave out and we were forced to crash. We hit the water and all of us got out o.k. but the sea was rough and 4 of the boys drifted away from the plane before we could get the boats out or get to them. Al was one of the four. Those of us that were left did all we could to try and get to them but our conditions left us helpless against the rough sea. After 3 hours in the water we were picked up by a Air Sea Rescue boat and taken to Great Yarmouth where we were hospitalized. The 2nd day I had heard they found Poremba dead from exposure but up until the time I left I never heard a word about the other 3 boys. Yost the engineer suffered a smashed hand and he returned to the States just after I did. (I returned May 6.) While I was home I received a letter from D'Ambrosio he just returned and said Kelly and Vaughan were still over there. We worked, played, fought and as fate would have it, were all together to the end. I don't think I could have been teamed up with a better bunch of fellows and I'll remember all the experiences we had together."

"That from early morning things didn't seem to be going right. First they had orders to leave on a mission at 5 in the morning. When they were ready to leave they received a last minute notice that they were not to leave until further notice. Then again they were told to leave at 6 and again were told not to go. They were stopped about four times and finally they left at 9 o'clock. Well they finished their mission and were coming back at 5 o'clock in the evening when the pilot noticed that they had engine trouble. He radio'd the other planes that he had engine trouble and would probably come in later. He then noticed that there was no gas so he let the whole crew know that he was going to make a forced landing on sea. They immediately took off their parachutes because they're too heavy. He then told them to hold tight because they were going quite fast. He asked every boy how he was just before the crash and they all answered ok. They crashed into the sea at 105 miles an hour. The plane immediately cracked in half. The pilot said all the boys were hurt. They all started to climb out of the plane because they knew the plane wouldn't stay long on the surface. My brother Stanley, your son and the other two that are missing [McElroy and Reardon] were at the tail of the plane when they climbed out. Kelly climbed out last on the wing. The co-pilot and navigator [this was probably Sgt Yost instead, as navigator Coleman was by the tail] were working on the door that held the life rafts, because it was stuck and the life rafts couldn't be taken out. In the meantime two of the boys that were hurt very bad [D'Ambrosio and Zielke] came up around the wing and Kelly got a hold of them and kept holding them up until the life rafts were finally gotten out. He kept telling the four that were by the tail to swim around to the side where he was on the wing but they just didn't. He said he thinks they were all too stunned and they just didn't or couldn't swim to him. He also said your boy must have been badly hurt because he saw that Stanley was holding him up. Finally Kelly got the two boys that he was holding up on the life rafts and he and the other two also climbed in. He kept watching those four in the back but the current was so strong that it took all four of them away. He heard them all crying for help but nobody could help them because of the swift current. Then he said he didn't hear or see them any more. My brother's body was picked up the next morning. They say he died from the cold exposure. Kelly said he's sure the others are dead too because of the cold water… Kelly and the other four were picked up at 10 o'clock that night. He says two rescue planes were out looking for the boys for two days, just finding my brother's body. We asked him why they didn't call for help right away and he said their radio broke just then."

"This day was the most dreadful day of our lives. Well, we started off for the German High Command Headquarters. It was just South of Berlin. We took off at 10:25. On the way we encountered flak over Hanover. Maybe some of it hit us; we don't know. All we know is on the way back as we came over the channel [sic, the North Sea], our engines started to sputter. We had checked the gas previously before coming over the channel [North Sea]. We had 625 gallons. But when we tried to level the tanks while we were crossing the channel, all the gas seemed to build up in no. 2 engine and we couldn't get it out. Then all the engines started to sputter and conk out and start again.

Kelly's words then were, "Prepare to ditch men." These words are words every airman dreads. Only a few ever live to tell about it. We had no flaps. The auxiliary hydraulic pump had failed us, too. We threw everything in the waist out. Then we took our ditching positions waiting for the plunge. We all seemed a little calm but our grips on one another's arms showed the tension going through our bodies.

Well I felt one bang. Everything was black - must have been knocked out. We hit at 110 mph and made a dead stop. I thought I was drowning. I was in shock. Tons of water was on me and I gasped and hollered for breath. I was weaker than a dead man. The water pushed me all over the inside of the ship. I was trapped it seemed. The waist was a mass of tin. It looked as though a hundred cannon balls hit it and tore holes in it. We came to the conclusion that the rest of the crew must have been hurtled through the body on impact. I heard Vaughn all of a sudden say "try kid, try kid." Then I turned to see him. He was a mass of blood. His whole face seemed to be skinless. When I saw him like that I figured if he could do it I could too. I didn't have the strength to climb through the waist. I crawled through a hole in the waist. I paddled about 3 strokes and was just going down when Vaughn grabbed my arm and held me on the wing. Then Kelly held me while Yost and Vaughn tried to get the dinghies out.

I managed to grab hold of myself and make my way around the wing and I saw Zielke. I shoved him toward the raft. Kelly handed me an oar and we both used all our strength to get on the raft. Then Zielke got hold of the paddle and Kelly pulled him in. How we both got Zielke on the raft we'll never know. He couldn't help himself (we found later he fractured a vertebra thus paralyzing him). Well after we got him on the raft, me and Zielke were about to collapse.

Vaughn gave us Benzedrine Pills and I began to snap to and bail out some water. Yost's hand was mangled and his head was cut. Vaughn was a sickly sight and as for myself my face was all cut up and my throat had a gash in it. Kelly's face was swollen. But none of us felt a thing because we knew how close we came to death and how lucky we were. Vaughn tied the raft together. We tried like all hell to row the dinghies to get the other boys but it was useless. We drifted one way and a current seemed to carry them in the opposite direction. About 2 hours or something went on. I can't remember. Then a Wellington flew over us. We shot flares up and he saw us. He dropped acetylene torches on the water around us and sent a signal out. It was dark now and the flares really lit up. Then we saw a bright spotlight searching the water. More flares went up and then the light like a message from heaven shined on us. We were saved.

We all had help getting on the rescue boat 2641. They treated us and gave us every comfort and treated our wounds. It was an English crew. The fellows seemed about my age. When we reached port Vaughn tried to give them a little cash but they refused the money. But we gave them our emergency maps which are worth plenty. We were transferred to a hospital. The pretty nurses brightened us up a little but now our wounds started to ache a little. Zielke was transferred to another hospital. They thought he was dying. I guess that's why we couldn't search for the other boys in the water. When a man is dying, their orders are to head for port immediately. Well all of us got stitched up. We all had gas except Yost. When they saw how much pain he went through, we got gas. Of course I threw up and the nurses had their hands full with me while trying to put me to bed."