Id like to share a personal post with you folks. Back in 1990, whilst cycling with my then girlfriend, we discovered a wing panel with Stars n Bars on a farm in Iddergem (Flanders/Belgium). As it turned out the family was distantly related to my companion, they agreed to let me have the panel. It needed some cleaning, since it was covering the menure pit... (see picture attached - now in our museum For Freedom). Starting my historic investigation back then (pre-internet era) I could only find out it was a B-17 Flying Fortress which crash landed there on January 1, 1945. Locals told us only a few of the crew were on board (pilot and co-pilot), the others baled out. All of them realising they were in friendly territory, as the area was liberated by the allies since September 1944. The frustrating part of the story is that for 25 years, I never was able to identify the plane and crew which came down a few miles from my home. Guess what. Yesterday I received confirmation from Fred Preller, the 384 Bomb Group historian, that he dug up documents in the National Archives, stating that B-17 42-102500 of 384 BG/546 BS made a succesful crash landing at Iddergem on New Years Day 1945. Pilot was Donald Johnson, only the bombardier was slightly wounded because of a bad landing by chute. So remember, folks, whilst were enjoying another peaceful New Years Day, people were fighting even on a day like this exactly 70 yrs ago. And for me, finally after 25 yrs a personal mystery was solved, on the very day that Fortress crashed. The girlfriend I mentioned before is the woman with whom I shared New Years Eve for the 25th time last night... And to finish: we just added member n°301 of this FB-group. Never thought we would achieve this in 72 hrs ! A happy and peaceful 2015 to all of you !
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 11:52:07 +0000
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