PART TWO OF THE CRASH OF THE ROYAL FLUSH WHAT BECAME OF CREWMEN NEVASKIL & BARBER Yesterday we featured the courageous actions of Jeanne Braconnier in helping Sgt. Norman Fernaays from the 100th Bomb Group avoid capture in August 1944. Two other members of the crew of B-17 #42-6087, Royal Flush, were assisted by French Resistance fighters to escape their German captors. 2nd Lt. Charles Barber, the copilot, had been badly wounded in his back and right arm by flak before bailing out. He was quickly captured by German troops upon landing and taken to a headquarters facility where he was routinely interrogated before the Germans took him to the Beaujon Hospital in Paris. Sgt. Charles Nekvasil, the radio operator, broke his pelvis as he landed near the Eiffel Tower. Immediately after landing, Nekvasil was approached by an elderly Frenchman who made a desperate attempt to lead him away to hiding. German SS troops arrived before the man get Nekvasil to safety. Nekvasil later recalled: He was captured by the Germans, and probably shot. The SS troops took Nekvasil to a headquarters facility for interrogation. When Nekvasil refused to talk, the Germans beat him severely and forced him to attempt to walk with his broken pelvis. Nekvasil had difficulty even to crawl on the ground. He also was taken to the Beaujon Hospital. The hospital ground floor was utilized as a German headquarters facility for protection against Allied air raids and primarily used to treat German patients. When Nekvasil arrived, he was forced to parade around the courtyard in great pain for the entertainment of the German patients. Nekvasil and Barber were held on the ninth floor of the hospital with other injured Allied airmen. The German SS Colonel who ran the hospital visited the group of injured Allied airmen on 17 August and told them he had bad news for them: that evening they were being taken to Germany. Nekvasil and a British pilot both spoke French and told the French staff at the hospital that they were to be transferred that night. The Deputy Hospital Administrator, Maurice Vergnes, along with his wife, Celine, and several doctors were involved with the French Resistance. Vergnes organized a breakout for the airmen that evening before the Germans could move the prisoners. As the Germans lined up trucks and ambulances in front of the hospital, the French attacked. One of the Allied prisoners slashed the throat of their German guard, grabbed his keys, and the group began making their way toward the ground floor. As they approached the lobby area, the German defenders opened fire on the prisoners killing and wounding several and forcing them to scatter throughout the hospital. One of the prisoners managed to escape from the rear of the hospital, secure a Tommy gun from the French fighters and charged the hospital front door killing the entire group of Germans in the lobby area. Barber and Nekvasils small group saw their chance and ran out of the front door of the building. Despite his broken pelvis, Nekvasil and his group covered some nine miles to reach the southside of Paris and the Pitie Hospital, a fifteen building complex surrounded by a stone wall. Only 25 of the Allied prisoners made it. The French resistance used the Pitie Hospital during the pre-liberation insurrection as a strongpoint. German tanks shelled the hospital before ground forces attempted to storm it. The French armed the downed flyers and asked them to join in the fighting. Nekvasil recalled his role in the fighting: We did some sporadic shooting at the running gray figures near us, but I doubt we hit anyone. The German attack was eventually driven off. As the Germans next launched air strikes against the hospital, Nekvasil, Barber and a small group of Americans decided it was time to leave. They maneuvered through the fighting in the city for about six miles until they came in contact with elements from the French Second Armored Division. The Americans were eventually evacuated back to England, and both Nekvasil and Barber returned to Thorpe Abbots in mid-September. Charles Nekvasil maintained a life-long friendship with several French participants in the Resistance, especially Abeille Guichard, a French Red Cross nurse who organized a chain of safe houses for downed airmen and may have played a role in the breakout from the Beaujon Hospital. Another Frenchman, Leon Croulebois, who witnessed the downing of Royal Flush on his twelfth birthday, later became the prime mover in erecting a monument honoring the crew of the B-17. Parisians who witnessed the maneuvering of the B-17 before exploding believed that 2nd Lt. Alf Aske sacrificed his life attempting to avoid civilian casualties on the ground. The crew who had perished: Lt. Aske, 2nd Lt. Gordon Davis, Sgt. Robert Williams and Sgt. Stuart Allison were buried on 14 August 1944. Their burial was paid for with money contributed by French locals. Croulebois efforts to honor the crew were finally realized in 1969 when French officials, former Resistance members, and American dignitaries held a ceremony to erect a monument to the crew at the Clamart Cemetery. After the names of the four killed were read in the Roll Call, the response was given: Mont Pour Le Liberte-Died for Liberty.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 14:00:00 +0000
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