u/USAAFoverPOLAND

On March 22, 1945, a few B-17s were damaged by German flak over Ruhland, and the crews decided to fly east to reach a Soviet/controlled emergency airfield in Poland. Three of the Fortresses never made it, as they were shot down by Soviet P-39s. The Russians not only downed the planes but strafed the airmen floating down helplessly in their parachutes.

During my research, I managed to identify crashsites of two of the three, and a good friend of mine identified the third one. This information was passed to the US government back in the 2000s.

One of the crash sites (B-17 #44-8191, with 8 MIAs) qualified for an escavation, and last year remains of four men were officially identified. Rae DeMatteis, Stephen Fatur, Donald Dorman, Robert Keuchel were returned to their respective families.

Robert Keuchel will be buried this Friday in Omaha, Nebraska.

https://www.heafeyheafey.com/obituaries/Robert-A-Keuchel?obId=48321494

I will write up this story in more details on my substack.

https://substack.com/@usaafoverpoland

The Photo of the #44-8191 is from https://www.reddit.com/r/WWIIplanes/s/KEhrH7eMUS

The local community funded and maintain the memorial dedicated to this crew:

https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/monument_details.php?SiteID=2728&MemID=3583

You will find more about American planes named after movies and songs in this story on Substack:

https://open.substack.com/pub/sserwatka/p/in-the-air-and-on-the-air-part-1

The Part 2 of this story (including the “I’ll be Seeing You”) is coming to my Substack on next Saturday, May 16th.

Photo: Joseph Cotten and Ginger Rogers in an ''I'll Be Seeing You'' (1944) press photo. Source: wikipedia

Seeing the Blechhammer North and South the way the B-17 and B-24 crews saw them is easier than you think.

If you are flying from the west to Krakow, Poland - with a bit of luck - you can see the Blechhammer complexes about 20-25 minutes before landing. If you are flying from Krakow towards west, keep your eyes open same time after take-off. Appreciate there is no flak there today.

You can find some Blechhammer stories on my Substack:

https://open.substack.com/pub/sserwatka

This is one of the most famous WWII photos, and it is virtually unknown it was taken over Blechhammer, which is today in Poland. Borders were moved in 1945, and Blechhammer became Kedzierzyn-Kozle.

The below link is to the story I wrote about this photo. It describes what it meant and how it was like to fly through German flak. It is a tribute to 15th Air Force crew which flew missions in WWII.

https://open.substack.com/pub/sserwatka/p/the-true-story-behind-a-famous-photo?r=42ks37&utm_medium=ios

I am not the only person researching USAAF over Poland. We are quite a few! Janusz Wrobel is one of these people, and he recently wrote this nice Facebook post about bombing of the refinery in Trzebinia, Poland (50 km west of Krakow). This was one of very few bombing missions the USAAF performed from the bases in Soviet Ukraine.

The photo is the fire in the Trzebinia refinery as an aftermath of the American mission. The source is the public library in Trzebinia.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1G79hPKbwh/?

Happy Weekend!

What do the B-24 “All Meat No Potatoes”, the B-17 “Star Dust”, the P-51 “Arkansas Traveller” have in common?

All these planes flew missions to Poland in WWII and their names are related to 1940s song or movie titles!!!

In 2011, we organized an exhibition with live music concerts in Krakow, Poland. The idea was to present the connection between WWII aviation and popular music and movies of that time. I was responsible for providing the content for the USAAF over Poland.

This new Substack story presents a refreshed version of my contribution to the “ In the air and on the air…” project. :)

https://open.substack.com/pub/sserwatka/p/in-the-air-and-on-the-air-part-1

Enjoy!

“Alley Oop” was a 15th Air Force Liberator which opted to fly to Soviet controlled territory after receiving damage over Blechhammer. She landed at Rzeszow in eastern Poland. A local historian, Jakub Kubas, researched the story and the landing location:

https://www.facebook.com/share/1CKf3pxMRh/

Many American aircraft landed in Soviet controlled territory in 1945, and one of my next Substack stories will tell what happened with them. :)

https://substack.com/@usaafoverpoland