Submitted by Charlton Stanley (Otteray Scribe) Guest Blogger
Gennevillers, France
It was 69 years ago today. 7:27PM, Paris, France. The B-17G serial number 42-102552 was shot down by flak over Paris. Some of the crew managed to get out of the destroyed plane, some did not. Kirby Cowan, whom I wrote about here, was the only one of the crew captured by the Gestapo. He was one of the 168 allied airmen who ended up in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp instead of a POW camp.
This story is not really about Kirby Cowan, as much as it is about the 6600 American service members who died per MONTH, during WWII (about 220 a day). No one who was not alive then has any idea of the magnitude of the losses. 40,000 airmen were killed in combat theaters and another 18,000 wounded. Young men who climbed into thin aluminum coffins and flew into the stratosphere–and into history.
Also shot down that day at 7:24 PM, three minutes before Horn’s Hornets, was the B-17G #42-975432 flown by Second Lieutenant George Martin. That plane was also special because Staff Sgt. Carl E. Carlson was a member of the crew. SSgt. Carlson was the father of one of our own Turley blog commenters, Darrel Carlson.
This post is done in haste, because I wanted to get it up before 12:24 PM CDT (1:24 EDT), the moment Carlson’s plane crashed, and three minutes before Kirby’s plane crashed.
Please take a brief moment to remember them and all those youngsters who went off to war to defeat an unspeakable evil. Since I posted the story about the lost airmen of Buchenwald, I have learned more about that horror and plan to write about it later.
For those who read French, here is an excellent article in La Parsien, with an interview.
For those who may be puzzled by the references to “DCA.” “DCA” refers to the German anti-aircraft (Flak) guns, which in French is “défense contre-aérienne.” The word “Flak” is an acronym for the German “FlugzeugAbwehrKanone.” The infamous 88mm Flak gun was called the FlugzeugAbwehrKanone 88.
Currently researching the crash of 42-102552 and attempting to contact Dr Stanley. Email communicated to this blog administrator. Hope to hear from you soon.
See also this fascinating project on the same theme: http://www.e-byrne.com/projects.html
It is a hilarious twist that Bill McW calls the real history revisionist and his history real. However, it is understandable that a NAZI apologist like Bill would have to exonerate Hitler of blame. After all Hitler was tricked into attacking Chechoslovakia and Poland. The threat was the fearsome cavalry horseman in the Polish army.
Otteray Scribe,
That’s absolutely correct. The US and Germany were in a virtual state of war in the North Atlantic from early 1941 on. This fact is not generally well known, nor understood, particularly by “Revisionist” historians..
Yes, I’ve always like the song “Ruben James”. Thanks for posting it.