school
graduation, Herman went to work at the same
Paper Mill in Moss Point and remained until
drafted into the military on 28 December 1942 in Camp Shelby,
Mississippi. He became an air gunner on a
B17 and after training was attached to the 358th
Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bomb Group.
Three of his
brothers also joined the forces and all three
saw action in the pacific. Herman was the only
one sent to Europe.
Paul Stauter,
nephew of Herman, wrote: "Herman and his
youngest brother (my dad) came home on leave
before being shipped overseas at the same time
and uncle Cotton, being the older brother, rode
the train to Nashville, Tennessee with my
dad, keeping his spirits up and spending as much
time as they could together. My dad was the
last family member to see him alive. Herman
then rode a train cross country to Tacoma,
Washington where he was shipped out."
S/Sgt Stauter was deployed to
England as part of an as yet unidentified crew.
After a while he replaced S/Sgt Thomas J.
Rogers on 1Lt Marshall L. Smith's crew. S/Sgt Rogers flew three missions
with Lt. Smith's crew but finished his tour with
other pilots. S/Sgt Stauter flew a total of 13
missions with this crew.
On 24 February
1944 the 303rd Bomb Group flew mission #112 to Schweinfurt, Germany.
S/Sgt Stauter's
crew consisted of:
1LT MARSHALL L
SMITH Pilot
2LT FRANCIS J PALECEK Co-Pilot
2LT EDWARD NEUWIRTH Navigator
1LT EDWARD J TROY Bombardier
T/SGT ANDREW DICK JR Engineer
T/SGT EDWIN J FROLICK Radio operator
S/SGT GUSTAF J SIMON Ball Turret Gunner
S/SGT HERMAN L STAUTER Waist Gunner
S/SGT JOHN SCHOR Waist Gunner
S/SGT WALTER C FUGATE Tail Gunner
This picture is of
the original crew T/Sgt Stauter flew with. He is
on the bottom right. The rest of the crew
remains unidentified. (picture courtesy of Mr.
Paul Stauter)
Their
B17 #42-31239 VK-N was shot down by a ME-110
(some say a ME-109). Two of the crew bailed out
of the stricken plane, which crashed near Hungen,
Germany.
In September
2005, Mr. James Erbeck of New Jersey visited
Hungen on a family visit. He found and met with
eyewitnesses of the crash.
Mr. Horst
Butteron and Mr. Willy Diehl were childhood
eyewitnesses both being approximately 10 years
of age at the time. Herr Diehl observed the
plane’s descent from his schoolhouse window and
Herr Butteron watched the event from the front
steps of his family’s store located in the main
intersection at the center of Hungen. Mr. Diehl
saw the plane as it passed just above his
classroom’s windows. Mr. Butteron first saw the
smoking bomber further east as it fell from the
sky in an accelerating vertical spin. Lt.
Marshall Smith succeeded in recovering control
of the bomber at approximately 3,000 - 4,000
feet and Butteron then saw two parachutes
immediately appear. According to Mr. Butteron,
as the “B-17 regained a degree of control it
rapidly lost altitude and headed directly toward
the town’s schoolhouse and its nearby playing
fields”. As the bomber dove toward the school
he suddenly heard the roar of its engines. The
plane “nosed up” awkwardly as it passed over the
center of Hungen and its grammar school. The
witnesses at the time agreed the pilot
“throttled” power to avoid hitting the school and the
center of town. Having given up his plane’s
“energy/speed” the pilot “pancaked” in a nearby
field west of Hungen and all crewmates remaining
on board were killed.
Map of the
flight path of Lt. Smith's B17. (Courtesy of Mr.
James Erbeck)
All the boys ran from the schoolhouse to the
crash site and observed the scene. The two crew
members who successfully parachuted were blown
eastward and captured.
After the crash a portion of the Hungen
residents preferred to bury the corpses
anywhere. However, the “royal” family living in
the Hungener Schloss in the center of town (the
husband of the princess was of English heritage)
prevailed upon the local authorities to bury the
American flyers in a place of respect and honor
– the family’s own dedicated burial plot in the
town cemetery. A few years after the war the
bodies were disinterred by the American
Graves Registration and reburied in war graves in
Holland/Belgium.
The
graveyard in Hungen were the crew were initially
buried.
(picture by Mr. James Erbeck)
All but the navigator, 2Lt Neuwirth and
tail gunner S/Sgt Fugate were killed in the
crash. 2Lt Neuwirth was sent to Stalag Luft 1.
S/Sgt Fugate ended up at Stalag Luft 4
Gross-Tychow (formerly Heydekrug) Pomerania,
Prussia (moved to Wobbelin Bei Ludwigslust
54-16).
T/Sgt Frolick and
S/Sgt Dick are now buried in Margraten. Lt Palecek
is buried in the Long Island National Cemetery
in Farmingdale, NY. The remaining five are
buried in Ardennes American Cemetery in Neupre,
Belgium.
After the war Mr. Mirko Mank researched this
crash, and other crashes in the area, in some
depth. He managed to recover this picture of the
downed B17.
This newspaper
article appeared in a 1997 German newspaper
about the Crash (courtesy Mr. Mirko Mank
via James Erbeck)
Mr. James Erbeck
visited the crash site in September 2005 and
paid
tribute to the crew. He met with the two
eyewitnesses and Mr. Mirko
Mank, who had researched the crash in the past.
(picture courtesy
Mr. James Erbeck)
S/Sgt Herman
Stauter
is buried at Ardennes American Military
Cemetery,
Neupre, Belgium, Plot A Row 16 Grave 2.
(Pictures courtesy of Mr. Paul L. Stauter)
(picture courtesy
of Paul L. Stauter)
