The crew of the
SKY QUEEN: From L to R standing: Lt. Kenneth
Dutton, Lt William Dietel, Lt Herbert Funk and
Lt Clyde Davis. Kneeling from L to R: SSgt
Dunmeyer, Sgt Bollinger, SSgt Edward Amory, Sgt
Jack Mason, SSgt Wyman Martin and TSgt Howard
Adams. (picture via Ab Jansen in Sporen aan de
Hemel, volume I, page 279)
Lt. Kenneth Dutton
(co-pilot), Lt William Dietel (pilot), Lt
Herbert Funk (navigator). Lt Clyde Davis
(bombardier), S/Sgt Dunmeyer (BBT), Sgt
Bollinger (radio operator), S/Sgt Edward Amory (waistgunner),
Sgt Jack Mason (tailgunner), SSgt Wyman Martin
(asst. radio operator) and TSgt Howard Adams
(gunner).
They were one of
the original crews with the 384th BG which came
over with the group from the USA.
On 28 July 1943
the 384th flew mission #11, to the Fieseler
Works in Kassel, Germany. Lt. Dietel's crew flew
B17 42-30032 BK-D "Sky Queen". Sgt
Bollinger had to be replaced due to ear problems
by Sgt Salvatore Perrotti. Another new member to
the crew on this mission was 2Lt Jacques Riddel.
He had just come over to the Bomb Group with his
own crew, but as was common, every new pilot
would fly a few 'familiarization' missions as a
co-pilot with an experienced crew.
As the Dietel crew was
already into their operational tour, the
original co-pilot of this crew, 2Lt Dutton
insisted that he join the crew on this mission.
The crew had trained together and were bend on
flying every mission together so they could
complete their tour and return to the States as
a crew. He was granted
permission and so the B17 took to the sky with
five, instead of the normal four officers on
board.
Bad weather caused the
formations to break up and only four of the 20
bombers dispatched by the 384th actually bombed Kassel. The other bombed Targets of Opportunity.
The formations
faced heavy resistance by the German Luftwaffe.
A total of 22 B17s were shot down, of which Lt.
Dietel's plane was one. It was the only plane
lost by the 384th that day. It was shot down by
Lt. Erich Hondt, Staffelkapitan of 2./JG 11 and crashed near Kortwoude in the province of
Friesland.
Nine of
the crew died while the two survivors, Sgt
Salvatore J Perrotti (Radio Operator) and T/Sgt
Howard J Adams (TT) were taken
prisoner.
The tail section
of the SKY Queen. (Picture courtesy of
Ken Decker, 384th BG historian via Mr. Frank
Weening)
The nine
airmen were first buried in the small town of Opende. After the war Lt. Dietel, Lt. Riddel,
S/Sgt Mason and S/Sgt Armory were reinterred in
Margraten. 2Lt Herbert Funk, 2Lt Clyde Davis,
2Lt Dutton and S/Sgt Martin were reburied at
Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C.
on 14 December 1950. T/Sgt Lloyd Dunmeyer's
remains were brought back to the States at the
request of his family.
After the war,
the people in Opende commemorated the crew with
a stone plaque at the local cemetery where the
crew had once been buried. It was unveiled in
1985 by Mr. Howard Adams, the surviving Tot
Turret Gunner/Engineer. The memorial now
stands at the site where an Australian Lancaster
crew is buried that were killed near the same
town, 6 months later, in February 1944.
(picture by Wim
Bastiaanse)
