pilot 2Lt Ross A McCollum
co-pilot 2Lt Marcum E Thomas
Navigator 2Lt Daniel P Jones
Bombardier 2Lt Lloyd G. Crabtree
Radio operator S/Sgt Henry A Stelmach
Ball turret gunner Sgt Howard L Chatelaine
Top turret gunner SSgt Wayne A Warner
Right waist gunner Sgt Leander J Aurie
Left waist gunner Sgt Warren B Goss
Tail gunner Sgt Andrew P Barrus
After the war, 2Lt Crabtree would write a report
about the shoot down of the B17. They had just
crossed into Holland "17 miles from the Zuiderzee,
we were lead between two cloud formations: one some
30 feet above us and the other about 200 feet below
us.
Due
to some reason I never learned the ship to our left
changed its position in formation by coming under us,
chaving off the tip of our right wing and jolting
the plane and crew considerable".
At
this point, the pilot, 2Lt McCollum sounded the
alarm bell indicating to the crew to bail out.
However, he managed to get the plane under control
and the bail out order was reversed.
2Lt
Crabtree continues: "After the pilot Lt R.A.
McCollum righted the ship we were attacked from the
nose out of the clouds directly over our heads in
elements of three's by enemy ships (as well as I
remember they were ME-109s)
Three waves of them from the front brought is down.
I stayed with the ship for a short time after it was
out of control heading for the earth. Then I bailed
out"
Just
before the plane was shot down, waist gunner Leander
Aurie told the crew over the intercom that he had
shot down a plane, what he thought to be a ME210.
2Lt
Crabtree was the only one to survive. The rest of
the crew was eithe rkilled, according to Lt Crabtree,
by enemy gunfire or the crash. He also stated that
the Navigator, 2Lt Daniel Jones, from New York, had
spilled his parachute in the plane earlies. He urged
Jones to jump with the spilled plane, but Jones
refused.
The
plane crashed near hotel "De Witte Raaf" (The White
Raven) near the town of Epe, the Netherlands. The
bodies of the nine crew members were recovered and
buried in the local cemetery.
The
father of the pilot, Captain W.A. McCollum, went to
great lengths to recover the remains of his son and
his crew. He and the US Graves Registration finally
found the graves in Epe. The wife of the
caretaker of the cemetery sent a picture of his
grave to the families in the United States. After
the U.S. Army arrived, the remains were removed to
the American Cemetery at Margareten, Holland.
