He was on the
varsity football team in high school and on the
Swimming Team in college. He returned to work
with father and family in our weekly newspaper,
The Radio Post, and volunteered for the US Air
Force immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack.
During his flight training at Sherman, Texas, he
met Maureen Mathis, who he married April 18,
1943, in Sioux City, Iowa. I caught a train and
was best man at his wedding. His last visit home
was in May of that year for Mother's Day."
Lt. Dietel joined the 384th Bomb Group after
initial training and was, with his crew, one of
the original crews of the group. The rest of his
crew were:
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).
The 384th had
their final training at Sioux City, Iowa, where
Lt. Dietel also got married.
The aircrews left Sioux
City with their new B-17F's for Kearney,
Nebraska on May 3, 1943, and then to the United
Kingdom via Bangor, Maine, Goose Bay, and
Gander, Newfoundland. The first aircraft arrived
in England on the 25th May 1943.
The 384th established its
home at
Grafton-Underwood,
England, Station 106. Combat training continued
through June, and the group flew its first
operational mission on June 22, 1943.
As was common,
every new pilot to the group would fly a few
'familiarization' missions as a co-pilot with an
experienced crew. On the mission for 28 July
1943, 2Lt Riddel was to fly with 1Lt Dietel's crew.
As Lt. Dietel's 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.
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)
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". 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 left wing
of the SKY Queen. (Picture courtesy of Mr. Miner
Brink 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 SSgt 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)
1Lt William Dietel Jr is buried at Margraten
American Military Cemetery, Plot P Row 22 Grave
11.
