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WWII Combat Chronology – 13 September 1944

February 23, 2022 7:00 AM / Leave a comment

I am continuing my series of articles based on the entries from Kit C. Carter and Robert Mueller’s U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II Combat Chronology 1941 – 1945 and Jack McKillop’s USAAF Chronology: Combat Chronology of the US Army Air Forces. Both combat chronologies are excellent sources of information regarding combat missions in World War II and I thank the authors for sharing them online.

These articles are concentrated on the operations of the 8th Army Air Forces on the missions on which the John Oliver Buslee crew and James Joseph Brodie crew of the 384th Bomb Group participated. The statistics of other dates and missions and of other branches of the American Air Forces and theaters of operation of World War II are available through the links provided in this article to these two sources for those interested.

Today’s installment is the 13 September 1944 mission in which the Buslee crew and Brodie crew participated.

WWII Combat Chronology – Wednesday, 13 September 1944

384th BG Mission 194/8th AF Mission 628 to Merseburg, Germany.

Target: Oil Industry, the Leuna Synthetic Oil Refinery.

The John Oliver Buslee crew of the 544th Bomb Squadron and the James Joseph Brodie crew of the 545th Bomb Squadron participated in this mission.

Carter and Mueller’s U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II Combat Chronology 1941 – 1945 entry:

70-plus B-17’s, escorted by a P-51 gp, continuing UK-USSR-Italy-UK shuttle-bombing mission, take off from USSR bases, bomb steel and armament works at Diosgyor and proceed to Fifteenth AF bases in Italy. 750-plus HBs from UK bomb 3 synthetic oil plants, 2 aero engine factories, 3 M/Ys, n A/F, motor works, ordnance depot, fuel depot, and several cities and isolated T/Os in C and SW Germany. 11 ftr gps escorting later strafe A/Fs and miscellaneous ground tgts. 28 Hbs and 9 P-51’s are lost. P-51’s claim 33 aircraft destroyed in the air and 2n on the ground. A P-51 gp sweeping S of Munich strafes aircraft dispersal area, A/F and a M/Y.

Jack McKillop’s USAAF Chronology: Combat Chronology of the US Army Air Forces entry:

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)

STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): 3 missions are flown.

  1. Mission 628 to oil and industrial targets in S Germany. The Buslee and Brodie crews participated in this mission.
  2. Mission 629, an Azon mission to the oil refinery at Hemminstedt.
  3. Mission 631 to drop leaflets on the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.

Also, B-17s, escorted by P-51s, continuing the UK-USSR-Italy-UK shuttle-bombing mission, take off from USSR bases, bomb steel and armament works at Diosgyor, Hungary and proceed to Fifteenth AF bases in Italy.

And P-51s fly a strafing mission S of Munich hitting an aircraft dispersal area, airfield and marshalling yard.

Mission 628: 1,015 bombers and 477 fighters attack oil and industrial targets in S Germany by visual means; 15 bombers and 8 fighters are lost:

  1. 376 B-17s are dispatched to oil refineries at Stuttgart/Sindelfingen (109) and Ludwigshafen (74); secondary targets hit are Darmstadt (95) and Wiesbaden (8); targets of opportunity hit are Mainz (22), a marshalling yard near Wiesbaden (12) and others (3); 4 B-17s are lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 134 damaged; 1 airman is KIA, 2 WIA and 37 MIA. Escort is provided by 73 of 74 P-47s, they claim 6-0-2 aircraft on the ground.

  2. 342 B-24s are dispatched to hit Schwabish Hall Airfield (65), a munitions dump at Ulm (65) and Weissenhorn (45); a target of opportunity hit is Reichelsheim (1); 4 B-24s are lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 127 damaged; 3 airman are WIA and 39 MIA. Escort is provided by 99 P-38s and P-51s; they claim 14-0-5 aircraft on the ground; 2 P-51s are lost.

  3. 297 B-17s are dispatched to hit oil refineries at Merseburg (141) and Lutzkendorf (77); targets of opportunity hit are Giessen (17), Eisenach (12), Altenburg (7), Gera (7) and other (19); they claim 1-0-0 aircraft; 7 B-17s are lost, 3 damaged beyond repair and 145 damaged; 4 airmen are KIA, 8 WIA and 67 MIA. Escort is provided by 233 P-47s and P-51s; they claim 33-0-4 aircraft in the air; 6 P-51s are lost.

Links/Sources

Except for entries from Carter and Mueller’s U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II Combat Chronology 1941 – 1945 and McKillop’s Combat Chronology of the US Army Air Forces © Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2022

Stalag Luft IV, Lager D, Barracks 4, Room 12

February 16, 2022 7:00 AM / Leave a comment

In the mid-air collision of 28 September 1944 over Magdeburg, Germany of the B-17’s of the John Oliver Buslee crew of the 544th Bomb Squadron and the James Joseph Brodie crew of the 545th Bomb Squadron of the 384th Bomb Group, four men survived to become prisoners of war.

One of the men of the Brodie crew, George Marshall Hawkins, Jr., was an officer. The other three, my father George Edwin Farrar, Harry Allen Liniger, and Wilfred Frank Miller, were enlisted men. Officers and enlisted men were housed in separate prison camps. Farrar, Liniger, and Miller were housed in Stalag Luft IV, although it seems as though none of them arrived at the same time.

Another airman of the Brodie crew, William Edson Taylor, who was not participating in the 28 September mission with his crew, became a prisoner of war on a later mission, about a week after his crewmates, and was also housed in Stalag Luft IV.

Until two weeks ago, I had never found any of their names on a roster of prisoners of the camp. But two weeks ago, when I was revisiting some POW websites that I had not visited for a long time, I found most of them.

Unfortunately, I did not find the name of Harry Liniger on any of the rosters I reviewed, but I am certain he was held in that camp.

I found three new rosters for prisoners held in D Lager – two rosters of American POW’s and one roster of British POW’s. It is possible that Liniger was held in D Lager, but also as likely that he was held in A, B, or C Lagers instead. I believe he would have arrived at Stalag Luft IV before Miller and Farrar, so my best guess is that he was a resident of C Lager.

George Farrar was a hospital patient until almost Thanksgiving 1944 and Wilfred Miller was originally held in Stalag Luft III until January 1945.

Gregory Hatton’s website, Kriegsgefangen Lagar Der Luft VI and VI, contains a list of Camp Rosters, and in particular, one named Lunsford D Lager Diary Evacuated to Stalag 11A.

In the pages of the Lunsford D Lager Diary, I found my father, George Edwin Farrar listed as G. E. Farrar, on page 21. His S/N was 14119873 and his POW number was 3885.

George Edwin Farrar on Stalag Luft IV Lager D roster

Wilfred Frank Miller, listed as W.F. Miller (the second W.F. Miller on the page), is on page 44. His S/N was 36834864 and his POW number was 3916.

Wilfred Frank Miller on Stalag Luft IV Lager D roster

William Edson Taylor, listed as W.E. Taylor, is on page 72. His S/N was 16115332 and his POW number was 4059.

William Edson Taylor on Stalag Luft IV Lager D roster

I also found airman Cecil Carlton McWhorter, listed as C.C. McWhorter, of the 351st Bomb Group, who was my one of my dad’s POW roommates and marching companions, on page 42. His S/N was 6285927 and his POW number was 3906.

Cecil Carlton McWhorter on Stalag Luft IV Lager D roster

But my finds didn’t end there. Another roster on the Stalag Luft IV website was a roster of British airmen, Flt. Sgt. David Joseph Luft 4 roster RAF POWs at Luft IV. There on page 5, I found the name of my father’s British POW roommate and marching companion, Lawrence Newbold. The British roster provided not only Lawrence Newbold’s RAF S/N of 1576728 and POW number of 3113, it also told his Barracks number (4) and Room number (12).

Lawrence Newbold on Stalag Luft IV Lager D RAF roster

I now had confirmation of exactly where in Stalag Luft IV my father was held – Lager D, Barracks 4, and Room 12. But to really be able to visualize his place in the POW camp, a map of the camp would really come in handy. I found such a map on the website of a former prisoner of the camp, Jack McCracken.

Stalag Luft IV map drawing courtesy of Jack McCracken

With Jack’s map drawing, I was able to see exactly where my father was held in the camp as a prisoner of war. To enlarge the map for a better look, click on the image. Each of the four Lagers – A, B, C, and D are noted with the letters circled. Looking in the “D” section, look just underneath the circled “D” to the circled “4.” That would be Barracks 4.

As for Room 12, I have read that each barracks contained only 10 bunk rooms and that the POW’s called common areas like hallways and kitchens by numbers, too. Room 12’s sleeping arrangements may have been tabletops and floors rather than bunks, but I don’t know for certain except to say “comfort” was probably not a word in the POW’s everyday vocabulary.

Another bit of information, which I’ll have to research in more depth, is that the men on the roster on which I found my dad’s name were supposedly evacuated to Stalag 11A from Stalag Luft IV. I hope to learn more information about this detail as I delve deeper into my POW research.

Notes of Thanks and Credits

SSgt John Huston (Jack) McCracken,
Engineer/Top Turret Gunner

Thank you to S/Sgt. John Huston (Jack) McCracken for sharing his map drawing of Stalag Luft IV on the internet. S/Sgt. McCracken was an Engineer/Top Turret Gunner on a B-17 in the 570th Bomb Squadron of the 390th Bomb Group. He was shot down 9 September 1944  on a mission to Düsseldorf, Germany and imprisoned at Stalag Luft IV and Stalag Luft I. He was housed in Barracks 3 of C Lager according to notes on his map.

I wish to give full credit to Jack McCracken for his map drawing of Stalag Luft IV and have attempted to ask permission through several e-mail addresses I found on his webpage, to use his map in this article but without success.

Unfortunately, I cannot make my request to Jack himself as we lost this hero in 2012. You can read more about Jack McCracken in his obituary on Find a Grave.

Thank you, Jack, for making this information available for generations to come.

Thank you, Gregory Hatton, for providing Stalag Luft IV rosters and other information.

With the exception of images in this post provided by John Huston (Jack) McCracken, Gregory Hatton, and others, © Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2022

Kriegie Kids and the Search for POW Records, Part 3

February 9, 2022 7:00 AM / 1 Comment on Kriegie Kids and the Search for POW Records, Part 3

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) takes requests for information regarding Prisoners of War (POW’s) currently four times a year (subject to change in the future). Please check the website of the ICRC for the next submission date. See this previous article for more details.

George Edwin Farrar’s POW ID Tag, #3885 from Stalag Luft IV

A recap:

My father, George Edwin Farrar, was an American Prisoner of War (POW) of Germany during World War II. The Nazis called the prisoners “Kriegsgefangenen.” The POWs called themselves “Kriegies.” That makes me, the daughter of Stalag Luft IV POW #3885, a “Kriegie Kid.”

As a Kriegie Kid, I am naturally interested in discovering information about my father’s Prisoner of War experience and have found various ways to search for details.

I have covered several resources for POW information in previous articles,

ICRC POW Records Request

Kriegie Kids and the Search for POW Records, Part 1

Kriegie Kids and the Search for POW Records, Part 2

and to complete this series of articles, I have a few additional ideas for places you can search for POW information.

Websites

Keith Ellefson, 384th Bomb Group Combat Data Specialist and fellow volunteer researcher for the group, shared these resources – the “American Prisoners of War In Germany” document and the “Foreign Records Seized” search engine – he found in the National Archives Catalog. Thank you, Keith!

“American Prisoners of War in Germany” prepared by the Military Intelligence Service War Department options to view and save:

  • View one page at a time by clicking each page and zoom to read
  • Save/download or print (or just view) the entire document. At the lower right of the screen, which shows Image 1 of 112, click the double right arrow (>>) “Last Image” icon. On the redrawn screen, which shows “Automatic Zoom” at top middle, click the Download button on the right. You will be able to save the entire “731111-Box2197-Folder1.pdf” file to your computer. To print, click the Print button.

Foreign Records Seized, obtained from the National Archives Catalog search advice:

This record group is rather difficult to navigate and may not produce any results for you, but it does contain some German Downed Allied Aircraft Kampfflugzeug Unterlagen (KU) Reports. I was able to find a KU report by searching on my father’s name in this record group and will use my search as an example.

  • Open the National Archives Catalog, Foreign Records Seized.
  • Scroll down the page and click the “Search within this record group” button.
  • At this point, you could just scroll through the records in the group as it contains a lot of interesting items, but to search for information about a POW relative, enter their first and last name in the search box in the top left and click the magnifying glass.
  • I searched using my father’s name, George Farrar. I was presented with two pages of results.
  • After scrolling through both pages of results, I could see that my father’s full name appeared only in the second result in the list: KU-3028. I clicked on that link to open the report.
  • As with the “American Prisoners of War in Germany” report, I could scroll through each image or click the “Last Image” double arrow to download or print the entire document.
  • Reviewing the items in the file, I see that some of the information pertains to my dad and his crew and some does not.
  • I repeated the search using the name Harry Liniger, the waist gunner of the B-17 that collided with my dad’s on September 28, 1944. I found KU-3089 with that search.
  • The results were certainly not as complete a picture as I had hoped for, but I did discover some previously undiscovered German records during the process.

Facebook Groups

  • Kriegie Kids Facebook group, a fairly new group with currently a small number of members. If you are a Kriegie Kid, I urge you to join to connect with other Kriegie Kids, learn more about the WWII POW experience, and ask questions.
  • Many of the WWII combat groups have Facebook group pages set up for NexGen members (and veterans) to connect, share information, and ask questions. Many of them include members who are researchers or historians of the group who will help you find information.

Books

Many books have been written by WWII veterans or their children about POW experiences. Try a general internet search or start with a few of these. Most of these are available on Amazon, but the Shoe Leather Express books are out of print, so besides looking on Amazon, check Abebooks and other used book sources like eBay.

I’m certain I haven’t covered every available resource for learning more about the WWII POW experience, especially that of the Pacific Theatre, but this post is the final post of this series.

However, you should expect a lot more coverage on the subject of WWII POW’s here in the future as I continue my research into my father’s POW camp experience and the path of his march to liberation and freedom.

Notes

The German word for prisoner of war (POW) was Kriegsgefangener (singular) and Kriegsgefangenen (plural). The POWs called themselves “Kriegies” for short.

Links from previous posts in this series

NARA search of Records of World War II Prisoner of War

ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) Requests for Information About People Held POW

© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2022

WWII Combat Chronology – 11 September 1944

February 2, 2022 7:00 AM / Leave a comment

I am continuing my series of articles based on the entries from Kit C. Carter and Robert Mueller’s U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II Combat Chronology 1941 – 1945 and Jack McKillop’s USAAF Chronology: Combat Chronology of the US Army Air Forces. Both combat chronologies are excellent sources of information regarding combat missions in World War II and I thank the authors for sharing them online.

These articles are concentrated on the operations of the 8th Army Air Forces on the missions on which the John Oliver Buslee crew and James Joseph Brodie crew of the 384th Bomb Group participated. The statistics of other dates and missions and of other branches of the American Air Forces and theaters of operation of World War II are available through the links provided in this article to these two sources for those interested.

Today’s installment is the 11 September 1944 mission in which the Buslee crew and Brodie crew participated.

WWII Combat Chronology – Monday, 11 September 1944

384th BG Mission 192/8th AF Mission 623 to Lützkendorf & Merseburg, Germany.

Target: Oil Industry, an Oil Refinery.

The John Oliver Buslee crew of the 544th Bomb Squadron and the James Joseph Brodie crew of the 545th Bomb Squadron participated in this mission.

Carter and Mueller’s U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II Combat Chronology 1941 – 1945 entry:

The Eighth begins another FRANTIC shuttle-bombing mission, as 75 B-17’s with 64 P-51’s attack armament plant at Chemnitz, and land at USSR bases. I P-51 is lost. FRANTIC mission lasts until 17 Sep and takes the planes from UK to USSR to Italy to UK. Over 850 other HBs, escorted by 14 ftr gps, bomb 6 synthetic oil plants, an ordnance depot, an engine works, a M/Y, a tire plant, and numerous other scattered T/Os, along with several German cities. An estimated 525 ftrs attack the formations or are engaged by Eighth AF planes. 52 HBs and 32 ftrs are lost. HBs claim destruction of 17 ftrs while the US ftrs claim 116 in the air and 42 on the ground.

Jack McKillop’s USAAF Chronology: Combat Chronology of the US Army Air Forces entry:

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)

STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Two missions are flown.

  1. Mission 623 to synthetic oil plants and refineries in Germany. The Buslee and Brodie crews participated in this mission.
  2. Mission 625, a leaflet drop on France and Germany overnight.

Also, B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER missions during the night.

Mission 623: 1,131 bombers and 440 fighters are dispatched to hit synthetic oil plants and refineries in Germany; AAF encounters an estimated 525 Luftwaffe fighters; 40 bombers and 17 fighters are lost; AAF claim 115-7-23 aircraft in the air and 42-0-43 on the ground:

  1. 384 B-17s are dispatched to hit oil refineries at Bohlen (75), Chemnitz (75), Brux (39) and Ruhland (22); the Chemnitz force is an Operation FRANTIC force that along with 64 P-51s, continues on and lands in the USSR; targets of opportunity are a tire plant at Fulda (66), a marshalling yard at Fulda (40) and 16 others; they claim 12-16-1 aircraft; 16 B-17s are lost, 3 damaged beyond repair and 94 damaged; 2 airmen are KIA, 4 WIA and 153 MIA. Escort is provided by 252 of 275 P-51s; they claim 57-2-12 aircraft in the air and 26-0-25 on the ground; 4 P-51s are lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 5 damaged; 4 pilots are MIA.

  2. 351 B-17s are dispatched to hit oil refineries at Merseburg (111) and Lutzkendorf (96); targets of opportunity hit are Eisennach (71), Labejum (12), Rossla (6) and 25 others; they claim 1-1-2 aircraft; 13 B-17s are lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 106 damaged; 2 airmen are KIA, 21 WIA and 120 MIA. Escort is provided by 247 P-47s and P-51s; they claim 13-0-1 aircraft in the air and 4-0-2 on the ground; 3 P-51s are lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 2 P-47s and 4 P-51s damaged; 3 pilots are MIA.

  3. 396 B-24s are dispatched to hit an engine factory at Hannover (88), oil refineries at Misburg (87) and Magdeburg (33) and an ordinance depot at Magdeburg (27); targets of opportunity hit are Magdeburg (70), Stendal (45), Diepholz (9) and 3 others; they claim 4-8-1 aircraft; 10 B-24s are lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 179 damaged; 1 airman is KIA, 13 WIA and 102 MIA. Escort is provided by 164 P-38s and P-51s; they claim 45-5-10 aircraft in the air and 12-0-16 on the ground; 10 P-51s are lost, 4 damaged beyond repair and 7 damaged; 14 pilots are MIA.

Links/Sources

Except for entries from Carter and Mueller’s U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II Combat Chronology 1941 – 1945 and McKillop’s Combat Chronology of the US Army Air Forces © Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2022