This article is a continuation
of the Bill Beavers story, ANOTHER REASON HIS WAS THE GREATEST
GENERATION. It is written by a
Swiss researcher, Juerg Herzig, who read the Beavers’ column online and
thought it resonated with something his mother had told him many years ago –
she lived in the small town of Trimbach, Switzerland. His website is http://standwheretheyfought.jimdo.com
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Sixty-five years ago, the B-17 ‘Dottie’, a U.S. bomber, crashed in Trimbach.
By: Jurg Herzig
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| B-17 Dottie after being shot down. |
Saturday, February 27, 2010, will
be the 65th anniversary of the day the enemy aircraft crashed in Trimbach.
On Tuesday, February 27, 1945,
about 2:20 p.m., according to Trimbach villagers, air raid sirens sounded in
Olten, warning of an air raid. Subject
of the warning was a Flying Fortress approaching from the direction of
Winznau.
The bomber was from the 414th
Squadron, 97th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 15th Air Force,
deployed from Amendola Air Base, near Foggia, Italy.
The B-17 Flying Fortress, known
as Dottie was tasked to attack the Guderbahnhof, the main freight terminal in
Augsburg, Germany. During the attack,
the ship was heavily damaged by anti-aircraft flak. One engine was lost and the bombardiers were
wounded.
As the mission’s lead aircraft,
Dottie was designated (PFF). Her nose
gun turrets had been replaced with Pathfinder Force H2X radar equipment, code
named “Mickey”. “Mickey 4” was her radio
call sign.
Major George Albin, flying on his
first mission with this Squadron, reported being struck by enemy fire at 1:25
p.m. Another aircraft from Squadron 414,
piloted by Major John R. Campbell, was flying alongside when Albin ordered
Dottie’s crew to abandon the ship as soon as possible.
The aircraft was losing altitude
rapidly. The pilot did not think it
could make it over the Alps, therefore, his order for abandonment.
Bill Beavers, a waist gunner
aboard Dottie, remembers the mission quite well.
He and other crew members, who
had completed thirty combat missions, did not agree with the pilot’s
decision.
They recalled a similar incident
of August 18, 1944, when their aircraft received heavy damage and the loss of
three engines over Ploesti, Romania.
Yet, the remaining engine flew them several hundred miles to safety.
Realizing Dottie was only six
minutes from reaching the Swiss border, a crew member radioed the pilot to stay
the course, rather than going down in German territory.
This was seconded by Bill
Beavers, “Better to be interned in Switzerland than becoming a POW in Germany!”
Even though most of the crew
wanted to remain on board, Major Albin placed the aircraft on automatic pilot
and along with the co-pilot, bailed out.
Only when the cockpit failed to
respond to other crewmembers did they know the pilot and co-pilot had jumped.
“We were scared to death to jump,
but Richard Adkins, our tail gunner, told us to stay calm. Adkins was a big guy from Texas and
threatened to boot our ass out of the plane if necessary. As it happened, Adkins got stuck and we
booted him out, then the rest of us jumped”, says Beavers.
Beavers and other crew members landed
near a river and were captured by German police near Pussen. Other crewmen landed close to a German Army
Camp were captured near Kaufbeusen by the German Army.
The Dottie crew spent the
remainder of the war in various POW Camps.
Beavers was imprisoned in Stalag VII A, near Moosburg.
General Patton’s Tank Division
liberated him on April 30, 1945. By that
time he had lost more than fifty-five pounds.
Today, Bill and his wife, Mary, live in Guilford County, NC. Now retired, he spends much of his time
playing golf.
Back to Dottie, she flew on
auto-pilot into Switzerland, crossing the border at approximately 2:00
p.m. The Swiss Air Force customarily
intercepted errant bombers and directed them to land at Dubendorf.
Seeing that this B-17 was not
responding to directions, Swiss Air Force fighter planes commenced firing on
Dottie at 2:40 p.m. Even after Dottie’s
fuselage and right wing panel was on fire, the ship flew towards Trimbach.
Even though Dottie was losing
altitude, the fighter planes remained on the ship’s tail, continuing to fire in
an attempt to bring the ship down.
Unmanned, damaged, and out of control, Dottie twice circled the village
of Olten, before finally falling towards Trimbach.
At one time, it was feared the
damaged B-17 would crash into the Kantonsspital, the Trimbach Hospital. Fortunately, those fears did not materialize.
Around 3:00 Dottie crashed into a
field near Rinetelhof’s Inn in Trimbach.
Soldiers, police and firefighters
rushed to the crash scene, only to discover that the aircraft had been
completely destroyed. They were not
surprised that not even a tiny clue of crew member remains was found.
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