Ol'Harry

JOHN KOEHNE -- MISSION COMPLETE

B-17 pilot, 1^st LT John Koehne, probably had a hunch the mission of April 2, 1944, would be different.  Over his combat missions to date, he had generally flown as co-pilot.  On this mission, a less experienced replacement pilot would co-pilot Ole Mose -- Koehne would pilot.

JOHN KOEHNE -- 2013 AT PENNYBYRN

Targeting a Nazi ball bearing plant and aircraft manufacturing facilities in Austria, over 500 heavy bombers rose at daybreak from the Southern tip of Italy.  According to briefing instructions, it was the 15^th Air Force’s largest mission to date.  Koehne knew from past experience, this would be a long, dangerous flight -- to bomb a fiercely defended target.  That the crews typically received double credit for missions of this sort was of little consolation.

LT JOHN KOEHNE & FAMILY 

Ole Mose was one of 19 heavy bombers that went down during ferocious aerial firefights over the target.  Many others went missing in action.

Late in the summer of 2013, from his home in Pennybyrn at Maryfield, 93-year old Koehne reminisced, “Over the target, four anti-aircraft shells exploded very close to us.  I realized we were in trouble, control cables were cut, one engine gone, and gaping holes appeared in the wings.”

We had to drop out of the formation and German fighter planes swarmed all over us.  I put it on auto pilot and went aft to inspect the ship, only to find it on fire.  I immediately ordered the crew to jump.  The entire crew made it out safely, but I had to go back to the cockpit to get my parachute.”

With his parachute on, Koehne could not clear the damaged bomb door.  “I jumped out with the parachute under my arms.  The main parachute would not open, but an auxiliary chute opened just seconds before I hit the ground!”

Due to his rapid, but unplanned descent, Koehne said, “I was the last man to jump, but the first one to hit the ground!” 

German soldiers picked up the downed airmen for interrogation and imprisonment.  Several crew members were wounded.  One died from his injuries within hours.  “He was bleeding heavily, I knew he was in bad shape.  Both Austrian farmers and German soldiers tried to care for him, but it was too late,” recalled Koehne.

Survivors of the Ole Mose crew spent the rest of the war as POWs.  After his discharge, Koehne joined the Air National Guard in St. Louis, his hometown.  Mostly through night classes, he earned a degree in economics and business administration from St. Louis University, graduating cum laude in 1955.

He became a contracting officer with McDonnell Aircraft.  His favorite McDonnell recollection was negotiating a billion dollar contract with Ross Perot.  After contractual work with the Navy in Washington, D.C., Koehne came to the Triad to work with AT & T.

He was caregiver for his wife for seven years, until she died in 1997.  They had five children.  At Immaculate Heart of Mary in High Point, he became president of the Young at Hearts group.  In 1999, he married Julia, also a Young at Heart member. 

Surely, the Young at Hearts aren’t into hazing, but Koehne has bungee jumping in his background – with filming by his wife as proof.  He explained, “It was free for me, because of my age.” 

Known as “Big Jim” in his younger days, Koehne was wheel-chair bound and in failing health at the time of our visit.  He was noticeably blessed with careful attention from his wife and other caring attendants.  Typical of so many of his generation, he was proud to have served his country and felt blessed to have lived 93 years. 

 

Koehne passed away on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 2013.  According to his obituary, he died with a cross around his neck, his wife holding one hand, his rosary in the other, and the American flag draped over his legs. 

 

An unusual looking mechanical device hung on a wall of the Koehne home.  The unusualness went away after a bit of Internet sleuthing about Ole Mose.

RECOVERED FRAGMENT OF B-17 "OLE MOSE"

Marty Upchurch, a nephew of Ole Mose’s lone fatality, is the Newsletter Editor of the 99^th Bomb Group Historical Society.   Upchurch has thoroughly researched and documented the B-17’s loss.  He has visited the crash site in Austria and talked with witnesses of the crash as well as with some who cared for his uncle before he died.

Upchurch also brought back miscellaneous pieces from the Ole Mose crash site.  They had been stored in an Austrian farmer’s barn for over 60 years.  One of those parts is an unusual looking mechanical device – it’s the one John Kuehne proudly displayed on the wall of his Pennybryn at Maryfield home.

After Koehne's death, she asked that I come by and pick up the large assortment of WW II caps he left -- most of which were new and had not been worn.  She wished them given to other WW II survivors -- that mission has been completed!