Fire in the cemetery- the story of US bomber at Olomouc

Air battle 17th December 1944

On Sunday, 17th December 1944, the largest air battle of World War II took place over Moravia. On this day, the command of the American 15th Air Force based in Bari, Italy, planned a raid on refineries and other important military targets in Central Europe. Among those targets selected that day were three synthetic gasoline refineries in southern Poland. These were the Blechhammer-South, Blechhammer-North (today Blachownia Slazska) and Odertal (today Zdzieszowice) plants. These three refineries were among the most important producers of fuel for the German army and air force in the area and were also among the most important targets for the US Army Air Forces operating from bases in central Italy around Foggia. To raid these targets, 527 heavy four-engine Consolidated B-24 Liberator and Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress bombers were launched, accompanied by 93 twin-engine Lockheed P-38 Lighting and 207 single-engine North-American P-51 Mustang fighters. The convoy headed north in several waves, through the towns of Split, Bukovec, Joka, and Mohelnice to its destination.

Although the american planners had not expected heavy resistance from the German fighter air force - the Luftwaffe, which had suffered heavy losses the previous days, the opposite was true.

Around ten o'clock the alarm was sounded at the German airfields around Berlin. Here the Jagdgeschwader 300 "Wilde Sau" fighter squadron was based. From the airfields of Jüterborg, Löbnitz, Reinsdorf and Borkheide, about a hundred Focke-Wulf FW-190A and Messerschmitt Bf-109G fighters took off. Heavily armoured and armed with 30 mm guns The FW-190A is led by experienced fighter pilot Lt. Klaus Brettschneider. The fighters form up in a single group and head east, to cross the path of the American formation. The onslaught of their attack will be felt most keenly by the 49th. Bomber wing heading for the Odertal refinery. The formation is led by the 484th. Bombardment Group, followed by the 451st and 461st at the end. The German fighters turn south at the last moment, passing the first wave of B-24 bombers, and a subsequent 180-degree turn takes them directly behind the end of the 461st Bombardment Group.

Bomber gunners will spot the German fighters around 11:50. They immediately develop a formation and attack hard. The first attack was conducted from the rear in the area south-west of Prerov, and several B-24 Liberator bombers are subjected to accurate FW-190 fire. Eight B-24 liberator bombers crash landed on Moravian territory that day, most of them crashing on their first run. Their wreckage falls near the villages of Troubky, Rokytnice nad Bečvou, Kokory, Palačov, Kozlov, Libina, Václavov and in Olomouc-Neředín. Repeated attacks by German fighters until the arrival of the American fighter escort, a total of 28 American aircraft are shot down, including 22 bombers and 6 fighters. 2 American P-38 Lighting fighters landed on our territory near Kralice (Prostějov district) and Vinary (Přerov district).

German casualties from this battle are not insignificant either. 29 German fighters crashed only on our territory and 19 pilots died. 4 of them are buried in the Olomouc cemetery in Neředín. In the American bombers that crashed in Moravia, 45 pilots died. The rest were captured, except for one. Sgt. Frederick Hughes, a side-gunner who parachuted from his B-24J 42-51319, which eventually crashed near Kokor, was hidden by Czech patriots in Brodek u Přerova until the end of the war.

B-24J Liberator „Arsenic and Lace“

‹ Detail of the drawing and name of the aircraft on the fuselage

‹ G.R. Smith's crew in front of their aircraft at Torretto Airbase, after returning from a mission that was called off after launch

The ship Consolidated B-24J-15-FO serial 42-52025 nicknamed „Arsenic and Lace“ build at Ford, Willow Run company took off together with the rest of 465th Squadron/461st BG at early morning 7:45 from Torretto airbase. The crew that day consisted of:

1.	Pilot	2nd Lt Gerald R. Smith	Michigan
2.	Co-pilot	2nd Lt Vrooman L. Francisco Jr.	Arkansas
3.	Navigator	F/O Milton A. Klarsfeld	New York
4.	Bombardier	2nd Lt Artur H. Carlson	Oregon
5.	Top Gunner	Sgt Morris R. Goldman	Illinois
6.	Front gunner	Cpl David D. Brewer	Arkansas
7.	Radioman and Right side gunner	Sgt Abraham P. Ambramson	New York
8.	Left side gunner	Sgt Edwin L. Howard	Ohio
9.	Ball turret gunner	Sgt John R. Modrovsky	New York
10.	Tail gunner	Sgt Clifton J. Stewart	Massachusetts

List of 11 missions completed by the crew of the G.R. Smith until was shot down:

20. 10. 1944	Milano	Italy
23. 10. 1944	Munich	Germany
1. 11. 1944	Vienna	Austria
6. 11. 1944	Vienna	Austria
11. 11. 1944	Linz	Austria
12. 11. 1944	Vienna	Austria
19. 11. 1944	Vienna	Austria
2. 12. 1944	Blechhammer	Polen
11. 12. 1944	Vienna	Austria
15. 12. 1944	Linz	Austria
17. 12. 1944	Odertal	Polen

461st Bomb Group take off from their Torretto base at 7:45. The flight is seemingly uneventful. Hundreds of bombers are flying at an altitude of about eight kilometers. The gunners are watching the sky anxiously.

The Luftwaffe attacks

At 11:45 am, Morris Goldman, the gunner of the upper gun turret, reports German FW-190 fighters at six o'clock. However, the bomber is already hit by a burst of 20- and 30-mm shells from the FW-190 guns during the first attack. The fire immediately knocks out the No. 3 engine, and the oxygen distribution and fuel system are hit. Both side gunners are fatally hit and fall to the floor dead. Commander Gerald Smith, after discovering that the aircraft is on fire and the engines are not working drops the bombs with a volley, switches off the engine ignition and switch on the autopilot. Meanwhile, tail gunner Clifton Stewart leaves the aircraft through the side gunnery window, followed by ball turret gunner John Modrovsky, who is checking both side gunners. Bombardier Arthur Carlson helps out from the damaged turret to the top gunner, Goldman, but both later pass out due to lack of oxygen on the way to the bomb bay. The aircraft is still at about 8,000 meters. Both pilots, after not getting word from the rest of the crew, abandon their stations and jump out through the burning bomb bay.

The last of the crew on board - navigator Klarsfeld and front gunner Brewer are fighting for their lives in the nose of the plane. Milton Klarsfeld assists David Brewer from the front turret, both strap on their parachutes and prepare to jump, find that the nose wheel door cannot be opened, move towards the bomb bay. Here, however, the passage is blocked by the bodies of the bombardier and the top gunner. But then the bomber explodes, throwing the navigator out of the burning machine. He later wakes up, opens his parachute and lands near the burning machine.

The demise of the bomber was watched by Capt. Robert L. Chalmers, the pilot of the only aircraft from the 765th Squadron to return to base, who was flying a B-24J 44-41020 bomber named "Judy R":

"At about 11:45 our formation was attacked by about 50 enemy fighters in the area of Mohelnice, Germany. After the first attack, I saw Lieutenant Smith's plane being hit by fighters. The No. 3 engine was on fire, but the plane was still under control. I saw several crew members jump out. They seemed to be hesitant to open their chutes because I didn't see any chutes open immediately. Our altitude at that point was about 26,500 feet. Lieutenant Smith's bomber continued to the right below our aircraft. My co-pilot saw that he continued to the right and down. One wing broke off and the plane blew up. Comparing what I saw with the rest of my crew, we can say we saw at least 10 parachutes."

The wreckage of a bomber falls on the Neredin district. The central part of the fuselage falls on the cemetery, where it burns. 25 graves are damaged.

A witness, Mr Jaroslav Tichý from Neředín, in an interview for MF Dnes newspaper on 7 May 1999 described the whole event as follows:

"The clouds were very low on Sunday, December 17th. All of us, the whole family, were in a shelter in the basement. Suddenly, not far away, we heard a muffled explosion and after a short time later, we could smell gasoline everywhere. When we ran to look in the windows from the first floor, we saw a fire about three hundred meters away from us next to the main chapel at the Neredin cemetery. We ran over there to look, and in the south a plane was on fire in the south avenue of the main chapel. It was about five metres long, the fuselage, everything else, the wings, the cabin were gone. My father was one of the first to get there, and according to him and other witnesses, the airman (probably navigator Milton Klarsfeld or co-pilot Vrooman Francisco) calmly got out, lit a cigarette and dropped his lighter. He stood there and waited, knowing he had no chance, he didn't even try anything. Then, with his tongue hanging out, a local old man named Peschl ran up and captured him and later handed him over to the Wehrmacht soldiers. The engines were scattered in Neredin around Peschl's pub."

‹ Former Peschl's pub, now restaurant U Rybníčku

"The whole of Neředín was then covered with a lot of small fragments of sheet metal with aircraft parts. In the garden of the pub two engines fell down, in the parking lot in front of the crematorium there was a three-bladed propeller in the in a hole about a metre deep.

‹ The area in front of the Neředín cemetery, in the parking lot on the left landed the propeller mentioned above

4 dead crew members fell in one place near each other at a place called "U Křížku"

The sight to about four crew members who fell out of the plane without opening their parachutes and lying dead on a very small area around the cross at today's Okruzni Street in about a hundred-meter radius was terrible."

David D. Brewer landed with his gun turret on the roof of the Hewanicky's pub where it punched through the roof and he was left dangling over the bar.

‹ The place of the U Hewanických pub, where David Brewer's body landed on its roof. Today the restaurant U Rytíře

14 bombs dropped in haste from a plane land and explode near Topolany village. A record of this event can be found in the memory book of Topolany:

"It was Sunday, 17 December 1944, and it was foggy, so we couldn't see anything. I was then in the municipal office. There were more of us there. The sirens in the factories were sounding the alarm and the radio was announcing that a strong air force was flying towards the north. About a little before twelve o'clock at noon we heard a rumbling and through the windows we saw a black column of smoke roll up towards the Krejcar's land. We all looked in the windows and said that they must be bombing the factory in Lutin, but then a new explosion and a piece of rock the size of a child's head flew up to the windows of the municipal office. This already indicated that the bombs were falling closer. We went to look at the village square and saw that people were coming out out of their houses, frightened and scared. We could also see that on the lower side, at the Sklenars, the Spurneys, the Kotks and the Vilims, the windows had been broken out by air pressure. After climbing to the bell tower, we saw dirt and stones on the path that had fallen there during the explosion. Behind the stumps in the gardens of the Agricultural Society of Mr. Šindler and Ing. Miroslav Vilímec there were funnels from the explosion of large bombs. The pits were 3-4 meters and the upper diameter was 8-10 meters. The roof coverings on the roofs were damaged the most, at the Neumann's not even one window was whole, all the windows were blown out. Immediately afterwards there was an amazing number of people with curiosity, from near and farther away villages. The bomb that fell on Vilímec's garden damaged his barn and the barn of Mr. Zelinka No. 2, so that the side wall was displaced by 1/2 meter. Mr. Shindler had a fence and several trees damaged and blown down. It was very fortunate that the bombs fell just outside the barn and into the gardens."

Fliers on parachutes land in various places around Olomouc. Sgt Clifton Stewart is captured near Brodek u Přerova immediately after landing, Milton Klarsfeld in Olomouc, not far from the place of impact of his machine. Pilot Gerald R. Smith landed near the village of Tážaly and was captured in the village of Charváty, where he was brought by the locals. The ball gunner, John Modrovsky, landed at an unknown location and managed to escape until the next day when he was captured near Přerov. John's parents came from the village of Drahovce near Pieštany (Slovakia). Commander Smith has a dislocated arm, which will be treated by a German doctor in Olomouc. Here he also meets the rest of his crew.

They are all sent to a prison camp for Allied airmen, where they stay until the end of the war. The bodies of the dead crew members are placed in the Concordia funeral house, together with seven crew members from the B-17G bomber who died a day later at Bystrovany, are buried in the military cemetery in Olomouc-Cernovir on 31st December 1944.

Crash of Boeing B-17G at 18th December 1944 near Bystrovany

A day later, on Monday, December 18, 1944, the 15th Air Force again sent its bombers to the same refineries as on that fateful Sunday. German resistance was much weaker, but the German fighters still managed to shoot down another four-engine Boeing B-17G bomber, serial number 42-32097, named "Slipstream" by 347th Squadron/99th BG, over Olomouc. The aircraft was heavily hit on the way from the target, leaving 3 crew members damage plane. The remaining seven died after the machine exploded in mid-air. The wreckage of the aircraft fell down between Bělidla district and Bystrovany village on both banks of the Bystřice River. Survivors of the crash were the pilot 2nd Lt Sherwood P. Ruster, navigator 2nd Lt Ward S. Randolph and mechanic-top gunner T/Sgt Wilbur T. Massey. The bodies of the dead crew members were placed in a common grave with Smith´s crew death. Full story could be found here

These airmen were buried in the original grave:

B-24J 42-52025 „Arsenic and Lace“, 17. 12. 1944, Olomouc- Neředín
Bombardier	2nd Lt Artur H. Carlson
Top Gunner	Sgt Morris R. Goldman
Front gunner	Cpl David D. Brewer
Right side gunner	Sgt Abraham P. Ambramson
Left side gunner	S/Sgt Edwin L. Howard
B-17G 42-32097 „Slipstream“, 18. 12. 1944, Bystrovany
Co-Pilot	2nd Lt Robert A. Brown
Bombardier	Sgt. Vincent C. Manzella
Radioman	S/Sgt Walter G. Person
Left side gunner	Sgt. Roland D. Bergmann
Right side gunner	Sgt. Edward E. Davis
Ball turret gunner	Sgt. Byron C. Anton
Tail gunner	Sgt. Robert E. Lary

Funerals and exhumations

After the war, all the dead were taken to the cemetery in Neředín 1946 and buried there. During this exhumation on 29 March 1946, 2 gold rings are taken from the dead, which, in an attempt to establish the identity of the dead, the National Committee sends to the American Embassy in Prague, which confirms the receipt of the items, but not the identity of the airmen. Instead, on August 16, 1946, a direction arrived from the Ministry of National Defense announcing the planned exhumation of the American airmen. On the evening of 9 September, an American commission of about 15 men arrives in Olomouc. Prior to this, the cemetery administration unveils the coffins so that the official pick-up of the dead can be made at 8:00 a.m. on September 10 and their removal to Allied military cemeteries or to cemeteries in the United States. The commemoration was attended by a number of city and military representatives, and included speeches and military music. During the event, a formation of Avia C-2 (ex Luftwaffe Arado Ar-96) aircraft from Olomouc Airbase flew over the cemetery repeatedly.

‹ Photographs from the exhumation of 12 American airmen in Olomouc- Neředín on September 10, 1946.

‹ Loading coffins onto a lorry

What happened to the survivors?

After the war, the captured crew members happily returned home. Tail gunner Clifton J. Stewart died Jan. 10, 1992. Commander Gerald R. Smith visited the Czech Republic in April 1999 with his daughter Claire, looking for a place to land his parachute. The historian Mr. Michal Šišovský assisted him in his search. He also visited Olomouc and the crash site in Neředín, where he also met with local citizens. He died on 5 August 2003 in Garden Grove, California.

Another survivor, John R. Modrovsky, attended a memorial event at Troubky with several other veterans of the 461st Bomb Group in September 2000. He still lives in Florida.

Navigator Milton A. Klarsfeld founded the Audio-Video corporation after the war and still lives in Albany, New York, at 89.

The fate of the last survivor, co-pilot Vrooman Francisco Jr., is also unknown.

An old event recalled

Although the event was gradually forgotten after the exhumation in 1946, the "Arsenic and Lace" aircraft once again recalled itself. In the summer of 1986, reconstruction work began on the cemetery in Neredin of the tombs in Group XX, Nos. 42 and 43, located in the western avenue. Since 1901, when it was established, it has changed hands under several owners. In December 1944, it became one of the tombs damaged by the wreckage of the B-24J bomber 42-52025. In its original design, the tomb was damaged by a sandstone sculpture of a woman who was struck (apparently from the west) by part of the crashing aircraft. The sculpture fell through the stone slab into the tomb. It was then only temporarily repaired with fragments of stones and soil.

In 1986, the Cemetery and Crematorium Authority proceeded to exhume the interred and repair the tomb. During this activity, the sculpture was removed from inside the tomb and the tomb was cleaned and drained. It was discovered that the southern lining had been broken through and that inside the tomb was found a part of the adjustable propeller control for the bomber was found inside. A plastic tag attached to the part proved that it was a product of Hamilton Standard Propellers, which supplied propellers to the American aircraft industry during World War II and still manufactures them today.

New memorial

On 16 December 2011, a new memorial was erected at the cemetery in Neředín, which worthily commemorates the memory of the fallen airmen, more here

SOURCES:
- MACR 10680
- letter from od Karel Hewanicky
- MF Dnes 7. 5. 1999
- Vzpomínky na neznámé letce, Jan Mahr, Miroslav, 2011
- Memeory book of Topolany village
- www.461st.org
- The 461st Liberaider, Vol. 16 No.1, June 1999
- K havárii bombardovacího letounu "Liberator" u Olomouce- Neředína v roce 1944,Václav Burian, Vlastivědný věstník moravský XL, 1, 1988
- 17. 12. 1944- 17. 12. 2004 Troubky, Rokytnice, Kokory- Nezapomeneme! Jaroslav Shön, 2004
- Authors personal archive