A Mysterious Fortress from the Stolsko Lake - epilogue

Michał Mucha

After some delay, information about the serial number of the engine recovered from the Stolsko Lake by Jerzy Janczukowicz's divers in August 1998 has finally been released to our Aircraft M.I.A. Project. Our Szczecin - based friend Piotr Kałuża kindly helped us to collect it.

Unfortunately, none of the documents on missing crews which are in our possession, i.e. Missing Air Crew Reports, contained the engine number SW-018882. At this stage, Paul Andrews came to our rescue. He is a respected American researcher and author of some fundamental books about the 8th Air Force. He painstakingly searched through numerous reports on missing crews and eventually found the relevant one which described the fate of a Flying Fortress of the 91st Bomb Group, serial number 44-6117, that did not return from a mission to Berlin on June 21, 1944. Its crew consisted of:

2nd Lt. Robert E. O'Bannon - Pilot,
2nd Lt. Thomas J. Fitzgerald - Copilot,
2nd Lt. Nathan L. Bartman - Navigator,
2nd Lt. Arnold J. Ostwald - Bombardier,
S/Sgt Irvin E. Lewis - Top Turret Gunner,
Sgt Benjamin Goldman - Radio Operator,
S/Sgt Herbert S. McCutchan - Ball Turret Gunner,
Sgt Jose Fioretti - Waist Gunner,
Sgt Amos F. Estrada - Tail Gunner.

Drawing of the engine data plate bearing the s/n SW-018882.
(J. Janczukowicz via P. Kałuża)

On that day, the 91st Bomb Group was attacked while approaching the target area by over 50 twin-engine Luftwaffe fighters. Aircraft s/n 44-6117 was hit by 20mm cannon shells in the trailing edge of the left wing behind no.2 engine and also in the left horizontal stabilizer. The wing caught fire, the crew salvoed the bombs and their plane peeled off from formation.

B-17G-40-DL s/n 44-6117 left the Douglas plant only a few weeks earlier, at the beginning of May 1944, and did not carry any defensive camouflage. The aircraft reached 91st Bomb Group at the end of May. According to Ray Bowden, a respected British researcher and author of books on the 91st Bomb Group and missions to Berlin, the Fortress flew only four sorties before June 21. The first one was on June 15 to Bordeaux-Merignac, three days later - to Hamburg; on June 19 again to Bordeaux-Merignac, and the next day once again to Hamburg.

Paul Andrews believes that it was damaged during one of these sorties to such extent that it needed the replacement of the left wing tip. The replacement part was probably borrowed from an older Fortress, painted in Olive Drab and Neutral Gray. That explains the presence of remains of camouflage paint on the wing part displayed in the Polish Armed Forces Museum in Warsaw.

All members of Robert O'Bannon's crew bailed out about 10.08 hours while their aircraft fell into the Stolsko Lake, 22 kilometers to the North-West of Szczecin. Unfortunately, the tail gunner did not survive the jump. Reportedly he was shot in the air by a Luftwaffe fighter. The rest of Americans became prisoners of war.

The Germans decided to leave the wreckage in the Stolsko Lake and therefore Jerzy Janczukowicz's group is able to recover it systematically year by year.

  Author:
  Michal Mucha

  December 30, 2000

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see also: A Mysterious Fortress from the Stolsko Lake

Tajemnicza Forteca ze Stolska - epilog
zobacz też: Tajemnicza Forteca ze Stolska

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