Supply drop for "Varsity" 1945

Or was this photo taken after the initial partroopers drop and before the Low Level B-24 Run?? I bought the book In Honored Glory of Betsy Keenen Walker (eldest daughter of Alan Keenen-the sole survivor of the Queen of Angels crash). His report indicates a crashsite NW of Hamminkeln. Makes sense because he was taken POW upon landing with parachute, he even had to dig a grave of fallen comrade!. Can not immagine that he was taken POW near Waymannshof. That was firmly in US hands as shown bij so many gliders near that farm..Still a mystery unless grid in report MR2344 was a mistake...still recherching..(on the 446 Bomb Group Facebook website).

 

So, they do an investigation to sort out who the unidentified body was - and the only point of the experts of the Graves Registration Service and their report ist to find out more about the body - but they get the location completely wrong? I am afraid that this is hardly conceivable.

After his jump Alan Keenan (a waist gunner, wasn't he? Not the navigator or pilot) was probably one of the most disoriented men on the battlefield - full of adrenaline, scared, shocked, suddenly hitting the ground in an area he had never seen before and that looks the same everywhere: flat fields and meadows, woods, the odd farm. And then he was taken prisoner. The Germans probably did not show him on a map where exactly he was.
I think that it helps to put oneself in his shoes...

The area beyond the autobahn track was still in German hands. That the aircraft came down in a square of 1000x1000 meters in the Waymannshof area does not mean that Keenan landed next to Waymannshof.

The aerial was taken on the morning of March 25th - not between the para drop and the supply mission.

 

This picture is maybe wrong, as this photo is already claimed in 1944, On the mission of 15 June 1944 to a bridge at La Frillière, near Tours.
EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY — Vintage Wings of Canada
https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/media/media-414202jpg

Actually there is no Church with this specific shape of the bell tower in Hamminkeln. Even not in combination with the big house in the front.

 

Agree, great find. I’ve had a look but can’t see the town of Eye in France. There’s and Eye in Norfolk though?! Had a look at churches around Tours where it apparently is. Can’t find this one.

 

But also, has the church been changed? In one account I read apparently in the centre of Hamminkeln was a “big” building which was apparently the local HQ for Luftwaffe comms between the flak stations. Is that the building opppsite the church if this is Hamminkeln?
im open minded!

 

Alex,

Eye is the formerly RAF airbase in UK
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ECn6KAheswxXtKhJA

15 June 1944, the aircraft was tasked to bomb the bridges near
https://maps.app.goo.gl/XkvGejrup2gwGPYV7

I looked already if the Church was renovated in Hamminkeln, after the war. But didnt find anything.

Also i checked churches in the vicinity of La Frilière, didnt found anything.

btw, i like open minded.

 

Hi Bedee,

if this was 15 June 1944 it must have been a cold spring - no leaves on the trees. Or somebody used Agent Orange...

Best
Alex

 

Didn't pay attention to that. .

Plotted a few spots in Google Earth. This week.

 

I still think this is Hamminkeln's catholic Church - the spire is a bit changed today, but please look at the old postcard with the church in the centre. Behind the church you will spot the other building we see in the photograph with chimneys (or decorative extensions) on top of both gables. On the left of the postcard you see the old creamery (now gone) - the largest buidling in Hamminkeln's town centre

 

The house with the gables is "Restauration Wilhelm van Nahmen" - a pub next to the church. Mainly patronized by the Catholics in Hamminkeln (a minority) in the old days. I had a drink there with friends every now and then when we were still in our late teens. Van Nahmen is still a household name in Hamminkeln - they have produced apple juice for more than a century and their juice today is available nation wide in upmarket delicatessen shops.

 

Hi,

I just assumed this was taken by Christie from Mehrhooger as he entered Hamminkeln with his cine partner, Harry Oakes, on the the 24th. Though they date it the 25th here.



Regards ...

 

The picture, taken on the 24th by Sgt. Christie, also appears in a book by Roger A Freeman called "Mighty Eighth War Diary" (Janes Publ. Company, 1981) on p. 473.

Freeman gave it the following caption:
"A stricken B-24 - believed from 392BG - just before crash-landing near Hamminkeln during the resupply drop on 24 March."

It's just a caption written by someone in 1981 - I just thought it might be nice to know....

 

First time Nitrowski was wrong? Hmm.

 

Of course, even Nitrowski could be wrong - but in this case he is not!

 

This comes from "In Honored Glory" of Betsy Keenen Walker, the eldest daughter of Alan Keenen, the sole survivor of Queen of Angels page 199. This possible crashsite is plausible in combination with Alan taken POW upon landing. This was a contested area. I thought even a German counterattack reaching Farmhouse Hegemannshof near Am Wall. The only trouble here is that a (British) witness of the crash did not see a survivor with a parachute. But I could not find an aerial picture of a possible crashsite around MR2344. Does not mean that there is none..still a mystery?..





I think we must compare this pattern with other crashpatterns in order to define whether it could be a B-24 crash.

 

I am not buying any of this... I made my point. Nothing else I can say...

 

Found It

Maybe wrong, Trees without leaves.... it means a bit more research. And i found, thanks to the Internet Archive of https://www.hvv-hamminkeln.de/

And now my question would be, who gave the order to renovate the tower ? and in what year. It fits completly in the Photo of Nitrowski
1930 Hamminkeln St Maria Kirche

I will send an email to the websites i posted before, that they are wrong.

 

So, I sent Betsy that aerial pic.
When I spoke to Ortwin in Hamminkeln he knew it was a B24 that crashed there. I spoke with veterans on the 7th Parachute Battalion who saw a B24 go in there. I found some Perspex in the ground and he has some parts recovered in his collection. It was assumed that was the queen of angels.
I do trust the map reading skills of the graves unit, which makes it almost inevitable the crash site is the old veteran as previously mentioned.

 

Eye witnesses from 7 Para saw a B24 go in. One even wrote a poem that mentions it!

 

Indeed, but on the question did You see parachutes he was stating: No chance... By the way I found the possible crashsite picture on NCAP. But still not sure..