Story

1st Lt Sidney S. Grapey joined the Air Corps of the U.S. Army Rerserve as a private in Chicago, Illinois on 13 July 1942. He attended college for 3 years and was an actor before he joined the army.

The Odertal oil plant was located in a part of Poland that was annexed by Nazi-Germany. The place is now called Zdzieszowice.

Statement of S/Sgt Kenje Ogata:
"I, Staff sergeant Kenje Ogata, 16037445, was ball turret gunner on an airplane in the same flight as first Lieutenant Theodore C. King, flying aircraft number 42-51941. On 17 December 1944, Lieutenant King was flying number two position, deputy flight leader, on a mission over the Odertal oil plant in Germany. Shortly after passing over the target the lead airplane seemed to be pulling out of the formation and lieutenant King, in the deputy lead position, moved to take over the lead. As Lieutenant King let down his tail hit the number one propeller of the lead ship, as it was coming back into its former position. I saw Lieutenant King’s airplane spiral down and go in a flat spin. The tail of Lieutenants King’s aircraft was sheared off. The weather was clear and just before the plane hit and burst in to flame I saw one parachute open. This was at about 1255 hours at approximately 50 28N, 18 04E, in Germany."

The plane that they collided with was 42-52045.

Only one crew member, S/Sgt Joseph Weisler, photographer, survived and was taken prisoner. The other 10 crew members are listed at the Tablets of the Missing at Henri-Chapelle.

In November 1947 and April 1948, an investigation team searched for the remains of the crew. No information pertaining the burial location of any of them could be found in German records. The interrogation of eye-witnesses and town officials were also without result. Evidence, however, indicated that the remains, if recovered, were interred in the POW cemetery at Lamsdorf (Łambinowice, Poland). Lamsdorf was previously the location of Stalag 2 and it is estimated that 460,000 dead of several nationalities were interred there in mass graves of about 1800 bodies each. Officials stated that all burial were made without clothing or identifications of any kind. In November 1947 several graves were opened but in no way any Americans could be identified. In April 1948 permission to enter the area was refused because the cemetery site was being used as a Russian anti-aircraft artillery range.

In the case of one crew member, S/Sgt Howard G. Miller, records contain a letter from a Polish civilian who wrote to the widow that he saw the crash and that Miller was killed as a result of parachute failure. He claimed that Miller was buried in a forest nearby.

Award

links