Memorial

More information

1st Lt Francis E. Akins was a brakeman at the railroad before he joined the Air Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 3 September 1942.

During the seventh and last shuttle mission of Operation Frantic, 107 B-17's are send out to drop 12,484 containers of supplies to the Polish resistance forces in Warsaw, Poland. One B-17 is lost. About 1242 hours the airplane was hit by flak and attacked by fighters and peeled out of formation to the right, with #1 engine afire. Also the left horizontal stabilizer began to disintegrate. The plane dropped its load. The waist escape hatch came off. The plane went down in controlled glide to 8,000 feet at which altitude it exploded at about 1246 hours.

After the war, T/Sgt Marcus L. Shook, the Radio Operator who survived, stated:
"The plane crashed at 1250 hours approximately 50 km Northwest of Warsaw. One engine caught fire. I bailed out at 10,000 or 14,000 feet. No one was killed or injured before the plane crashed. A wing blew off in mid air."

It was the crew's 15th mission.

In 1978, the townspeople of Lomianki, Poland raised money and erected a memorial to the crew of the "I'll Be Seeing You". Today, the townspeople of Lomianki typically commemorate these brave men on September 18th of each year.

His brother, Cpl Hugh J. Akins, served with the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division and was killed 3 weeks later. He is buried at the American War Cemetery in Margraten.