Memorial

More information

The Pilot, Lt Beatty, reported the plane having to leave the formation right over the target (due to FLAK damage) and about 20 miles west of Hamburg and the bail out order had to be given. Upon reaching 13,000 feet, he stated that the following happened: "...Garbeff (Navigator)" left ship via nose hatch approximately twenty miles west of the target. Approximately the same time Mulder (Nose Gunner) left via the bomb bays around 11,500 feet; Wells (Co-Pilot) bailed out via the bomb bays at 10,000 feet; Dunphy (Upper Turret Gunner) bailed out about 8,000 feet via the bom bays; and Beatty (Pilot) bailed out through the bomb bays about 30 miles west of the target. Men in the waist and tail: Zybort (Engineer), Dowell (Tail Gunner), and Amenta (Waist Gunner) left the ship prior to my leaving. No interphone contact was made to these three men but they are accounted for; Zeybort and Dowell were wounded, Zybort savagely. Beatty went on to lay out a diagram of the aircraft's patch away from the target area, the bail out patterns of each man, and the approximate points where the plane crashed, just south of a small village west of Hamburg. (Note: Probably beyond but near to the German village of Stade). He specifically pin-pointed the bail out point estimation for Sgt Berquist as some 12 miles west of the target area though this crew member's name was not mentioned in any of the bail out sequence details given. In another suvivor's account, Sgt Zybort's, the following Casualty Questionnaire information was given also later: "...I last saw Sgt Berquist in the waist section of our aircraft at which time he left me to procure a first aid kit to treat my wounds....at that time, he was well and uninjured....all members of the crew bailed out...(and) all crew members with exception of Sgt Earl J. Berquist, Radio Operator, are now safe in the Zone of Interior". A third member's accound later, Sgt Amenta, on the question of the other crew men's status in the plane or after bailing out, statet: "...my Engineer was in plane with leg partly shot off; my Pilot with a wounded ankle; my Navigator with a bad ankle; my Tail Gunner with Flak in his leg...and the last three men mentioned I saw on the ground". On the status of Sgt Berquist, Amenta reported that the last time he saw this crew member was in the bomb bay, and at some moments just before the ship was lost, Sgt Berquist had asked him to help with their wounded Engineer. He accounted for 5 missions that Sgt Berquist had flown up until then Bremen (29 July); Kiel (31 July); to France target (1 August); to France target (2 August); and this 6 August raid.