Memorial

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2nd Lt Walter P. Manning was a mechanic before he enlisted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 15 March 1943.

On 1 April 1945 Lt Manning was on a bomber escort mission to St. Pölten, Austria with eight planes in his flight. In the Wels, Austria area, about 15 miles southwest of Linz, Austria, the squadron became engaged in a dog fight with Luftwaffe aircraft. Lt Manning was shot down in the Wels area but was able to bail out, to become a POW.

Sadly, two days later, Lt Manning an unarmed POW was murdered by the Nazis, not an uncommon fate for downed allied airmen late in the war.

Lt Manning was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen. This is an air force organization of the US Army Air Force, in which - due to the, then valid, racial segregation in the USA - only African Americans served. These were even more hostile to Nazi propaganda.

Manning was to be lynched by a local group leader, but this was initially prevented by military soldiers, and he was then given relative safety. Local party officials and Nazi officers attempted to gain access to Manning to take him to the Lynchjustiz Days. Manning was severely mistreated and finally hanged in front of the Horstkommandantur, with a blackboard round his neck, saying, "We are fighting back." It is particularly tragic that the case was quickly forgotten in the USA. The perpetrators were known, but they were never questioned and never taken.