Memorial

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Statement of the tail gunner, S/Sgt John Kaiser, the only crew member who survivied:
"The airplane was hit by flak while over the target and its n° 3 engine was knocked out if its mount. It nosed up out of the formation, levelled off, then started down in a steep glide. Just beofre reaching the undercast, the pilot was heard to say he would try to reach the Russian lines and the plane went into the undercast on an easternly heading." He also told the airplane was hit twice. After the first hit it remained in level flight and the engineer called on the interphone to ask if he was all right. There were noises from the front that sounded like pieces of it were ripping off. When it was hit again a few seconds later, the airplane started down in a steep glide. He fastened on his parachute and called out over the interphone but on one answered. He looked back into the waist but could see nothing because of the smoke. The airplane was vibrating badly and he decided to get out. When he landed in an open field, he was momentarily unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he saw several Luftwaffe soldiers approaching, so he stood up with his hands over his head. He was brought to a POW camp at Weimar where an interrogator asked him the names of the members of his crew. He gave him their last names and was told that his crew had crashed a few miles away and all had been killed (he meant a few miles from where Sgt Kaiser landed - approximately 2,5 miles east of Altenburg). As proof he was shown a basket that contained the dog tags, bill folds, watches and other personal property of the men. Sgt Kaiser was allowed to look through this equipment and when he found the wedding ring of the pilot, 1st Lt Larsen, he asked the interrogator if he would not allow him to take it to Lt Larsen's wife. He replied "sure" and gave it to him.

From the eight crew members who were killed, only the remains of T/Sgt Charles Dineen were recovered from the cemetery of Utzberg on 1 July 1945. He is buried at the American Military Cemetery of Lorraine, France. At the time of the investigation in August 1947, other remains couldn't be found since all disinterments had already been taken place. Also other cemeteries were investigated without any result. Further investigations were extremely limited because the area was located in the Russian occupied zone of Germany.

The names of the missing crew members are listed at the Tablets of the Missing at Henri-Chapelle.

Sgt Kaiser, a surviving crew member, stated that after he was taken prisoner, he was allowed to look through a basket that contained dog tags, bill folds, watches and other personal property of the man who were killed. When he found the wedding ring of Lt. Larsen, he asked the interrogator if he would allow him to take it to Larsen's wife. He replied "sure" and gave it to him.