AR banner
Search Tips Advanced Search
Back to Top

Info LogoAdd to or correct this story with a few clicks.
Archive Report: US Forces
1941 - 1945

Compiled from official National Archive and Service sources, contemporary press reports, personal logbooks, diaries and correspondence, reference books, other sources, and interviews.

We seek additional information and photographs. Please contact us via Helpdesk
8th Air Force
17.04.1945 327th Bombardment Squadron (H) B-17G 43-39110, 1st Lt. John W. Paul Jr. DFC

Operation: Dresden (Mission #957), Germany

Date: 17th April 1945 (Tuesday)

Unit No: 327th Bombardment Squadron (H), 92nd Bombardment Group (H), 1st Air Division, 8th Air Force

Type: B-17G

Serial No: 43-39110

Code: UX:E

Location: Dippoldiswalder Heide area, Germany

Base: Podington (Station #109), Bedfordshire, England

Pilot: 1st Lt. John Walter Paul Jr. O-815539 DFC AAF Age 25. PoW *

Co Pilot: 1st Lt. Nathaniel Norman Shane O-781687 AAF Age 22. Murdered (1)

Navigator: FO. E.J. ‘Pete’ Pruitt T-134983 AAF Age 20. KiA

Bombardier: 1st Lt. Reinhold Rudolph Hoffman O-783264 AAF Age 27. KiA

Radio Operator: T/Sgt. Thomas John Shanahan 36863298 AAF Age 20. KiA

Engineer: T/Sgt. Jozas (Joseph) Anthony Budzius 36007708 AAF Age 29. KiA

Ball Turret: S/Sgt. Bradford Wendell Mathewson 39417942 AAF Age 19. KiA

Tail Gunner: S/Sgt. Peter Bigelow Taylor 31261973 AAF Age 21. PoW *

One of the two Waist Gunners were removed from crew complements starting on the 7th June 1944 and then both from 23rd February 1945.

* Unknown PoW Camp

REASON FOR LOSS:

B17G 43-39110 was one of 32 aircraft, 3 flying reserves and 4 pathfinder aircraft detailed from the 92nd Bombardment Group (BG) that took off from Podington on the morning of the 17th April 1945 on a mission to bomb the Friedrichstadt marshalling yards in Dresden, Germany.

The lead aircraft of the BG could not see the target because of the cloud cover and ordered a turn of 360 degree turn to starboard (right) and to descend 6500 ft from their altitude of approximately 19600 ft to get under the cloud base.

At the beginning of the turn, B-17G 43-39110 was flying to the port (left) and lower than B-17G 44-8903. The pilots of the two aircraft were unaware that they were on a collision course until the starboard (right) propellers of B-17G 43-39110 tore into the lower front fuselage of B-17G 44-8903. Both aircraft broke up resulting in parts of the aircraft being scattered over the sky.

The aircraft wreckage fell to earth in the Dippoldiswalder Heide area, 14 km south of Dresden and about 4 km to the north of Dippoldiswalde itself.

Of the eight crew aboard B17G 4-3 39110 only Pilot, 1st Lt. Paul Jr., Co-Pilot, 1st Lt. Shane and Tail Gunner S/Sgt. Taylor managed to parachute to safety from the exploding aircraft.

(1) 1st Lt. Shane landed near the village of Reinhardtsgrimma, which is some 17 km due south of Dresden. He surrendered to the local blacksmith Kurt Köhler and his assistant, who were the first to arrive on the scene. Five minutes later, Bernhard Koplin arrived, a waiter by profession who had been drafted into the Gendarmerie reserve. He tried to incite Köhler to kill 1st Lt. Shane, offering his service pistol for the purpose, which the blacksmith refused. Local Nazi block leader Walter Kirsten was next to arrive on the scene, also armed with a pistol, which was however, not his own and which he was not entitled to carry. He was also approached by Koplin with the request to shoot the airman but he also refused to do so. Then a member of the Waffen-SS by the name of Ernst Rudolf Neumann appeared, took Kirsten’s pistol from him and fired all six shot from the magazine into Shane’s body, commenting that he was avenging his father and sister who had been killed in an air raid.

After the war, East German police investigations led to several trials: Kirsten was first sentenced to 11 years Zuchthaus (=ignominious imprisonment with forced labour), because the Court assumed, contrary to Kirsten’s own assertions, that he had given his weapon voluntarily to the murderer, knowing what was to happen (Kirsten’s version was that the pistol had been taken from him against his will). The sentence was quashed on review and in a retrial Kirsten received 4 years 6 months imprisonment. This sentence was also quashed on revision and in a retrial Kirsten was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment which he had till then already served. After the reunification of Germany, Kirsten had all his sentences lifted and declared null and void. He was already dead when this decision was reached.

Bernhard Koplin received a sentence of 9 years Zuchthaus of which he served 5 years and 10 months. He seems to have moved afterwards to West Berlin where his trail is lost.

Ernst Rudolf Neumann disappeared. During the post-war years he lived in Switzerland and apparently avoided German territory. He died in 2015.

1st Lt. Shane was buried in the community cemetery at Reinhardtsgrimma in an unmarked grave.

Burial Details:

1st Lt. Nathaniel Norman Shane. Air Medal (3 Oak Leaf Clusters). Repatriated and interred at the King Solomon Memorial Park, Clifton, Passaic County, New Jersey on the 23rd April 1950. Born on the 6th June 1922 in Manhattan, New York. Son of Harry A. and Sadie (née Bernstein) Shane of the Bronx, New York. Husband to Beatrice (née Israel) Shane of the Bronx, New York, USA.

Note: After Beatrice knew she was a widow, she remarried one Eisinger who adopted her son Errol. Errol Eisinger had three children and lived in Miami, Florida, when Herr Schildbach found him.

FO. E.J. ‘Pete’ Pruitt. Air Medal (2 Oak Leaf Clusters). Repatriated and interred on the 25th January 1950 in a joint grave with 1st Lt. Reinhold R. Hoffman and S/Sgt. Elwood F. Johnson at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, Lemay, St. Louis County, Missouri. Born on the 27th June 1924 in Marion County, Georgia. Son of Effie Julian (His father predeceased him in November 1931) and Annie Mae (née Thomas) Pruitt of Marion County, Georgia, USA.

1st Lt. Reinhold Rudolph Hoffman. Air Medal (3 Oak Leaf Clusters), Purple Heart. Repatriated and interred on the 25th January 1950 in a joint grave with FO. E.J. ‘Pete’ Pruitt and S/Sgt. Elwood F. Johnson at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, Lemay, St. Louis County, Missouri. Born on the 25th October 1917 in Cleveland Town, Jackson County, Wisconsin. Son of Ernest J. (His father predeceased him in July 1938) and Martha J. (née Lange) Hoffman of Cleveland Town, Jackson County, Wisconsin, USA.

T/Sgt. Thomas John Shanahan. Air Medal (4 Oak Leaf Clusters), Purple Heart. Repatriated on the 28th February 1950 and interred at the Arlington National Cemetery, Section 34, Grave 1615, Virginia. Born on the 16th November 1924 in Detroit, Michigan. Son of John and Loraine Shanahan of Detroit, Michigan, USA.

T/Sgt. Jozas (Joseph) Anthony Budzius. Repatriated and buried in Illinois (no further information found). Born on the 6th June 1915 in Chicago, Illinois. Son of Ludvikas (Louis) (His father predeceased him in June 1930) and Pauline (née Martinkus) Budzius of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA.

Above: The Fresno Bee The Republican, dated Friday January 6th, 1950

S/Sgt. Bradford Wendell Mathewson. Air Medal (4 Oak Leaf Clusters), Purple Heart. Repatriated and interred at the Liberty Veterans Cemetery, Fresno, California. Born on the 20th May 1925. Son of Harold and Dorothy Mathewson of Fresno, California, USA.

Researched by Ralph Snape and Traugott Vitz for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the relatives of this crew with additional thanks to Traugott for his work on the ‘VitzArchive’.

We are indebted to Herr Matthias Schildbach for his permission to use in the above narrative his original research as published in:

Schildbach, Matthias, Mid Air Collision, Kreischa 2020 (6th edition)
Schildbach, Matthias, Der SS-Mann, der den amerikanischen Bomberpiloten erschoss. (Newspaper SÄCHSISCHE ZEITUNG, edition of 7th July 2022)

RS & TV 15.12.2022 - Update to 1st Lt. Shane narrative

Pages of Outstanding Interest
History Airborne Forces •  Soviet Night Witches •  Bomber Command Memories •  Abbreviations •  Gardening Codenames
CWGC: Your Relative's Grave Explained •  USA Flygirls •  Axis Awards Descriptions •  'Lack Of Moral Fibre'
Concept of Colonial Discrimination  •  Unauthorised First Long Range Mustang Attack
RAAF Bomb Aimer Evades with Maquis •  SOE Heroine Nancy Wake •  Fane: Motor Racing PRU Legend
Acknowledgments: Sources used by us in compiling Archive Reports include: Bill Chorley - 'Bomber Command Losses Vols. 1-9, plus ongoing revisions', Dr. Theo E.W. Boiten and Mr. Roderick J. Mackenzie - 'Nightfighter War Diaries Vols. 1 and 2', Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt - 'Bomber Command War Diaries', Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Tom Kracker - Kracker Luftwaffe Archives, Michel Beckers, Major Fred Paradie (RCAF) and MWO François Dutil (RCAF) - Paradie Archive (on this site), Jean Schadskaje, Major Jack O'Connor USAF (Retd.), Robert Gretzyngier, Wojtek Matusiak, Waldemar Wójcik and Józef Zieliński - 'Ku Czci Połeglyçh Lotnikow 1939-1945', Archiwum - Polish Air Force Archive (on this site), Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek - 'Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii', Franek Grabowski, Norman L.R. Franks 'Fighter Command Losses', Stan D. Bishop, John A. Hey MBE, Gerrie Franken and Maco Cillessen - Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces, Vols 1-6, Dr. Theo E.W. Boiton - Nachtjagd Combat Archives, Vols 1-13. Aircrew Remembered Databases and our own archives. We are grateful for the support and encouragement of CWGC, UK Imperial War Museum, Australian War Memorial, Australian National Archives, New Zealand National Archives, UK National Archives and Fold3 and countless dedicated friends and researchers across the world.
Click any image to enlarge it
Click to add your info via ticket on Helpdesk •Click to let us know via ticket on Helpdesk• Click to buy research books from Amazon •Click to explore the entire site

Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

All site material (except as noted elsewhere) is owned or managed by Aircrew Remembered and should not be used without prior permission.
© 2012 - 2024 Aircrew Remembered
Last Modified: 15 December 2022, 16:08

If you would like to comment on this page, please do so via our Helpdesk. Use the Submit a Ticket option to send your comments. After review, our Editors will publish your comment below with your first name, but not your email address.