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USAAF over Poland

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USAAF over Poland

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Blechhammer, Odertal, Politz, Auschwitz ... these are just a few of USAAF WWII target which are in Poland today.
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I write about American airmen who landed or were shot down during missions to these targets, and I assist in searching for MIAs.

17/10/2026

More MIAs are waiting to be found in the Blechhammer area.

While the DPAA makes good progress on the Lindell crew lost on Dec 26th 1944 (with recent reburial of Myron Yaw, and upcoming ceremony for Avery Gilliland), there are more airmen who died over Blechhammer and are still unaccounted for.

On October 13th, 1944, 2nd Lt Meyer’s crew of 455th BG was shot down, and the wreck fell into the forest between Blechhammer North and Blechhammer South. There were only two survivors, and 8 men died. Four were recovered and identified after the war, but the burial sites of 2nd Lt. Meyer, F/O Fajans, F/O Bray, Cpl. Bartholow were never found. They are still unaccounted for.

The local Blechhammer 44 Association remembers the crew in their museum. Here is their post published earlier this week, on the anniversary of this tragedy.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Gydq3aN5v/?mibextid=wwXIfr

14/10/2026

On October 14th, 1944, 2nd Lt. Polando flew 600 miles to the target, and traveled 4700 miles to get back to his unit base. A true wartime Russian vacation.

You may remember my post from a few weeks about a B-24 sitting in a Soviet airfield in Poland and captured in a German Luftwaffe recon photo taken just 12 days after Polando landed in that airfield. I had some archival documents related to this story, and was lucky to find a relative of the pilot who was so kind to share more information and many photos.

Here is the full story of what happened to Polando’s B-24 and crew, an extraordinary account of wartime travelling across exotic countries, and a glimpse of how the USAAF managed the logistics of returning the crews and aircraft which ended up in Soviet territory.

Enjoy, and please support my research by becoming a free or paid subscriber!

The link to the full story is in the first comment below.

11/10/2026

October 9th, 1943. A remarkable mission took place. The 8th Air Force launched a major effort against N**i Germany. Many targets were attacked, but one B-17 formation was special.

Almost 100 B-17s had extra passengers. Cameramen and photographers were on many planes. That formation flew over the North Sea, crossed Denmark, and continued east towards Marienburg in East Prussia. The idea was to confuse and avoid the Luftwaffe, bomb the Focke-Wulf factory at Marienburg, and use the footage in war propaganda to get more support for the bombing effort in Europe. This is how the 1944 movie „Target for Today”was made.

Today, the airfield at Marienburg is still in operation, as a Polish NATO air force base at Malbork.

07/10/2026

Two American WWII glider memorials unveiled near Vught, the Netherlands.

My friend, Peter van Kaathoven, and co-author of our Substack story about Zerlegebetrieben (German aircraft wreck salvage yards in Vught and in Auschwitz), is an active local historian in Vught.

He and his friends unveiled two WWII glider memorials on September 26th near Vught. These American gliders were part of the Market-Garden operation, and had to do emergency landing after their towing planes were shot down, one on September 18th and the other one on September 19th. All allied soldiers were helped by local Dutch resistance, and avoided capture.

In the photos, Peter is doing the speech, and one of the photos is with children of local Dutch resistance fighters who helped the American soldiers.

And you can read the Zerlegebetriebe story from the link in the first comment below.

04/10/2026

Another MIA hero returned home. Myron Yaw was killed on Dec 26th 1944 over Blechhammer (today Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Poland), togethet with whole crew. They were considered MIA because no crash site or graves were found after the war.

I worked with Waldemar Ociepski, and identified the right crash site in 2001. This info was shared with the US government. The DPMO, and later DPAA did additional studies, and archeology work between 2021 and 2025 allowed Myron’s remains to be found.

Myron’s family paid a particular heavy price in WWII. His older brother was an airman, too, and was killed on one of the Ploesti missions.

Myron was laid to rest yesterday, October 3rd, in Athens, Ohio.

30/09/2026

September 11th, 1944: the 100th BG loses its whole 350th Squadron in air battles with Luftwaffe’s JG4.

September 11th is an anniversary of one of the most violent air battles over occupied Europe. On that day in 1944, the 8th Air Force was sent to attack Ruhland in Germany. The Americans were attacked by German JG4 near Kovarska, Czechia. Within just 16 minutes, 50+ aircraft of both sides were shot down. The 100th BG lost one-third of its B-17s, including the whole 350th Squadron. The JG4 lost half of their aircraft. Most of the aircraft went down around Kovarska.

These brutal events are commemorated in an excelent local museum in Kovarska. The museum documents the air battle, displays results of decades of aviation archeology work, and remembers the ones who lost their lives on both sides that day.

If you travel to Czechia from Germany, or visit Karlovy Vary (with a famous casino which made it to the 007 movie Casino Royale), make a stop at the museum!

Also, Jan Zdiarsky who is part of the group running the museum wrote an excellent book about the 100th BG!

https://www.facebook.com/share/1FTfxHXGqu/?mibextid=wwXIfr

26/09/2026

Happy Weekend!

Today, with the last post published, the saga about Ewart Sconiers is complete.

This is an extraordinary story about a WWII B-17 hero who died in Germany captivity, and could only be brought home in 2018:

Part 1. How he became the war hero: „Ewart Sconiers - The First 8th Air Force B-17 War Hero” (paywalled)
https://sserwatka.substack.com/p/ewart-sconiers-the-first-8th-air

Part 2. How we found his grave: „Ewart Sconiers – the last man out of Stalag Luft III - The Great Journey Home” (paywalled)
https://sserwatka.substack.com/p/ewart-sconiers-the-last-man-out-of

Part 3. Photo story about his final homecoming: „Ewart Sconiers - Bringing the MIA Hero Home” (free)
https://sserwatka.substack.com/p/ewart-sconiers-bringing-the-mia-hero

Part 4. Look behind the scenes what type of research was done to find him: „Ewart Sconiers - where was he originally buried?” (paywalled)
https://sserwatka.substack.com/p/ewart-sconiers-where-was-he-originally

If you decide to be a paid subscriber, you can read all four parts in full, and all the next stories, too. In October and November you can join me to follow the detailed research which resulted in 5 more US airmen identified and recovered from Poland. All are from Lt. Crane’s crew, 2nd BG, I wrote about them in weekly updates earlier this year.

Please consider being a paid subscriber and so support my research.

And yes, there is a symbolic connection between the four people at Ewarts casket in 1944, and the four at his casket in 2018. You can find it out in the free post.

Szymon.

19/09/2026

A short visit to Camp Liberty in Sint-Oedenrode, NL. An annual event commemorating the Market-Garden operation.

19/09/2026

September 18th, 1944. The 8th Air Force launched its only mission to aid the Warsaw Uprising.

More than 100 B-17s, escorted by P-51 Mustang fighters, flew from Britain and dropped almost 1300 containers carrying weapons, am******on, explosives, food, and medical supplies to the besieged Polish resistance. However, the drop took place from high altitude, and strong winds scattered the containers across Warsaw. Only under 300 containers reached areas controlled by the insurgents; other fell into German-held territory.

Two P-51s of the 355tg FG were shot down by German fighters. Both pilots, 1st Lt. Robert O. Peters and Joseph Vigna, were killed.

On September 18th, 2019, a memorial dedicated to both pilots was unveiled. Tomasz Krason was the main force behind building this memorial, and he also co-wrote a moving book about both American heroes: “A Tale of Two Pilots: Love, Loss, and Rememberance”. It is a touching story about not only the heroism but also about personal loss aff ecting families for a long time.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DWP254BiP/?mibextid=wwXIfr

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