42-97242

A search on the internet found that “Good Pickin”, serial no. 42-6153, was used as a trainer with the 452 Bomb Group and was stationed at several bases in Texas so I’m assuming that’s where Victor received his training and that the others in the photo were his crew mates.

Over Spring Break Alec and I headed for DC. Arriving at Arlington Cemetery we inquired at the visitors center. With just a first and last name and the year of interment (we assumed that he was buried the same year he was killed) a kind member of the Arlington staff started going through microfilm records and within 5 minutes had a Victor Ratliff, grave marker 4520 in section 34. Needless to say, Alec and I were elated to have a “hit” but were also aware that given the number of WWII buried in Arlington it was possible that the Victor Ratliff we were looking for was not the one we were about to find.

After a brisk walk to section 34 we found the grave marker and were amazed to discover that the marker had more than one name and more than one date, but it did have Victor Ratliff and the date April 18, 1944. (Click here to see enlarged image of grave marker) The names on the marker were; Albert C. Joyce, Anthony C. Formato, Leonard Hersch, Eugene J. Harpster, Victor B. Ratliff, Leon J. Sarnowski, Robert D. Stetler, Pete N. Rayhawk and James T. Finch. There were 4 other names with the date of May 24, 1944.

After much research it turns out that the names dated 18th of April were all crew mates and served in the 390th Bomb Group which was based in Framlington, Suffolk England during WWII.

Most lightly the group photos shows the same individuals including the pilot Ben C. Wassell who’s remains are interred in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium, C/23/3

On April 18, 1944 they were just one of many B17 crews that took off with the Heinkel aircraft factory near Oranienburg Germany as the target. Over the Heinkel factory, their plane (sn 42-97242) was hit by anti-aircraft fire and the entire tail assembly from waist door to rear was blown off. There were no survivors. This had been the crew’s 6th mission, the first had been only 10 days before. (see Crew’s Missions below)

On May 24, 1944 a B17 (sn 42-39924) from the 95th Bomb Group was shot down in the same area of Oranienburg/Germendorf. Eight of the ten crew members perished. Four of the crew were buried in the same common grave as the 9 crew members from the April 18 mission.

In February of 1952 the remains of all 13 were interred in Arlington.

The Crew of 42-97242 (Crew 12 of the 568th Squadron (H) - 390th Bombardment Group - 8th USAAF)

Ben C. Wassell - Schenectady, New York - Pilot
Albert C. Joyce - Salem, Massachusetts - Co-Pilot
Anthony C. Formato - Bronxville, New York - Navigator
Leonard Hersch - Brooklyn, New York - Bombardier
Eugene J. Harpster - Furnace, Pennsylvania - Radio Operator
Victor B. Ratliff - Hellier, Kentucky - Engineer & Top Turret Gunner
Leon J. Sarnowski - New Britain, Connecticut - Ball Turret Gunner
Robert D. Stetler - Van Wert, Ohio - Waist Gunner
Pete N. Rayhawk - Sharpsville,Pennsylvania - Waist Gunner
James T. Finch - Wantagh, New York - Tail Gunner

The Crew’s missions (Crew 12)

Mission Date, Group Mission Number and Mission Target

44-04-08 ~ 081 ~ Quackenbruck, Germany
44-04-10 ~ 083 ~ Maldegem, Belgium
44-04-11 ~ 084 ~ Rostock, Germany
44-04-12 ~ 085 ~ Leipzig, Germany
44-04-13 ~ 086 ~ Augsburg, Germany
44-04-18 ~ 087 ~ Oranienburg, Germany

The Crew members of 42-39924

William T. Sheehan - buried at Arlington
Charles W. Beck - buried in Pennsylvania
Victor L. Bubbet - unknown
Robert I. Temple - buried in Indiana
Gregory P. Aversa - buried at Arlington
Jerome J. Hentz - Ardennes D/5/56
Norman S. Rosenburg - buried at Arlington
Ross S. Rito - survived as POW
Wilbert S, Nichols - survived as POW
Orin V. Burgman - buried in Arlington
April 01, 2008

The photo directly below was sent to me by Mario Schulze of AG Fliegerschicksale Oranienburg, see comment section. The photo was taken by a bomber of the 381st Bomb Group that was about 2 minutes behind Victor’s plane. Mario has kindly identified the Heinkel Factory target (which clearly shows multiple explosions) and the smoke from Victor’s plane just after it hit the ground. As Mario explains in the comments section, it was this aerial photo that enabled him and his associates to locate the actual crash site just a few years ago. Click here for a larger version of the aerial photos shown below

Mario, many thanks to you and your associates for all the help and kindness you have provided in this search.

Click here http://www.381st.org/Portals/4/old381st/missions/mission_041844.html to see same image at a slightly wider angle. Top image - about 1 inch in from the left and one inch down

April 04, 2008

Shortly after my initial correspondence with Mario Schulze he confided in me that in 2000, the same year that he had identified the crash site with the help of the aerial photo, he had discovered something special. The crash site is farmland and so he had to wait until after a grain crop was harvested to conduct a search. But it was worth the wait as his search found a wrist ID with the name Robert B. Stetler. Click here for photo. The following year as ground was being prepared for a potato crop his son, Robert, found another ID tag with the name Robert B. Stetler. Click here for photo.

Think about it - 56 years after the crash - in a field that probably had been ploughed each year to plant a crop - and both of Robert Stetler’s tags are found - a year apart - one found by a boy named Robert. You have to believe that this was not just mere chance, there was a greater power at work here. Add to that the fact that several years ago Mario and his group had been instrumental in returning the id tags from another crash site to the crew member’s family. That crew member was Gregory P. Aversa, you’ll see his name on the grave marker photograph.
Mario had made several attempts to find Robert Stetler’s family but had been unsuccessful. So I took up the challenge. It took a while but having found Linda Croucher, a distant cousin of Robert, who provided me with a phone number, I finally found Robert Stetler’s brother - Dudley.

This morning I spoke with Dudley B. Stetler of Van Wert Ohio and explained my story. When I got to the part about Mario and his son having found the ID tags and how they wanted to find his family to return the tags - well, you can imagine. Robert D. Stetler is in the front row, far left.

I’ll update this story as things happen.

May 3rd

The United States War Department kept records of aircraft that went missing. Known as MACRs (Missing Aircraft Report) they documented what ever information was known about the aircraft. These reports were not made available to the public until 1996. Each link below is to a page of MACR 4014 for Victor’s aircraft. Most MACR were eventually saved on 16mm film so the quality varies.

The first 3 pages would have been generated shortly after the plane was shot down - one of the pages is dated 04-19-44. The last four pages, although generated around the same time, would not have been attached to the MACR report until after the end of the War as they are transcriptions/translations of original German documents generated by the Reich Air Ministry

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7

May 12

Many thanks to Debbie who answered my message at Rootsweb and put me in contact with Mercer County Genealogy and many thanks to Toni at MSG for sending me copies of MIA and KIA notices that appeared in the Sharon Herald (Sharpsville Pennsylvainia) in 1944. With these I can identify Pete N Rayhawk as front row, either 3rd or 4th from the left.

May 22

This morning I made contact with Victor Ratliff’s son, also named Victor. He had a copy of the very same photograph on the back of which are the names of the crew.

Back row, left to right;

Ben Wassell - Albert Jocye - Anthony Formato - Leonard Hersch

Front row, left to right

Robert Stetler - Eugene Harpster - James Finch - Pete Rayhawk - Leon Sarnowski - Victor Ratliff

God Bless them All.

May 27 - Memorial Day

Just as I was checking my e-mail before heading to bed I noticed someone had posted a comment. My jaw dropped when I realized that the person making the post was Emeline, the sister of Eugene Harpster. Read the comments to see how she came to this site !

June 11

Made contact with Leon A. Sarnowski, nephew of Leon J. Sarnowski. See Leon’s post below (#5) below. Thanks to the folks at UCONN !

June 12

Carol, a niece of Leon J. Sarnowski has also posted below (#6).  Carol, thanks for the kind words.