Dedication - Impact of two American Bombers B-17

On 12th July 1944 at about 1150, B-17 bombers flew over the village of Perlé, Luxembourg. Coming from Great Ashfield, England, their mission was to bomb the city of Munich in Germany. The bomber convoy was composed by B-17 Flying Fortress attached to the 385th Bomb Group.

This was the Bomb Group's 150th mission and they went back the next day, which shows that they may not have hit their target on the first raid.

For an unknown reason, two of them collided over the village of Perlé. According to the Bomb Group records, 42-31917 (Capt. White) was caught in the prop wash of proceeding aircraft, nosed up and hit 42-102606 (1/Lt. McDonald). Only two members of the two crews survived the impact by parachuting to safety: Sgt. Larry Atiyeh and Sgt. Robert P. McPherson. 18 crewmen lost their lives in this accident.

German policemen captured one of the two survivors, Sgt. Larry Atiyeh. Sgt. Robert McPherson crossed the Belgian frontier and was rescued by members of the Belgian Maquis.

The back part of one plane fell 60 meters behind the Bertemes farm in Perlé. The fuselage with three engines crashed 600 meters northwest from Perlé into a potato field. This part of the plane caught fire and it was impossible to get closer because of the ammunition exploding in the flames. The Germans inspected the wrack the next day and found four bodies, completely burned. It was impossible to identify the men. In an area of about 600 meters around the crash site, 6 other bodies were found.

One of the engines that was detached during the impact, fell in the water-point “Geschleid” at Haut-Martelange and was recovered after the liberation by US ground forces. The wings and the four engines of the second plane fell into a field near Wolwelange. We consider most of the crewmen being ejected during the impact, as their bodies were found scattered in an area between Perlé and Wolwelange. The Germans took the bodies to the former school building in Perlé in order to identify them.

Sgt. Fitzwater wore his dog tag at his left arm. At his left hand, he wore a golden alliance and a ring with a red star. 2/Lt. Henry, 25 years old, had with him a bank note of one $US, 14£ Sterling and his personal documents. He wore his identification tag around his neck. Sgt. Comegys had 20 bank notes of 100 French Francs each and two maps.

F/O Francis Christman, 23 years old, had with him two albums of pictures showing his wife and his child. He also had french money and two maps.

The custom officers based at Holtz leaded the hunt for the men escaped by parachuting. Helped by police dogs, they had no success. The police brigade of Perlé, under the command of 1/Sgt. Frantz collected all weapons and ammunition from the planes and put them in safe keeping. Some bombs were defused on site by German military engineers.

The two planes belonged to the 385th Bomb Group. The plane crashed near Wolwelange was registered under the number 42-102606. Its call number was the letter K (Kilo). It was attached to the 550th Squadron. The plane crashed near Perlé was registered under the number 42-31917. Its call code was the letter S (Sierra), its call sign was “Offspring”. It was attached to the 551st Squadron.

As it was impossible to celebrate a requiem for the dead airmen during the Nazi occupation, a ceremony was held after the liberation by the American troops. It took place in the church of Perlé on October17, 1944 at 1830. Eighteen candles and eighteen helmets, one for each airman, were placed in the church to honour the dead crewmembers.


Maurice Nysether, Bombardier with the Fred E. Borns crew and eyewitness of the midair collision


T/Sgt. Joseph W. Zorzoli (Papa Joe), Ground Crew Chief on B-17 "OffSpring" # 42-31917, 551st Squadron, 385th Bomb Group, Great Ashfield, England, 1944

Eyewitness Report of the midair crash on 12 July 1944

My name is Fred G. Borns. With regard to the plight of the two aircraft involved in the incident over Perle in July 12 '44, my dad, Fred E. Borns, has excellent recall of the dynamics of the event, but couldn't possibly know much about the situation in the cockpits of either aircraft. One significant point that Dad has reiterated to me over the past 50 years of my life has been the degree of difficulty of flying formation in these aircraft for periods in excess of eight hours. Being a pilot myself I can attest to the dangers of wake turbulence and how instantaneous can be its effects. These airplanes weighed in at around 55000 lbs and were producing about 55% power at 25000 foot altitude meaning that rougly 3000 horsepower worth of swirling flow was being shed along with wingtip vortices from each airplane. Couple this with the fact that the planes were operating very close to stall in that rarified air and the situation was filled with tension.

Dad was flying "tailend Charlie" in the "low squadron". MacDonald was ahead and above Dad. Dad was flying off of White's left wing. The formation was executing "S-turns" because they were at a lower altitude than the lead formation and, evidentally, they were experiencing less of a head wind and needed to slow their track over the ground to maintain the slower pace of the higher altitude elements of the formation.

MacDonald's aircraft was caught in the propwash of the lead aircraft during the manuevering. In an effort to avoid colliding with the lead aircraft MacDonald appeared to reduce power. MacDonald also appeared to roll left while reducing power to avoid what he thought would be a certain impact with the lead aircraft. Power reduction combined with a nose-high attitude precipitated a rapid loss of airspeed, probably stalled. MacDonald descended rather abruptly with his #3 and #4 engines' propellers striking (slicing) through the fuselage of White's airplane just aft of the waistgunners' positions cutting the empennage from White's aircraft. Dad could see the momentary alarm on the faces of the two waist gunners as they looked aft through the severed fuselage of the B-17. Much debris was in the air knocking a hole in the plexiglass nose of Dad's Sleepytime Gal. This all happened in the period of seconds. Dad pushed everything firewall foreward at the same time initiating a left turn away from the squadron. Dad could not see nor does he know who was at the controls of MacDonald's nor White's aircraft. In the process Dad lost approximately 5000 feet of altitude and struggled to regain the formation and assume White's vacated position.

The two aircraft started down after the collision because of resultant damage. Dad did not see the crash of the aircraft on the ground because of his preoccupation with his own recovery from the incident and trying to regain his position with the remainder of the squadron. Dad broke radio silence and reported "This is Alfregg J.G. I've regained position in formation". The group continued on the mission which was to bomb a synthetic oil complex at Munich. Dad didn't learn anymore until their return to Great Ashfield and in their debriefing discovered that both aircraft had crashed in Luxemborg. As you know there were two survivors but he did not know at that time whether they survived the bailout or whether they were captured, etc.

Due to censorship they received no more information. The only information that Dad received was that the aircraft had crashed.

Due to the extreme temperatures and wind on rush in the nose of "Sleepytime Gal" Nysether and Skelly tried to plug up the hole in the plexiglass. Two days later Dad's crew went on another mission to the same target for which mission control defined as "Leuna", a suburb of Munich. On that mission Nysether, the bombardier, was wounded by flack in his leg. This was the only physical damage incurred by any of Dad's crew members during his total tour of 35 missions.

Fred E. Borns
Transcribed by Fred G. Borns fredgborns@dellnet.com


Crew of Pilot Captain Richard B. White -- B-17 "Off Spring"


Crew of Pilot 1/Lt. Robert L. McDonald -- B-17 "Curley's Kids”



On 9 November 1944, another B-17 crashed near Perlé. 1/Lt. Lewis C. Williams (Pilot), died in this crash with his B-17 "Boomerang", assigned to the 349th Squadron of the 100th Bomb Group.

The Memorial Monument and the local Museum in Perlé will remember these young US airmen, the US Air Force and all victims of W.W.II.