Date: 1944 May 28/28			A/C Type: B-17G   Fortress		SN: 42-102485		Code:		A/C Nickname: Bare Essentials
File: 345		Airforce: USAAF		Sqn/Unit: 381 BG - 533 BS			Mission/Raid: Magdeburg oil refinery
1	Pilot	1Lt. Arthur M. Codding					9	RWG	S/Sgt. Kenneth M. Joye
2	Co-pilot	2Lt. Roger B. Withers					10	TG	S/Sgt. James W. Mulder
3	Nav.	2Lt. Donald L. Childers              KIA					11
4	B	S/Sgt. Delmar D. McBeth          KIA					12
5	E	T/Sgt Robert C. Berg					13
6	RO	T/Sgt. Clyde H. Waite					14
7	BTG	S/Sgt. Thomas L. Roskowick         KIA					15
8	LWG	S/Sgt. Lawrence G. Brown					16
On route to target, returned at the Dümmer Lake with one motor out. A German fighter riddled the bomber with 20mm rounds. Three of the crew were hit and killed (Nav & B in air, BTG died later on the ground). Aircraft down at Blauwkapel/Groenekan.

The aircraft made a belly landing in a meadow, corner Versteeglaan and Groenekanseweg in village Groenekan on the Northeast outskirts of Utrecht. A monument is erected there for this crew. Sgt. Thomas Roskowick died of his wounds in a farm. The other seven did not came far and were arrested (POW), the pilots the same day in Bilthoven. Gunners Brown and Joye were taken for treatment to the Amsterdam Luftwaffe hospital.  

































































The Germans brought the bodies of Sgt. McBeth, Sgt. Roskowick and Lt. Chiles to Oud-Leusden 'Rusthof' for burial. Here they were interred on the back row (row 13) of the war graves plot in grave 187, 188 and 189. In 1945 they were exhumed and reburied in the US war cemetery 'Netherlands' in Margraten. In the 1950s repatriation program, family of Sgt. McBeth and Lt. Chiles opted for reburial of their relative in the United States: https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2885426  Sgt. Roskowick rests in Margraten.

In 1947 the Allied war graves in village Urk were cleared. 18 men from Urk were reburied in Oud-Leusden, the empty American graves were re-used.
Our file on the Amersfoort Oud Leusden (Leusden-Zuid) Rusthof Cemetery: http://www.zzairwar.nl/dossiers/987.html

For photos on the monument Google on images 'B17 Groenekan'.  


Dutch documentary on this aircraft: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgP-X_0UzGw&feature=youtu.be









© ZZairwar (Zuyder Zee Air War)









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