From Fred Riley, re: Dennis Medenwaldt

This may take awhile but below is the letter I sent to the daughter of a new found member. The crew went down on 26 December 1944, a hell of a Christmas present. I had asked that the new found member respond and give me the rest of the story after we knew that they were MIA. He did and I also have the name and address of another missing member. 

The following is the story of that crew from Dennis Medenwaldt:

" In regards to our last mission on 4/21/44 the following is what occurred to the best of my recollection. As you indicated in your correspondence to my daughter, Holli, we were unable to drop our bombs on either the primary or secondary targets due to adverse weather conditions. I am not sure but I think our target of last resort may have been Belgrade. As the radio operator I was manning the hand held 50 caliber machine gun from the right waist window of the aircraft (B-24).

We experienced a direct anti aircraft (Flak) hit on our tail and it and the tail gunner just disappeared. We immediately went into a spin. Luckily I was able to pull my self out of the right waist window.

We had ten (10) crew members aboard and only four (4) bailed out. They were, bombardier, 2nd Lt. Wallace O. Tilt, radio operator, T/Sgt. Dennis W. Meldenwaldt, upper turret gunner, S/Sgt. Hugh D. Borden, and ball turret gunner, S/Sgt. Frederick H. Battis. We were being fired upon by civilians from the ground as we descended in our chutes. Battis was hit in the neck and was dead when he hit the ground. That left only three (3) survivors of the ten crew members. 

The civilians who captured us were extremely angry at Allied airmen because of all of the bombing they had experienced and I am sure they would have killed us if a truck load of German soldiers had not arrived and took us from hem. As it was they beat us up pretty well.

Let me tell you briefly what I recall of our crew that day:

Pilot Wallace was a replacement for our crew's regular pilot, 1st Lt. Phillips, who for some reason was not flying that day.

Flight engineer, Buehler was a replacement for our regular engineer, T/Sgt Moran, who was not flying that day.

All of the crew members except for the three who survived after bailing out perished.

I will now continue to outline what happened after our capture. We went through the normal couple of days of POW interrogation by the Germans somewhere in Belgrade. We were then placed on a train, along with two guards.

We had little to eat but the guards shared some very stale bread and cheese with us. Our destination turned out to be Stalag Luft III located in lower Silesia, one hundred miles South East of Berlin. We were placed in he West compound of Luft III which was just opened. This compound eventually contained 2500 American POW's. The entire Stalag Luft III housed over 10,000 from various countries. The three of us, myself, Borden and Tilt, remained together in Stalag Luft III. We remained there until January 28th, 1945 at which time 10,000 POW's were evacuated. The Russians were approaching and we could hear their Artillery fire. I'm sure that all 10,000 men will forever remember the tortuous trek that followed in the ever increasing fury of the blizzard and near zero temperatures, ill fitting packs, blisters, frozen feet, hands and sickness all contributed to the misery of the marchers.

There were seemingly endless hours of marching with occasional rest periods. Six days after leaving Luft III we boarded a train at Spremberg (40 x 8) box cars with our destination being Stalag XIII-D at Nuremberg for a miserable two month period. These two months were memorable for the large scale Allied Air Raids, lice, bed bugs, fleas and food shortage. The aptly named "Green Death" soup caused wide spread diarrhea and dysentery. Bites from bed bugs and lice covered every exposed part of the body to include the nose and eyelids.

The American Seventh and Third Armies pushing into Western Germany precipitated the Second evacuation by foot from Nuremberg on April 4, 1945. The weather was spring like so it was a better march. After a 10 day march we arrived at Moosburg, Germany Stalag Luft VIII-A. Upon arriving we were informed that President Roosevelt had died suddenly the day before. That was a shock to all. We remained at Moosburg for sixteen days. During that time we remained very cold, filthy and many were ill. But at least we were rid of the lice, fleas and bed bugs. We knew that he end of our captivity was near unless they moved us again.

We could hear the artillery fire and in fact shells were whistling over our heads. We remained low to avoid injury. A couple of days before our liberation American artillery spotting aircraft flew over Stalag VIII-A. On Sunday April 29th as Sunday mass was being conducted bullets began to whistle through camp amid the chatter of machine guns and rifle fire. Early in the afternoon Mooseburg fell. General Patton came into camp and was welcomed by thousands of POW's. The POW's were represented by nearly every Allied country as they had been moved to Mooseburg from camps throughout Germany as Allied forces advanced. We finally got some decent food and a bath. The white G.I. bread as I recall tasted angel food cake to us.

Most all American prisoners were taken to "Camp Lucky Strike" in France to be processed. And eighteen days after Liberation we were placed on ships at LeHavre, France to be returned to the good old U.S.A.

I have never seen Tilt after liberation. Borden and I still correspond, usually at Xmas time. Both Borden and I eventually made a career in the USAF. I retired as a CMSGT (E9) and Borden as a SMSGT (E8).

As I informed you on previous correspondence all crew members on A/C 42-99772 except Tilt, Borden and Medenwaldt were killed when the plane crashed.

---

Hi Holli,

You must be the daughter of Dennis. I am Fred Riley the 456th Bomb Group Association historian.

First I will tell you something of the history of your (fathers, g'fathers) last mission and the men he was with, in conjunction I would appreciate Dennis's story of his experience from 4/21/44 on. On 21 April 1944, it was the Group's 35th mission. The target was Bucharest Romania, marshalling yards (rail yards), Twenty four bombers were unable to reach the target because of a heavy overcast.
Three planes returned early due to enemy fighter damage. Sixty five enemy fighters were encountered, 3 destroyed, 4 probable's and 4 damaged. The Group lost 4 bombers. Lt. Lazewski and Lt. Williams of the 745th Squadron landed at alternate fields due to fuel shortage. Flak was heavy, moderate and accurate. The bombing results were nil as no bombs were dropped. Combat flight was 7:30 hours.

A second bomber lost was from the 747th Squadron, AC # 42-99772, "Fat Joe", piloted by Lt. John Wallace. This A/C reported as by flak and crashing on MACR (Missing Aircraft Report) # 4388. All of the crew were reported as MIA.

The Crew:

Pilot - 2nd Lt. Earl W. Wallace Jr. - Current Status Unknown. KIA, took over the crew of Lt. Phillips. I believe him to be current.
Co-pilot - 2nd Lt. Arthur Malenkowski. - Current Status Unknown. KIA
Navigator - 2nd Lt. Joseph T. Taylor - POW and Current Status Unknown. KIA
Bombardier - 2nd Lt. Wallace O. Tilt - Current Status Unknown. Bailed out, POW was liberated.
Flight Engineer - T/Sgt. John C. Buehler - Current Status Unknown. KIA replaced Sgt. Moran.
Radio Operator - S/Sgt. Dennis W. Medenwaldt - Found 2/6/03, Father of Holli and you have current address.
Turret Gunner - S/Sgt. Hugh D. Borden - Current Status Unknown. Bailed out, POW. Liberated and next new found member.
Turret Gunner - S/ Sgt. Eugene Wright - Current Status Unknown. KIA.
Turret Gunner - S/Sgt. Frederick H. Battis - Current Status Unknown. Bailed out but KIA.
Turret Gunner - M/Sgt. Bassil Garros - Current Status Unknown. KIA

That is the crew and the status as I know it, presumably some were POW's and returned to the States at the end of the war. 

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