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ETO Jan '45 - May '45: 320th
Bomber Group
 England
France: First
Tactical
Air Force
443rd
Bomber
Squadron
Air Medal,
DUC
Photographs
ETO May '45 - Home: 397th
Bomber Group
598th
Bomber Squadron
LT
David L. Lobeck
The
crash of
B26G 44-67868
"Kwitcher Bitchin'"
Family in Service
(Under
Construction)
Curtis Seiley
Carl
Seiley
Butch
Seiley
John
Seiley
A. M.
Seiley
Mark
Seiley
Lt. David Lobeck
Lake Charles ,
LA
November 1944
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 V-E
Day
May 1, 1945 saw the last bombing missions of WWII for the 320th
Bombardment Group. On this day dad flies on the mission to bomb gun
positions at Ile D'Oleron on the east coast of France. In a fitting
conclusion to his combat duties, dad flies together with Lake Charles
buddies Lobeck, Klodzinski, Ewers, and Perkinson on battle no. 58.
Due to "weather conditions and fuel supply" the formation lands at Cognac
and stays there until the following day.
May 8, 1945 was designated as Victory in Europe Day,
or “V-E Day.” "A great victory parade was held in
Dijon May 9th by men of the 17th and 320th Bomb Groups. The townspeople
cheered as the airmen marched by.” (First Tactical Air Force, page 143). On May 11, 1945 a demobilization “point system” was
announced. According to my calculations, dad would have accumulated up to
perhaps 65 points maximum by May, short of the 85 minimum for discharge.
He, like many others I’m sure, wondered whether or not they would be
transferred to the Pacific to continue their service, since that mess had
not yet come to conclusion.
397th Bomb Group, 598th Bomb Squadron
Dad would not be deployed to the Pacific. On May 30th it was
announced that 16 full crews and planes from each squadron (in the "lower
mission bracket") would transfer to the 397th Bomb Group, 9th Air Force,
at San Quentin, France. "Flying personnel having over the required
number of missions, ranging from 35-42", would go home to the States
(Sources: 320th BG and 443rd BS War Diaries). According to my
calculations, dad had perhaps 25-27 missions at most to his credit at this
time, so he went to the 397th, 598th Squadron, as did Lobeck and
presumably dad's other Lake Charles buddies. The 397th would perform
disarmament duties. Curtis Seiley’s letter (written from Reims, France) to Dad dated
27 August reads, “Only a short time after I arrived here I noticed in the
S and S [Stars and Stripes?] that your outfit was given the distinctive
honor of being part of the occupational force.”
LT David L. Lobeck
It is during this period that LT David Lobeck, the pilot from Florida from
Dad’s
Lake Charles unit is killed. There is only
one picture of Dave Lobeck in Dad’s scrapbook. The one photo (at right)
is the first photo in the book and is immediately followed by a series of
five photographs of the wreckage of an aircraft in
a field
(two of them are below). I did not make the connection between LT
Lobeck’s photo and the
wreckage until I read a letter from A. M. Seiley (my grandfather) to Dad
dated 22 August 1945:
“Dear Bobby:
I just received your letter of the 10th and I was really happy to hear
from you, tho I was terribly shocked and sorry for Lt. Lobeck’s untimely
death. It’s such a pity it had to happen when everything is over and the
world is looking toward a brighter day. Well, that’s what the Lord
willed. I won’t tell Mother.”
A search at the
American Battle Monuments Commission website confirmed the unit and
date, which match the date of the photographs below.
I did not know anything else about the event until July 2003 when a
research visit to AFHRA
in Montgomery revealed the following from the 598th Squadron History for
August 1945:
"1st Lt. William G. Knight and 1st Lt. David L. Lobeck were killed in a
crash of their B-26 near Roupy, France, on August 8 1945. The
aircraft piloted by Lt. Knight was flying wing with another B-26
approximately 500 feet above the ground when the left motor apparently
blew up and the plan immediately dove into the ground killing the two
officers."
What a tragedy.
The Crash of B26G 44-67868
“The Wreckage of “Kwitcher Bitchin’ ” No. 868”
Photo markings read (GAD 397-74-1)(8 August 1945)(B-26G 44-67868)
“A few minutes after the crash…..868 burns”
End
of the War for Dad
By September 1945, a UG USFET Form No. 33 (authorization to bear and
retain captured enemy equipment) indicates dad is assigned to the 387th
Bombardment Group, 558th Bombardment Squadron. This is another B-26 unit,
the last that Dad will be attached to, as this unit is inactivated in the
US in November of 1945. Dad appears to have returned to the US with this
unit, as his date of arrival back in the states was 19 November 1945, and
the 558th BS is the organization from which his honorable discharge and
separation occurs on 26 November.
Epilogue
Four of the five
Seiley brothers served in the military during World War II, three of them
in ETO combat roles. The youngest, too young to serve in WWII, served in
the Korean conflict. All returned safely home after the war to raise
families.
Circa
early ‘45, possibly England?
I’m guessing Vernon Ewers on the left, William Perkinson on the right,
but I’m really not sure.
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