Plane shootdown over Syke

A Boeing B-17F
Shootdown
Date	29 November 1943 (1943-11-29)
Site	Syke/Lower Saxony, Germany
Total fatalities	8
Total injuries	2
Total survivors	2
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing B-17F
Aircraft name	"Rikki Tikki Tavi" (Nickname)
Operator	United States Army Air Forces
Call sign	QJ-D (RCL)
Registration	42-30359
Flight origin	Snetterton/Norfolk, England
Destination	Bremen/Bremen, Germany
Crew	Pilot: Linwood Langley, † Co-Pilot: Berline "Benny" Cipresso, † Bombardier: Donald Curtis, † Engineer / Top Turret Gunner: Walter Reed, † Radio Operator: Sam Amatulli, † Ball Turret Gunner: Earl "Peewee" Provost, † Waist Gunner: Anderson King, † Waist Gunner: Edmund Swedo, † Navigator: Jesse "Gene" Orrison, Tail Gunner: Eugene Moran
Fatalities	Linwood Langley, † Berline "Benny" Cipresso, † Donald Curtis, † Walter Reed, † Sam Amatulli, † Earl "Peewee" Provost, † Anderson King, † Edmund Swedo, †
Injuries	Jesse "Gene" Orrison, Eugene Moran
Survivors	Jesse "Gene" Orrison, Eugene Moran

During World War II, on the 29th of November, 1943, there was a plane shootdown over Syke. A B-17 "Flying Fortress" bomber of the United States Army Air Forces crashed after German fire over Syke in today's Lower Saxony. Eight of the ten crew members were killed in the crash. Of the two survivors, one crew member saved himself with the parachute; the other crew member survived the crash from a height of over 8 000 meters in the rear of the machine.

Crash

Aerial view of Syke

The Boeing B-17F (Flying Fortress) of the United States Army Air Forces belonged to the 96th Bombardment Group, which was based at the English military airfield Snetterton Heath Air Base. It was nicknamed "Rikki Tikki Tavi" by its crew. On the 29th of November, 1943, the aircraft took off from its home airport and, together with more than 300 other bombers, took part in an air raid on Bremen. After Flak fire and the attack of a German German fighter plane, the fuselage broke in two parts over Syke and crashed. A rain of debris fell over the village and the aircraft tank set a building on fire. Two dead crew members were lying on the street in the village; another crew member broke through a house roof and was dead hanging from his parachute inside. Debris such as wings, aircraft engines, tail unit and pieces of equipment were found on pastures, fields and in the forest.

Survivors

The 26-year-old survivor airplane navigator Jessie E. Orrison parachuted to safety and fell in the Friedeholz near Syke, where he got stuck in a tree. He was first interned in Stalag X-B.

19-year-old Gunner Eugene P. Moran, who was in the rear MG, survived in the torn off tail section of the plane with gunshot wounds and seriously injured due to the unbraked fall. According to different information, the fall should have taken place from 8 000 or up to 9 000 meters. He was the first person to survive a fall from this height. Moran also came to the Sandbostel camp with serious injuries. There, a fellow prisoner Serbian doctor saved his life by surgically treating his severe head injuries. Moran was later interned in the POW camp Stalag Luft IV in Groß Tychow in Hinterpommern. After the war he returned to his home in Soldiers Grove in Wisconsin where a street was named after him in 2007 and he passed away in 2014 at the age of 89.

Memory

Memorial plaque in Syker Friedeholz

On the 29th of November, 2018, the 75th anniversary of the plane crash, around 25 relatives of four crew members at the time travelled from the United States and visited the Friedeholz near Syke, where the survivers had landed. An information board has been set up at one point in the forest. The visit was made possible by the city of Syke, the district home association, a journalist, the former mayor of Bremen Henning Scherf and the newspaper publisher Dirk Ippen.

Weblinks

• 42-30359, B-17 Flying Fortress American Air Museum in Britain
• The crew of Rikki Tikki Tavi
• Bomberabsturz: Nachkommen besuchen Syke film contribution at Hallo Niedersachsen from the 30th of November 2018 (in German)
• 1943: US-Soldat überlebt Absturz über Syke film contribution at Hallo Niedersachsen from the 1st of Dezember 2018 (in German)