42-95921 - Luftkriegsarchiv Köln

The B-26 “Old Relic” was hit by an anti-aircraft shell in the bomb bay at the very moment it was dropping its bombs.

A huge explosion followed and the aircraft broke into several pieces; five crew members did not survive the explosion.

The wreckage came to rest 600 metres north-east of Kuchenheim and burnt out completely. The bodies of the dead crew members were recovered and buried as “unknown soldiers” in the cemetery at Kuchenheim. In March 1946, they were exhumed and reburied in a mass grave at Margraten Cemetery.

Only the tail gunner, who was seated in the severed rear section of the aircraft, managed to don his parachute and jump from the tail section as it spiralled downwards.

Sgt. Norman Eugene Dwight landed on the ground, injured, and was taken prisoner by the Germans.

The crash sites of the three American bombers that crashed that day.

The pilot of the ‘Old Relic’, 2nd Lt. Hugh Levant Yeager