PERSONAL ACCOUNTS: Raymond Engelbreit

(This is an article by Schoeneck historian Raymond Engelbreit written in memory of his uncle Adolphe Theisen, and copied - with permission - from the web site of the late George Lesko, copilot of Ginger on 24 August, 1944)  www.georgelesko.com  I took the liberty of making some editing and story corrections; they appear in italics).

50 years after the Schoeneck Crash,

Remembering the uncle who disappeared...

August 26, 1944, an American Liberator crashed at Schoeneck. The pilot disappeared. Tim Shaffer has returned to Schoeneck 48 years after the dramatic event to discover what happened to his uncle.

Raymond Engelbriet, local history buff, guided him in his search. He relates......
August 1944. The acrid odor of fire and gunpowder, smoking ruins...murderous bombardments following explosions of flak. Saarebruck is on fire. An absurd violence destroys the heart of our neighboring and surrounding villages.
Schoeneck, 26 August 1944....at the stroke of noon, an infernal explosion arouses the inhabitants from their torpor. An American bomber of the B24 Liberator type crashes in the village at the edge of the Stiring-Wendel forest. Eyewitness Gaston Siebenschuh, then 15 years old, remembers: " Our young men, we did not usually go into the bomb shelters. Our carelessness sometimes exposed us to the worst risks. I was in the backyard of my parents' home, when this enormous machine suddenly appeared above the nearby forest of Saarebruck. It rapidly lost altitude at the same time that the last people on board dropped out one by one. The airplane flew around the clock of the church before breaking up in the woods at Stiring."


The last mission of "Ginger"

The crash was the major event of the late summer of 1944 in Schoeneck. Everyone hurried out to recover a few liters of precious gasoline which was leaking out of the plane's tanks. The bomber lay there, on the side of the road, the cockpit pointed towards the first row of houses, the wings and the propellers had dug deep ditches in the earth. It was 99% destroyed. On the fuselage, a name, "Ginger" and the number "ET-129177." Swastikas also and bomb designs, which related the trophies and the exploits of the crew. Research in the "Department of the Air Force" reveals that this B24 H was part of the 446th bombardment group based at Bungay in England. It had taken part in a number of missions in France and Germany in the course of the month of August. On the fatal day of August 26, 1944, it bombed Ludwigshafen and its chemical complex. Damaged by the enemy anti- aircraft defenses in its return toward Mannheim, the four-motor appeared over Saarebruck a little before noon. Flak (Flugabwehrkanone anti-aircraft cannons) was immediately put into action. "Today, we are able to shoot at will without being silenced and without ever leaving the target" relates a young German artillery-man, Sepp Nuschler, 15 years old, in the border of his journal. The airplane "ein krank geschossenger (badly damaged) Liberator" flew at reduced speed - 60m/s (about 135mph) and at low altitude - 700m (about 2000 ft). Sustained salvos, a deluge of firing...deafening noise. The airplane plunged beyond the forest of Saarebruck in the direction of Schoeneck. Volunteers and members of the Hitler Youth raked the terrain to flush out the fliers who could try to reach the Free French underground. Otwin Bredel, then 15 years old, today reports to the Saarbrücker newspaper, remembering that one of the parachutists hung between the earth and sky, the cloth caught in the branches of an immense beech tree.
The Assassination of the members of the 446th

The crew of the Liberator counted ten men: an on-board commander, a copilot, a navigator, a radio operator, and six airmen. According to the report of the Department of the Air Force, they knew diverse fates: death found five and four were made prisoners. There remains the enigma of the pilot, lieutenant Ralph Shaffer, originally from Akron, Ohio, carried as missing in action. A descendant of German immigrants who came to the United States in the course of the 19th century, he was 24 years old and was married. After his training and his pilot's commission from the air base at Pampas Texas, he had joined the 8th Air Corps of the U.S. Army in England.

The copilot and 2nd lieutenant, George Lesko, from Cleveland, Ohio had seen his commander on-board jump last from the plane. "His parachute opened normally before the trees masked the field of vision." George Lesko remained on the ground 24 hours in the German-infested area, before being captured by soldiers. Alphonse Stoppa, 15 years old and an apprentice pastry-baker in Saarebruck, at the time, found himself by chance in the market square in Burbach. He helped in the arrest of the aviators:" My attention was attracted by a mob in the general area of Jacob Street; I approached. An American aviator, hands in the air, legs spread wide, was leaning against a garage. Persons exercised by the recent bombings of Saarebruck, shouted and claimed they had been butchered. The American was struck with his cap and leather jacket. The scene turned into a lynch-mob frenzy, a soldier took out his pistol, but a woman prevented him from shooting...Finally a German policeman arrived on the scene and took him away to the post office despite the protests of the crowd."

A dangerous commando group of SS fanatics, charged with high and low crimes, was then raging in Saare and in the Palatinate. Brought before the Nuremburg Tribunal, they recounted having recovered at the end of the summer of 1944, three American pilots from the commissariats of Malstatt and Burbach and having then executed them with bullets, since they had supposedly escaped. (Note: these airmen were from another B-24) They were acting under Himmler's orders or of Gal Stroop. " All pilots found after their planes have crashed must be executed. They are criminals! Those who do not obey this order will know the same fate as the pilots or should commit suicide!"

War Crimes

The executions which are known received their epilog in the Nuremburg process with 7700 other crimes at the end of the war.

(Extremely rough German translation follows):

What happened at the Police station in Malstatt?
X....came out of the building with an American flier in uniform. He beckoned the flier to sit next to him in his black car. We sat in the backseat. We went to the woods of the "Seven Oaks". X....said to the flier to get out. He stepped out also. And Y...and myself. The flier was to go a little way into the woods. He did. When he was 10 or 20 steps away, I saw X...shoot the American flier with a pistol. The flier collapsed. He turned back and stared at X...four or five more shots. The flier appeared to be completely lifeless. X...said:"The man is dead."
What happened then?
We left the corpse there. We got back into the car. We went to the Burbach Police station. X..came out after a short time with another American flier. We went to the so-called "Black Way:, a short trip from Heydt. X...said to Y..."Now comes your turn!" Y...made his weapon ready..."What is this", said X...impatiently, " Hurry up and get ready..!" A short time later I heard some more shots. The body was covered with branches. Back in the car, X...said to me:"Next comes your turn!"
Where did you go next?
To the SS Station 85. It was again a captured flier. We went with him to the Spiesser Heights in the Bildstocker Woods. X...beckoned to the flier to get out. Then he said to me I should also get out. Already earlier in the car he had told me I must shoot the flier. We followed the flier with drawn pistols. After we had gone 30 or 40 meters X said to me:"Shoot!" I answered: "Karl, I cannot. I cannot shoot!" He answered "You coward!" Then he shot a round at the flier. The flier collapsed. We concluded that he was dead. On the next day we found that it was not fatal. Later we drove to the St. Arnual airport, where 10 American fliers were held. We were to shoot them all. Nevertheless, when we arrived there, the fliers were being held. I will still say that on that day after the shooting in the woods we went to fetch the bodies. The details of these trips however are unclear to me.
Three of the perpertraitors of these crimes, equally implicated in other crimes, were hanged. Two were condemned to prison for life.

The Enigma of the pilot who disappeared

The fate of Ralph Shaffer, the on-board commander, remains to this day a mystery. He is not found on any lists of the prisoners of war given out by the authorities. All the investigations of his family members, friends or survivors have been to this day in vain. George Lesko assumes he was killed by civilians. His pilot watch was said to have  been recovered on a Waffen-SS, appearing on the Russian front. Tim Shaffer, nephew of the vanished pilot and himself a military veteran of the U.S. Hahn Air Base (Hunsrück) has come to Schoeneck several times to find some trace of his lost uncle. An appeal to witnesses has been published several times in the press. According to one witness who has asked to remain anonymous, one of the pilots had found refuge in a tree in the garden at Gersweiler. He had been killed there by a retired member of the Wehrmacht. Madame Madeline Kin, the sister of Reverend Enkle, has affirmed to us that her brother had been called during the course of the war to Gersweiler to bury an American aviator. But she cannot be more precise about the date. Finally, Toni Blum, commissioner of police in Saarebruck and Inge Plettenberg, journalist, have recently put forth the hypothesis that Ralph Shaffer would have been able eventually to have rejoined the group of Russian partisans "Fischtschenko", which evolved at St. Avold before the liberation. An American lieutenant was found among them. But here also new investigations are necessary. Tim Shaffer in any case pursues his quest. The time has not healed all the wounds. He wants to know where his uncle is buried. His family has the right to know where they should pray. And why not a memorial plaque at Schoeneck in recognition of the five pilots who have written in their blood the word: Liberty. (Note: Author Engelbreit was instumental in having a memorial erected at the crash site, to Ginger's crew, and the allied war effort.  It was dedicated on 26 August, 1998, with three of the original crew in attendance).