HISTORY

At the Last Moment

German fighters into the nose of the aircraft. The

After, once he was alone in the cockpit, O’Leary other three men in the rear of the plane might

tried to contact the other crew members throu- have been hit by flak shrapnel. Those that regh the intercom, but with no success. No one mained alive and conscious would have endured

answered… He was also fighting the controls of the last seconds of their lives with the realizatithe plane, and he was trying desperately to ri- on that there was no way out of their trap. And

ght the airplane and to get it out of the flat spin

it wasn’t over in a few seconds, with respect to

in an effort to give the remaining crew at least

the height at which it all began and the relatively

a fighting chance to get out. But the controls of low vertical speed of the descent in the flat spin.

the airplane had been damaged, and the chances

It may well have taken some two very long miof regaining control while enemy fighters were nutes…

still circling it, were increasingly unlikely. O’Leary

then followed protocols to destroy the radar and

Four Claims for One Kill

IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) equipment and Along with Bartels, the unlucky B-25 was also

exited the aircraft in the same manner as the co- attacked by Ltn. Wolgang Hohls (same as Bartels,

-pilot moments before. This was quite literally at from 11./JG 27), Hptm. Joachim Kirschner (Stab

the last moment because the B-25 was now only IV./JG 27) and Ltn. Hans-Gunnar Culeman (Stab

about 1,000 ft (300 m) above the ground. O’Lea- III,/JG 27). The times reported are slightly inconry approximated this value from the fact that his sistent. Hohls attacked at 1249h, Bartels’ first was

chute opened just before he hit the ground. He at 1250h, and his second two minutes later, Culealso hit the ground just after the aircraft hit about man also at 1250h. O’Leary’s report says that the

30 m away from him. „Looking up I saw another first attack came after the dropping of his bombs

chute at what I estimated was between 4 to 5 which he reported as just after 1300h, but there is

thousand feet, floating down to the south of the a possibility that he was a bit off in that. His poposition in which I had landed. I assumed that this sition, and the quick onset of the German attacks,

was my co-pilot, because he was the only other were relatively consistent with what he later put

man who I knew of that had bailed out of the ship. in his report. After their return from the mission,

My first thought after landing was to go over to Bartels claimed two B-25s and Hohls and Kirthe ship, but I had hardly taken three steps when scher on each. All were confirmed.

the gas tank exploded. It was then I realized there Heinrich Bartels continued in his career with JG

was nothing more I could do to aid any of the men 27 in the MTO but did not claim any further kills.

that might be left in the ship.“

At the end of 1944, IV./JG 27 was moved to a base

The remainder of the crew was prevented from at Gratz. There, as a pilot within the Defense of

being able to get out of the aircraft by the plane’s

the Reich system, he would get another twentyinverted position and the centrifugal forces they -six kills. Around that time, he caused quite a stir

were experiencing. Some may have been inju- when he had the swastika removed from his Bf

red, or even killed by shrapnel or by fire from the 109G-10. Bartels simply did not like the Nazis…

attacking Bf 109s. Thanks to Smith’s report, we

He died on December 23, 1944 in combat with

know that Duszkiewicz survived the hits by the American fighters, when he was shot down by

a P-47 over Bad Godesberg, southeast of Bonn.

On the day of his death, Bartels got his 99th confirmed kill, a P-51.

Four Graves in Koropi

John O’Leary had some luck finally as he was

able to evade capture, and with the help of the

locals, he was able to get back to his own side.

John Smith was injured, and when he landed on

the ground, he was taken POW by the Germans,

which was how he spent the rest of the war after

being taken to a military hospital. O’Leary was

back pretty soon, because already by January 13,

1944, less than two months after being shot down,

he made his report at La Junta, Colorado. Smith

had to wait a little longer. After his return home,

he settled in Chicago, where he filled out his report in March, 1946 and expressed his views of

the events. There are some variations between

his report and O’Leary’s, but given the three year

time difference between them and the stresses

involved that the two men had to go through,

one can’t really be too surprised. More information about neither Smith’s captivity nor O’Leary’s escape from Greece is known, and nothing is

known about their later lives. After the war, neither one of them took part in any event connected

to the 57th Bomb Wing Association, so even there

are no more information on them available.

The four men that died in the B-25 were buried

by German troops with full military honours at a

cemetery in the town of Koropi, just about three

miles south of Athens. This article, as well as the

art on the box of the kit with the catalog number

84173 is a dedication in their honour, if in a small

way, and to their heroic sacrifice, and the hell that

not only they, but thousands of others, flew into

with no guarantee of ever returning.

References:

Ernst Obermaier: Die Ritterkreuzträger der Luftwaffe / Jagdflieger

Jochen Prien, Peter Rodeike, Gerhard Stemmer: Messerschmitt Bf 109

im Einsatz bei der III. und IV. /Jagdgeschwader 27

340th BG Combat Reports

57th Bomb Wing Association (www.57thbombwing.com)

www.dansetzer.us

photo: fold3.com

photo: 57th Bomb Wing Association

My sincere thanks to Mr. Daniel Setzer, 57th

Bomb Wing Association historian, for help in

the research for this article.

Shots of the bombing of the airfield at Kalamaki by aircraft of the 340th BG.

INFO Eduard - April 2021

One of the B-25s of 340th BG. It was no exception the

ships returned with such a damage.

eduard

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