Captain Hunters crew part II

Within a few minutes after returning from the drop-zone’s, the B-24J piloted by Captain Hunter leading the formation again on their journey home, is hit by German FLAK in the aircrafts right wing on witch almost immediately a small fire breakes out in the right wing. Within a few seconds Captain Hunter, which is considered one of the best pilots in their group reacts. With no possibility to bail out because of their low altitude Jim picked a spot to try and crash land his B-24J by bringing it down on its belly. Unfortunately the No. 3 engine caught fire at less than 50 feet bringing his Liberator off course and coming down hitting the ground wing first. This exact moment was photographed by an onboard camera on another aircraft. The aircraft then slid over the field and ended up crashing into a haystack and a couple of farm buildings on witch the aircraft exploded. The aircraft came down near a railroad crossing close to the hamlet Winkel in Holland. The Liberator and its crew were the unfortunate victims of a 37mm FLAK gun installed by the Germans that day in the village of Oisterwijk along the kerkhovensestraat. During September 18 this was one of the FLAK guns that the Germans used in Oisterwijk to fire at the over passing allied aircraft on their way to the drop-zone’s and back to England. This particular 37mm FLAK gun shot trough 42 magazines of ammunition that day whereby the heat became so intense that a small fire broke out at the farm building covering their position. The remaining aircraft of the 491st BG returned to North Pickenham where a 'missing in action report' for the Hunter crew was submitted and their family was notified. The mission was not the 'milk run’ that many thought it would be as a second aircraft was forced to drop out formation later during their journey home. Pilot 2nd Lt. Edward L. Schmitt's piloting the B-24, 44-40414 lost one engine but was still able to land his aircraft on a allied airstrip in liberated Belgium. All crew members got out safely but the aircraft was considered written of because of damage due to the hard landing. A total of seven aircraft belonging to the 491st BG where lost that September 18, 1944 and this was the highest rate of lost aircraft in a single mission since the 491st BG arrived in England.

A few minutes after the crash of the Liberator a number of Dutch people in the immediate vicinity found a young man badly burned wondering along the road in search for a place to hide. They brought him to an insane asylum and institution for mentally handicapped young childeren near the crash location witch belonged to the village Biezenmortel. Here he was hidden in the basement and was cared for by the staff while his injuries where being treated by local doctors. After the burning remains off the aircraft where extinguished a local farmer transported the 9 corpses of the other crew members with horse and cart to the nearby cemetery at Biezenmortel where they were buried on the cemetery. When the Germans came to investigate the remains of the burned out aircraft on September 20 they also stopped at the Institute to question the Dutch staff. During the questioning of the residents and staff of this institute the present doctors demanded that the Germans would leave the premises because the children were to traumatized by the war and were no longer able to handle the presence of uniformed soldiers. Its even said a weapon of some kind was drawn by the staff to enforce this demand. The result was that the Germans left the institute without discovering the American that was hidden in the basement.

Frank DiPalma was lucky and survived the war. He reported for voluntary duty with the U.S. Air Force to try and fulfill his wish to become a pilot. As a born Italian, he was an immigrant, he felt it was his duty to volunteer for duty like most other new immigrants. Months he trained in learning to fly until he crashed and significantly damaged his aircraft one day. Fortunately he remained unharmed except from some minor injuries but ended his dream to one day become a pilot in the process. Instead, because of his length, he was classified as a bal turret gunner. This turret was positioned under the belly of an aircraft. He became a classified bal turret gunner at the end of his training period in Colorado, USA and was added as such within the Hunter crew. After he arrived in England however, these turrets were removed from the B-24’s and he received the position of left waist gunner.

Frank stayed unconscious for nearly two weeks and after he came to again he neither could remember the crash or his first day’s in Holland. He was burned in his face, hands and legs and when Udenhout and Biezenmortel were liberated by units of the British army on October 26, 1944 he was transported to a hospital in Belgium, and from there moved to Oxford in England, where he spent six months. Following he spent two more years in a U.S. hospital for veterans where he underwent several skin transplants. In 1948 he married Lydia Iabone and together they raised their three children. Frank DiPalma past away on August 29, 1989 at seventy years of age.