History of the B-24G, (B-24G -16-NT), 42-78356, 15th AF, 450th BG, 723 SQ, Nik Name: «Maiden America»
On December 25th, 1944, a US bomber group in Italy, including the Consolidated B-24G "Maiden America", took off from its base of operations in Manduria, Italy, for an attack on the Innsbruck freight station. Even before airspace over the target, the formation was taken under fire by the German flak and the "Maiden America" was hit hard. Both left-side engines, as well as the radio, compass and hydraulics, gave out. A return over the Alps to the air base was unthinkable. It was therefore decided to leave the formation and fly on their own westwards to neutral and supposedly safe Switzerland. To the horror of the crew, the stricken bomber was fired at by the Swiss anti-aircraft defence unit [ Schwere Flab, Abt. 4., fired ammunition 82 pcs. steel grenades (StGZZ) 7,5 cm, shot down: Schw. Flab Battr. 89 Baldingen, Kdt. Captain Sieber (approx. 4th hit) ],because they mistakenly believed it was an attack. Due to huge damages, it was impossible to indicate dire situation of the bomber by extending the landing gear or by firing signal rockets. On the order of Pilot 1st Lt Vincent Fagan, seven crew members parachuted off above Stilli before the B-24 crashed into a field northeast of Würenlingen. Two men crashed to death: The parachute of merely 18-year-old navigator 2nd Lt Martin Homistek had apparently got caught on the aircraft, and Sergeant Ralph L. Coulson, one of the side gunners, had refused to leave the aircraft, probably in shock. His body was found in the wreckage with his parachute intact. And as if that wasn't tragic enough, co-pilot Nicholas Mac Koul was also carried by his parachute - into the freezing cold Aare River, where he drowned miserably. His body was recovered two days later at the Beznau power station. It is difficult to understand why the Swiss Flab fired at the already badly damaged aircraft. One of many possible reasons was certainly the general nervousness caused by the increasing - accidental - bombing of the border area towards the end of the war. On the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Maiden America, pilot Vincent Fagan and his wife Rose visited Switzerland and the crash site. At the memorial, as he laid down flowers for the three comrades who had died, he mentioned that the Swiss anti-aircraft artillery downing made him doubt the neutrality of the country . Heinrich Speich, who at that time was commanding the anti-aircraft guns of Baldingen, was also in Würenlingen on this occasion, along with a few other veterans of the Flab Det 89. He explained that they had been waiting for a sign from the aircraft to confirm that it was not there with hostile intent - but such a sign had never come. Only 50 years later did pilot Vincent F. Fagan learn that the crew of the bomber was no longer able to give such a sign. Hands were shaken in reconciliation at the place where the drama came to an end.
Monument with Mistakes
In 1965, a monument to commemorate the crash was erected in Würenlingen, but its inscription contains striking misinformation. The inscription incorrectly refers to the navigator Martin Homistek, who is said to have sacrificed himself in preventing the crash from reaching the village of Würenlingen. This is, of course, absolute nonsense. It is also confounding that neither the other two victims nor the survivors are mentioned. How the person who commissioned the monument could have made such a mistake is an unsolved mystery. It can probably be put down to the paranoid governmental WWII secrecy histrionics and its proximity to the end of the war.
450th Bomb Group News
