P-47 wreckage dug up in Holland

[Originalboxcar]

Stars and Stripes article: http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?sec ... icle=46450

Wreckage of U.S. WWII plane is being dug up in Holland


By Scott Schonauer, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Wednesday, June 6, 2007

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Workers are digging up the wreckage of a U.S. World War II plane found in 21 feet of mud in rural southwest Holland.

The P-47 Thunderbolt had been missing since it went down in 1943 near the town of Oude-Tonge.

Dutch construction workers found pieces of the warplane while performing survey work for a flood basin last April, said Mireille Zoet, a spokeswoman for the municipality of Oostflakke.

The Royal Netherlands Air Force, joined by local municipalities and members of the U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, are trying to recover the aircraft.

U.S. military officials have identified the plane as one flown by Lt. Robert Stover, said Capt. Erin Macri, a spokeswoman with U.S. Air Forces in Europe at Ramstein Air Base. The pilot was helping escort Allied bombers after a raid on the German city of Emmerlich when it went down.

Stover’s remains were recovered sometime after the crash.

Recovery teams had hoped the plane had belonged to Lt. Frederick D. Merritt, an American pilot whose remains have been missing since the war.

The Dutch air force on Thursday plans to allow the public to view some of the recovered parts and the site. The sparsely populated area is home to mostly farmers and tulip growers near the North Sea on an island southwest of Rotterdam.

Most of the wreckage has been recovered, except for the engine. Crews estimate the engine is buried further down — about 33 feet — in the mud and might be too deep to be retrieved, Zoet said.

“The motor is still in the ground,” she said. “But if they have to dig further they could have a problem with water coming into the hole.”

Most of the pieces found by the construction workers and the recovery crews have been relatively small, including the plane’s gun and propeller.

Construction work at the site will not resume until the recovery is complete. It is unknown what will be done with the wreckage.

[Originalboxcar]

If the pilot cited is correct, web-birds has the following:

Lt. Robert Stover - Lost 30 July 43 - KIA




41-6209 P-47C 62 LM-C Stover Lt. Robert Lost in this a/c 30 July 43 - KIA MACR 218



regards,

t~

[lmritger]

A little over a month ago, I completed an article for the inaugural issue of a brand new modeling magazine, Model X. The article dealt with the identity of the first fighter victory of Oblt. Anton Piffer of 2./JG 1, a P-47 downed on the Kassel mission of 30 July 1943.

After a whole lot of digging around and matching up claim times and locations, I came to the conclusion that Piffer had downed Lt. Robert Stover of the 62nd FS, 56th FG in P-47C 41-6209, coded LM-C. Stover's body was apparently retrieved from the North Sea by the Folkestone rescue service, so there was still an element of doubt... Piffer's claim was in grid square JJ 6-9, which was just southwest of Dordrecht (as I recall). Turns out the Jug came down at high speed roughly eight miles SSW from Dordrecht... Stover may have bailed out with wounds and drifted into the North Sea.

It's just flat eerie that Stover's aircraft is found after 64 years, right as I complete an article on the man.

In memory of Lt. Robert Stover, photos from Jim Sterling's "Web Birds" site...










And my model of his Thunderbolt...







Thanks for bringing this up...

Lynn

[Tillerman]

Pictures of the crash site and dig: http://www.reinan.nl/modules.php?name=N ... le&sid=569 (in Dutch).

There was also a short item about this dig on a local tv-station, but it is not yet available as a stream. When (and if...) it becomes available via the internet I will post the link.

Tillerman.

[Tillerman]

Amateur video, no sound for some reason:

http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid= ... oude-tonge

Tillerman.

[Dennis]

Here are some pictures of the monument which our foundation WO2GO raised in memory of 1LT Robert E. Stover on the spot where the P-47 was salvaged.
http://www.wo2go.nl/foto_monument/foto_monument.html

And here a little video report (most in Dutch, but some in English)
http://www.hartvannederland.nl/localite ... n_monument

Enjoy!

[tom d. friedman]

was the 47 found in what was once the zeider zee??

[lmritger]

Here are some pictures of the monument which our foundation WO2GO raised in memory of 1LT Robert E. Stover on the spot where the P-47 was salvaged.
http://www.wo2go.nl/foto_monument/foto_monument.html

And here a little video report (most in Dutch, but some in English)
http://www.hartvannederland.nl/localite ... n_monument

Enjoy!

What a wonderful tribute... well done, Dennis. Thank you for honoring Lt. Stover's memory in this way.

All the best,

Lynn

[SPANNERmkV]

Gedanke Dennis!

Good to know the Dutch haven't forgotten and to reciprocate, not all Americans have not forgotten the sacrifices and the suffering of the Dutch during the War.

All the best,

SPANNER

[Dennis]

Thanks all!

Tom, it was found on the island Goeree-Overflakkee, which is about 30 miles southwest of Rotterdam.
Last year I wrote an article and translated it to English, however since then much has happened and I spoke to many more people like eye-witnesses so I have to update the English part of the article soon. Till then, enjoy reading the early version:

Turmoil above Den Bommel
________________________________________
It is about 10:30 on the morning of July 30th 1943 and there are a large number of planes racing overhead in the town of Den Bommel. The war has been raging for some time now and this scene was almost a daily event. Mr. Lokker, the head of the Air Defense Service, was suddenly surprised by a plane flying low and extremely fast. It was impossible for him to tell if the plane had crashed or climbed back up because the plane had already left his line of site. Sometime later, after all the planes were gone, an City employee Mr. Jacobus Hameete,, said that there several eyewitnesses claiming to have seen some object fall out of the plane and land in one the fields belonging to the city. Mr. Franciscus van der Made stated shortly thereafter that this unknown object was actually a person and he landed in some farmer’s field full of sugar beets approximately 1500 meter west of the Molendijk. Bystanders that witnessed the fall stated that the person fell out of the plane or possibly jumped without a parachute on. This was confirmed by the fact that the parachute was still packed and unused and in an hole 10 to 12 cm deep next to the pilot. Mr. Lokker concluded after examining the severely mutilated remains that this young man did not survive the fall...This was confirmed by a nurse from the Green Cross and by a Doctor that arrived shortly thereafter. The investigation was transferred via the police to the Head Inspector of the Air Defense, de Polizeioffizier, and the relevant German Organization in Ooltgensplaat and the Ortskommandant in Middelharnis. The investigation revealed that it was an American young man dressed in an Air force uniform and the name on the leather tag read “R.E. Stover. That same name was also found inside one of the gloves found nearby. Also found on the body of “Stover” was the unopened parachute, life vest, dagger, and a rubber boot. In the vicinity of the body lay a water tight package containing, a photo, rubber bag, chocolate, chewing gum and other miscellaneous articles. The investigation was completed around 7:30 pm, at city hall the Opperwachter of the Marechaussee together with a German soldier arrived and ordered that the remains of the pilot be brought to the morgue at the local cemetery. A further investigation of the body would be performed the following day by the Kommandant of the Luftwaffe supervised by the Mayor, two soldiers and the Opperwachter of the Marechaussee. Monday August 2nd 1943 at 10:30 am R.E. Stover was buried with full military honors at the local cemetery in Den Bommel

Robert E. Stover
Robert E. Stover was from Pittsburg and as a civilian he had a job as an actor, but as it is well known it was not an easy profession, and that is why he had a second job as a paperboy for “The Headlight” and “The Sun”. On November 8th 1941 at the age of 20 Robert quit his job as paperboy and joined the army. At this time of the war America was still neutral and life in the states was relaxed even with the serious threat from Japan. He had his general flight training at the local airport in Pittsburg. He followed his military flight training in Texas and Louisiana until he was shipped out to England in February 1943.Robert’s parents were divorced and he was the only child. When Robert was shipped out to England his mother had been seriously ill for some time and was being cared for by her sister in Kansas City. When the unfortunately well known telegram was delivered to her house on W 5th 406 in Pittsburg, it was decided that she would not be told that Robert was missing in action. It was to be told to her after she was feeling better but unfortunately Mamie Brown Stover died at the age of 43 after a long and debilitating illness, she never knew the fate of her son…

The Mission
Lt. Robert E. Stover was stationed with the 62nd Flight Squadron of the 56th Fighter Group which fell under the command of the VIII Fighter Command that was station at the Halesworth airport. His aircraft was an Thunderbolt P-47C fighter bomber with the serial number 41-6209.On that day he left together with nine other squadrons of P47’s to escort the B-17 ‘s return flight. These B-17’s were returning from a strategic bombing mission in Kassel/Bettenhausen and in Kassel/Waldau that they flew earlier that day. This was just the second time for six of theP47 squadrons to fly with extra fuel tanks under the wings so they could support the bombers at Arnhem/Haalderen/Tiel. The other three squadrons rendezvous with the B17’s much closer to shore. The squadron that Stover was in had the assignment to rendezvous with the bombers at Arnhem and thus also had the honor of being the first squadron to fly with extra fuel tanks. With an altitude of 7.5km and a distance of 10km from the Dutch coast, the pilots would jettison their extra fuel tanks and continue on at an altitude of 9km until they reached their destination. On the inbound flight there were very few any enemy fighters seen but once in Dutch territory they ran into 100 to 150 German fighters mainly ME-109’s and FW-190’s that were already attacking or making ready to attack the bombers. In the fight that followed, 25 enemy fighters (possibly even 29) were shot down and 8 were damaged. On the return flight they also took out a locomotive and an anti aircraft gun. The loses on the allied side were 7 P-47’s and 28 B-17’s.

Stovers final opponent
The dog fight that eventually costs Stovers his life took place in the skies around Dordrecht. From information out of the German Luftwaffe archives states that an pilot claimed to have shot down an P-47 in the skies around Dordrecht. It was Hptm Siegfried Schnell who claimed to have shot down an P-47 at an altitude of 7km south west of Dordrecht at 10:35 am. Given the altitude, the time of day and the distance from Dordrecht to Oude Tonge and the depth of the crashed plane it is more than likely that this was the last advisory that 1st Lt. Stovers had. Siegfried “Wumm” Schnell was born on January 23rd 1916 in Mark Brandenburg Germany and enlisted in 1936 in the Luftwaffe at the age of 20.By the time he shot down Stover he was one of the most successful pilots (an Ace) with more than 80 downed planes to his name. Given the statistics he was an real Spitfire specialist because 49 of his victories were over the famous British fighter. On February 11th he was transferred to IV/JG 54 on the Eastern front. He shot down three Russian planes before he himself got shot down above Narva on February 25th 1944 by a Russian fighter. Schnell flew roughly 500 missions and had 93 victories.

64 years later
Some 64 years later the construction of a 1 hectare watershed alongside the Oudelandsedijk in Oude Tonge was halted because some old ammunition was found during excavation. The air force investigated the area by taking some aerial photos. It was determined that there was metal in the ground. After an historical investigation there was no other alternative then to conclude that this was an aircraft from the Second World War. At first it was thought to be the P-47 Thunderbolt from Lt. Frederick D. Merritt because plane and pilot never returned to the base in England and according to data from that time Merritt’s plane went down some were around Goeree Overflakkee. A “Missing in Action” case was thought to have been solved. Shortly after the salvaging started it was discovered that it was not Merritt’s plane. After the specific codes from the onboard weapons were traced it was determined that this was the P-47C Thunderbolt of Robert E. Stover. After he was thrown out of the aircraft, or jumped, the plane continued on for another 10km until it finally went down close to Oude Tonge. Robert E. Stovers was reburied after the war and remains with his “Brothers in Arms” at the Ardennes Cemetery in Belgium, plot B, row 43, grave 21.