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Walter Wellens
7/10/2001 2:28:55 PM | That day 401 had 6 MIA. A friend of mine has traced the people of the Belgian Resistance with whom they stayed. He has original pictures of the men which were taken during their stay. There is only one (?) thing : neither he nor I can find anything about them. We looked in (almost) every book we could find.Their names : Nield Raymond (12141788); Gibson James (37398663); Tatkin Irving (16034422); Bauer Mark (16066267 T42-43); Miller Ruben (37545208); Burns Joseph (13116816). I am not sure for the numbers : they come from a badly lisible (is this a correct word in English?) page from the Resistance. We think their bomber was badly hit but did return to its base.(We can't find a MACR). Hope that someone can help us.
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Donald A. Byers
7/10/2001 8:03:46 PM | 613th Bomber Squadron:
25 Missions credited to this crew
1st Lt C.F. Hess Pilot
2nd Lt. J.W. Mitchell Co-Pilot
2nd Lt. C.W. Bryant Navigator
2nd Lt. R.W. Rowe Bombardier
TSgt. E. Tatkin Radio Operator
TSgt. J. Burns Engineer
Cpl. M.J. Bauer Ball Turret
SSgt. R.C. Nield Tail Gunner
SSgt. J.O. Gibson Left Waist Gunner
SSgt. R.r. Miller Right Waist Gunner
Donald A. Byers
Lubbock Texas
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l.a.mitchell
7/13/2001 10:18:04 AM |
If searching,remember to express dates as 7/13/01 which is todays date.Also list peoples names beginning with first names then surname e.g. Ruben Miller.It may help your cause.
As far as we know,John W. Mitchell,co-pilot on this crew of Charles Hess (pilot) ,is the only member in our 40lst Association. John Mitchell is at 9241 idlewild road charlotte,nc 28227-8672.
Good luck to you.
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Ivo de Jong
7/15/2001 2:30:45 AM | Flying 42-39840 'The lopin lobo' Lt Charles F. Hess gave the order to stand by for bail out. A short time later it was found all enlisted men had indeed bailed out, misunderstanding the order. Burns, Tatkin, Bauer, Gibson and Miller were eventually made POW, Neild apparently evaded.
Hess brought the plane back to Deenethorpe with Mitchell, Bryant and Rowe.
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Mary Burns Surdy
7/17/2001 9:04:03 PM | Dear Mr. Wellens:
I am the daughter of Joseph Burns who was part of the MIA crew you helped in their time of need so many years ago. I would very much like to correspond with you directly about the pictures you have in your possession. I have recently written an article regarding my father's bail out, resistence assistance and eventual capture as a POW in Germany for two years. It was submitted, along with his pictures, to the 401st Bomb Group Association. It was recently published in their publication. I will be happy to send this information to you as well. My father told me so many stories during my life time about the aide he received from the resistance. I can't belive, after all these years, that someone so far away has additional information. I have a picture of the entire crew prior to their capture and can name names along with their identification. My father, Joseph Burns, recently passed away, but I've been trying to carry on his name and his honor in service to the war in his loving memory. You have no idea how excited I am that I have this information. It was initially provided by Mr. Mitchell via the 401st BG Association.
Before I carry on too much, please write me back and acknowledge your receipt of this email. I can be contacted in many ways, but email should suffice at first.
Thank you so much for posting this information. I can hardly wait to speak with you personally.
Again, thank you.
Best regards,
Mary Burns Surdy
email: msurdy@yahoo.com
or
email: msurdy@delmarca.com
P.S. Bomber made it safely, as all the weight in the plane was eliminated, including the men who eventually became prisoners of war.
P.S.S. During my father's capture, he was taken to the many places he was offered hiding by the Gestaspo and asked if he was there. My father only provided name, rank and serial number!
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Mary Burns Surdy
9/8/2001 12:10:27 PM | Dear Mr. Wellens:
I've written before, but I've not heard back from you. Please see previous message posted on this same site. I am the daughter of Joseph Burns #13116816 and would love to see copies of the pictures your friend has in their possession. I'd be willing to pay any costs involved in the process. Please contact me soon. I've been waiting to hear from you for a few months now. I very much look forward to hearing from you soon. Regards, Mary Surdy
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Robyn Tatkin Ferszt
9/20/2002 8:25:12 AM | I did have a cousin (not living , now), who was in the Resistance, but his name was Taddy Tatkin. Could've been a nickname? He was in the U.S. Army or
Airforce. Would like more information.
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Robi (Roberta) Tatkin
9/27/2002 9:06:48 PM | Irving Tatkin was my father. Everyone called him (and many of his siblings) Taddy. At some point (after the war, I think) he had it legally changed. He died in 1983 at the age of 63, heart problems for many years. This is so wierd, I stumbled apon this site totally by chance.
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Ken McPherson
5/25/2004 1:07:52 AM | Hello Mary, Just caught your posting on the 40lst MB.
Would you be so kind as to e-mail
(what youcan)about yourDad's WW11 experiences. Justfinished reading
Ivo de Jong's book & he has quite a few mentions about escape & evasion. Very interesting. Thank you& Regards,
Ken McPherson 8thFHS, 493rd BGMA & 95th BGMA.
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bruno de vuyst
6/10/2004 5:59:38 AM | Dear Ms. Tatkin:
Frans Storms, who was in the Belgian resistance and shepherded your father after 2 December 1943, would like to get in contact with you. He has no e-mail of his own, so please reply to mine: we have documents attesting to your father's wherabouts in Alken, Belgium after he was shot down.
Sincerely,
Bruno de Vuyst
Free University Brussels
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Filip Doms
2/8/2005 8:39:03 AM | Would like a contact address from Dear Robi (Roberta) Tatkin, A Mister Ford Cowherd 15068629 was looking for her father. Mister Frans Storms who helped Mister Cowherd and several other airmen to escape is a personal friend of me, for the moment he is with some help rewriting a book about his underground and resistance acts against the Nazi occupation.
Filip Doms
Mechelsesteenweg 315
2860 Sint-Katelijne-Waver
Belgium
Europe
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Charles W. Hess
4/2/2005 4:31:58 PM | My uncle was 1st Lt. Charles F. Hess, the pilot of the Lopin Lobo on that mission (613 BS). This was his second mission, and a bit of a family legend. The details of the mission have been told and retold. (So, accuracy is perhaps a bit strained.)
The 401st was bombing an aircraft engine parts factory that day and the Lopin Lobo had finished the bomb run and successfully released the bombs. On the way out from the target area, they took an almost direct hit on the number 4 engine (the outboard right engine) that rendered it useless. Shrapnel from the burst damaged the fuel, oil, and hydraulic lines in the number 3 engine which started to vibrate, smoke, and run away. (Run away means that the engine was revving too fast, probably because the propeller's pitch control system was shot out.) The engine caught fire about the time that a second burst of flak blew off an engine cowling and shredded the plane with more than 150 jagged holes.
The plane flipped over and fell out of control for over 11,000 feet. My uncle and his co-pilot, Lt. John Mitchell of North Carolina, wrestled the plane back into control and leveled off around 2,500 feet. Their quick action and the dive put out the fire but they were standing on the rudder and figthing the controls to keep the plane flying. Since the plane was losing altitude too fast to make England, my uncle called back to the crew to prepare to bail out. No one answered, so he naturally assumed that the intercom system was shot out. He sent one of the other officers (probably Bryant) back to tell the crew that they should get ready to bail out as soon as they got over water. (So they could be rescued.) Surprisingly, the crew had already made the reasonable assumption that the plane was out of control and about to crash. They had already bailed out over occupied Belgium. (This is the point of contention between the family version and the official version... Uncle Charlie believed that the crew had hit the silk right during the out-of-control dive. He and the officers in the front of the plane were so busy, just getting the plane to fly, that they had no idea that the crew had left. I am willing to accept anyone's input on this point. As you know, during war, no one in combat really knows what is going on or even what is happening nearby. It could have been a sincere mistake on his part since he was very busy trying to stay alive.)
The four offciers threw out everything they could to lighten the plan, but the fact that the crew was gone probably did more than anything to keep the plane aloft until England. My uncle and Lt. Mitchell struggled with the plane all the way back to England and made an emergency landing at Manston.
My uncle received a Distinguished Flying Cross for this mission and Lt. Mitchell received an Air Medal. (Lt. Mitchell was also promoted, and given command of his own plane. He was subsequently killed in action although I don't know the details.)
My uncle went on to receive an Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters and, an Oak Leaf Cluster for his DFC. He successfully completed 25 missions and was sent back to the US for reassignment.
He came back to England fly P-51s for 1st Scouting Force under the command of the former 401st Operations Officer, Col. Allison Brooks.
He was killed in his first check-out flight in the Mustang. He experienced an engine failure on take off. His confidence in his ability to land a damaged plane probably contributed to his death. In stead of bailing out when the engine started to misfire, he tried to turn the smoking P-51 around and land it. By the time he decided that it was hopeless, he was too low. He bailed out but landed on his parachute that was still in its pack. It was October 21, 1944, one day before his 22nd birthday.
He was buried in the Cambridge American Cemetery in a ceremony that was, ironically, photographed and published in the November 13, 1944 Time Magazine.
He was raised in Chester County, Pennsylvania and the county has a very nice web site dedicated to him at http://dsf.chesco.org/heroes/hess/hess.htm
I have just uploaded the picture of his crew in the gallery of this site, so you can see them as they looked before they shipped out to England.
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Charles W. Hess
4/2/2005 5:11:29 PM | This is incredible! I have a hand-written report from 1943 that said that John Mitchell was a KIA in the war. I am very happy to learn that he survived the war and may even be still alive. I would love to talk to Mr. Mitchell about my uncle, Charles F. Hess.
Please contact me at cnchess@iwon.com
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Charles W. Hess
4/3/2005 8:23:32 AM | Apparently, Lt. Mitchell survived the war... He is a member of the 401st Association, or was in 2001. Another reason to do more research...
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Charles W. Hess
4/22/2005 10:11:21 PM | Note that we have uploaded a picture of your father as he appeared in September 1943. He is in the picture in the Crew Photos under the Charles F. Hess crew. He is kneeling on the front right of the picture. Contact me if you would like. I am interested in any stories you may have heard from him about his service.
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