2010 B-17 Memorial Veterans

The three veterans of the 95th Bomb Group who attended the ceremony were: 1st Lt Robert Spinnenweber and Staff Sgt Frank Martin and Staff Sgt Earl Joswick.

First Lieutenant Robert Spinnenweber, the bombardier on the B-17 "Yankee Wolf", completed a full tour of 30 missions as part of the Donald Abwender crew in the 334th Bomb Squadron.

The crew of "Yankee Wolf" are from left, back row: Dane Clark (radio operator), Paul Kykri (gunner), Bayard Brown (engineer), Anthony Pitasi (gunner); front row: David Baldie (radar navigator), Don Abwender (lead pilot), George Fryer (navigator), Robert Spinnenweber (bombardier).

Staff Sgt Frank Martin, the tail gunner on the B-17 "Knock-Out Baby", completed a full tour of 35 missions. His 2010 visit was his first trip to the UK since the war. He was part of the Roy Gieland crew in the 412th Bomb Squadron. The aircraft B17-G 42-97257 "Knock-Out Baby" was assigned to the 95th on March 28th 1944 and survived the war to be sent for scrap.

The crew of "Knock-Out Baby" are from left, back row: Weatherall (eng), Rogers (waist gunner), Clum (radio operator) Hubbard (ball turret gunner), Frank Martin (tail gunner), Hyde (waist gunner); front row: Roy Gieland (pilot), Johnson (co-pilot), Anderson (navigator), H.O. Turner (bombardier).

Staff Sgt Earl Joswick was a ball turret g gunner on the B-17 "Ten Aces" flew 14 missions as part of the Tony Hamlick crew in the 334th Bomb Squadron before he was shot down on July 19th, 1944 on the Schweinfurt mission. He ended the war as a PoW in Stalag Luft 4.

Archive photos supplied by Frank Martin and the 95th Bomb Group Heritage Association.

Visit our Local History pages for more about the crash and the villages' involvement with the 95th Bomb Group during the Second Wold War. Click for Richard E Flagg's memorials' website. The event was covered by local newspapers and both regional TV news programmes and it was also the Memorial Day front-page of The Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell, Montana, the home town of pilot Kenneth Rongstad. See the Daily Inter Lake article front page front page and inside. Click for the BBC Look East item and for the Anglia TV coverage on Youtube (the reporter has apologised for calling the village Redlington).

If you have any memories or pictures of the crash, or the village itself, please share them with us at email@redlingfieldparishcouncil.gov.uk