B-17G-30-DL
'Sleepy Time Gal', 42-38211
B-17G-30-DL
'Sleepy Time Gal', 42-38211
Heinz Knoke's victim on March 8, 1944
T/Sgt Mearl I. Cline Top Turret Gunner at Moses Lake, WA
[Photos courtesy from Alan Foreman]
Extract from
"The Final Flight of Sleepy Time Gal"
By
C. Alan ForemanThere's our escort at twelve o'clock high," a voice soon announced over the intercom. The fighters initially appeared as distant specks but grew larger as they approached the bombers. From head on and in shallow dive, the fighters rapidly closed on the bomber formation. The bomber crews soon realized that the fighters were not escorts as waves of ten to fifteen FW-190s, Me-109s and Me-110s, flying wing abreast, opened up on the bombers with machine gun and 20mm cannon fire.
Mearl Cline, in the engineer's top turret, fired at the German fighters with his twin .50 caliber machine guns. Lieutenant Harris also engaged the German fighters with the two .50 caliber machineguns in the chin turret located under the bomber's nose. Chuck Batdorf waited to catch sight of the fighters from his right waist gun position but the first wave passed by so fast that he could not fire a shot...
...MacDonald did not wait long to make a decision. He sounded the alarm bell, signaling the crew to evacuate the plane...
...While preparing to evacuate the plane, the left waist gunner and radio operator noticed that the ball turret had lost power, leaving the gunner trapped inside. The two airmen started to manually crank the turret around to allow access to the ball turret hatch from the interior of the aircraft.
Mearl Cline made his way from the top turret toward the back of the plane, per the pilot's orders, to ensure that the wounded got out. As he moved through the radio room, he observed the efforts of Dowell and Rowden to free Valigura from the ball turret and decided to assist. The three airmen cranked the ball turret around to expose the turret's escape hatch. They released the locking levers and opened the hatch, allowing Valigura to climb back into the relative safety of the aircraft......Mearl Cline was the last of the crew to bail out of Sleepy Time Gal. He experienced some difficulty getting out of the aircraft due to the slipstream. When he finally rolled out the waist door he pulled the ripcord and his chute spilled out of the pack. Immediately he had a problem. The extra-long heat cord for his electric suit got tangled in the chute and prevented it from opening. He pulled down the parachute to get it untangled from the heat cord. He then let go of the parachute and when it opened, he swung twice before hitting a tree.
Suspended from the tree, Cline twisted around a few times trying to figure out how to get down. Seconds later he saw a farmer, armed with a shotgun, running toward him through a field. Faced with imminent capture, Cline said to himself, "I think I'll just stick around here for a while."
......The surviving crewmembers, minus Willie Rowden (who was in a German hospital), were temporarily reunited at the Oberursel Interrogation Center near Frankfurt On-The-Main. After interrogation, Lieutenant MacDonald and Lieutenant Moskowitz were sent to Stalag I. The enlisted crewmen went to the transit camp at Wetzlar before eventually being sent to Stalag VI in Hydekrug, East Prussia (now known as Barzdunai, Lithuania.)
......The eight crewmen that survived capture on March 8, 1944 all lived to see liberation in April of 1945. The experience of war created a bond that held them together for almost six decades. Currently, there are five surviving crewmembers of Sleepy Time Gal: Chuck Batdorf, Willie Rowden, Bill Valigura, Mearl Cline and Wendell Dowell. Despite the passage of nearly 60 years, each one can still vividly recall the final flight of Sleepy Time Gal.
Article written in August 2003.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The author is greatly indebted to ... Without his help, this story would not be what it is, and I wish to express my sincere thanks for his fine cooperation.
Data courtesy of C. Alan Foreman
clic on photo to enlarge it.
- - - Special thanks to Alan Foreman (nephew of Sgt Charles R. Batdorf) for his help - - -
serial number
plane type or name
squadron
code
reason
mission lost on
pilot / crew
42-38211
B-17G-30-DL
"Sleepy Time Gal"
452 BG
731 BS
Heinz Knoke Bf 109 &
fighters
Berlin.
Crash Location
Nienburg
25 km North/West of Wunstorf 415 / I112nd Lt. Theodore J. MacDonald P POW,
2nd Lt. John T. Godsey CP KIA,
2nd Lt. Jacob Moskowitz N POW,
2nd Lt. Anton L. Harris B KIA,
T/Sgt Mearl I. Cline TTG POW,
T/Sgt Wilburn C. Rowden R POW,
Sgt Charles R. Batdorf RWG POW,
Sgt Wendell E. Dowell LWG POW,
Sgt William J. Valigura, Jr. BTG POW,
Sgt Robert L. Allen TG POW,
MACR 3193
