Lt Ewart Sconiers was Bombardier on B-17 41-9089 'Johnny Reb', one of the 12 B-17s participating in the first heavy bomber raid of the 8th Air Force on 17 August 1942. The target were the shipyards of Rouen/Sotteville, France.

He also flew in 41-9103 "Dixie Demo" on the 19 August one, planned to bomb the German airfield at Abbeville/Drucat, France. This mission was flown to occupy the Luftwaffe and to try to prevent them from opposing the invasion of Dieppe, France by over 5,000 allied troops (mostly Canadians), six 97th B-17s flying a diversion for the Abbeville raid.

On the third mission staged by the 8th AF on August 21, 1942 to shipyards in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 41-9089 "Johnny Reb" lagged in the back of the formation and became easy prey for German Fw190s. A shell went through the right windscreen and the Co-Pilot, 2nd Lt Donald A. Walter, was killed instantly. The cockpit was wrecked, the top turret was blown out and pilot 2nd Lt Richard S. Starks was severely wounded, in the chest, an arm and legs, his hands badly burned. His mask had been knocked off and, lacking oxygen, barely conscious, Starks managed to call Sconiers on the radio.

Coming to the cabin, Sconiers quickly sized up the situation. He put Starks' mask back on, pulled the body of the co-pilot from the seat and controls and took his place. Sconiers, who had tried to become a pilot, had washed out in primary training and had gone back to civilian life before joining again as a Bombardier. Now at the controls, the Bombardier noticed that two engines were losing power as he flew the stricken plane in sight of the coast of England.

Struggling with the controls, trying to manage the gyrocompass and stabilize the air speed, advised by pilot Starks, Ewart Sconiers finally managed to bring the plane safely back, landing at Horsham St Faith. The story made the headlines all over the US as well as in the United Kingdom.

Both Lt Starks and Ewart Sconiers were awarded the DSC (Distinguished Service Cross) in a ceremony at Polebrook airfield on 17 September 1942. A Pathe newsreel of the ceremony: https://www.britishpathe.com/video/us-air-heroes-decorated

Ewart Sconiers flew some other missions and was on the 97th Bomb Group's last mission before being transferred to North Africa, the raid to the German submarine pens at Lorient/Kerovan, France on 21 October 1942. His plane, B-17 41-24443  "Johnny Reb II" was one of three 97th's B-17s shot down that day. Ewart Sconiers had bailed out over land and the plane crashed in the Bay of Biscay, the rest of the crew being saved by a French fishing boat. All were made prisoner. There is no Missing Air Crew Report (MACR) for the plane's loss.

After interrogation at Dulag Luft, Ewart Sconiers was interned at Stalag Luft 3, arriving there on 11 November 1942. 

Walking in the camp one winter day in late 1943, where the tall pines were continually cut down, Sconiers slipped on the ice and fell, and a shaft of splintered wood lodged in his ear. Weeks later, he started displaying symptoms of mental illness, becoming paranoid and hard to control. With no antibiotic drugs in the camp, the ear infection turned deadly. Sconiers exhibited symptoms synonymous with “going around the bend,” or “barbed wire fever,” as the men called it. 

One of his roommates, Padre Ewen “Murdo” MacDonald, the beloved chaplain from Scotland, tried to hide Sconiers in the barracks to protect him from the Germans. But while the chaplain was conducting another funeral outside the camp, the Germans, who could no longer handle him, took Sconiers away and transported him on 9 January 1944 to a mental hospital in Lüben, Germany (Lubin in Polish), about an hour by train from the camp.

On his Camp I.D., the Germans wrote he died of schizophrenia on January 24 at the Reserve Hospital in Lüben, but other German documents mention pneumonia, and yet other ones show a heart attack as the cause of death.

Lt. Col Albert Clark, Senior American Officer at SLIII, Col. Charles Goodrich, SAO, South Compound, 1st Lt. Milton Stenstrom, Sconiers’ former pilot, Col. Delmar Spivey, SAO Center Compound and Major Clermont Wheeler, escorted by German guards, took a train to Lüben, for the Americans their first time out from behind barbed wire. The group attended Ewart’s funeral on 27 January 1944 in the municipal cemetery in Lüben, Padre Ewen MacDonald officiating the ceremony.

Efforts to retrieve Ewart's remains after the war had long been in vain. Still listed as Missing In Action (MIA) and the last Stalag Luft III POW not to have been brought home, new hopes had been raised in August 2015, when grave 908, marked "Sconiers Edouard 1939-1945" could miraculously be located at the French Military cemetery in Gdansk Poland.

On the premise that these could be the remains of Lt Ewart Sconiers, the DPAA (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency - http://www.dpaa.mil), after meetings in Poland and with the help of the Polish and French authorities, permission was granted in 2016 to have that grave opened and the remains there analysed. A first examination made in a Polish laboratory proved positive enough to have all the remains brought to the USA for further analysis by dedicated staff at the DPAA laboratory in Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.

At long last, in the first days of April 2017, the DPAA officially announced to Lt. Ewart Sconiers' grateful family that his remains had been positively identified. For over 65 years, Ewart Sconiers' name was on the Walls of the Missing at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium. At long last, a rosette indicating his recovery could be placed next to his name there in May 2017.

Ewart Sconiers was reburied next to his Mother at the Defuniak Springs cemetery on 27 January 2018. See http://bringsconiershome.com/home