Frederick E Stindt

Military

media-23709.jpeg UPL 23709 This picture was taken at Ardmore Airforce Base Oklahoma 1944 before beginning posted to England. It contains eight members of the crew of B17 43-38568 of the 860th sqdn, which ditched in the River Deben 20th Feb 1945.
Top Row Left to Right:
1st Lt Frederick Stindt (survived); 2nd Lt Irwin Roth (KIA); Lt George M Lacey ( transferred to 862 Sqdn pre 20/2/45); 2nd Lt Axel Johnson (KIA);
Bottom Row Left to Right
T Sgt K Mansour( reassigned pre 20/2/45); T Sgt W Deutsch (KIA); S Sgt P Hatalsky (KIA); S Sgt A Baraniak (KIA); S Sgt J Haynes (survived); S Sgt L Deniston (KIA)
The later crew members (KIA) were Sgt Francis Godfrey and Sgt Norman Reck. Irwin F Roth

Jeff Coleman

Object Number - UPL 23709 - This picture was taken at Ardmore Airforce Base Oklahoma 1944 before beginning posted to England. It contains eight members of the crew of B17...

Frederick E Stindt served as a pilot with the 860th Bomb Squadron of the 493rd Bomb Group.

Research by Jeff Coleman: Mission details supplied by 493rd BG Museum.

B-17 43-38568 took off from the 493rd Bomb Group’s Base at Debach near Woodbridge at 9.15am heading for Nuremburg Germany; immediately after take-off No 3 engine caught fire.

The pilot First Lieutenant Frederick E Stindt feathered the prop and extinguished the fire, but according to the pilot the engine fire quickly resumed and the right wing also began to burn. His course took him over Woodbridge so he had no opportunity to dump his bomb load.

His only hope was to ditch the plane in the River Deben, in shallow water. He managed to follow the River Deben searching for a suitable spot, which turned out to be a point almost opposite the quay at Ramsholt.

Sadly the waters were deeper than he thought and the plane immediately sank in eighteen feet of water, completely submerged only the tail fin remaining visible.

The aircraft was carrying a bomb load of 10 500lb bombs and 2,700 gallons of fuel. Only the pilot and engineer Top Sergeant Jewel K Haynes survived.

Lt Frederick Stindt Crew stayed pretty much all together on all their missions. Navigator Lt George Lacey left them after Mission 058 25th Nov 1944, and after a series of stand in navigators 2nd Lt Axel Johnson, who had retrained as Bombardier/Navigator, became the permanent one after Mission 101 15th Jan 1945. S/Sgt Francis Godfrey first joined the crew on Mission 105 21st Jan 1945 as waist gunner and Paul Hatalsky moved to the front as a Nose Gunner. Together they flew 7 Missions in 43-38216 Tempest Turner between 11th Nov 1944 & 11th Dec 1944, 8 Missions in 43-38613 Yard Bird between 24th Dec 1944 & 3rd Feb 1945. Missions were flown in other aircraft 43-38377 (1); 43-38311 (1) & 44-6818 (2).