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The Setting
On
8 May 1945 the war in Europe was nearly over. American forces had liberated the
concentration/labour camp at Ebensee three days earlier.
Twenty P47’s (five flights of four aircraft) embarked on an aerial
demonstration/morale boosting flight over the POW/concentration camp at
Ebensee. (Ebensee was an ancillary camp to Mauthausen Concentration
Camp – the labour was used to build tunnels in the mountains and 8500
inmates died there ). All aircraft were fully armed but no bombs were
being carried. Yellow Flight consisted of Yellow Leader Lt Eastman
(K4-C) with Lt Mohr (K4-S) wingman and Element Leader Lt Cecil (K4-A)
with Lt Olthoff (K4-Z) wingman.
Doug Eastman remembers the trip well.
The Flight
“We left Kitzingen around 9:00 am and maintained approx 220mph on our
flight to Ebensee. The later portion of the flight through the Austrian
Alps was uncommonly beautiful.
As
we approached Ebensee, I noticed a few tall stacks within the town.
These stacks and the fact Henry (Mohr) elected to fly lower than the
rest of the flight made ‘buzzing’ the town at very low altitude unsafe –
so we maintained a couple of hundred feet until over the lake. After
crossing the shoreline and moving out over the lake we, as had been
planned, broke formation, fanned out then dropped down to within a few
feet of the water. A small sailboat was in view a bit to the right of my
intended flight path. The boats occupants apparently thought they were
about to be run over and proceeded to jump overboard. It was, at the
time, somewhat comical. I then saw out the corner of my eye a commotion
to my right so I pulled up a little and looked over. I saw Mohr’s
aircraft bounce up from the water and come down again, hit the water and
begin to sink. We circled the crash site and saw Mohr thrashing about in
the water and watched the plane sink out of sight. We headed home to
Kitzingen and reported the crash at the debriefing”.
The
Details
It
seems Yellow 2 had to go wide to miss a chimneystack over the town of
Ebensee. With the other three heading across the lake, Mohr was trying
to catch up and return to his position when disaster struck. Flying at
230mph, the propeller touched the water and was wrecked. The P47 hit the
water in a cloud of steam and spray, becoming airborne again before
coming down onto the lake surface. There was little time for ‘29150 to
float, she was already on her way down as Mohr was trying to get out. In
the water, he did not have a Mae West or a dinghy but the parachute pack
initially kept him afloat. Gradually this became waterlogged and he
began struggling to stay afloat.
Two girls broke into a boat shed and procured a rowing boat and
proceeded to row to the crash site. A boy in another boat followed. By
this time Mohr was at the point of drowning, his parachute pack had sunk
and he was going under with it. At the same time his young rescuers
arrived and thrust an oar into the water, which Mohr immediately clung
to before losing consciousness. It is not clear whether the three pulled
him into the boat or held him on the side, but Mohr remained
unconscious. On the shore we was taken to a German hospital where he
became the last MIA of the 9AF, at least for a few hours. He was
liberated later and sent to an American military hospital as the war in
Europe ended.
History is
Made
‘29150 became the last P47 combat mission loss in the ETO and this
ironically led to its survival. During the summer of 1945, a large part
of the surviving P47’s were unceremoniously scrapped, although the
surviving nineteen P47’s from the 511FS were flown to an airfield near
Paris and delivered to the French. Its loss on 8 May has meant ‘29150 is
undoubtedly one of the most historic P47’s in existence.
†Mark Sheppard |
