Post by windrunner on Oct 27, 2006 10:44:08 GMT -5
(Some time ago I wrote this article for the Historical Wings Society, but I think it really worth some reading also here at the TOH)
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"Bill Wisner's P-38 fighter disappeared on October 20, 1944. His squadron was on its way to escort bombers to the oil storage facility in Regensburg, Germany, when they encountered anti-aircraft flak about five miles north of Bolzano, Italy. One plane was hit and returning to base when another P-38 collided with it above Bill. The resulting debris fell onto Bill's plane, and he was last seen in a steep dive, then a spin as he disappeared into the undercast, his right engine in flames." 2nd Lt. William O. Wisner, 71st Fighter Squadron/1st FG, went down somewhere the forest of Riggermoos (wich, BTW, is almost in my own backyard!).
This was another story among many others, another dramatic day in the skyes of Europe during WWII. But, in a way, the story of Wisner is not; because of his mother: she refused to believe he was gone. She wrote everyone she could think of, but the response was always the same: "missing, presumed killed." For the rest of her life she yearned to know where he was.
Without meaning to, she passed her determination to her granddaughter, Bill's niece. Diana Dale grew up hearing stories about Bill, and 25 years after her grandmother's death she still wanted to know what happened to him. She hoped the Internet would find some squadron buddies who remembered him. Maybe they could tell her what Bill was really like, not as her grandmother's son or her mother's brother, but as someone's buddy, his own person. Maybe they remembered something the government didn't tell the family.
Instead of finding his friends, she was led to a clue in Bill's personnel file that would help answer her grandmother's persistent question. A memo mentioned the recovery of his identification bracelet with some remains in 1952, but the family had never been told. And when Dale asked where the bracelet and its owner's remains were now, the government couldn't help. The file holding the answers was lost somewhere in the archives.
Back on the Internet, Dale joined forces with Jim Graham, a military historian and member of Bill's 71st Fighter Squadron, 1st Fighter Group. Graham's research and a network of e-mail queries found willing helpers in six countries who took the challenge to heart. The resulting questions, answers, dead ends, and leads took them on a treasure hunt back and forth from the U.S. to Europe and up and down the remote Alps of northern Italy, where they finally narrowed down the area of the crash. They presented eyewitness testimonies and hard evidence to the Mortuary Affairs division of the Army in Europe and convinced them an investigation was in order.
In August 2000, the Mortuary Affairs team excavated the rest of Bill's remains. A DNA comparison to his niece's blood sample resulted in positive identification. Bill could come home, at last.
His remains were shipped back for burial in his home town of Dallas, Tex., in November 2001, where he was given full military honors. The Commemorative Air Force flew a "Missing Man" formation of vintage WWII aircraft over the ceremony. Bill now rests near his parents, 57 years and 8 months after he said good-bye.
If you want to know the whole details, you can visit the 1st fighter Squadron page, here
www.1stfighter.org/missingpilots/wisner.html
And this is the supercharger of Wisner's plane
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"Bill Wisner's P-38 fighter disappeared on October 20, 1944. His squadron was on its way to escort bombers to the oil storage facility in Regensburg, Germany, when they encountered anti-aircraft flak about five miles north of Bolzano, Italy. One plane was hit and returning to base when another P-38 collided with it above Bill. The resulting debris fell onto Bill's plane, and he was last seen in a steep dive, then a spin as he disappeared into the undercast, his right engine in flames." 2nd Lt. William O. Wisner, 71st Fighter Squadron/1st FG, went down somewhere the forest of Riggermoos (wich, BTW, is almost in my own backyard!).
This was another story among many others, another dramatic day in the skyes of Europe during WWII. But, in a way, the story of Wisner is not; because of his mother: she refused to believe he was gone. She wrote everyone she could think of, but the response was always the same: "missing, presumed killed." For the rest of her life she yearned to know where he was.
Without meaning to, she passed her determination to her granddaughter, Bill's niece. Diana Dale grew up hearing stories about Bill, and 25 years after her grandmother's death she still wanted to know what happened to him. She hoped the Internet would find some squadron buddies who remembered him. Maybe they could tell her what Bill was really like, not as her grandmother's son or her mother's brother, but as someone's buddy, his own person. Maybe they remembered something the government didn't tell the family.
Instead of finding his friends, she was led to a clue in Bill's personnel file that would help answer her grandmother's persistent question. A memo mentioned the recovery of his identification bracelet with some remains in 1952, but the family had never been told. And when Dale asked where the bracelet and its owner's remains were now, the government couldn't help. The file holding the answers was lost somewhere in the archives.
Back on the Internet, Dale joined forces with Jim Graham, a military historian and member of Bill's 71st Fighter Squadron, 1st Fighter Group. Graham's research and a network of e-mail queries found willing helpers in six countries who took the challenge to heart. The resulting questions, answers, dead ends, and leads took them on a treasure hunt back and forth from the U.S. to Europe and up and down the remote Alps of northern Italy, where they finally narrowed down the area of the crash. They presented eyewitness testimonies and hard evidence to the Mortuary Affairs division of the Army in Europe and convinced them an investigation was in order.
In August 2000, the Mortuary Affairs team excavated the rest of Bill's remains. A DNA comparison to his niece's blood sample resulted in positive identification. Bill could come home, at last.
His remains were shipped back for burial in his home town of Dallas, Tex., in November 2001, where he was given full military honors. The Commemorative Air Force flew a "Missing Man" formation of vintage WWII aircraft over the ceremony. Bill now rests near his parents, 57 years and 8 months after he said good-bye.
If you want to know the whole details, you can visit the 1st fighter Squadron page, here
www.1stfighter.org/missingpilots/wisner.html
And this is the supercharger of Wisner's plane
