Research Update
This site documents the recent airplane crash site investigations by Jerry Penry.
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November 6, 2009
Started researching some of the larger non-fatal crash sites of WWII by traveling to a B-17 crash site north of Emerson, Nebraska. All five crew members bailed out of this plane before it hit the ground on February 8, 1944.
October 10, 2009
The slideshow presentations are proving that there is tremendous amount of interest in the World War II crash sites and many attending the events have shared their own personal stories.I am now starting to research some of the non-fatal crash sites that occurred in Nebraska since so many people remember those as well. Weather permitting, the first major crash site will be researched in early November.
July 25, 2009
The dedication of the historical sign for the Harvard Army Air Field took place. This now leaves Kearney and Scribner as the two locations that still do not have a historical marker specifically for the air fields at those locations.Book sales and speaking engagements are going very well.
May 2, 2009
The reunion of a survivor of the Bruning B-17/P-47 mid-air collision on September 8, 1944, with some of those who helped him was a great time. Walt Divan finally got to meet Emily Dunn and Ed Rut who were seniors in high school at Tobias and found him on the ground. Another eyewitness attending the reunion was Merle Buzek who was a junior at Milligan High School.Rebecca with the Lincoln Journal-Star did an excellent job with reporting the story.
Below are the links to the reunion and newspaper article.
Reunion
Newspaper Article
Bruning Mid-Air Collision
March 15, 2009
The book is now available!
February 8, 2009
An excellent story about the September 8, 1944, mid-air collision between the B-17 and the P-47 was published in the Lincoln Journal-Star newspaper. Reporter Rebbecca Svec captured the story in great detail by contacting several of those who were involved, including a survivor of the B-17.
January 2, 2009
A return was made to the site of the Harvard B-17 crash sites for the third time. Despite the frozen ground, I was able to locate the site of Lt. Gimperling's B-17 by finding several small pieces of wreckage. An extensive search was made for Lt. Twitchell's plane, but no success.
December 12, 2008
Another trip was made to the site of the Morrill B-24 crash since the forecast indicated it was going to be sunny and near 50°. I had earlier searched for this site on May 17, 2007, but didn't find it. This time I returned with photographs of the crash with the surrounding hills which proved to be the key for its discovery. One story that I had learned about this crash was the placing of some white stones in the form of a cross by a woman who was deeply saddened by the accident. Not far from where the plane had burned up were approximately 30 white rocks randomly scattered. It is nice to recover this type of history and not just those things related directly to the plane.
November 8, 2008
A second trip was made to the site of the Grand Island B-17 crash and searched with a metal detector in the cornstalks for two hours. Again, no luck at this site.
October 26, 2008
I visited the Thayer County Museum in Belvidere that has a nice display of Bruning AAF items. I also stopped by one of the Shickley P-47 crash sites again to make another search, but no luck finding anything. I stopped by the Powell CAP crash site and made a brief search, but nothing found. I then stopped by the Daykin B-17 crash site again and found it this time. Maybe discovered around 20 pieces of the wreckage with the metal detector.The book is taking longer than expected to complete. It looks like the spring of 2009 for the completion date. I'm currently adding the maps and pictures to the text.
July 26, 2008
The crops are all in here, so no sites have been recently investigated. I am actively working on putting the stories together which is proving to be a huge task!
May 28, 2008
Added the Alliance paratrooper site. This was a non-crash accident that took the lives of three paratroopers from the 507th Parachute Infantry who drifted into a nearby lake and drowned.
May 3, 2008
The September 8, 1944, mid-air collision between a B-17 and a P-47 northeast of the Bruning Army Air Field was investigated today. Two area farmers accompanied me to the sites. One farmer brought several pieces of the B-17 wreckage that he has kept including a large piece about 24" across. The site where the main fuselage was identified, but no pieces found. The site of the P-47 impact was found and many small pieces were found.
April 26, 2008
A truly remarkable day near Ohiowa while searching for the May 10, 1944, mid-air collision of the P-47 and BT-13. Both sites were positively found with recovered pieces of wreckage. Thanks to a Milligan, Nebraska, woman whose keen memory led me to the approximate locations 3/4 mile aprat from each other. The metal detector did the rest and the exact locations of both sites are now preserved.
April 21, 2008
The first Meadow Grove P-47 site (Crash #37) was revisited on April 20, 2008, and the hills were searched with a metal detector for over two hours, but no trace of the wreckage could be found. This site was either completely picked up, or I am searching in the wrong area. I estimated that I had covered about 20 acres on foot. One newspaper account stated that wreckage was scattered for 200 yards. The area is native pasture and unchanged from the date of the crash.
March 22, 2008
The Dakota City C-39 and Homer B-26 sites were both found on March 21, 2008, after considerable searching and interviews with local residents.
March 9, 2008
I've added two more fatalities to the list which brings the total number of WWII airmen deaths in Nebraska to 240. Both are non-crash sites. One involved an airman falling out of a bomber near Scottsbluff without a parachute. The exact details are still not known. The other involves an AT-6 running into two airmen who were walking across the apron at the Lincoln AAF. One airmen was killed and the other survived.The format has been changed to have two different sites for those involving the crash of planes and those involving deaths, but no crash taking place. There are now 56 sites with fatal aircraft wrecks, and 3 without wrecks.
February 16, 2008
The Cordova "L-5" site has been renamed for the town of Beaver Crossing. The site is a couple of miles closer to Beaver Crossing, so that is why the name change.The exact site of the Powell Civil Air Patrol crash has been determined after correspondence with the (then) 7-year-old boy who witnessed the crash. This witness now lives in Iowa and was able to supply more details and pinpoint the location on a map which is about 1.5 miles east of the Powell P-47 crash site.
February 2, 2008
On January 25th I was able to see the former Martin Bomber Plant up close at Offutt Air Force Base. I was attending an 8th Air Force Historical Society meeting at the Officer's Club. On the wall in the Officer's Club I noticed a 1945 aerial image of the base. On the roof of the Martin Plant you can clearly see a blackened area near the southwest corner. This also appears on other images of the plant I have seen. I believe this is where the B-25 went through the roof on September 22, 1943. The black would have been caused by the fire and the then the new roof was likely tarred over adding more black. See PhotoToday I have found more details on the Civil Air Patrol Crash that I had formerly listed as being at the Bruning AAF. It was located just north of Powell. This site has been renamed Powell CAP. This was the first death of a CAP pilot in Nebraska.
I have figured out the hometowns of the two airmen that died in the Pleasant Dale crash. Both were from California. All of the hometowns of those who died in Nebraska are now known.
January 19, 2008
As I continue to research and write about Nebraska's fatal air crash sites of WWII new twists keep coming up. I just discovered that 2nd Lt. Leonard P. Supulski, the navigator on the first fatal crash site at Kearney, was an NFL football player for the Philadelphia Eagles. Supulski put his NFL career on hold to enlist in the Army Air Corps.I am also currently working on finding the accident report for the Civil Air Patrol crash of February 19, 1944, that occurred near Bruning. Since this was a non-military crash, the accident report is proving tougher to find.