USAAF over Poland

06/06/2026

The story of the Flying Fortress which landed in Krakow, Poland on December 26th 1944.

Happy Weekend!

This new story on my Substack is very special to me.

This was the very first American plane in Poland I was ever aware of. I was 14 back then, and I could not sleep after reading about this plane. I did not think there was ANY American planes in Poland in WWII. Communists took special care that any trace of American planes in Poland was erased.

But when the Iron Curtain fell apart, my friends and I started researching, and we documented hundreds of US planes which flew missions in our part of Europe. And this B-17 became one of the very first ones I researched.

I am very happy and excited to share this story with you!

December 26th 1944 was a second day of Christmas in N**i-occupied Krakow. The locals barely returned home from churches when big news hit the town: an American bomber landed in the south of the city!

04/06/2026

A new story coming this Saturday to my Substack! 🙂

03/06/2026

The B-17 #43-38231 (452nd BG, 8th AF) commemorated in Poland.

I am always happy to share news about American aircraft from WWII commemorated in Poland. This B-17 landed in Poland after a mission to Zwickau on March 19th, 1945. You could still find quite big pieces of it back in the 1990s. This recent FB post shows the local memorial:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1bYWMLq1ot/?mibextid=wwXIfr

I wrote about another B-17 from the 452nd on my Substack. Its crew was the only American crew who joined the Polish Home Army.

https://open.substack.com/pub/sserwatka/p/from-an-american-airman-to-a-polish?r=42ks37&utm_medium=ios

30/05/2026

WWII aircraft wrecks brought by train to N**i salvage yards - LEGO style!

Peter van Kaathoven is my co-author of the story of N**i aircraft salvage yards at Vught (Netherlands), and Auschwitz (Poland). He recently built these models using LEGO-style sets, and we thought to share these photos with you. I personally like them a lot, and they look very much like the wrecks brought by train to Vught or Auschwitz.

Here is the story about Vught:

https://open.substack.com/pub/sserwatka/p/zerlegebetriebe-nazi-wreck-salvage?r=42ks37&utm_medium=ios

And here is the one about Auschwitz:

https://open.substack.com/pub/sserwatka/p/zerlegebetriebe-nazi-wreck-salvage-cf8?r=42ks37&utm_medium=ios

Share and subscribe to my Substack for more WWII stories!

25/05/2026

2 more WWII MIAs recovered from Poland are returned to families!!!

On May 16th, Edgar W. Nevois was laid to rest in Praire de Rocher, IL. He was one of the MIAs from the 401st BG B-17 „Son of a Blitz” which was hit on the bomb run to Politz (today Police near Szczecin, Poland) on Oct 7th 1944. German flak blew off the front of the plane, the Fortess went into a vertical dive, hit the ground and exploded. 1 to 4 parachutes were seen to come out during the dive, but noone survived.

The graves of the gunners, engineer, radio-operator were found directly after the war and the bodies were exhumed, but noone knew until 74 years later where other airmen were buried.

In September 2018, Andrzej Ossowski and his team located a witness account pointing to an American grave at an abandoned German cemetery. I confirmed to him the crash site of „Son of a Blitz” was closest to this location. Andrzej, being a forensic expert by trade (you can find him on LinkedIn), and with a lot of experience in WWII exhumations, worked with the DPAA at the suspected grave location.

They must have found the burial place of the men who were in the shot-off front of the B-17, as Edgar Nevois was the co-pilot. The other identified person so far was Blaine Wilcox, the bombardier. He was reburied in October 2025. And I am hearing this is a developing story!

Photos: courtesy of Andrzej Ossowski

For more stories about the USAAF over Poland, subscribe to my Substack:

https://substack.com/

24/05/2026

5 MIAs recovered and identified from a B-17 lost in Poland, and I researched it!

The loss of Lt. Crane’s B-17 (2nd BG) during a mission on March 22, 1945 to Ruhland, Germany, had been a mystery for decades. It was damaged over the target, the crew tried to get to a Soviet controlled airfield in Poland, and was shot down by Soviets while still over German territory. 8 MIAs and no useful hint where they could have gone down.

Back in 2003 and then again in 2010, I collated all information from the MACR and correspondence, and recreated the course of events. All hinted towards a place from which the USA recovered an unknown in 1947.

The DPAA reopened the unknown case, and identified him as George Betchley from Crane’s crew. This was the ultimate proof we finally knew where crash was. More work at the crash site followed, and DPAA announced in 2025 identifications of four more men from this crew (DeMatteis, Dorman, Keuchel, Fatur).

Keuchel was reburied by family on May 15th this year, Fatur will be reburied in August, dates for DeMatteis and Dorman still to be confirmed . Betchley was reburied in 2017.

There are still about 150 American WWII MIAs missing in Poland. Please remember them on this Memorial Day.

For more USAAF over Poland stories, subscribe to my Substack:

https://substack.com/

Photos: courtesy of Greg Hollenbeck, who escorted Robert Keuchel to his final resting place.

23/05/2026

On this Memorial Weekend, let’s remember the 15th Air Force airmen who flew extremely dangerous missions to Blechhammer, and paid the ultimate price for our freedom.

The B-24 All Meat No Potatoes (464th BG) was just one aircraft and one crew, but what they went through, who died, who survived, happened hundreds of times in the skies of N**i occupied Europe.

I wrote about this crew on my Substack:

https://open.substack.com/pub/sserwatka/p/all-meat-no-potatoes-a-b-24-shot

For more stories about USAAF over Poland in WWII, subscribe to my Substack.

This is an extraordinary story of a crew shot down during one of early missions to Blechhammer, and of a very special family bond...

21/05/2026

The 15th Air Force has an excellent museum in Poland!

Missions to Blechhammer are commemorated in an excellent private museum, run by the Blechhammer-1944 Association. It is located in a WWII-era air raid bunker, walking distance to the Blechhammer North complex, in Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Poland.
The missions, the factories, slave labor and POW camps are presented in much detail, and you can see a lot of historical artifacts there.
I have been working with this group since 2000. Back then, they had a lot of info about American crash sites, but could not link them to any particular aircraft. I had a lot of archival documents, but did not know where exactly the American planes went down. This, and the fact they are good people, made it a natural collaboration and friendship between us.

Check their page:
https://www.facebook.com/share/18pZ6HK16M/?mibextid=wwXIfr

And subscribe to my substack, and find out more stories about the USAAF over Poland.

https://substack.com/

16/05/2026

This Memorial Weekend will be very special to me.

I have been supporting for 25+ years the US government efforts to recover WWII MIAs from Poland, and imagine this!!!

Yesterday, one of the identified MIAs from Poland was reburied in Omaha, Nebraska (8 MIAs in his crew, 5 were identified and returned to families in the last 10 years, and I gave my humble contribution to this effort).

And, TODAY!!!, an airman from another crew shot down over Politz (today Police, Poland) is buried in Praire du Rocher, Illinois! There were four MIAs in his crew, allegedly buried in one grave. We passed this information to the US government years ago, they worked with my friends from Szczecin, found the grave, and the identification process was finished on two men.

I will write more about each airman on the Memorial Weekend.

Meanwhile, the second part of my In The Air On The Air story is published on Substack.

Although I am linking plane names to songs and movies of the 1940s, this was a cruel war, and there were people dying on these planes, too.

My special thoughts go to Walter Shimshock (born Wladek Szymczak), who bailed out of the „I’ll Be Seeing You/‚Til We Meet Again”, landed safely near Warsaw, Poland, on September 18th 1944, and was brutally killed by German soldiers. Indeed, Til We Meet Again.

Is there a connection between heavy bombers of WWII and music and entertainment of that time? If so, what is it? Let’s find out!

14/05/2026

I thought my whole life that my favorite aircraft is a P-51. Now I have doubts. This one is made of chocolate….

I need to find a chocolate P-51. Then, my life will be back in order. ;)