"The FW-190 was a beautiful plane, except when it was shooting at you," Tim Boomhower recalls his father, Edmund Boomhower, saying. Tim's dad was the navigator on "Old Baldy," piloted by Bill Golden, who died keeping the B-24 aloft until the rest of the crew bailed out. Only the pilot and tail gunner Norm Stewart perished. Tim's dad hid out for three days with no food or water, and when he was caught trying to hide in a haystack his captors gave him a cup of ersatz coffee which he always said was the best coffee he ever had.

Tim was deeply moved by his father's recollections about his flying and his time as a prisoner of war, and wanted to share some of the memories his dad passed along with the Kassel Mission Chronicles.

In the chaos of the Kassel Mission air battle, 25 of the 35 Liberators from the 445th Bomb Group were shot down within minutes, along with many of the German fighters. One of those bombers was piloted by Reginald Miner of upstate New York.

Earlier this year, on the 81st anniversary of the Sept. 27, 1944 battle, a memorial was dedicated at the crash site of Miner's B-24. Attending the ceremony were three generations of Miner's family: his nephew, Jim Miner, Jim's niece Kiara, and Kiara's son.

Recently, Kassel Mission Chronicle hosts Linda Alice Dewey and Aaron Elson spoke with Jim Miner after his return from the ceremony in Grebenau, Germany, where his uncle's bomber crashed. Two of the ten crew members, co-pilot Virgil Chima and radio operator Joe Gilfoil, were killed, and Reg Miner, who remained at the controls until all the crew bailed out, became a prisoner of war.

Music for the podcast by Linda Dewey.

Fresh off a lecture about mechanized scooter safety in the halls of his assisted living facility, 101-year-old Jim Baynham sat down for a telephone interview with Linda Alice Dewey and Aaron Elson, hosts of the Kassel Mission Chronicles podcast.

The last surviving participant of the battle between 35 B-24 Liberators and about 120 German fighter planes, Baynham had turned 20 only a few months before and was the youngest member of the crew whose lives were in his hands.

I was a little late hitting the record button and missed the part about Jim's class on scooter safety, but fortunately Jim puts out a sort of blog by email and text, and this morning the following arrived:

"We did it. Actually tested those of us scooter drivers who turned ourselves in. We reported to the residents lounge, carefully threading our way through the spaces between the chairs and table. Carefully, it was no time to have an accident. So we were directed to form a line in preparation for a drivers test among pylons set up in the main hallway. Those of us who successfully navigated the course without knocking over a pylon got a certificate attesting to our successfully completing the test. It was a pretty impressive event. That hall full of old folks showed up and proved we coud still tame our impulses to run over someone and act like we were normal folks with concerns for our fellow man. It was pretty impressive. Love, Dad, Grandpa, Uncle, Jim."

credit: Kasselmission.org

For more on the Kassel Mission:

https://www.kasselmission.org

For more about the podcast hosts:

https://www.lindaalicedewey.com

https://aaronelson.substack.com