Executive Order, Brings New Hope to Veterans

Executive Order For FOIA Transparency
Brings New Hope
to Veterans Of Disastrous Covered-Up WWII Air Battle

One of President Obama’s first executive orders brings new hope to a weary
group of World War II veterans and their families. Executive order number
three, commanding transparency from within the administration, may be the
turning point in their search for answers regarding an overtly covered-up
disastrous WWII air battle. Few Americans are even aware of what has been
dubbed “The Kassel Mission” of 27 September 1944, when the Eighth Air Force
lost nearly every plane from one airfield in England. Silenced at the time,
its remaining survivors hope that their new Commander-in-Chief can end their
search for answers. The Kassel Mission secret papers, if they exist, could
be one of the first challenges to President Obama’s pledge for transparency.

On September 27, 1944, the 445th Bomb Group (BG) flew 35 B-24 Liberator
bombers, carrying 9-10 men each, toward Kassel Germany. Following their lead
plane, they turned away from the rest of the division–a move which is
currently being scrutinized. The 445th dropped its bombs 1½ miles from the
University of Gottingen, later known as the birthplace of rocket science.
They were then attacked by 100-150 German fighters. Only four bombers
returned to their base. On that day alone, the 445th  BG lost one-third of
the men and planes they would lose over the course of the entire war.

Those who made it safely back were told to “keep our mouths shut.” Some
packed the experience away forever. Others began to search for answers. Five
decades later, men from nearly every state had connected with each other,
sharing stories and trying to figure out what happened. In the meantime, in
1982, German Walter Hassenpflug, who had been a twelve-year-old member of
the Hitler Youth at the time of the battle, contacted the air man he had
arrested afterwards. Navigator Frank Bertram responded and flew to Germany
to meet Hassenpflug again, this time as a friend.

It was to be the first of many such reunions between the Germans and
Americans who fought each other that day. Hassenpflug added his vast amount
of research to the growing American Kassel Mission archives. The veterans
formed the Kassel Mission Memorial Association which has since morphed into
the Kassel Mission Historical Society (KMHS). In 1990, the Americans and
their former German enemies erected a monument dedicated to the men of both
sides who died in that battle. Over 500 attended the dedication. An even
larger crowd attended a re-dedication in August 2006.

As KMHS continues to accrue information, one thing is becoming crystal
clear. The pieces that don’t fit are the ones that came from their
commanding officers. “For over sixty years, everyone accepted the story they
were told,” says KMHS president Linda Dewey, whose father was a B-24 pilot
on the Kassel Mission and later was one of the founders of KMHS. “But a few
years ago, we found government records that do not jibe with each other.”
This led to deeper research; evidence has been turning up ever since that
only brings up more questions.

“Something’s fishy,” said Bertram in a 1999 interview conducted by oral
historian Aaron Elson.

“Was the turn really a mistake?” Dewey wants to know. “Or was the 445th
meant to make that turn?” If so, as has been indicated by one source inside
Air Force Intelligence, why would they be ordered to bomb so close to the
University of Gottingen? Did it have something to do with plans and designs
for the Stealth B-2 Bomber and other experimental aircraft said to have been
stolen from the university close to the end of the war? Such possibilities
raise entirely new lines of thought that, without newly declassified
documents, can only be conjecture and speculation.

Why does any of this matter so long after the event? “So few are left now,”
expressed another KMHS member in an email to Dewey recently. “Being told
that their mission and loss of life was simply because of a mistake is a
travesty if it is not true, depriving them of the dignity and honor they and
their next of kin are due.”

“They deserve to know the truth,” Dewey adds, “the real reason they went
through such a horror. In any case, at the very least they deserve to be
honored for following their leader, obeying his orders and fighting to the
bitter end.”

In 2008, Dewey went straight to the Chairman of the Senate Armed Forces
Committee, Senator Carl Levin, requesting declassification of all documents
still classified on the Kassel Mission. Levin currently serves as liaison
between the Michigan-based organization and the Air Force. After four
go-rounds, the most recent response dated December 23, 2008 states that the
Air Force has turned the case over to its Freedom of Information Act
department. Under FOIA, the Air Force has only a few weeks to come forth
with the requested documents which could solve a mystery that has plagued
the embattled veterans for most of their lives.

“It’s time these men had definitive answers,” says Dewey. “It is our hope
that the president’s new executive order will help to shed light on this
unfinished story of a military disaster now 65 years old, and bring closure
to these men of honor, transforming the Kassel Mission from a little-known
but significant black mark in history, to an icon of truth and honor for all
Americans, everywhere.”

Linda Alice Dewey, President
Kassel Mission Historical Society