Merrill O. BurtonHis Journey

● Overview

● Early Life

● Pilot Training

● War-Time

● Visit to Crash/Burial Site

● Questions & Answers

Overview

Date Comment

8/2/1916 Birth date, Harlem, Montana. 5/16/1934 Graduation, Harlem High School. 5/13/1942 Enlistment in Army Air Corp, Class 43H, Van Nuys, CA. 10/1942 Training: San Antonio, TX; Muskogee,12/1943 OK; Greenville, TX – Majors Field; Houston, TX – Ellington Field;

Pyote, TX; Alexandria, LA; Grand Island, NE-Kearney Air Field.

12/10/1943 Marriage to Katherine Mary Stoudt at Kearney Air Base. 12/13/1943 Departure from Kearney, to ferry B-17 to 8 th Air Force, England.

12/31/1943* Arrival in England. 1/12/1944 Assigned to 533rd Squadron.2/20/1944 First mission (#68), Leipzig, Germany.5/30/1944 Last mission (#121), Dessau, Germany.5/30/1944 Burial, Village Cemetery, Piethen, Germany.1946 Re-burial at American Military Cemetery; Margraten, Holland.1948 Final burial at Riverside Cemetery, Dodge Center, MN. *Approximate date

Early Life

Merrill’s Father & Mother

Morris & Ella Burton

Morris And Ella Burton

1940’s

Harlem

Aerial Panorama--Harlem, MontanaPopulation 800-1,000

Training

8thAirForce

November, 1942

June, 1943. Majors Field. Greenville, Texas.

Basic Vultee-BT-13A.

450HP

“A Good Airplane”

Alexandria, Louisiana

Letter written by Merrill on August 27th, 1943 from Ellington Field, Texas:

“Dear Folks. If I never see the state of Texas again, it will be too soon to suit me.”

Marriage December 10,1943.

Army Air BaseGrand Island, NE.

Three days prior to departure for England.

Ridgewell

Organization Chart, Eighth Air Force

Ridgewell

381stBombGroupRidgewell,England

Aerial photo from the East, circa 1943.

533rd Squadron

Dessau-Junkers

Ridgewell

Letter written by Merrill on March 1st, 1944 from Ridgewell:

“Dear Dad. The thing that really gets the boys going over here is the strikes back there. Most of them seem to be making good money and we need the stuff they’re making. Besides that they’re in good old U.S.A. If these boys over here were to get a hold of a bunch of strikers, hell would be to pay for sure”

6 Missions

1 20 Missions

Ridgewell

Dessau-Junkers

Leipzig 2/20/44Villacoublay, France 5/20/44Minnie the Mermaid

Sweet and Lovely Schweinfurt 2/24/44

Patches n’ Prayers Augsburg 2/25/44

Shack Rabbit

Gremlin’s Delite

Honey

Frankfurt 3/2/44; Dusseldorf 3/4/44; Berlin 3/8/44; Oberpfaffenhofen 3/18/44; Frankfurt 3/24/44; Marquise/Mimoyeques, France 3/26/44; St. Jean de Anglesey, France 3/27/44;Rheims/Champaigne, France 3/28/44.

Berlin 3/9/44

Mannheim 3/20/44Cherbourg, France 4/27/44

Dreambaby

Baboon McGoon

Princess Pat

Berlin 3/22/44; Hamm 3/23/44; Oldenburg 4/8/44; Brussels/Woensdrecht, Belgium 4/10/44; Eschwege 4/19/44;Erding 4/24/44; Brunswick 4/26/44

Croisette/LePlauy Ferme, France 4/20/44

Berlin 5/8/44

Dreambaby

Berlin, Hamm, Oldenburg, Woensdrecht(Belgium),Oranienburg, Eschwege, Earding, Brunswick.

“This time the Luftwaffe made at least a token attack, Lt Merrill O. Burton, ‘Pilot of Princess Pat’, who left our formation because he lost an engine, reported he saw Jerries attacking another group to which he attached himself”

Berlin. May 8, 1944.

Ole’ Swayback Dessau 5/30/44

Last letter from Merrill----May 14, 1944.

“Dearest Mother:

Today being mother’s day, the least I can do is write you a letter, I guess, and wish you the very, very best always.

The crew I had before I went on leave, are flying on their own now. So I haven’t had a crew. However, one of the other pilots finished up yesterday and I guess I’ll get his crew. I hope so, because they are a bunch of good boys.

I should be finishing up before long but can’t be very sure that I’ll get home for quite awhile yet.”

Dessau-Junkers

Dessau-Junkers

Distinguished FlyingCross

Air Medal

PurpleHeart

The beginning of my research:

“The Diary”

War diary of Alvin Berry(Navigator).

Final entry of 5/30/1944 made by Lt John J. Anderson. Lt. Anderson was an eyewitness and a friend of Alvin’s.

“We hit flak at the target and while we were on the bomb run suffered severe fighter attack for about 15 minutes. There were about 100 enemy fighters and we had 7 passes at us in 15-20 minutes”

“Lt. Burton’s plane was on fire and several parachutes were seen to come from it before it went into a spin and exploded.

I rushed back to our hut to itemize Al’s clothing and personal equipment before it was taken, as asked by him. I also picked up this diary which I will try to get to his wife Naomi.

If I go down I hope someone get’s this to Al’s wife.”

Interviews with surviving crew members:Lt. Alvin Berry, NavigatorS/Sgt Robert Hammond, BombardierSgt Robert Hittel, Tail GunnerS/Sgt James Marbry, Radio Operator

Interview of Al Berry, Navigator, on last mission.

“Hit in the right wing, between #3 and #4 engines, by a ME-109 at approx 28,000 feet”

“Get the hell out of here” was the last command he heard from Merrill.”

“The wing separated, the plane started to spin, creating centrifugal force which pinned Al and Bob Hammond(bombardier) to the interior cabin wall. Al started to lose conciseness and pulled his rip-cord at the last moment. The plane exploded. Al’s flight boots were torn off as he was blown from the plane.”

“He regained consciousness at approx 20,000 ft”

“Several angry farmers surrounded Al and began to kick and punch him.”

“Al was held as a POW in Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Germany until Feb 45. He was then marched in snow up to his knees to Muskau to escape the Russians.

Telephone Interview with Robert Hammond, Bombardier.

“It was a clear, beautiful day. Our fighter escort had just left us when the ME-109’s came in from the front. Our plane was hit in the right-wing fuel tanks by 20 mm explosive rounds.

I saw the face of the ME-109 pilot.

I grabbed my parachute, saw fire on the wing and yelled to Merrill--”Fire on the wing”. Merrill quickly confirmed the fire and yelled “bail out”. I was the last person to speak to Merrill.

I pulled my ripcord at approx 8,000 ft. I was unconscious most of the way down.

“I hesitated to pull the rip-cord because of falling debris from the explosion.

Bob Hittel, tail gunner, and I were captured first. I saw Al Berry the next day.

I flew the previous day on mission # 120 to Pozen, Poland with Merrill.

Merrill was a good pilot.”

“I was held as a POW(with Bob Hittel--tail gunner) at Stalag Luft IV in Poland. It was a new camp, still under construction. I entered the camp at 5’ 9” 160 lbs. No red cross food for first 2-3 months. I weighed approx 120 lbs when liberated.

Stalag Luft IV was closed in Feb 1945. We then marched and moved continuously thru Northern Germany, near the Elbe River, until we were liberated by the British on May 5th, 1945.”

Telephone Interview with Jim Marbry, Radio Operator.

“I transferred to the 533rd squadron on 1/12/1944, following the raid to Oschersleben, Germany(mission # 59 on 1/11/1944) in which the 533rd lost 6 of 9 planes. Merrill transferred to the 533rd on the same day.

Mission # 121 was my first flight with Merrill. I was comfortable with Merrill because Captain Watson(Pilot of my regular crew on “Dreambaby” had “checked out” Merrill when he had arrived at Ridgewell in December 1943. It was Watson’s opinion that Merrill was a “good pilot”.

I fumbled with the escape hatch, but was unable to make any progress.I was losing consciousness and vaguely remember being pushed out by Pillot(waist gunner). Pillot also helped Hittel(tail gunner) out before bailing out himself.

Marbry(Continued):

I woke up at about 18,000 ft but did not pull the rip cord due to falling debris. I finally opened my chute at 600’ to 800’ and landed hard---rolling forward. The fuselage landed 25-50 yards from me and spun 1-2 full turns after impact. I dove into a nearby wheat field and hid the next 11-12 hours. We had been shot down at about noon.

During the night they searched for me with dogs. After walking for sometime alongside a country lane, I bumped in-the -dark into a luftwaffe soldier. I explained that I was an “American flyer”

He took me to his camp(very small, 4-6 soldiers). They kept me up all night to talk--they were very curious. They explained that Hitler was “no good”, they knew the war was lost.

I was moved by train to Stalag Luft IV in the Polish corridor, near Danzig, Germany.

continued(Marbry):

The Stalag had 4 compounds with 1500 prisoners per compound. The Russians were advancing, and on about April 1st, 1945, I was jammed into a boxcar for a 9 day trip to Nuremberg.

We were then forced to march to Moosburg, where we stayed in tents for the next 3-4 weeks.

We were liberated on April 29th, 1945 by Patton’s army.

“Dreambaby” May 30th, 1944, as told by Harry Hoop.

Photo taken upon return to base from mission #121 to Dessau. Germany.

Fabric burned off vertical & horizontal stabilizers as a result of the explosion of Merrill’s plane.

Dreambaby flew immediately adjacent(front & left) to Merrill’s plane.

Harry Hoop was Engineer Top Turret Gunner on Dreambaby, and took the photo.

Interview with Merrill’s sister, Mary:

Merrill stayed on the farm until December, 1936, when he went to California to attend school but was so “flying interested” that he spent his money to learn to fly.

Merrill was listed as missing-in-action until August, 1944

Poem written by Alvin Berry(Navigator) memorializing the events of May 30th, 1944.

Written in September, 1944 while Alvin was a POW.

Official notification from the War Department to Mrs. Morris Burton(Merrill’s mother) that Merrill was originally interred in Piethen, Germany, later moved to Margraten Military Cemetery in Holland.

17 december, 1946.

My visit to Piethen October, 2014

Cemetery

Crash Site

Left to right:

Heinz Renneberg (eyewitness) from Piethen

Jerry Beto

Manfred Schreiber(eyewitness) from Grobzig

Crash Site

Heinz, pointing to grave location.

Piethen Cemetery. 1944-1946

Piethen Cemetery.

Merrill’s grave site is in the distance.

Grave Site

Merrill’s grave at American Military Cemetery.

Margraten, Holland.1946-1948.

Junkers Ju 52.

Designed at Dessau.

Civilian and Military use from 1931 to 1952.

Junkers Ju-87.

Stuka dive bomber.

Jumo(Junkers Motoren) 004 was the world’s first successful axial compressor jet engine ever built, powering the Messerschmitt Me 262.

Me 262 was the first operational jet-powered fighter.

Kothener Zeitung(Kothen Newspaper).

October 29th, 2014.(German)

Kothener Zeitung(Kothen Newspaper)

October 29th, 2014.(English)

Mitteldeutsche Zeitung(Central German Newspaper).

November 2nd, 2014(German)

1

Mitteldeutsche Zeitung(Central German Newspaper).

November 2nd, 2014(English)

2

(English, continued)

3

(English, continued)

Questions & Answers