Served as a Tail Gunner on board of B-17G PISTOL PACKIN MAMA, # 42-31037 (401st Bombardment Group, 613th Bombardment Squadron), when his aircraft was shot down by flak north of Weimar, Thuringia, Germany. Don Schmidli and two other crew members were killed. The general assumption (which could never be proved since there was no trial) is that Schmidli was beaten to death by civilians, that navigator 2ndLt Owen H. Jorgensen was shot and killed by an unidentified person in uniform (some say it was Nazi Kreisleiter Franz Hofmann), and that Radio Operator T/Sgt John H. Spirodek's chute did not open properly.
Served as a Tail Gunner on board of B-17G PISTOL PACKIN MAMA, # 42-31037 (401st Bombardment Group, 613th Bombardment Squadron), when his aircraft was shot down by flak north of Weimar, Thuringia, Germany. Don Schmidli and two other crew members were killed. The general assumption (which could never be proved since there was no trial) is that Schmidli was beaten to death by civilians, that navigator 2ndLt Owen H. Jorgensen was shot and killed by an unidentified person in uniform (some say it was Nazi Kreisleiter Franz Hofmann), and that Radio Operator T/Sgt John H. Spirodek's chute did not open properly.
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