Aviator murders/Fliegermorde - Hamburg/Appen – Etz, Germany 18 June 1944. The short life of Zigfryd "Ziggy" Valentino Czarnecki.
Zigfryd "Ziggy" Valentino Czarnecki was born on 18 October 1923 in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, the son of Stella and Emil Czarnecki, and grew up with three sisters and four brothers in a Catholic household. He attended the Beaver Falls High School together with his friend of two years Dora Jenkins (now widowed Morgan) graduating in June 1941and worked at the Babcock & Wilcox Tube Company. In February 1943, he was drafted into the US Army Air Forces, returning home to the family and his girlfriend Dora May Jenkins for only two short leaves from duty. In February 1944, his crew was deployed to England. On his 24th mission (one short of completing his tour which would have resulted in his return to the United States), he was captured on 18 June 1944 after his B-17 was shot down and then as a POW killed in cold-blooded murder by an overzealous Nazi 1st Lt. (SA) Wilhelm Langeloh(who by day was a clerk), Ziggy died of his injuries the next day on 19 June 1944 at Reserve Hospital No. 5 Hamburg - Wandsbek. Initial interned at Ohlsdorf - Cemetery; KAP 13-BP 73, Row 14, Grave 11.
On 18 June 1944 B-17G-55-BO-42-102628 nicknamed "GI Jane", assigned to the 526th Squadron, 379th Bomb Group, stationed at Kimbolton, England (USAAF Station 117) set out on Mission # 145 target Hamburg to bomb the docks and refineries. After a 17-minute bombardment of the "Blohm & Voss shipyard" from 25,000 feet, his B-17 was hit by flak at the inner right engine, a fire spread out on the wing. The pilot 1st Lt. Stephen J. King immediately gave the command for the crew to bailout. In this action the following crew members were killed in action (KIA): copilot 1st Lt. Milton S Miller, radio operator T/Sgt Charles E. Rutishauser, and tail gunner S/Sgt Eugene V. Miller believed to have been killed when the plane exploded, with the rear of the plane crashing in Pinneberg Eggerstedtstraße in Hollandweg. Crew members becoming POW’s are as follows: pilot 1st Lt. Stephen J. King, Navigator 2nd Lt. Donald E. Casey, Bombardier 2nd Lt. Charles W. Henry, Flight Engineer T/Sgt. Raymond F. Wheeler, Ball Turret Gunner S/Sgt. James H. Hagen, and Waist Gunner S/Sgt. Zigfryd "Ziggy" Valentino Czarnecki, unfortunately Ziggy’s POW status would be short lived, literally.
Ziggy Czarnecki successful bailed out from his B17G bomber which exploding shortly thereafter, Czarnecki parachuted landed between Appen and Etz immediately captured there by the Appen Reserve Guard member Johnny Wohlers at around 11:00 with German Army from Etz holding him in The Appen police station where Wohlers and Hans Runge were police officers. There was a call from the NSDAP (Nazi Party) circuit that the prisoner was to be handed over to the NSDAP (NAZIS). Wohlers disagreed with this and insisted on surrendering Ziggy as a prisoner of war to the military power. SA lieutenant and local organizer of the NSDAP (Nazi) Wilhelm Langeloh appeared shortly afterwards in the police station and insisted on a surrender of the prisoner to him with the statement that he would bring him to the Air Force Airfield at Uetersen, with the restriction that he did not know whether Ziggy would arrive there alive. Wohlers became suspicious and sent Runge to follow. Approx. 150m behind the village exit, SA-Nazi Langeloh shot the non-escaping as well as unarmed Zigfryd Czarnecki in the back of the neck walking down the road with Ziggy in front of him. Czarnecki fell forward then Langeloh kicked him with his boots into the ditch. Runge noted that Czarnecki was still alive and that he even began to speak after five minutes. Langeloh returned, commenting on the situation "should he be dead in the ditch". Runge tried an initial supply and instructed to inform Wohlers, who had already been on the road, with the help of the German Army soldiers. This organized group recovered Czarnecki transporting him to the Air Field. On the way, Langeloh approached them on a motorcycle, shouted with his pistol in hand, "This is not the first. This is NOT a human being ". Dr. Edwin Wright, the surgeon of Uetersen Air Field, initially treated Ziggy for the injuries to his neck and spine, then transferred him to Reserve Hospital No. 5 Hamburg-Wandsbek at 15:00. Ziggy died on the morning of the next day June 19, 1944, and was buried in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf.
Starting in 1946 all dead American servicemen were either transferred to their home or reburied in a cemetery outside Germany. For Czarnecki his initial relocation was to the Ardennes American Cemetery, Belgium; Plot O-7-156, and finally home to Beaver Falls, PA on 16 July 1949, according to cemetery records. The grave is still tended today by Czarnecki prewar girl friend Dora May Jenkins (today Morgan) from Beaver Falls and their family.
Wilhelm Langeloh was a SA- Nazi Leader, and a member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in May 1942, and a Nazi organizer in 1942, in allegiance with Joseph Goebbels order in May 1944 that all captured Allied airmen should be murdered. Starting on 20 June 1945 Langeloh lived under the assumed name Felix Bauer to avoid capture and punishment for his crime. He was convicted and sentenced to death in the Dachau war crimes trial on 11 April 1947 and hanged in Landsberg Prison on 10 October 1947. Petitions of his wife and sister-in-law were rejected.
Bio source Translated and further edited from https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=search&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=de&u=http://www.spurensuche-kreis-pinneberg.de/spur/fliegermord-in-appen-das-kurze-leben-von-zigfryd-ziggy-valentino-czarnecki/&usg=ALkJrhgveJAJT4qkBkpYjiBr-ynD6oJemw
Zigfryd "Ziggy" Valentino Czarnecki was born on 18 October 1923 in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, the son of Stella and Emil Czarnecki, and grew up with three sisters and four brothers in a Catholic household. He attended the Beaver Falls High School together with his friend of two years Dora Jenkins (now widowed Morgan) graduating in June 1941and worked at the Babcock & Wilcox Tube Company. In February 1943, he was drafted into the US Army Air Forces, returning home to the family and his girlfriend Dora May Jenkins for only two short leaves from duty. In February 1944, his crew was deployed to England. On his 24th mission (one short of completing his tour which would have resulted in his return to the United States), he was captured on 18 June 1944 after his B-17 was shot down and then as a POW killed in cold-blooded murder by an overzealous Nazi 1st Lt. (SA) Wilhelm Langeloh(who by day was a clerk), Ziggy died of his injuries the next day on 19 June 1944 at Reserve Hospital No. 5 Hamburg - Wandsbek. Initial interned at Ohlsdorf - Cemetery; KAP 13-BP 73, Row 14, Grave 11.
On 18 June 1944 B-17G-55-BO-42-102628 nicknamed "GI Jane", assigned to the 526th Squadron, 379th Bomb Group, stationed at Kimbolton, England (USAAF Station 117) set out on Mission # 145 target Hamburg to bomb the docks and refineries. After a 17-minute bombardment of the "Blohm & Voss shipyard" from 25,000 feet, his B-17 was hit by flak at the inner right engine, a fire spread out on the wing. The pilot 1st Lt. Stephen J. King immediately gave the command for the crew to bailout. In this action the following crew members were killed in action (KIA): copilot 1st Lt. Milton S Miller, radio operator T/Sgt Charles E. Rutishauser, and tail gunner S/Sgt Eugene V. Miller believed to have been killed when the plane exploded, with the rear of the plane crashing in Pinneberg Eggerstedtstraße in Hollandweg. Crew members becoming POW’s are as follows: pilot 1st Lt. Stephen J. King, Navigator 2nd Lt. Donald E. Casey, Bombardier 2nd Lt. Charles W. Henry, Flight Engineer T/Sgt. Raymond F. Wheeler, Ball Turret Gunner S/Sgt. James H. Hagen, and Waist Gunner S/Sgt. Zigfryd "Ziggy" Valentino Czarnecki, unfortunately Ziggy’s POW status would be short lived, literally.
Ziggy Czarnecki successful bailed out from his B17G bomber which exploding shortly thereafter, Czarnecki parachuted landed between Appen and Etz immediately captured there by the Appen Reserve Guard member Johnny Wohlers at around 11:00 with German Army from Etz holding him in The Appen police station where Wohlers and Hans Runge were police officers. There was a call from the NSDAP (Nazi Party) circuit that the prisoner was to be handed over to the NSDAP (NAZIS). Wohlers disagreed with this and insisted on surrendering Ziggy as a prisoner of war to the military power. SA lieutenant and local organizer of the NSDAP (Nazi) Wilhelm Langeloh appeared shortly afterwards in the police station and insisted on a surrender of the prisoner to him with the statement that he would bring him to the Air Force Airfield at Uetersen, with the restriction that he did not know whether Ziggy would arrive there alive. Wohlers became suspicious and sent Runge to follow. Approx. 150m behind the village exit, SA-Nazi Langeloh shot the non-escaping as well as unarmed Zigfryd Czarnecki in the back of the neck walking down the road with Ziggy in front of him. Czarnecki fell forward then Langeloh kicked him with his boots into the ditch. Runge noted that Czarnecki was still alive and that he even began to speak after five minutes. Langeloh returned, commenting on the situation "should he be dead in the ditch". Runge tried an initial supply and instructed to inform Wohlers, who had already been on the road, with the help of the German Army soldiers. This organized group recovered Czarnecki transporting him to the Air Field. On the way, Langeloh approached them on a motorcycle, shouted with his pistol in hand, "This is not the first. This is NOT a human being ". Dr. Edwin Wright, the surgeon of Uetersen Air Field, initially treated Ziggy for the injuries to his neck and spine, then transferred him to Reserve Hospital No. 5 Hamburg-Wandsbek at 15:00. Ziggy died on the morning of the next day June 19, 1944, and was buried in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf.
Starting in 1946 all dead American servicemen were either transferred to their home or reburied in a cemetery outside Germany. For Czarnecki his initial relocation was to the Ardennes American Cemetery, Belgium; Plot O-7-156, and finally home to Beaver Falls, PA on 16 July 1949, according to cemetery records. The grave is still tended today by Czarnecki prewar girl friend Dora May Jenkins (today Morgan) from Beaver Falls and their family.
Wilhelm Langeloh was a SA- Nazi Leader, and a member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in May 1942, and a Nazi organizer in 1942, in allegiance with Joseph Goebbels order in May 1944 that all captured Allied airmen should be murdered. Starting on 20 June 1945 Langeloh lived under the assumed name Felix Bauer to avoid capture and punishment for his crime. He was convicted and sentenced to death in the Dachau war crimes trial on 11 April 1947 and hanged in Landsberg Prison on 10 October 1947. Petitions of his wife and sister-in-law were rejected.
Bio source Translated and further edited from https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=search&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=de&u=http://www.spurensuche-kreis-pinneberg.de/spur/fliegermord-in-appen-das-kurze-leben-von-zigfryd-ziggy-valentino-czarnecki/&usg=ALkJrhgveJAJT4qkBkpYjiBr-ynD6oJemw
Aviator murders/Fliegermorde - Hamburg/Appen – Etz, Germany 18 June 1944. The short life of Zigfryd "Ziggy" Valentino Czarnecki.
Zigfryd "Ziggy" Valentino Czarnecki was born on 18 October 1923 in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, the son of Stella and Emil Czarnecki, and grew up with three sisters and four brothers in a Catholic household. He attended the Beaver Falls High School together with his friend of two years Dora Jenkins (now widowed Morgan) graduating in June 1941and worked at the Babcock & Wilcox Tube Company. In February 1943, he was drafted into the US Army Air Forces, returning home to the family and his girlfriend Dora May Jenkins for only two short leaves from duty. In February 1944, his crew was deployed to England. On his 24th mission (one short of completing his tour which would have resulted in his return to the United States), he was captured on 18 June 1944 after his B-17 was shot down and then as a POW killed in cold-blooded murder by an overzealous Nazi 1st Lt. (SA) Wilhelm Langeloh(who by day was a clerk), Ziggy died of his injuries the next day on 19 June 1944 at Reserve Hospital No. 5 Hamburg - Wandsbek. Initial interned at Ohlsdorf - Cemetery; KAP 13-BP 73, Row 14, Grave 11.
On 18 June 1944 B-17G-55-BO-42-102628 nicknamed "GI Jane", assigned to the 526th Squadron, 379th Bomb Group, stationed at Kimbolton, England (USAAF Station 117) set out on Mission # 145 target Hamburg to bomb the docks and refineries. After a 17-minute bombardment of the "Blohm & Voss shipyard" from 25,000 feet, his B-17 was hit by flak at the inner right engine, a fire spread out on the wing. The pilot 1st Lt. Stephen J. King immediately gave the command for the crew to bailout. In this action the following crew members were killed in action (KIA): copilot 1st Lt. Milton S Miller, radio operator T/Sgt Charles E. Rutishauser, and tail gunner S/Sgt Eugene V. Miller believed to have been killed when the plane exploded, with the rear of the plane crashing in Pinneberg Eggerstedtstraße in Hollandweg. Crew members becoming POW’s are as follows: pilot 1st Lt. Stephen J. King, Navigator 2nd Lt. Donald E. Casey, Bombardier 2nd Lt. Charles W. Henry, Flight Engineer T/Sgt. Raymond F. Wheeler, Ball Turret Gunner S/Sgt. James H. Hagen, and Waist Gunner S/Sgt. Zigfryd "Ziggy" Valentino Czarnecki, unfortunately Ziggy’s POW status would be short lived, literally.
Ziggy Czarnecki successful bailed out from his B17G bomber which exploding shortly thereafter, Czarnecki parachuted landed between Appen and Etz immediately captured there by the Appen Reserve Guard member Johnny Wohlers at around 11:00 with German Army from Etz holding him in The Appen police station where Wohlers and Hans Runge were police officers. There was a call from the NSDAP (Nazi Party) circuit that the prisoner was to be handed over to the NSDAP (NAZIS). Wohlers disagreed with this and insisted on surrendering Ziggy as a prisoner of war to the military power. SA lieutenant and local organizer of the NSDAP (Nazi) Wilhelm Langeloh appeared shortly afterwards in the police station and insisted on a surrender of the prisoner to him with the statement that he would bring him to the Air Force Airfield at Uetersen, with the restriction that he did not know whether Ziggy would arrive there alive. Wohlers became suspicious and sent Runge to follow. Approx. 150m behind the village exit, SA-Nazi Langeloh shot the non-escaping as well as unarmed Zigfryd Czarnecki in the back of the neck walking down the road with Ziggy in front of him. Czarnecki fell forward then Langeloh kicked him with his boots into the ditch. Runge noted that Czarnecki was still alive and that he even began to speak after five minutes. Langeloh returned, commenting on the situation "should he be dead in the ditch". Runge tried an initial supply and instructed to inform Wohlers, who had already been on the road, with the help of the German Army soldiers. This organized group recovered Czarnecki transporting him to the Air Field. On the way, Langeloh approached them on a motorcycle, shouted with his pistol in hand, "This is not the first. This is NOT a human being ". Dr. Edwin Wright, the surgeon of Uetersen Air Field, initially treated Ziggy for the injuries to his neck and spine, then transferred him to Reserve Hospital No. 5 Hamburg-Wandsbek at 15:00. Ziggy died on the morning of the next day June 19, 1944, and was buried in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf.
Starting in 1946 all dead American servicemen were either transferred to their home or reburied in a cemetery outside Germany. For Czarnecki his initial relocation was to the Ardennes American Cemetery, Belgium; Plot O-7-156, and finally home to Beaver Falls, PA on 16 July 1949, according to cemetery records. The grave is still tended today by Czarnecki prewar girl friend Dora May Jenkins (today Morgan) from Beaver Falls and their family.
Wilhelm Langeloh was a SA- Nazi Leader, and a member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in May 1942, and a Nazi organizer in 1942, in allegiance with Joseph Goebbels order in May 1944 that all captured Allied airmen should be murdered. Starting on 20 June 1945 Langeloh lived under the assumed name Felix Bauer to avoid capture and punishment for his crime. He was convicted and sentenced to death in the Dachau war crimes trial on 11 April 1947 and hanged in Landsberg Prison on 10 October 1947. Petitions of his wife and sister-in-law were rejected.
Bio source Translated and further edited from https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=search&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=de&u=http://www.spurensuche-kreis-pinneberg.de/spur/fliegermord-in-appen-das-kurze-leben-von-zigfryd-ziggy-valentino-czarnecki/&usg=ALkJrhgveJAJT4qkBkpYjiBr-ynD6oJemw
Zigfryd "Ziggy" Valentino Czarnecki was born on 18 October 1923 in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, the son of Stella and Emil Czarnecki, and grew up with three sisters and four brothers in a Catholic household. He attended the Beaver Falls High School together with his friend of two years Dora Jenkins (now widowed Morgan) graduating in June 1941and worked at the Babcock & Wilcox Tube Company. In February 1943, he was drafted into the US Army Air Forces, returning home to the family and his girlfriend Dora May Jenkins for only two short leaves from duty. In February 1944, his crew was deployed to England. On his 24th mission (one short of completing his tour which would have resulted in his return to the United States), he was captured on 18 June 1944 after his B-17 was shot down and then as a POW killed in cold-blooded murder by an overzealous Nazi 1st Lt. (SA) Wilhelm Langeloh(who by day was a clerk), Ziggy died of his injuries the next day on 19 June 1944 at Reserve Hospital No. 5 Hamburg - Wandsbek. Initial interned at Ohlsdorf - Cemetery; KAP 13-BP 73, Row 14, Grave 11.
On 18 June 1944 B-17G-55-BO-42-102628 nicknamed "GI Jane", assigned to the 526th Squadron, 379th Bomb Group, stationed at Kimbolton, England (USAAF Station 117) set out on Mission # 145 target Hamburg to bomb the docks and refineries. After a 17-minute bombardment of the "Blohm & Voss shipyard" from 25,000 feet, his B-17 was hit by flak at the inner right engine, a fire spread out on the wing. The pilot 1st Lt. Stephen J. King immediately gave the command for the crew to bailout. In this action the following crew members were killed in action (KIA): copilot 1st Lt. Milton S Miller, radio operator T/Sgt Charles E. Rutishauser, and tail gunner S/Sgt Eugene V. Miller believed to have been killed when the plane exploded, with the rear of the plane crashing in Pinneberg Eggerstedtstraße in Hollandweg. Crew members becoming POW’s are as follows: pilot 1st Lt. Stephen J. King, Navigator 2nd Lt. Donald E. Casey, Bombardier 2nd Lt. Charles W. Henry, Flight Engineer T/Sgt. Raymond F. Wheeler, Ball Turret Gunner S/Sgt. James H. Hagen, and Waist Gunner S/Sgt. Zigfryd "Ziggy" Valentino Czarnecki, unfortunately Ziggy’s POW status would be short lived, literally.
Ziggy Czarnecki successful bailed out from his B17G bomber which exploding shortly thereafter, Czarnecki parachuted landed between Appen and Etz immediately captured there by the Appen Reserve Guard member Johnny Wohlers at around 11:00 with German Army from Etz holding him in The Appen police station where Wohlers and Hans Runge were police officers. There was a call from the NSDAP (Nazi Party) circuit that the prisoner was to be handed over to the NSDAP (NAZIS). Wohlers disagreed with this and insisted on surrendering Ziggy as a prisoner of war to the military power. SA lieutenant and local organizer of the NSDAP (Nazi) Wilhelm Langeloh appeared shortly afterwards in the police station and insisted on a surrender of the prisoner to him with the statement that he would bring him to the Air Force Airfield at Uetersen, with the restriction that he did not know whether Ziggy would arrive there alive. Wohlers became suspicious and sent Runge to follow. Approx. 150m behind the village exit, SA-Nazi Langeloh shot the non-escaping as well as unarmed Zigfryd Czarnecki in the back of the neck walking down the road with Ziggy in front of him. Czarnecki fell forward then Langeloh kicked him with his boots into the ditch. Runge noted that Czarnecki was still alive and that he even began to speak after five minutes. Langeloh returned, commenting on the situation "should he be dead in the ditch". Runge tried an initial supply and instructed to inform Wohlers, who had already been on the road, with the help of the German Army soldiers. This organized group recovered Czarnecki transporting him to the Air Field. On the way, Langeloh approached them on a motorcycle, shouted with his pistol in hand, "This is not the first. This is NOT a human being ". Dr. Edwin Wright, the surgeon of Uetersen Air Field, initially treated Ziggy for the injuries to his neck and spine, then transferred him to Reserve Hospital No. 5 Hamburg-Wandsbek at 15:00. Ziggy died on the morning of the next day June 19, 1944, and was buried in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf.
Starting in 1946 all dead American servicemen were either transferred to their home or reburied in a cemetery outside Germany. For Czarnecki his initial relocation was to the Ardennes American Cemetery, Belgium; Plot O-7-156, and finally home to Beaver Falls, PA on 16 July 1949, according to cemetery records. The grave is still tended today by Czarnecki prewar girl friend Dora May Jenkins (today Morgan) from Beaver Falls and their family.
Wilhelm Langeloh was a SA- Nazi Leader, and a member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in May 1942, and a Nazi organizer in 1942, in allegiance with Joseph Goebbels order in May 1944 that all captured Allied airmen should be murdered. Starting on 20 June 1945 Langeloh lived under the assumed name Felix Bauer to avoid capture and punishment for his crime. He was convicted and sentenced to death in the Dachau war crimes trial on 11 April 1947 and hanged in Landsberg Prison on 10 October 1947. Petitions of his wife and sister-in-law were rejected.
Bio source Translated and further edited from https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=search&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=de&u=http://www.spurensuche-kreis-pinneberg.de/spur/fliegermord-in-appen-das-kurze-leben-von-zigfryd-ziggy-valentino-czarnecki/&usg=ALkJrhgveJAJT4qkBkpYjiBr-ynD6oJemw
