My Father flew from Knettishall, with the 388th bomb group 563rd squadron as a flight engineer/top turret gunner on a B-17 called the True Love. The pilot was McGrath. On June 20, 1944, they were involved in a mid-air collision while in route to Magdeberg. The plane above #873 Sack Happy, got out of control due to prop wash from a group of B-24's which crossed over and ahead of their flight. They flipped on end and skidded into the True Love.

Sack Happy's ball turret guns were pointed straight down and they ripped through True Love's vertical stablizer. Some say Sack Happy hit the True Love twice. End result was Sack Happy was disabled, but managed to fly back to England and land. The True Love went into a deep dive, from 23,000 to 4,000 feet before the pilots were able to bring her somewhat under control. They managed to reach English soil when the plane started to fall apart. The pilot headed her nose out to the North Sea and ordered bail out. My Dad was the next to the last out, with the pilot being the last. As the pilot jumped, the plane broke in two at the ball turret.

All were safe, except my Dad, whose chute failed. He fell faster than everybody else and landed hard on a temperary air strip on the beach, breaking his pelvis. The English found him and took him to a hospital. This was on the crews' 23rd mission which they didn't get credit for as it happened before they reached enemy territory. My Dad flew one more mission after he healed-but as the doctors said it was too much stress on his pelvis for him to stay in one position for so long a time. He was sent home on a hospitial ship.

I started searching for the Crew of the True Love last March, and have found all but two of them, Newton, the tail gunner and Lewis, the left waist. The pilot, McGrath, died 4-11-87 and Baber, the radio operator, died 6-10-87. I started out with my goal being just to reunite the crew even if only by phone or mail-but it has turned into much more than that. I have learned a lot about the human side of the war and have been glad of the chance to tell the crew "ThankYou" for what they did. I am also searching for the ground crew whose chief was Robert F. Love. I have 160 pages in a surprise scrapbook that I am doing for my father. Each of the crew and some of the guys the crew knew, are contributing.

So that is my connection to Knettishall!t. Everybody who was in the war has a story, and soon all these stories will be lost if they are not wrote down. What I am doing is not a professional job--just a loving daughter's tribute to her father. All information is welcome and appreciated.