Posted By J.Edelhausen on August 31, 2006 at 14:59:05:
I was an eyewitness of the following incident:
On August 17th 1943 the path of the B 17 force en route to Schweinfurt was right over our town ( Maastricht, The Netherlands) I was lying in the grass watching the sky when suddenly about seven or eight formations of B 17 bombers came very low over the city!
I have a report of the Early Warning Air Situation Post on a hill near our town. They report the same incident as I saw it myself. Time: appr. 13.40 hrs.
Now all those years nobody could explain what was the reason these B 17's were that low.
The most important letter said that when they were still over Belgium they were at 21000 feet.
As they approached our town ( Maastricht) Colonel Gross saw dense clouds and decided to take his groups 81st, 381st 384th 351s down to 17000 ft. As I was an witness of the scene, I can assure you that the planes were flying much lower than 17000 ft. and I think it is not correct to say that observers thought them flying lower. I do hope a former member of a crew that day is still able to remember this incident and willing to answer my question: 'Why were they flying so low?" Fred Preller says my report is the very first time he heard of it and considers it as fascinating.
Thank you very much in advance.
Sincerely,
J. Edelhausen