Posted By Jelle Reitsma on December 30, 2007 at 10:50:56:
November 26, 2007 the mayor of Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, unveiled a monument for 2Lt Kyle S. Smith. Mrs Ann Trout (married to a nephew of Kyle S. Smith), her son and two schoolchildren assisted the mayor. The monument is made up of an erratic glacier moraine boulder having a plaque on it with the following (translated) text:
On this site, on 26 November, 1944, crashed an American B-17. The aircraft returned damaged from a bomb attack on a railway junction near Osnabrück. On board remained two heavy bombs. Flying over Apeldoorn the bomber was dangerously close to crashing in the center of town. The pilot, 24 year old lieutenant Kyle Scott Smith, ordered his crew to evacuate the aircraft and parachute to safety. He did not jump himself but continued the flight in order to prevent his aircraft from crashing into the built up area. He and his plane crashed here at this site. Kyle Scott Smith was killed in the crash but through his courageous act Apeldoorn was escaped a disaster.
The other day I finished a paper ‘The Last Flight of the Little Guy’, describing this flight and the stories of Dutch eyewitnesses. I am looking for family members of the crew in order to be able to send them this paper by e-mail, if they should wish to have one. This paper could be of interest to 381 BG too; if so, I should like to have a suitable e-mailaddress to send this paper (size 4 MB).
Until now I reached Mrs Ann Trout, Mr Peter MacGurk and his brothers, Mr Ross Wear and his brother Boyd. I am still looking for relatives of
Flight Officer Melvin LaLuzerne from Green Bay, Wisconsin, navigator.
Sergeant Lester F. Colson from Brooklyn, New York, radio operator.
Sergeant Robert K. Porter from Pittsylvania, Virginia, flight engineer.
Sergeant Gustavo ‘Gus’ E. Contreras from Tucson, Arizona, ball turret gunner.
Sergeant Arnold Thomas from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, waist gunner and
Staff Sergeant Francis R. ‘Bob’ DeLange, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, tail gunner.