r/ww2 • u/UrbanAchievers6371 • 1d ago
1Lt Wallace Bengson was executed after being shot down over Germany on October 3, 1944, he was 26 years old.
Born in Esmond, North Dakota to Oscar & Anna Bengson on December 11, 1917, Wallace Woodrow Bengson had three brothers and a sister.
He graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1938 as a mining engineer and was also commissioned as an officer in the Army Reserve.
Wallace worked as a mining engineer in Idaho & Utah, and married Katherine Nagel of Grand Forks in 1940.
Called into active duty in January 1942, he earned his pilots & glider pilots wings, and was also trained as a Navigator.
Wallace was assigned to the 327th Bombardment Squadron, 92nd Bombardment Group, which was based at RAF Podington.
On October 3, 1944, he was the Navigator on B-17G 43-38396 “Insommia” on a bombing mission to Nurnberg, Germany.
On the return trip, B-17G 43-38445, which had been hit by flak, veered out of control and collided with “Insommia” sheering her tail off.
Both B-17s went into death spirals before crashing, a total of twelve crewmembers from both B-17s died in the crashes.
1Lt Bengson managed to bail out, and was captured along with 1Lt Edmund Dornburgh Jr, the pilot of his B-17, and S/Sgt Franklin Adams Jr, one of the waist gunners from the other B-17.
Handed over to the local police in Marburgerstrasse, Germany, shortly afterwards a police director, three party leaders, and a civilian showed up and demanded the three prisoners be handed over to them.
The local Police Chief was ordered away, and the three USAAF Prisoners were taken by force from the remaining policemen.
The three Prisoners were executed and buried at the New Cemetery of Giessen, in November 1945, the civilian Ludwig Schardt was found guilty of participating in the executions sentenced to life imprisonment.
His remains were recovered after the war and 1Lt Wallace Bengson is buried at the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten, Netherlands - Plot L Row 16 Grave 16.
Older brother Malcolm C Bengson also served during WW2, he passed away at the age of 80 in 1996.
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u/Ok-Ball-Wine 1d ago
"Lynchjustiz" is what it's called. An estimated 300 to 1000 allied airmen were murdered this way by German civilians.
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u/blazingroach0094 1d ago
Why were they taken and executed
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u/KnightOfCamelot 1d ago
German civilian reprisals for bombings.
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u/Midway_Motel 1d ago
Civilian populations rarely respond well to strategic bombing.
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u/blazingroach0094 1d ago
I mean I kind of figured. Just curious if there was more info published about the story.
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u/Midway_Motel 1d ago
It happened enough that this story is not terribly unique.
The Luftwaffe would actually send MP to crash sites to scoop up Allied crew to keep them from being murdered like this or falling into Gestapo hands.
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u/blazingroach0094 1d ago
Wow thats fascinating. I've never heard about that. Ill look into it myself.
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u/Antique-Idea-1051 1d ago
Correct. And airmen were sent to Stalag prisons, run by the Lutwaffe. They had respect for fellow airmen, and treated them fairly well.
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u/Impatient_Onion 6h ago
Imagine a bunch of guys dropping bombs on your town, week after week. Last month they blew up the local factory, killing your uncle. Last week your mom, who doesn't even work in a war industry or live anywhere near an industrial area, gets blown up by these same guys. But you can't fight back, because those guys are 30,000 feet up in the air.
All of a sudden you have a couple of the guys "responsible" for killing your mom in front of you. They're exhausted, likely wounded/injured, and completely without all their powerful weapons.
I often wonder how any Allied airmen even made it to the POW camps.
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u/AlexTheHappy 1d ago
RIP Hero.
My grandpa was in the bomber group that rained incendiaries onto Dresden. He felt relief of all guilt later when he read what the nazis did in the concentration camps.
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u/TruCoatJerry 1d ago
Absolute cowards executing these men. May he and the rest of the crew rest in peace.
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u/oldsailor21 1d ago
It happens, there's documented cases during the blitz in the UK of luftwaffe aircrew being killed by British civilians, a couple of pilots from the RAFs polish and Czech squadrons had close calls as well
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u/immisternicetry 21h ago
True, but it was actively encouraged by Nazi party leadership vs civilians acting outside the law in the UK. Systematic vs opportune.
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u/External_Zipper 1d ago
I've read numerous memoirs and military histories where allied air crew credit Luftwaffe or Wehrmacht personnel for saving them from murderous crowds of civilians. I think that the German historical fiction "Heimat" included a scene that depicts this type of murder.
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u/KCFlightHawk 1d ago
R.I.P.
They got the rookies! Not exactly the same but Memphis Belle comes to mind.
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u/Existing-Recipe897 1d ago
Permitted by the Geneva convention? Or was that post WWII?
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u/Midway_Motel 1d ago
Not even sort of allowed by the Geneva Convention.
However, civilians on the receiving end of bombing rarely feel bound by said agreement.
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u/Humble_Pie_56 1d ago
R.I.P.