Survivor's daughter to speak
BY LISA PERKINS
Grand Traverse Herald
TRAVERSE CITY -- On an overcast autumn morning in September 1944, 37 United States Air Force B-24 Liberator bombers left their base at Tibenham, England on route to Kassel, Germany. Only four bombers returned to the base of the 445th bomb group after what was the most disastrous air battle in American military history.
The three minute battle claimed 118 American lives with 121 being taken as German prisoners of war. On the German side, 29 fighter planes were lost with 18 pilots killed.
Linda Alice Dewey, daughter of Kassel Mission survivor, Capt. William R. Dewey, will speak about the highest loss that any American bomber group ever suffered on a single mission at a program sponsored by the Old Mission Peninsula Historical Society and the Peninsula Community Library. She will also share a documentary on the little known battle, beginning at 7 p.m., Thursday at the library, 2735 Island View Drive.
"My father started the Kassel Mission Memorial Association in an effort to find out exactly what happened on that day," said Dewey, noting that while official reports state the bomber group was off target, leaving them unprotected, questions about the actual goal of the mission have lingered.
"They dropped their bombs near the University of Gottingen, the birthplace of rocket science, before coming under attack. Some think the attack was a diversion," said Dewey, who took on the challenge of uncovering the details of the mission when her father passed away three years ago.
Dewey, now president of the Kassel Mission Historical Society, spreads her father's story in an effort to raise awareness about the mission and encourages other's to share their stories.
"The amazing thing is now we are hearing from people who are the next of kin of vets that packed away everything they knew and never talked about it," said Dewey, noting that she has been contacted by family members who discovered their loved one was a veteran of the ill-fated mission when going through their personal belongings.
"The stories are amazing. Each persons involvement gives information that leads to more questions," said Dewey, who has been able to piece together facts from diary accounts and shared family stories.
"They deserve to know the truth," Dewey said.
"Being told that their mission and loss of life was simply because of a mistake is a travesty if it is not true," said Dewey, who in 2008 went to Chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, Senator Carl Levin, requesting declassification of all documents on the Kassel Mission.
The request has been turned over to the Air Force's Freedom of Information Act department.
"It's time these men and their families had definitive answers," she said.
