To Internet Reader:  This page is self-explanatory.   

                                                                                            This B-17F is within 150 serial numbers of the Mohr and Melville B-17s

                                                                                                                                                     A Damage Comparison Chart

Common Sense Problems - With The Melville Crew Dead MisidentificationW hich does Not Involve Additional Problems Concerning The Identification Processing Of The Recovered Remains From The Voves Crash Site!

         The situation with the Voves crew dead from the St. Cheron Cemetery, in Chartres, France, being identified as the dead from the Melville B-17 should be obvious to anyone. The ongoing problems with the misidentification of the Melville dead, begins with the first misidentified dead, T/Sgt. Aldenhoevel. The Melville B-17 was last seen by any of the returning air crews of the 388th Bomb Group (Official Mission Report) about 35 miles to the west of Strasbourg, France, in a fatal spin with wing and nose on fire. At a location, which is 261 miles to the east of the true Mohr crash site at Voves, or one and three-quarters hours, mission flight time.

         When you compare the formation positions of the Melville and Mohr B-17s during that day’s mission (see Formation Chart - (8))a reasonable person has to realize at once, this could only have happened if the Melville B-17 had somehow reattached its burning and broken off left wing; re-boarded the man who had bailed out; re-gained its broken flight controls cables and then, regained all the lost altitude and speed to regain its position in the Group’s formation. It would have been such a miracle that each returned crewman would have marveled over and certainly reported. No such report exists, nor did the Melville B-17 fall to earth in any location, other than Luvigny, Department of the Vosges, France.

          All fourM elville crew dead are recorded as being buried in three graves in the Luvigny cemetery and later moved to a German WW II cemetery for burial as Unknown German dead. When the American Graves Registration personnel arrived at Luvigny, with the Melville MACR and IDPFs already removed from their files, they had nothing to identify the crash site and the dead, so they were declared to be non-American dead. A Frenchman convinced the Germans, they were German dead. Now, we are working to locate their remains.

Compiled 19 March, 2014, By: Willis S. Cole, Jr. “Sam: - Battery Corporal Willis S. Cole Military Museum   (13prt-(2))

Modified For The Internet By:  Willis S. Cole, Jr.  "Sam" - Battery Corporal Willis S. Cole Military Museum 23Mar14(13prt-B&W-(2))