by Andrea Wales

The lives of the crew of the B-17 Royal Flush touched the hearts of the townspeople of Fouleng, Belgium, so deeply that every year they gather to commemorate the crew of the American bomber shot down over their village. They honor the six men who died in the explosion and subsequent crash April 13, 1944, and the four who floated to earth suspended from parachutes.

Every year, villagers, including witnesses of the crash, and other attendees battle back tears.

Last year, the 424th Air Base Squadron on Chièvres Air Base and the city of Silly (of which Fouleng is a part) co-hosted a 70th anniversary ceremony April 13, 2014. More than 20 family members as well as the last living crew member, Troy Hollar, 94, made the trip to Belgium to participate in the ceremony.

The crew of the Royal Flush and their family members were honored during a ceremony held at the commemorative plaque that was installed by Mrs. De la Serna in 1946 on the wall of the Bienfait farm at Rue de la Miraine 47 in Fouleng and at a memorial installed by the city of Silly, both only a few yards away from the crash site.

Pilot 1st Lt. James R. “Robert” Lavin was head man and 2nd Lt. Louis A. Bendon was co-pilot of the Royal Flush, a B-17 in the 547th Bombardment Squadron under the Eighth Air Force’s 384th Bombardment Group (Heavy) at the U.S. Army Air Forces airfield (USAAF Station 106) at Grafton Underwood in Northamptonshire, England.

The 6 o’clock briefing that morning confirmed what Lavin and his crew already suspected: yet another mission of daylight precision bombing of targets deep within enemy territory.

The day’s target: Schweinfurt, Germany, where the squadron was to hit targets in the city’s industrial center. In an effort to cripple the German war industry, Eighth Air Force leaders concentrated efforts on factories that manufactured ball bearings, which were critical to German tanks and aircraft. Half of those plants were located in Schweinfurt. Lavin’s crew set its sights on a factory that made piston rings as well as ball bearings.

Their regular plane, B-17G 42-97237, was in for repairs, and the crew of the Royal Flush had to board an unfamiliar newer model, B-17G 42-97274, with small variations that make a difference when seconds count.

After dropping bombs on one of the most fiercely defended targets in the strategic bombing campaign, the Royal Flush made it through the enemy fighters and out of Germany.

The navigator, 2nd Lt. Harold E. Ashman, announced over the intercom that their plane was only 12 minutes from the English Channel.

"Getting to the channel was getting real close to being home," said Hollar, the only survivor of the Royal Flush crew still living. At the rank of technical sergeant, Hollar was the top-turret gunner.

Known for its defensive fire power, the Boeing Flying Fortress’s 13.50-caliber machine guns still were no match for the flak (from the German word Fliegerabwehrkanone, or flyer defense cannon) generated by anti-aircraft batteries on Chièvres Air Base, then occupied by the Nazis.

Little black clouds appeared to be moving toward them, then the left wingtip was hit.

At 3:48 p.m., the left gas tank was hit by flak, and the plane exploded mid-air, according to missing air-crew report, or MACR, 3873. The B-17 went into a spin.

Ball-turret gunner Staff Sgt. Lloyd G. Brady tried to help the right waist gunner, Staff Sgt. Raymond Marz. The maneuver that followed the hit sent the left waist gunner, Staff Sgt. Charles W. “Charlie” Johnson, up into the armor plating above his head.

Brady and Marz never made it out of the plane. Neither did Lavin, Bendon, bombardier 2nd Lt. Calvin L. Anthes or tail gunner Staff Sgt. James Malone.

Stunned, Johnson went in and out of consciousness, but was able to pull his ripcord – just 400 feet above the ground – only to realize that his chest pack was only fastened with one snap.

When Johnson’s chute opened, he hurt so much that he was compelled to look down to see if he had anything left of his lower body. After that, Johnson fell unconscious from the sky.

When he came to on the ground, Johnson noticed that, not only was he in a sitting position but his harness and chute had been removed.

A 15-year-old farm boy, Ghislain Bonnet, frantically motioned for Johnson to get up and get going. Knowing that was no good, Johnson told Bonnet in English to beat it because if the Germans found him helping an American they’d kill him.

Johnson’s broken leg prevented Bonnet and other locals from effecting a rescue in time. When the Germans from Chièvres Air Base found Johnson, they took him to Brussels at the end of April where he spent one- to two-day stints in different hospitals. Johnson was eventually taken to Stalag Luft 1, a prisoner-of-war camp in Barth-Vogelsang, Prussia, (in modern-day Western Pomerania, Germany) Nov. 17.

Three crew members – Ashman, Hollar and radio operator/gunner Tech. Sgt. Edward L. Price – managed to parachute to safety and evade capture with the help of the Belgian Resistance.

Michel Willand, a teenage farm boy who (with his father) witnessed Ashman touch down near the Fouleng school, attended the commemoration.

"He was a tall guy and didn’t waste a minute bundling his parachute, putting it under his arms and running to the nearby woods to hide," Willand said during the 70th anniversary.

Although Ashman had heard from a villager that a crew member had been captured, Ashman didn’t know that Hollar and Price arrived on the ground safely. None of the three crewmen knew the other two had avoided capture. Hollar and Price were reunited two weeks later, according to the MACR 3873.

In addition to being moved quickly from one safe house to another, Hollar and Price were hidden for several months in Brussels by the Brichart family.

Ghislaine Mohr-Brichart, who was 19 when her family hid the two men, attended the 2014 ceremony. Family members of Lavin, Anthes, Brady and Marz also made the trip to be in Fouleng for the 70th anniversary.

The crash marked a turning point in Fouleng history.

"A new mission had begun for all involved," Lt. Col. Christopher Kuester, the commander of the 424th Air Base Squadron at Chièvres Air Base, said during the ceremony. "For the citizens of Fouleng, it was their way of ensuring the men who were fighting for their freedom would continue to live. For the three airmen, it was to stay alive and try to return to the fight."

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