The Kassel Mission Chronicles

In the chaos of the Kassel Mission air battle, 25 of the 35 Liberators from the 445th Bomb Group were shot down within minutes, along with many of the German fighters. One of those bombers was piloted by Reginald Miner of upstate New York. Earlier this year, on the 81st anniversary of the Sept. 27, 1944 battle, a memorial was dedicated at the crash site of Miner's B-24. Attending the ceremony were...

Fresh off a lecture about mechanized scooter safety in the halls of his assisted living facility, 101-year-old Jim Baynham sat down for a telephone interview with Linda Alice Dewey and Aaron Elson, hosts of the Kassel Mission Chronicles podcast. The last surviving participant of the battle between 35 B-24 Liberators and about 120 German fighter planes, Baynham had turned 20 only a few months befor...

The Kassel Mission of Sept. 27, 1944 was not only one of World War 2's most spectacular battles, it was also one of the most unusual, in that it took place between 20,000 and 26,000 feet above what would become the dividing line between East and West Germany. As a result, half of the 25 bombers that were shot down crashed east of the border, and the crash sites were not accessible to anyone from t...

   Of all the tragedies surrounding the ill-fated Kassel Mission of Sept. 27, 1944, this one is still ongoing. Lt. Raymond Ische, a navigator, remains MIA, and may still be buried in German soil. In this episode of the Kassel Mission Chronicles, Linda and Aaron discuss the search for Lieutenant Ische with MIA investigator Robert Rumsby.    For previous episodes of the Kassel Mission Chronicles, vi...

There are hundreds of individual stories associated with the Kassel Mission. Some have been told many times, others will never be told. This is Frank Bertram's story. For more information about the Kassel Mission of Sept. 27, 1944, visit https://kasselmission.org

Linda Alice Dewey and Jim Bertram discuss Frank Bertram, Jim's father, and the impact the Kassel Mission had on his life. Then Jim shares his father's story of the mission and his experiences as a prisoner of war, and tells how Frank met Walter Hassenpflug, who played an important role in creating the Kassel Mission Memorial. For more on this and other stories of the Kassel Mission, visit kasselmi...

After the Kassel Mission air battle, pilot William R. Dewey reached an emergency landing field at Manston, England, with a crippled B-24 that had the worst damage for a returning plane that an Air Corps photographer had ever seen. He went on to become a lead pilot in the 445th Bomb Group. This is his story as related by his daughter.

World War II's most spectacular air battle was also one of its most unusual. In this episode we explain some of the reasons why. George Collar, a bombardier and former prisoner of war, dedicated his life to looking up survivors and next of kin and documenting the details of the battle so they would never be forgotten. In this episode George's son Doug Collar, Linda Dewey and Aaron Elson discuss Ge...

Oral historian Aaron Elson and Linda Alice Dewey, whose father, Bill Dewey, co-founded the Kassel Mission Memorial Association, talk about one of World War II's most spectacular air battles, its aftermath, and why there's a need for a Kassel Mission podcast.