B-24 Liberator, B-24 H-10-DT, Serial No: 41-28738, Marking: Z5-O, Nik Name: Meat around the Corner. The B-24 Meat around the Corner took off from Horsham St Faith, England with a mission to bomb Epinal, France.
Preparations for the June 6, 1944 invasion were in full swing, with the Americans flying few missions into southern Germany. Thus, there were few emergency landings in Switzerland during these months.
On May 11, 294 bombers were sent on their missions to bomb key rail yards in France. After this mission, five planes went missing and two landed in Switzerland. Stuart Goldsmith and his crew were the first to land in Switzerland, by parachute jump. The painting of the plane showed a fighter holding the head of Adolf Hitler. At the commander's request, the head was replaced with a skunk. Pilot Stuart Goldsmith recalls this mission, "My crew and I captured this brand new B-24 right out of the factory in San Francisco. We were the only ones who flew this plane from the factory until it crashed. We flew a total of 16 missions. When we took off on May 11, it was a fateful mission that ended with the loss of the plane. This flight was supposed to take us to Epinal, but about twenty minutes before we reached our destination, engine number 3 suddenly ran out of oil pressure. We had to stop the engine and put the propeller in sail position. With the remaining three engines we tried to keep the position in formation. After another ten minutes or so, engine number 2 also ran out of oil pressure. So we were rapidly losing altitude and unable to return to England. Navigator 2Lt William C. Etheredge continues, "Our engines were obviously overworked. 1Lt Goldsmith asked me how long we could fly over occupied France, or if Neutral Switzerland would be better for an emergency landing. The crew decided on Neutral Switzerland because no one wanted to get into German captivity. After crossing the Swiss border, we continued to lose engine power and our rate of descent was so great that we had to abandon the B-24. While the plane crashed into a forest near Jegenstorf, the crew landed in the Sumiswald area where they were picked up by Swiss soldiers. The crew was interned in Davos, and Stuart Goldsmith has the following to say about this time: I became fast friends with a Swiss officer who was being treated in Davos for his eye tuberculosis. I learned French from him and he learned English from me. Through the officer, in civilian clothes, I was able to attend many parties in which various Nazi celebrities participated. The Germans who came, not in uniform of course, were mostly tourists in Switzerland. It was fascinating to hear the opinions and views of the enemy. My friend passed me off as a Swiss from Lausanne, because in the meantime my French was better than that of most Germans. So no one doubted my new origin. 2Lt Ralph T. Ritter and I wanted more and more to return to England to complete our twenty-five missions. So we escaped from Davos as a farmer and a peasant. We walked past the guards and traveled undetected to Geneva. We crossed the border into France and were met by the underground at Mouthe and smuggled into England.
Crew:
Pilot: 1st Lt Stuart Goldsmith
Copilot: 2nd Lt Andrew P. Cote
Navigator: 2nd Lt William C. Etheredge
Bombardier: 2nd Lt Ralph T. Ritter
Engineer: S/Sgt William S. Ferguson
Radio: S/Sgt Darrel G. Pulley
Ball Turret: S/Sgt Robert N. Morin
Right Waist: S/Sgt Albert V. Barney
Left Waist: S/Sgt Walter J. Pac
Tail Gunner: S/Sgt Gerard P. Roland
Flucht als Bauer und Bäuerin
