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Michael Shiwarski

Tail Gunner

S/Sgt. Michael Shiwarski (33260932) served as tail gunner in the 409th Squadron, 93rd Bomb Group. He bailed out through the camera hatch, first in sequence among the three gunners, and was taken prisoner of war.

After the war, Shiwarski completed a casualty questionnaire and reported meeting other crew members in the POW camp. He reported that after the interphone was shot out he had no further contact with the pilot. His nose gunner told him in POW camp that the pilot went down with the plane. His name appears in documents variously as Shiwarski, Shimarski, Schiworski, and Schwartzki.

Prisoner of War

Sortie Log

4 CATALOGUED SORTIES
24 FEB 1944 — 02 MAR 1944

The sorties below are those we have been able to document for this airman, drawn from flight logs, mission records, and archival sources. It is not necessarily a complete account of every mission flown; gaps may reflect missing documentation, transferred assignments, or records lost to time.

8AF Mission

Date

Target

Aircraft

Document lists only partial crew in two-column format paired with no second ship; crew positions appear split across left/right columns without a paired aircraft

On 2 March 1944, the aircraft was on a mission to Frankfurt, Germany. Over France, the plane was hit by flak on two or three engines, causing a fire. The pilot requested a course home and the aircraft fell out of formation, losing approximately 4,000 feet before the alarm bell sounded. The crew bailed out at approximately 15,000 feet at approximately 11:30 AM. Seven parachutes were observed in the air. The casualty questionnaire noted that one man was burnt before bailing out. The pilot, 2d Lt. Charles W. Mankin Jr., was killed — his parachute did not open. The aircraft did not explode on striking the ground. The plane was hit by large flak holes causing fire on two or three engines. The wreckage was not examined by the narrator. The aircraft came down in northern France in the vicinity of Bray-sur-Somme and the area around Albert.

Frankfurt, Germany

A B-24 Liberator (KU 1059) of the 93rd Bomb Group was lost on 2 March 1944 during a mission to Frankfurt, Germany. The aircraft left formation approximately 5 miles east of Abbeville, France. According to survivor accounts, the crew bailed out in groups: the tail gunner, waist gunner, and ball turret gunner exited through the camera hatch; the nose gunner, navigator, and bombardier through the nose wheel hatch; and the co-pilot, radio operator, and engineer bailed out together. The pilot, 2nd Lt. Charles W. Mankin Jr., did not survive. The aircraft struck the ground near Doullens, France (per German sources), and near Fricourt, 3 km from Albert, per a German prisoner-of-war document dated 2 March 1944. The aircraft identifier was KU 1059.

Frankfurt Am MainM/Y