Chapter 1

Bill Wisner 2nd Lt. William O. Wisner, O-798778 In the middle of September 1944, Bill Wisner came to the 71st FS in Foggia with four buddies (Ed Steffani,Paul Summer, Lowell Twedt & Bill Ward) with whom he had gone through flight training. Bill began getting missions in mid October and on October 20,1944 he set out on his 10th mission—this time as Red 2 on a B-17 escort mission to Regensburg, Germany. The 27th FS was Group lead and the rendezvous was to be at Innsbruck, Austria. PETDOG (27th) was flanked high & right by CRAGMORE (71st) and by SPRINGCAP (94th) low & left. Their route took them a few miles east of Bolzano, Italy as they crossed the entrance to the Brenner Pass—'flak alley'. At 11:20AM intense accurate flak was encountered about 5 miles NE of Bolzano.

Almost simultaneously, Cragmore Red leader, Lt. Virgil Olson and Red 3, Capt. Joseph Elliott were hit by flak in their right engines. At that moment, White flight was crossing toward the right, just under Red flight. As Red leader veered downward due to the damage, his wingman on his left, Red 2, Lt. Bill Wisner also veered with him. Red leader Olson collided with Lt. Lowell Twedt who was flying White 4 and crossing underneath. The collision was essentially broadside and explosions followed. The resulting debris fell on Red 2, Lt. Bill Wisner. Capt. Elliott was escorted to a safe landing at Ancona. Cragmore discontinued its mission and returned to base. Petdog and Springcap proceeded on to rendezvous with the B-17's of the 5th Wing.

Following the mission, Lt. Jack Anderson wrote his eye witness account:

"On the 20th of October, 1944, I was flying with a squadron of fifteen (15) airplanes on an escort mission to a target at Regensburg, Germany. The Red Flight I was in consisted of Lt. Olson, flying number one position, Lt. Wisner in number two, Capt. Elliott, element leader was number three and I was flying number four. We had penetrated as far as Bolzano, Italy, when we first encountered flak. Evasive action was taken, and no one was hit. We continued on around the east side of town and more flak was encountered from the N/E of Bolzano.

Lt. Olson and Capt. Elliott were hit almost simultaneously in the right engine. They both feathered their flak hit engines and continued flight on single-engine. Lt. Olson immediately started losing altitude and I throttled back to stay with the flight. A few seconds later, I heard someone call, "Go down, go down" on the radio. No flight designation was given in this exclamation so I started looking around to see what was happening. Before I could determine the reason, Lt. Twedt, who was flying number four position in White Flight, came in from slightly low and from the left, and collided almost broadside wit Lt. Olson. The two aircraft exploded and disintegrated into many pieces. I pulled up sharply to avoid the accident.

Upon recovering from the pull-up, I looked back and saw several pieces falling in flames. One of the larger pieces, which I took to be the remains of Lt. Twedt's airplane, appeared to have the cockpit still intact. However, I did not see the man get out and use his parachute. I did not see the two aircraft hit the ground but I do not believe either pilot survived the accident. Several seconds later, I discovered another airplane going down in a stable attitude, but with the right engine smoking and in flames. I flew closer and saw the nose and right engine were badly smashed. I assumed that this was Lt. Wisner's aircraft because the damage looked as though it had been caused by falling debris and not from actual collision with another airplane. The cockpit seemed undamaged, and still closed, so I called on the radio and told the pilot to bail out. I received no answer, and the plane then went into a steep dive, followed by a spin. I lost sight of the airplane very close to the ground and did not see it crash. I did not see a parachute come from the airplane.

I do not understand why Lt. Twedt did not see Lt. Olson's aircraft in time to avoid it, but there is a possibility that he was wounded by the flak and was unable to control his airplane. Although there is a slight possibility that one or more of these pilots could have gotten clear of the wreckage and parachuted to safety unseen by me, it is my belief that this did not happen. "

(Signed) Lt. Jack C. Anderson

All three pilots---Olson, Wisner & Twedt were assumed to have been killed in action.