Chapter 12 - THE BULGARIAN TRAVELER

Bill Mays, the 'Bulgarian Traveler', was an American businessman working in Sophia. He was instrumental in locating the crash site of Carl Hoenshell. He had been following the Wisner search and sensed that it was approaching the climax of precisely locating the crash site, so he jumped in with some guidance for getting the U. S. government agencies involved for site examination and exhumation. He worked very closely with Liz Wilson, Hoenshell's niece in the final stages of her search. (Apparently he sent a blind copy to Mr. David Roath of the mortuary affairs unit with whom he worked on the Hoenshell case)

February 29, 2000

Hi Diana,

I've taken the liberty to forward the last email, pictures, and a brief description to the mortuary affairs office (sorry David Roath I forgot your title ), at the European Command hdqrtrs in Frankfort and also the office in charge of any potential excavation. The person who came to Bulgaria from EU Command name is David Roath and he was instrumental in the excavation of LT. Hoenshell. EU Command is who actually orders an excavation and sometimes they use a CILHI (Central Investigations Laboratory Hawaii) team to do them...but not always. It's the EU Command's decision so we should begin there. It will also help to be prepared to write your favorite congressperson(s), and find out who is the US Ambassador to Italy. They also enjoy feel-good PR missions like these.

I'll compile the information we have and it is important not to disturb things too much at the crash site...especially a burial site!!! My advice is that once we determine with a very high probability that this is you uncle's crash site from evidence and witness testimony, David Roath and/or a team will go to the site themselves to do an "official" military investigation as to the likelihood of recovering the bodily remains of a US military vet, hopefully your uncle. If he concludes that the probability is high after his visit to the area, then they will most likely order an excavation. I should tell you that the time from when we determine this is your uncle's site to the time an excavation crew would be there...assuming all what I previously mentioned...is probably 2 years or so.

David is a great guy, very fair and super to work with. We should get some good evidence from witnesses as to the time and exact location of the crash site and provide all of this information to him, as well as, the locations in the MACR's Jim has that are the official US military guide to this crash. This will reduce Mr. Roath's investigative time needed and shorten the overall time. I'll also ask Liz Wilson [ Ed. note: Carl Hoenshell's niece] to provide some additional insight as to the steps she took, phone calls she made, and letters she wrote to get the ball rolling. [...in the search for her uncle] Liz & EU Command also have the entire parts manual for a P-38, so what we need are pictures with the corresponding serial numbers. A serial number off a machine gun or an engine block part are very good identifiers. I called the EU Command office and they could not positively ID any of the parts, so we need more pictures and more serial numbers. Liz emailed me back and said the wheel was from a P-38 or P-51 by sight, but will have Colin look it up in the book to be sure.

David, some irony and coincidence to "our" last mission...Ms. Diana Dale is the niece of a US Army Aircorps pilot named 2LT William Wisner. Some details are as follows and in the attached file:

NAME 2nd Lt. William O. Wisner 0-798778 DOWNING Oct. 20, 1944 WHERE Bolzano, Italy MISSION Regensburg, Germany escort mission 15 aircraft HOME TOWN Dallas Texas AIRCRAFT NAME Golden Slipper not sure he was flying his aircraft NIECE Diana Dale 15 Corona St. Denver CO 80218 EMAIL dtdale@ku.alum.org daled@rockymountainnews.com OTHER PLANES Lt. Olson Lt. Lowell Tweed 2nd. Lt. Jack C. Anderson 0-821114 element leader Capt, Elliot CEMETERY Mirandola Italy GRAVE 37? POSSIBLE REMAINS X-70035 at Griesheim/Main mausoleum CIL 5034 BRACELET found and returned to Quartermaster General on Aug 10, 1954 CIL-5034 - (file lost) SQUADRON LEADER Myron Hutchens Colorado Springs CO

I'm traveling to Stuttgart tomorrow afternoon, Wednesday, 1 March 2000 for 5 days and I'm not certain I will have email access, but I will have my mobile phone. My number is as follows. (xxx) Look forward to hearing from you. Take care and all the Best.

Bill Mays ---------------------------------------

Bill's preemptory communication with the U.S. mortuary affairs people in Europe was a good entrée to their attention if & when the Wisner crash site was precisely located and substantiated. Diana received some more timely data that she felt Bill ought to know and pass along.

February 29, 2000

Bill, thank you so much for telling me what to expect with the investigation. I will write a letter to my congresswoman post haste. I hope you get this before you leave for your trip tomorrow. I got two very important pieces of mail yesterday -- one was Lowell Twedt's IDPF, and the other was a letter from Mr. Hans Grimminger, an air war historian in Augsburg, Germany. Grimminger was the contact that got Inga Hosp on the right track to the crash site. His letter cites four crash sites on 20.10.44, as follows:

North slope of the Kirchberg at Aberstueckl (Sonvigo), north of Sartthein (Sarentino) in the Sarntal (Valle de Sarentina), by 1. +3. +4. Batterie/schwere Flakabteilung 490; 4./schw. Flakabtl. 547; 1. +3./schw.Flakabtl. 548. Messner Basai, 9-10 Km north of sartnthein (Sarentino), by 3. Batterie/schw. Flakabtl. 490; 1._3./schw. Flakabtl. 548. East of Rabenstein (Corvara), Blunabachtal, 10 Km north of Sarnthein, by 1. +3. Batterie/schw. Flakabtl. 548; 3./schw. Flakabtl. 490. Kesselberg (Monte Catino), east of Meran (Merano), but 3. Batterie/schw. Flakabtl. 490; 1. +3./schw. Flakabt. 548.

Bill, I don't know what the numbers mean; I suspect they have something to do with which gun hit which target. At any rate, these locations came from the German Bundesarchiv, and Grimminger insists they are not wrong. The first one is the one we're assuming is my uncle's, but until we match some serial numbers, we can't be sure. Lowell Twedt's IDPF indicates he had a son named William L. Twedt. There are only two William Twedts listed on the Internet, so I've left messages with both of them. If one of them is the right one, we may be able to put two to rest with one investigation. Have a good trip.

Diana ------------------------------------