Chapter 8 - THE RECRUIT IN RITTEN

Meanwhile, earlier in the week, the two weeks had passed since Inga Hosp had started the questioning of her husband and Mr. Frotscher. As she promised, Inga replied to Diana and her message was relayed to the team.

February 08, 2000

Answer from Dr. Hosp It just came, and because it's a fax, I'll transcribe it. The bad news is there's not a lot to go on; the good news is she has email now, and she's still on it. ------

"Dear Mrs. Dale, Today I received your lovely wildlife letter and your uncle's image. Thank you very much! My own son Matthias has his age right now: 20 years! Studying veterinary medicine at Vienna university. And just thinking that he could be involved in war activities, makes me upset. Even more: as a little girl (born 1943 in Munich) I grew up with first childish memories of kindly laughing American soldiers and their gifts of chewing gums, Baby Ruth-bars and baby dolls (which could drink "milk" and even piss). One of the old friendships of that time lasted for 50 years! But this, I guess, is not what you want to hear from me. During the last seven days I did the following:

1. Talking to all the eye-witnesses, you know already: all of them reported that there was a lot of snow when the plane crashed. This is unusual for the altitude (1350m) and for October but could have occurred nevertheless. All of them reported two soldiers who saved themselves by parachutes, and one dead between the wreckage; the parachute jumpers being arrested by German security SOD (South Tyrol by this time, after Mussolini's end, was occupied by German troops), the corpse and other remainings transported away;

2. Calling the local priest: no registration of a grave;

3. Contacting Black Cross organization; they look after soldiers' graves. The research is still going on. I'll now try to get contact to a former American Airforce officer living at Innsbruck who is said to own lists of crashed American aircrafts in this part of the Alps. Let me, please, check if this is a mere rumour or more. I also want to know which other aircrafts crashed in our region round Oct. 20, 1944. The only newspaper, I've been told, did not report such events, but I want to check personally in a library and in an archive. All this will need some time, but I won't give up, and I think you would do the same for me: question of humanitarianism.

While I write this, your fax letter arrived. Strange thing: I am a journalist myself, free lancer and working more in the fields of culture, and have no primal interest to write about the case. And perhaps the results could increase if the reporter goes his way and I go mine. So let's leave it like it is now. To me it seems important not to rely too much upon the conviction that the Ritten aircraft was your uncle's. By the way: Do you have any personal file, numbers like those, every soldier had? That's all for today, more soon, I hope.

Yours sincerely,

Inga

P.S. Last weekend my new i-Mac has been delivered, so we now can correspond by E-Mail, too: inga.hosp@rolmail.net.

PPS. I wonder what's the job you are doing, Diana."

Well, that's something. And what a gracious lady. We got lucky with her on our side. All eyewitnesses agreed there were two parachutes and one dead, but I didn't expect two captures... I was hoping to get answers, not more questions. I'm going to email her right now with Bill's serial number. Thank goodness she's got email -- those faxes I was sending were getting expensive! I guess we wait some more.

D ---------------------------------

It was a tremendous break to find that Dr. Inga Hosp had acquired email capability---the dynamics of the search would be severely limited if the delays of regular mail correspondence were involved. The team was anxious to cultivate Inga's willingness to exchange rapid fire messages and data files, but wanted to tread softly on her good nature and newly acquired email skills. Diana sent her a long, friendly message introducing herself and the background to her search effort. Inga responded in kind with a good introduction to her family and background. It was evident thatthere was a mutual affinity. Inga also provided the name of a retired airman, Keith Bullock, in Austria who was doing significant research into U.S. bomber crash sites in the Tyrol. [Ed. note: Contrary to Inga's assumption that Bullock was a U. S. airman, it was later determined that he was formerly with the RAF]. Then, the following day, she sent another message describing an even more exciting contact.

February 12, 2000

Dear Diana,

More news, fresh as can be, and: the puzzle is complete! Half an hour ago I got a phone call from Mr. Hans Grimminger from Augsburg/Germany who studied, for another research some years ago, the Washington Archives. He found the missing link in his computer. William O Wisner was one of four members of 1st. Fighter Group-Lightnings, downed Oct. 20, 1944 after being hit over Bozen/Bolzano some miles north of Sarnthein, near the village of Weißenbach. The pilots' names are Olsen (71st. Fighter Squadron, Nr. 9314), Tweed (9313), Elliot (he brought down his plane near Ancona in an emergency landing) and Wisner (9312).

In the Missing Air Crew Report he is mentioned as "lost". Also the German reports (Abschußberichte) which are in Washington, too, mention the lost under KSUJ 2323. After several interviews I did during the last days I was already almost sure that the plane crashed near our house at Ritten was not your uncle's; this must have been a bomber and it must have been during winter 44. Before starting this letter I phoned a friend in the neighboured community of Sarntal/Val Sarentino who will do the local inquiry for me. About next Wednesday I will be ready to give you the rest of the details. The research concerning the grave will go on.

Please be so kind to contact Mr. Grimminger. He was a member of the 15. Luftflotte and did much research for both Americans and Germans. Perhaps he would be pleased by a thankful word. His address: Lange Gewanne 67 D-86156 Augsburg Tel.(& Fax?) 0049 821 462973

Best regards until soon

Inga ---------------------------------

Such a fabulous find! Mr. Grimminger was fully acquainted with the crash incident of October 20,1944! He had all of the MACR's for Olson, Twedt and Wisner and even the Luftwaffe capture report for Olson. Jim was about to leave home for a two week trip, so he alerted Diana and realized he was leaving the loop at a very critical time.

February 14, 2000

Hi Diana-- It looks like a loop has been closed on the Sarnvalley. I wonder how Inga brought Grimminger into the loop. Does he have some connection with Bullock in Innsbruck? Has there been any contact with Bullock? Somewhere in this morning's messages from you I thought I saw one that said you had tied Inga into Mair's messages----but I must have lost it in manipulating the mail to files. I wonder if Inga's friend in Sarntal/Val Sarentino knows him---------can't be too big a community. It'll be interesting to see what effects these looping connections have. I hope they are synergistic & that the team is growing.

I will be going on a trip on Thursday (2/17) & will return on Mar. 2nd. I hope to take my laptop to keep in the loop, but may not have phone line access where I'll be. I won't have access to recent messages either, so I'll probably act stupid-----even if I do get online. In any case, I'll try to keep my finger on the pulse even if only occasionally. Keep the ball rolling!

Cheers,

Jim --------------------------------