Philip S. Campbell's Adventures In France-1944 by Virgil R. Marco Sr., 366BS Tail Gunner, 305BG The briefing gave their target as a Dornier aircraft factory at Oberpfaffenhofen, 15 miles south of Munich where the Do 335 was being assembled. The Germans claimed it was the fastest piston-engine fighter in the world ever to have attained production status with speed in excess of 470 mph. Phil Campbell, the 25yr old navigator of the Capt. Lincoln crew, remembered that on Monday morning 24th
April 1944 his B-17 bomber left Covington Station (305 Bomb Group) at 10:00 hrs. When interrogated five months later by a WAAC Capt., Phil recalled "we were greeted by 20 or 30 enemy ME-109s.
Our ship was hit, but we were able to drop our bombs on the target. We lost altitude and tried to get back to our base alone. Over the Rhur Valley, flak was heavy and in the vicinity of Mont. St. Jean,
France, we were attacked from the rear and shot up badly. As our inter-com was out, the copilot motioned for me to bail out."
 The Ball turret gunner, James Mayfield's chute failed to open completely and he died in a German Hospital and the radio operator, I. W. Denemy died instantly from the FW-190's bullets. The other crewmembers successfully evaded. Jacqueline Borgniet-Morcrette in Mont St. Jean said, "I heard the roar of the large bombers and observed them flying toward Germany during the morning of April 24, 1944." That evening Jacqueline Morcrette along with her brother, Remy witnessed in the field of their farm home a damaged B-17 flying very low. At a German airfield in Resigny, located between Aubenton and Rozoy, two fighter pilots, Lt. Werther and Lt.Hans-Ulrich Tartsch received their orders to find and destroy the crippled bomber reported flying toward the English Channel. They ran to their FW 190 planes and quickly took off. Flying much faster and lower than the slow, American bomber the German pilots began attacking the rear of the crippled bomber. Jacqueline and her brother immediately ran toward the spot where the parachute landed and saw the airman running away. Jacqueline shouted "Vive la France" and
caught up with him. His uniform was tangled in a barbed wire fence preventing him to continue running towards Bonnefontaine Abbey where many German soldiers were stationed.
Remy gathered and hid the airman's parachute in a culvert and their father, Louis Morcrette arrived to persuade the airman to stay hidden in a small woods nearby as it was dangerous for his family
to be caught with the airman. Many people from the village had also seen the parachute. It was on the 31st of March 1944 that the Gestapo arrested ten
people from Brunehamel, just 4 km from Mont St. Jean. Only two came back safely from the German prisons. The enemy was now searching the homes and posting notices, offering large
rewards for the capture of the downed airmen. They had found a wounded airman, James Mayfield and the body of I. W. Denemy. The Gestapo was now desperately searching for the missing eight men from the B-17.
Each night Louis Morcrette brought Philip Campbell back to the farm. Phil spent two nights with the Morcrette family and it was now necessary for Phil to
be moved quickly from the area where he dropped. Two Catholic priests, Father Bajeard of Ivers and Father Pire of Aubenton came to the rescue. Phil stayed with Father Bajeard one day and night and
then with Father Pire who had already helped two of Phil's crew members, Virgil Marco (Tail gunner) and Gene Snodgrass (waist gunner). He gave them
a good road map and sent them walking to the Catholic Church in Guignicourt on the night of April 24.. The Gestapo was watching Madame Van Wheslylan's farm for evidence that
she was hiding an American flyer. The Resistance was aware of this and their leader, Gaby Pateaux, had Phil moved to the hayloft in the barn for a few days.
Then one night in May he followed a group of men from the Resistance to the home of Madame Josephene Ometak whose husband was in a German prison.
Phil stayed in her home for the next eight weeks. Her address was Laigny via Vervin. During a dark July night Xavier Babled whose wife is the cousin of
Madam Ometak arrived to take Phil on his bicycle to his home in St. Prevue near Sissones. This is where Phil was hiding when the American First Army arrived in Sissones on about 30 August 1944.
(Phil Campbell's French Identity Card) Sgt. William Bergman and I arrived for their interrogation. The crew met at the Jules Club a few days later and discussed how lucky we were, thanks to their French and Belgium helpers. We were saddened by the news that T/Sgt. I. W. Denemy and Sgt. James Mayfield had made the ultimate sacrifice.
For the Capt.Lincoln crew the European war was over and we would soon be flown to the States.
Postwar research reveals that the German pilot, Lt. Hans-Ulrich Tartsch, was shot down over Caen, Normandy on June 8, 1944 and died in his effort to stop
the allied invasion. Nothing has been learned about the other German pilot, Lt. Werther.
After the war Phil became the Superintendent and Assistant to the President of a small but very busy freight railroad, the Leigh and Hudson. He died
unexpectedly of a heart attack on April 10, 1967. Phil's widow, Barbara and her sister, Rona, traveled to France in 1983 to meet the courageous people who risked their lives to aid Phil.
After enjoying the hospitality of Phil's helpers, Barbara and Rona returned home with a piece of Phil's parachute, his Lt. bars and wings.
Barbara, died on September 24, 1994. They had three daughters, Claire Dolores, Patricia Barbara and Laurie Ann.
(Gaby Pateaux was one of the Hero leaders of the resistance in this section of France and later died in the French Vietnam War) REVISED – 10-24-00 |
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© Copyright Virgil R. Marco, Sr. All rights reserved. |
After the first attack, Jacqueline saw a parachute fly out of the bomber. She had witnessed an English fighter aircraft crash near the same spot in 1940. 
