A Memorial Day Tribute
- Mike Croissant
- May 26
- 2 min read
Last Memorial Day, I posted The 28th Man, the story of Staff Sergeant Jonas Strickland of the 483rd Bomb Group, who was killed over Linz on 25 April 1945. Due to tough editorial choices, I had to remove the story from Bombing Hitler's Hometown. Earlier this year, the son of Strickland's crewmate, ball turret gunner George VanMeter, contacted me and provided additional information—and an photo that will leave you speechless. Credit for the photo and the following story goes to VanMeter and his son, Laurance.
As we read in The 28th Man, during the chaos of the German’s devastating flak barrage over Linz, the nose of 1Lt Charles Church’s Flying Fortress collided with the tail of 1Lt Morton Connelly’s aircraft, sheering off the tail gun position on the latter and sending Strickland to his death. The collision sent Connelly’s B-17 into a steep bank, which only the use of the autopilot corrected. We pick up the story with new information from George VanMeter via Laurance:
Immediately after the collision, Connelly said over the interphone, “We’re out of control.” The crew began preparations to bail out. Per Laurance:
One boy had been knocked out, so they strapped on his parachute and were getting ready to throw him out, when the plane leveled out, and Connelly said, “We’re under control.” When they got back, the boy who had been knocked out asked, “What did you think I was going to do [after you threw me out]?” Answer: “We were hoping you’d wake up on the way down.”
In the aftermath, the men found that they had ten parachutes aboard, but Strickland was gone from the shattered tail section, and they knew he had fallen to his death on his thirty-fifth mission, which would have earned him a ticket home. Back at base, with a heavy heart, Connelly posed for a photo at the remains of the tail.
George VanMeter could have been the one to die that day. Strickland wanted to trade places with him, but on the way to the flight line, crew chief Len Ragland from Lexington, Kentucky, said, “George, the war’s almost over, your luck’s been good, don’t change anything up.” VanMeter, who was on his thirty-third mission, refused the switch, and Strickland took his place in the tail for the fateful mission.
Jonas Strickland rests for eternity in Plot C, Row 23, Grave 5, in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium. May his name liveth forevermore.
Sources:
Jacob L. Grimm, Heroes of the 483rd: Crew Histories of a Much-Decorated B-17 Bomber Group during World War II (483rd Bomb Group Association, 1997), pages 24 and 42.
Correspondence with Laurance VanMeter.