Tournai, Belgium
Kain-la-Tombe
Monument to the Crew of Aircraft #4339055
335th Squadron, 95th Bomb Group (H)
Dedicated May 22, 2008
The crew of aircraft #4339055, bearing no nickname, was near their target of the railyards at Duisburg, Germany on the morning of January 28, 1945, when they took several punishing flak hits directly below the cockpit. The instrumentation and three engines were knocked out. Losing altitude quickly in a severely damaged aircraft, the pilots and navigator worked valiantly to get the plane back to Allied territory. The ship’s commander, Robert V. Mercer, kept reassuring his crew that he would get them out of the fix they were in. Finally, with one wing totally aflame, Mercer ordered his crew to bail out. Seven men successfully did. Co-pilot Charles R. Taylor chose to remain on board until the last minute. When he did bail out, he was too close to the ground for his parachute to open fully and he perished. The aircraft was now above the city of Tournai, Belgium and the neighboring village of Kain-la- Tombe. Lt. Mercer took heroic action in the last minutes before the crash, in which he was killed, to avoid a busy street (Rue Pierre), the bell tower of Kain-la-Tombe parish church, a nursery school, and assorted homes. He maneuvered the plane into a field of vegetables instead. At approximately 1:30 p.m., Mercer and Taylor sacrificed their lives to save many others on the ground. Even though VE-Day was more than three months away, this area of Belgium had been liberated since September of 1944. The British military was in charge of the area and collected the seven fallen fliers, all of whom were returned to duty in Horham.
As a small boy in a neighboring village, Jacques de Ceuninck heard the crash and saw one of the men parachuting from the plane. He carried this memory in his heart well into adulthood and began to research the circumstances and crew of that fateful flight. A plan grew in his mind to erect a monument to these brave men. In 2007, he presented the idea to the Burgomaster of Tournai, Mr. Christian Massy, who took it to the city fathers. They approved the concept and turned it over to the City’s public works department for design and development. It was also decided that the monument should be placed at the church in Kain-la-Tombe, just steps from the crash site. A striking monument was designed that incorporates a sheet of metal cut to resemble the tail of a B-17, distinctive blue stone from the region, and a Plexiglas panel, recalling the windows of the plane, inscribed with details of the crash and names of the crew. An image of the aircraft is also etched on the panel, along with U. S. Army Air Corps and 8 th Air Force symbols. In a moving dedication ceremony on May 22, 2008, Jacques de Ceuninck was joined by Tournai’s Mayor and various city officials, religious figures, representatives from both Belgian and American militaries, numerous patriotic groups from the area, and a crowd of locals, some of whom, like Jacques, had witnessed and remembered the crash. Many schoolchildren were there, recalling all the children whose lives were saved when Lt. Mercer steered his plane away from the school. Especially important guests were the nephew and niece of pilot Robert V. Mercer and their family members. The City of Tournai and village of Kain-la-Tombe continue to lay wreaths annually at the memorial monument, making sure to include local children in the ceremony so that the memory of the sacrifice is not forgotten.
The crew of aircraft #4339055 on that date was:
Lt. Warren B. Detering, Navigator
Lt. Heber G. Fackrell, Bombadier
S/Sgt. George F. Gearn, Tail Gunner
T/Sgt. John W. “Jack” German, Ball Turret Gunner
S/Sgt. Lyle W. Graesser, Radio Operator
S/Sgt. Donald R. Hupp, Waist Gunner
T/Sgt. Leonard J. Loucks, Top Turret Gunner/Engineer
Lt. Robert V. Mercer, Pilot
2nd Lt. Charles R. Taylor, Co-Pilot
The Robert Mercer Crew