Memorial

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1st Lt John E. Mc Donnell enlisted from St. Paul, Minnesota.

Statement of 1st Lt Brooks J. Liles, who flew in the same mission: "At 10,000 feet, I thought I saw some targets on the deck and went down on them. Light flak began to burst around us so I broke left and started climbing. Tudor Red Two - Lt Mc Donnell, called and said he thought he had been hit. He was still climbing with me when I looked around. About one minute later, he called and said he was setting course for home. It was rather hazy, and I did not see him leave the formation and could not find him or contact him on the R/T again. My number Three man and I drove southwest for a while and then come on home. I last heard him at approximately 1330 hrs. There were no enemy aircraft in the area."

According to German records, Lt Mc Donnell made an emergency landing and was found dead.

This suggests that Lt Mc Donnell was killed in the crash landing. However, a report of a court case sheds a completely different light on what actually happened.

Between 25 and 27 June 1947, a trial was held in Hamburg in which three members of the German Sicherheitsdienst (SS intelligence service) were accused of the murder of Lt Mc Donnell. The three accused were SS-Obersturmbannführer Wilhelm Wiebens, head of the SD detachment in Strassenhaus, SD-Obersturmführer Otto Bauhofer, and SD-Hauptsturmführer Hermann Kagel.

The Gendarmeriemeister (Rural Police Warrant Officer) of Rengsdorf, a Ludwig Neuendoerfer, described in a sworn statement that whilst on his way to Niederraden on a motorcycle, he had heard of the crash of an aircraft near Oberraden from passersby. He made his way to the location and found that some boys had taken charge of an airman who had a bad wound to the side of his head and was covered in blood.

He told the boys to take the airman to the mayor of Niederraden. A little later, Neuendoerfer himself went to the house where he and the mayor bandaged the airman's head wound as best they could.

Witnesses stated that the airman's physical condition was very weak through loss of blood and that his head wound was still bleeding through the bandages. The pilot refused the offer of food; he was sick and also collapsed while waiting to be taken to the hospital.

The mayor tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to have the military hospital in Rengsdorf send someone to collect the wounded airman. He then called the SD headquarters and asked them to transport the airman to the hospital.

The call arrived whilst the SD members were celebrating some form of Christmas party at the hotel where the HQ was situated. Wiebens, having been informed of the call, gave orders to Bauhofrer, Kagel, and a man named Kaiser to collect the airman. They were told that he should not be handed over to the proper authorities but should be killed. Wiebens, in his affidavit, denied that he ordered, gave permission, or agreed to the shooting of the Allied airman.

Lt Mc Donnell was collected by the three accused from Nierraden at about 18:00 hrs. En route to Rengsdorf and about 1 1/2 km from the town, Kaiser stopped the car before the road emerged from the cover of some woods, ostensibly because of Allied aircraft activity.

The defense claimed that the airman, after being berated and attacked by Kaiser, jumped out of the car and ran into the woods in an attempt to escape. Kaiser chased after him, and after disappearing from sight, Bauhofer and Kagel heard at least four shots. When the two eventually caught up with Kaiser, they found him standing over the dead airman. Kaiser claimed that the airman had tried to strangle him and that his pistol had a stoppage.

Witness statements describing the airman's injuries and that he was very weak whilst at the mayor's house made the story of the escape attempt concocted by Bauhofer and Kagel implausible. This, coupled with their efforts to shift the blame of the murder onto Kaiser, was dismissed by the court.

In the opinion of the court, they had no alternative but to find Wiebens, Bauhofer, and Kagel guilty of the charge.

Wiebens and Kagel were sentenced to 15 years and 12 years imprisonment, respectively. Both were imprisoned at the Allied prison at Werl. Wiebens was released on 7 May 1955, and Kagel on 12 April 1954.

Bauhofer was sentenced to death on this charge and on the charge of the murder of a RAF airman. He was executed by firing squad at Hamburg on 23 October 1948.

Lt Mc Donnell was initially buried at the cemetery of Rengsdorf.