Flight of Mustang III FZ141 and Pilot Officer W D Wendt on 1944-06-07

RCAF Flight Officer William David Wendt was my paternal great uncle. My uncle - David Schroeder, of Branson, Missouri has extensive information about Uncle Bill. How he came to join the RCAF as an American long before the US entered the war. He flew a Spitfire over Italy from Malta. He was shot down and spent more than a year as a prisoner of war in Chieti, Italy. He and two other men tunneled out of the POW camp and made it back to Allied lines. He returned to Minnesota to see his family and then returned to the fight. His mission over Normandy was bombing railway sites. He was shot down by the Germans. He parachuted out at 200 feet and landed in the flaming wreckage of his plane in an orchard. Three French children picking apples saw the crash. They described Uncle Bill’s skin as ‘black’ and saw him attempting to crawl from the wreckage before collapsing and dying. The villagers in Eturqueraye tend his grave and honor him to this day. My Uncle David went to a ceremony there in 2011 in which Uncle Bill was honored. Uncle David can tell you much more about it. He has pictures and maps and has written a book on Uncle Bill’s life. Uncle Bill was also included in a book about the imprisonment and escape from the POW camp in Chieti.