Manchester, New Hampshire – May 16, 1945
Grenier U. S. Army Air Field
B-17G “Flying Fortress”
U.S. Air Force Photo
On the morning of May 16, 1945, a Boeing B-17 “Flying Fortress” (Ser. No. 42-5463) with a partial crew aboard was on the runway at Grenier Army Air Field in Manchester. The engines were in operation at the time, warming up, and the wheels were “chocked”. An army station wagon containing four officers of the bomber’s crew and a civilian driver drove out to the B-17. When it did so the the B-17 reportedly jumped its wheel-chocks and lurched forward into the station wagon, killing one man and injuring the rest.
2nd Lieutenant Bernard W. Schutter, Jr., (20) of Ames, New York, was killed in the accident. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/42281985/bernard-william-schutter
2nd Lieutenant James H. Wagner, (22) of Los Gatos, California, was seriously injured.
2nd Lieutenant George Hermestroff (22) of Chicago, and 2nd Lieutenant Donald C. Maler, (21) of Fairfax, California, and the driver of the station wagon all received non-life-threatening injuries.
Sources:
The Manchester Union, “Army Board Presses Probe Of Bomber Mishap At Base”, May 18, 1945.
The Wilmington Morning Star, (North Carolina) “Car Collides With B-17”, May 30, 1945, pg. 2
www.findagrave.com
B-17 serial number supplied by Larry Webster, Aviation Historian, Charlestown, R. I.
