Sievertson Crew – Assigned 755th Squadron – August 8, 1944

Originally assigned to the 755th Squadron, the crew was transferred to the 752nd on October 23, 1944.  This was the date when all of the lead crews from the 752nd, 753rd, and 754th squadrons were consolidated into the 755th Squadron – the designated lead squadron for the group. The last entry in the records for most of the crew is in February 1945, when they were sent on Rest Home Leave.  The 755th and 752nd Squadron records indicate Sievertson had flown 35 missions by March 31, 1945.  It is probable that most of the crew completed the required tour of 35 combat missions around this same time.

The two exceptions are navigator 2Lt M.C. Miller and gunner Pvt. Thomas D. Hill.  Miller was chosen to be pilotage navigator on the deputy lead ship on the October 14, 1944 mission to Cologne, Germany.  Flying with 2Lt William Klusmeyer and crew, they were hit by flak over the target and had to abandon their aircraft.  All eleven men became POW’s.  Miller was seriously wounded in the eye and spent several weeks undergoing treatment in a German hospital. 

Thomas Hill attained the rank of S/Sgt in December 1944.  When the crew were given time off at an Eighth Air Force rest home in February 1945, Hill must have had too good a time as he was reduced in rank to private.

Co-pilot, 2Lt Anthony Hurtenbach flew with the crew of 1Lt Louis D. Vehslage on the mission to Dortmund, Germany on January 28, 1945.  Damaged in the nose by flak, and the pilot wounded, the crew was forced to land on the Continent.  Hurtenbach was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions on this particular mission.  He also flew two missions, presumably towards the end of his tour, as first pilot.

MIA Telegram

Miller’s father, a telegraph operator, received and typed this message about his son.

(Jim MIller)

Newspaper clippings

Lt. Miller Is Missing

Mr. and Mrs. M. C. Miller Sr., of Tellico Plains, have been informed by the War Department taht their son, Lt. Millard Clarence Miller, Jr., 20, has been missing in action over Germany since Oct. 14.

Lieutenant Miller, a navigator on a B-24, has been in service two years and overseas since July.

He is a member of Tellico Plains Baptist Church and a graduate of Tellico Plains High School.  He attended Carson-Newman College, Jefferson City, before entering the Air Corps.

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Wires Give Good News To Operator

Telegraph keys cheerfully chattered out a message of Christmas joy on Saturday for Millard C. Miller, Tellico PLains telegrapher station agent – a message that his son, Ly. M. C. Miller Jr., reported missing in action Oct. 14, is alive and a prisoner of Germany.

Mr. and Mrs. Miller had heard nothing of their son since he was listed as missing.

A pre-medical student at Carson-Newman College, Miller volunteered in 1942 and after training at Miami, Clemson College and Casper, Wyo., went overseas as navigator on a B-24 Liberator bomber and was a navigator when reported missing.

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Parents Learn Missing Son Is in German Camp

Special To The News-Sentinal
TELLICO PLAINS – Better news followed bad news for Mr. and Mrs. M. C. Miller.  First they were told that their son, Lt. M. C. Miller Jr., navigator on a bomber, was reported missing in action over Germany Oct. 14. Later they were notified he was a prisoner of war of the Germans.  They have received a card from Lt. Miller, dated Nov. 8, in which he said, “The doctors have done a swell job in fixing my scratches, so don’t worry.  I am practically as good as new already.  The Red Cross parcels are swell.”

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(Courtesy: Jim Miller)

MC Miller’s note to his parents

Prisoner of War Camp   8 November 1944

Dear Folks,

Hope you are all well and happy while I am enjoying my little visit in Germany.  The doctors have done a swell job of fixing my scratches, so don’t worry.  I’m practically good as new already.  The Red Cross parcels are coveted.  Tell Ronnie hello.  I’ll write when I can.  Love…

(Courtesy: Jim Miller)

Ernie Sands (left) and M.C., Miller – 1998

On October 14, 1944, the 458th was assigned Cologne, Germany as its intended target.  The deputy lead aircraft of the last section was piloted by 2Lt William Klusmeyer.  M.C. Miller was chosen to be the pilotage navigator for this mission and his assigned station was in the nose turret.  His regular crew was flying ahead in the first section.

Flak over the target was intense, and just as the bombs were released, Klusmeyer’s aircraft was hit by three flak bursts, the first hit number three engine, setting it on fire.  The second burst hit the nose turret, and the third hit the ball turret with such force that the turret was shoved back up into the plane.  The bail out order was given and the men moved to exit the aircraft.  The bomb bay doors were stuck closed at this point, so after extricating Miller from the nose turret – he was hit badly in the face and one eye was hanging on his cheek – Ernie Sands, Klusmeyer’s bombardier, moved Miller back through the ship to the camera hatch.  He gave him two shots of morphine, attached a 50 foot line to his parachute rip cord, and pushed him out.  Sands went back to the nose and destroyed the Norden bombsight.  He and Robert Ferrell, the DR navigator, then exited from the nose wheel well.

Miller landed in a vineyard near a river where he was picked up by a German non-commissioned officer and a few soldiers.  They got him to a hospital where he received very good care.  He was in the hospital for five to six weeks where his left eye was to be removed due to the extent of the damage, but a surgeon with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel examined him and thought he could save his eye if he could experiment with different treatments.  His optic nerve was stimulated with radio waves and after the first treatment he could see light.  [Miller remembered the doctor was from Hess and his last name was the Germanized form of Miller.  He said he and the doctor could have been distant cousins because Miller’s family was from Hess, a state outside Munich.]

Sands landed on the other side of the river from the rest of the crew and managed to evade capture for seven days, making his way under cover of darkness almost 90 miles south.  He was finally stopped by a river that he could not cross and was captured attempting to steal a boat.  A police officer from a nearby small town arrived after he was caught, knelt on Sands’ chest pointed his gun at Sands’ forehead, and said, “For you, the war is over.”  Before he could fire, another officer stopped him and they then took him to the nearby town.  When they arrived at the main street, the officers told him to run to the other end of the town.  Instead, Sands walked the four-block-long street while being pelted with potatoes and apples thrown by the women and old men and rocks thrown by the boys.  He made it to the end of the street and the officers took him to the local jail.  He was sent to Dulag Luft, the interrogation camp near Frankfurt and then on to Stalag Luft III.

Sands and Miller did not see each other again for 20 years, each believing the other did not make it through that last mission.  Miller saw Sands’ name in an ex-POW bulletin and called him.  They have visited each other and have been good friends ever since.

The above photo and text was compiled from and article in The Daily Post-Athenian (October 23-25, 1998) and a taped interview with Ernie Sands.