The “Dolly” Story

On December 1, 1943, a brand new B-17 arrived at Framlingham. One of the crewmembers aboard was a 25 year old from Monessen, Pa. His name was Herman Alesiani, the son of Sicilian immigrants. Herman was working as an assistant in a grocery store and as a bricklayer when the United States entered the war, and he quickly volunteered for the Army Air Corps. His goal was to become a pilot, but through the selection process he ended up being trained as a ball turret gunner.

After arriving in England, crews were assigned to squadrons and were trained on formation flying and the adversities of the English winter weather (black ice, snow and thick clouds). The crew Alesiani was assigned to became part of the 569th squadron. By Christmas Eve 1943 Alesiani’s B-17 flew its first mission against V1 launching sites in France. This mission was successful. Between then and February 3, 1944, Alesiani flew seven more missions (two with another crew), the one on February 3 being a very long one to Wilhelmshaven in bad weather, which left everyone tired and worn out. On February 4, Herman was awakened by a voice yelling, “Breakfast at 0400, briefing at 0500, take-off at 0600!” Herman, without opening his eyes, mumbled that their airplane was grounded for maintenance and that he had a 48 hour pass. The voice replied that the day’s missions was a maximum effort and that all crews would be flying.

The mission for the day was a marshalling yard at Frankfurt, Germany. Bad weather was forecasted with strong winds from the northwest, turbulence, rain showers and broken and overcast clouds in the target area. They would be part of a force of about 800 B-17s and B-24s and the good news was they were going to be escorted by long range fighters. Since Alesiani’s B-17 was in maintenance they would be flying another B-17 named “Dolly”.

At take off time, the B-17s, heavy with fuel and bombs, rolled down the runway every 30 seconds, finally reaching flying speed and lifting off. After forming up, the armada headed southeast to Heidleburg. Upon reaching Heidelberg the force would turn north/northeast for the bomb run on Frankfurt.

Everything was uneventful until they reached Heidelburg, where a violent barrage of flak greeted them. Suddenly, a loud noise, like a stone falling on a metal roof, was heard by the Dolly’s crew and she shuddered in protest. The pilot, C. Bernard “Bernie” Strait, informed the crew over the intercom that they had been hit and both right engines were knocked out. He also asked for an injury and damage report. No one was injured and no further damage was reported, but with two engines out, the airplane started descending. The navigator suggested turning to Switzerland, but the bombardier answered that they were already on the bomb run and they might as well drop their bombs on the target rather than on Heidelburg. Ten minutes later they were over the target and dropped their bombs. After the bombs were gone, Captain Strait told the crew that if anyone wished to bail out they were welcome to, but he was going to try and nurse Dolly back to England. Everyone decided to stay with the airplane since the idea of possibly making it back home was more attractive than bailing out over a city they just bombed.

Although the airplane was lighter, they continued to lose altitude and at the slower airspeed they dropped back out of formation. It was difficult to keep the airplane on course because of the asymmetry of the left engines at full power and no power on the right side. At an altitude of 5000 feet the navigator reported seeing the North Sea and at the same moment, both left engines quit. A glide straight ahead would put them in the icy waters of the North Sea and the chances of survival were pretty slim, so Captain Strait elected to turn around. After a brief, heated discussion the decision was made to land with the landing gear retracted. They chose a field without any visible obstacles and Captain Strait landed the crippled B-17 smoothly onto the earth and it slid to a stop with a grateful crew inside.

Fifteen year old Anton den Ouden was working in the fields when a noise startled him. He looked up and saw a huge airplane coming down and then sliding along the field before coming to a stop. People started getting out of the airplane and after a moment the airplane suddenly burst into flames. Alesiani and tail gunner Peter Selvidge decided to get out of the area quickly and departed to the east. They noticed that some of the people they saw were wearing wooden shoes and deduced that they had landed in Holland. Eventually the whole crew assembled in a farm house and they decided to start walking down the road. A truck picked them up and dropped them off at a red brick house. Inside there were two Dutch policemen. They had been arrested! German soldiers arrived shortly thereafter and they began arguing with the truck driver. Alesiani thought they were haggling over the reward money. He found out later that the driver was trying to keep them out of German custody, but to no avail, and they all spent the remainder of the war in a German POW camp. Dolly was the only 390th aircraft that failed to return that day, although three others were extensively damaged by the flak and a fourth sustained moderate damage.

Ary Verwaal was a twelve year old boy living in Holland near Dolly’s crash site. He remembered the big letter J in a square on the tail of the airplane. Between all of the townsfolk many souvenirs turned up. Ary’s father had been given a leather jacket by one of the crew members he helped to cross the canal after the crash landing and now it was in Ary’s possession. As he grew older he wanted to learn more about the crew and the history of the airplane that glided to earth that day, and thought it would be nice to give the jacket back to its rightful owner. His first attempts to find out anything about the incident were unsuccessful. Five years after the first attempt he tried again and made better progress. His daughter was a nurse in Los Angeles and through her connections with a colonel in the USAF was able to provide him with the address of the “Ex-POW Bulletin”, a monthly magazine for American ex-POWs. Ary wrote a letter to the editor of the magazine detailing his search for the crew of the bomber and just before Christmas 1992 Herman Alesiani wrote him back.

After corresponding for a while, the Alesianis made the trip to the Netherlands and met Mr. Verwaal and others who had witnessed his ordeal in 1944. They stayed for about a week reminiscing and Ary had many questions answered. Ary showed Herman the jacket and Herman deduced that it belonged to one of the pilots. He came to this conclusion because of the wear marks on the back of the jacket. When pilots wore their jackets on long mission they shifted in their seats and the leather rubbing up against the armor plating on the seats created worn out areas. The mayor and the citizens of the town of Lekkerkerk, a town near the landing site, threw a reception for them and afterwards they took Herman to the site. Herman bent over and kissed the ground, thankful to be able to revisit the area 50 years later.

Mr. Verwaal continued to try and track down other members of the crew. He and his wife made a trip to England in 1995 and visited the site of the airfield at Framlingham. Due to his daughter’s connections he was also able to get in touch with the 390th Memorial Museum. John Warner sent him the address of Dolly’s pilot, Bernie Strait, and Ary was able to correspond with him. Later on, in 1995 Ary wrote a letter to George Wilson, the co-pilot, and much to his delight, George Wilson answered him. He compiled all of the recollections of the three crewmembers he located and wrote a book titled, An Aircraft has Landed at the Tiendweg. There are a few discrepancies surrounding the story that are discussed in the book among which are: Did Dolly get hit by flak before or after bombing Frankfurt, and if they were hit before the target, did they bomb the target? Alesiani and Wilson say they were hit before the target with Wilson adding that they aborted and dropped their bombs in a field. Strait’s story has them being hit after they bombed the target, (reading the reports from other crews, it is likely that they were hit before the target and over Koblenz instead of Heidelberg). Ary’s book is in the 390th library and provides interesting reading. At the end of the book Ary explains that his “Dolly File” is still open and he continues to look for more information surrounding that memorable event in his hometown in February 1944.

Thomas Woodhouse
Museum Docent

Based heavily on Ary Verwaal’s Book

Editor’s Note:
Our Thursday docent, Richard Bushong, was a copilot on the “Dolly” crew and on a three day pass when this fateful mission occurred. Richard was relating his stories of near misses and spoke of the “Dolly” near miss during our Tucson reunion last year. Merrell Merrick, attendee at the reunion, identified himself as waist gunner on Dolly’s crew on that fateful day of 4 February 1944. Merrell attended the recent Museum’s reunion as well as the Veteran’s reunion here in Tucson.