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 You are here: Home | 307th BG Index | Fred Carter Crew
Traendly Crew by Stan Batten
I had always wondered about my brother's service in WWII where he was lost when a B-24 went down in the South Pacific. So, when my wife found small note announcing the Southern California tour of a B-24 and B-17, she called the Collings Foundation and was advised to look at their web site for the schedule. We found the schedule, but we found more too. Click on the B-24 for more information - B-24 Veterans Group - Guest Book, WOW! My father was …, Does anybody know …, I flew in the …, Looking for …, etc. Reading the postings, I experienced a wide range of emotions. I scanned the messages including the archives back to 1996 and found many references to the 307 BG, my brother's unit, but one in particular caught my eye.
EVERT H. HEYNNEMAN quernico@aol.com I knew from little scraps of information that my brother's plane was lost 1 August 1945 on their way back to Morotai from a mission over Makassar. Hopeful that he could tell me something about that raid, I contacted Evert. He did even more; he helped me get started in my search for information about my brother Eugene V. Batten. Much of what follows resulted from that first contact with Evert. He first replied with the following entry in his journal:
Then, after several back and forth e-mails and dead end leads, he sent me some pages from Sam Britt's book "The Long Rangers: A Diary of the 307th Bombardment Group(H)". I contacted Jim Kendall at Evert's suggestion and in addition to more pages from "The Long Rangers" I got the address of Sam Brett and from him, the Co-Pilot Erwin Eckstein who sent me pictures and a crew list. All of these contacts prompted me to join the 307th Bombardment Group Association. Armed with a list of crew member's names, I searched the internet for possible contacts. Two name came up, Fred Taucher (Bombardier) and Joe Daly (Tail Gunner). One of the J. Dalys turned out to be a Pilot in the 372 not the tail gunner. But, I did make contact with Fred Taucher's widow. She sent some articles and a copy of the crew picture. Following a request for information in the 307th Newsletter, I was contacted by Rev. Earle Creamer who served with Eugene at Gunnery School, Radio School and Crew School. Together, they traveled to Morotai by boat and met occasionally on that Island. Later I made contact through the internet with Paul Daly, Joe Daly's grandson and John Bankus the grandson of Dempsey Bankus. Paul sent me a picture of Joe and Eugene and John led me to the PBY website where a description of August 2 rescue could be found. Much later I found the brother of the Navigator Stehling Wahlen who was also lost on the 1 August 1945 flight. Dan Wahlen sent two letters that his family received from the Pilot, Eugene Traendly, and the Bombardier, Fred Taucher, describing events of that day. This web page contains many of the documents I have collected about my brother.
Information on this page supplied by:
Stan Batten
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