"Rhapsody in Junk - A Daughter´s Return To Germany To Finish Her Father´s Story"

This book is the culmination of three year’s of research in four countries. By meticulously combing the archive records in England, Germany, Poland and the United States, Marilyn Jeffers Walton has reconstructed the final mission of her father and his crew and located the German cemetery where one crewmate, killed the day the plane was shot down, was buried. She searched for and found the remaining men of the crew of “Rhapsody in Junk” and reunited them after sixty years. Interviews with the crew and fellow prisoners of war contributed puzzle pieces, put together bit by bit, that enabled her to find where they were captured and interrogated. By searching old records, letters, diaries and mission records, she was finally able to return to Germany and find the crash site of her father’s B-24 where pieces of the plane still remained. To her astonishment, she met the woman who watched her father bail out and saw the very field where he landed. During her return to Germany, she connected emotionally with the people of the peaceful farm community of Wagersrott where her father was taken prisoner over six decades before. In her quest to reconstruct the mission and her father’s prisoner of war experiences, Walton presents not only his story but the stories of the British and German people who both suffered greatly, all caught up in the dictates of a mad man. Revealed within the pages is a first-hand account of the bombing of Dresden from a German couple who survived it. Walton’s odyssey through Europe allowed her to discover the rich fabric of the people who endured and survived the war and to weave their stories into a multi-faceted mosaic that reflects the personal experiences of World War II.
(Text by authorhouse.com)

 
(Source of aircraft picture:George Raynolds)

The 8 th Air Force flew a mission to Fassberg on June 18, 1944. The plane lost engines 1, 3, and 4 over Hamburg due to flak. The plane lost altitude, left the formation and flew east towards Kiel with the goal of reaching neutral Sweden. Over Kiel, the plane was attacked by the flak batteries at Barkelsby. Lt. Northrop rang the bail out bell, and the crew parachuted from the plane. Nine men survived, and the flight engineer/ top turret gunner, Sgt. Harold Flaugher, was KIA.   The crew was held by the German Marines and after two days of interrogation, they were sent to Dulag Luft, in Frankfurt.

 

 

From left to right (standing): C.C. Clifford Jr., J.Risko, A.Cardenas, H. Flaugher, L.E. Dean, J. Gonzales

(kneeling left to right): F.Deimel, H.Northrop, D.P.Butler, T.Jeffers

(Photo: Marilyn Walton & T.J. Relling)

 

Sgt. Cardenas	1Lt. Brodek	2Lt. Jeffers	J.J. Gonzales

2Lt. Butler with wife	J.Gonzales and Brother	Prisoner card index 2Lt. Jeffers

L.E. Dean im Stalag IV	L.E. Dean	L.E. Dean

 

Harold J. Flaugher
(Thanks to Paul Patist for the gravestone photo !)

 

After 60 years : Gonzales, Cardenas, Marilyn Walton and Dean	Marilyn Walton with her father T. Jeffers (+)	Marilyn Walton with her father T. Jeffers (+)

 

My special thanks to Mrs. Marilyn Walton, the daughter of deceased Thomas Francis Jeffers, for sending me numerous photos. In the left photo of Marilyn Walton, her father holds a strainer made from the aluminum of his plane. Also seen is a black rubber patch from the tire of the plane that Mrs. Walton found in the woods at the crash site (right). On a visit to the crash location, Mrs. Walton met with Gretchen B. who gave her the gifts. It was she who watched Thomas Jeffers bail out as his plane flew over the roof of her home

Further, I would like to thank Darin Scorza who kindly sent me the MACR and put me in touch with Mrs.Walton.