On February 13th, 1945, my maternal great uncle, USAAF S/SGT Alphonse Zabinski flew over the skies of Euskirchen, Germany in a Martin B-26B Marauder with five other airmen. Their target was a Nazi railroad depot.
As the B-26 made its bomb run, it was hit by German anti-aircraft fire, destroying the plane and killing those on board. Alphonse was twenty years old.
An eyewitness described the loss:
“I saw 7IM (Lt. William’s Aircraft) hit by enemy flak on the bomb run about 20 seconds before bombs away. It exploded immediately in mid-air and went down in a sheet of flame off my right wing and disappeared from sight at about 11,000 feet. Other crew members saw it hit the ground and no chutes were seen.”
The image of the men who flew together that day is from July 1944. They are, left to right:
1st. Lt. Ancil Ross Williams, Jr. – Pilot
2nd Lt. Maurice Fuimer Crowley – Co-Pilot
2nd Lt. J. P. Brown – Bombardier
S/Sgt. Albert John Ryder – Engineer /Gunner
S/Sgt. Alphonse Zabinski – Radioman/Gunner
Sgt. Coyaso Cruz – Tail /Gunner
These airmen now share a common grave at Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.
When my late grandmother spoke to me of Alphonse, she told me he was a musician who danced on the way to the recruiter’s office. She said that he loved his country and its freedoms and that he sought to serve it joyfully in its hour of peril.
Alphonse and the men of his flight are among the Atlases upon which our civilization rests. May they never be forgotten.
Nicholas Provenzo 