Second Lieutenant
Dorenz Henry Meyer
He helped on his father's farm and grew up with three siblings, Henry 'Junior,' Robert and Henrietta.
Dorenz enlisted at Baer Field in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on August 26, 1942. (His father, Henry, was a World War I veteran.)
He graduated from the Advanced Training School in Frederick, Oklahoma as a flight officer in February 1944, and was assigned to the 15th Army Air Force, 743rd Bombardment Squadron, 455th Bombardment Group Heavy.
That group was stationed at San Giovanni Airfield, Italy. Dorenz arrived there in the latter part of 1944, and he flew with the 304th Bomb Wing in the B-24 Liberators.
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| B-24 Liberator. Lt. Meyer was a pilot. |
On Lt. Meyer's sixth mission, the group was scheduled to bomb the Blechhammer south oil refinery in Germany. (Blechhammer also had a sub-camp of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp nearby; those prisoners had helped build the refinery.)
It was October 13, 1944, when the 455th was to make two bombing runs - Mission 131.
The 455th was called "The Flight of the Vulgar Vultures." They carried 500 lb. bombs, 4200 rounds of .50 calibers for their ten machine guns, and 2nd Lt. Dorenz Meyer was the pilot of one of those B-24s, riding with nine other crew members.
Their mission called for 28 B-24 bombers, flying in units of four, rendezvousing at 22,000 feet. Their cover was a fighter command which flew out of Italy, 3 planes. They were to hit their target, the refinery, at 1130, and at 1133 aircraft 605, Meyer's B-24 took a direct flak burst amidship after it had dropped its bomb load at Blechhammer. The plane was split in half and went down in two parts.
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| Not the Meyer plane |
Lt. Meyer and seven other men were killed in action. Two men, Bietz and Crotti were captured and sent to a POW prison camp. *Actually only Crotti stayed alive as a POW.)
The official Mission 131 report noted:
"This was another day for double missions. We loaded the first mission with 500# ROX bombs to bomb the oil refinery at Blechhammer, Germany. Flak at this target was always intense and accurate, and this day was no exception. We lost two aircraft to flak, one plane managed to make it back to allied territory, and the crew was recovered.
We reported 11 crewmen missing and one killed in action. It was a rough mission as six planes received heavy damage and four with slight damage. The flak at Blechhamer was indeed accurate.
In 1945, Dorenz Meyer was posthumously awarded the Army Air Medal for "meritorious achievement in aerial flight while participating in sustained operational activities against the enemy from 24 September to 13 October 1944.' That award was given to his father, Henry Meyer, at a ceremony in their private home by Captain George Douglas of Baer Field.
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| Crescent-News, Jan. 16, 1945 |
In 1945, Dorenz Meyer was posthumously awarded the Army Air Medal for "meritorious achievement in aerial flight while participating in sustained operational activities against the enemy from 24 September to 13 October 1944.' That award was given to his father, Henry Meyer, at a ceremony in their private home by Captain George Douglas of Baer Field.
He also received the Purple Heart posthumously.
His body could not be recovered. His name is inscribed on the Tablet of the Missing at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, Belgium.
A cenotaph also stands in his memory in the St.John Lutheran Church Cemetery, Ridgeville Township, Henry County, Ohio.
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| Belgium |
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| St. John Lutheran Church Cemetery |
Sidenote: After the war, the only survivor of the crash and a POW for more than 11 months, George W. Crottie, took it as a mission to visit all the families of his crew who were deceased. It was a kind gesture to all of the parents and sibs back in the U.S. When he went to the Meyer household, he fell in love with Dorenz's sister, Henrietta, and the two married on Christmas Day, 1947.
Scott Lantow, Researcher
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