Richard A. Wertheim

lo kee

This is tangential to be sure but I was recently re-reading Paris France by Gertruide Stein, which she wrote on the eve of World War Two.

In it she writes of some French friends who said that if three generations can remember war, that is too many.

I thought of this when I saw that the person who may have been Mr. Wertheim's son served in Vietnam.

sebastiaan vonk

Hi Lo Kee,

I don't think it was Richard's son as Frank J. Braxl Jr. is born in 1947 and Richard died in 1944.

I hope you can answer this question. The last known address of Florence I have is in Valley Stream. I want to request her obituary, but as far I could find, there is no library in Valley Stream. Anyone who knows which Library I should contact? I thought the HENRY WALDINGER MEMORIAL LIBRARY. Is that correct? Thanks!

Best Regards,

Sebastiaan

bikerchic650

Sebastiaan, im pretty sure that Valley Stream has a library. check this out:

http://www.google.com/search?q=library+in+valley+stream&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

if that link doesn't work just google library in valley stream

sebastiaan vonk

Mhh, sent them an e-mail, but unfortunately no answer. Have to try something else then. Thanks anyway biker!

Regards,

Sebastiaan

jim shepherd

Sebastiaan,

I'm the webmaster of the 91st bomb group. The veterans of the group have a webring that they use to communicate with each other often about people or places related to their war time experiences. They may be able to find out more information about this 91st BG veteran. It's possible that one of these veterans actually knew him. Contact my father at [email protected], let him know that you received information from his son about the webring, and that you would like the veterans to do a search if they could. I also set up a new blog (only days old) that you could post on and maybe they could go there to read of your search (91stbombgroup.blogspot.com). Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

MOD

Bumping this as I'm now watching a Memorial Weekend tribute on channel 13. And they mentioned how people in the Netherlands and France adopt graves for our soldiers. God bless you all. My dad was a Veteran, I thank you all for your efforts and kindness.

Sebastianaan, please update us all as you learn more.

sebastiaan vonk

I'm very sorry for my late reply. I haven't had any time to do research in the past months so I haven't checked the forums.

@Jim. Thank you for reply. I know the webring and I believe they have sent an email a long time ago about Wertheim and his bomber, the My Darling Also. I believe it was Joe Harlick who responded with some photos of the bomber.

@Mamacita. Thank you very much! I have heard about this program. Had to be very interesting to watch.

Still haven't found the family, but we will keep trying!

sebastiaan vonk

Unfortunately, I still haven't had much in locating relatives so far. But I want to show you a few more recent photos of his grave. Including one photo of me next to his grave. Hope you will like them







Regards,

Sebastiaan

MOD

BUMP!

Happy Memorial weekend everyone!

sebastiaan vonk

I thought to share this piece of information about his burials and death:

At first Richard A. Wertheim had been buried as Unknown X-5082 in Plot Y, Row 10, Grave 243 in the American War Cemetery Ardennes in Neuville-en-Condroz. Before his body was transferred to the Ardennes Cemetery, he had been buried in a cemetery in Jaevenitz, Germany where his grave was marked with a marker that said Unknown American. Besides him, 8 other American soldiers were buried in this cemetery, including members of his crew.

All soldiers who had been buried in the Jaevenitz cemetery were identified as crewmembers of the bomber the My Darling Also. This bomber had crashed near Magdeburg in Germany. On 13 November 1949, the identification proces had officially been completed. A month later Richard A. Wertheim's relatives were notified that Wertheim's body had been recovered and identified. He was identified by various ways including by his dogtag that was found with his body, bomber wings, 2nd Lieutenant Bars and physical features like his ginger hair and his teeth. Also they had found tags in his clothing like "W-9149". The W stands for the first letter of his surname and the numbers are a part of his servicenumber.

On 13 February 1947 American soldiers visited the German town Jaevenitz and asked the mayor if he had more information about an airplane that had been seen burning in the vicinity of Jaevenitz. According eyewitnesses some men had left the plane by parachute. This all happened in March 1944. This plane was the My Darling Also. The bomber exploded in this vicinity and the bodies of crewmembers were found badly smashed by German citizens. German soldiers from Gardelegen took care for the bodies. They removed the personal belongings of the bodies and from 5 of them also the dogtags, before they buried the soldiers in the cemetery. Frits Matthis, a German citizin, had seen the dogtags of the soldiers and could recall the name of Wertheim, because it sounded like a German name. Only Richard A. Wertheim's body was identified immediately after it was recovered, because the dogtag had been buried with his body. However, it took over 2 years before he was officially identified. Till that time, he was still listed as Missing in Action.

Richard A. Wertheim's body was, still as Unknown X-5082, bured in the American War Cemetery Ardennes on 16 July 1947. Some parts of his body were missing, like a major part of his skull and almost all his fingers. His family didn't seem to know at that time that Richard A. Wertheim still was listed as Missing in Action, because his sister wrote a letter to the Army in 1947 in which she asked where her brother had been buried. The reply of the Army said that they still hadn't recoverd his body.

Richard A. Wertheim's wife Florence L. Wertheim received later some personal belongings and money of her husband. She remarried after the war.

Richard A. Wertheim was born on 15 November 1915 and died at the age of 28 on 6 March 1944 and has been buried in the American War Cemetery Ardennes in Belgium.

MOD

booklaw wrote: Everyone, there is a great documentary film on PBS tonight, at 9 PM, entitled "Hallowed Grounds". It is about the 23 US military cemeteries (for WWI and WWII casualties) throughout Europe, Tunisia and the Philippines.

Watching it now. I think it was the one I watched last year, but worth seeing again.

carnivore

Mamacita wrote: BUMP!

Happy Memorial weekend everyone!