European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 19, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday october 19, 1991 the stars and stripes b Page 3 Gert Kohler Peers Over his glasses As he remembers a sky filled with enemy bombers and flak that crippled the american plane. A serial number is still legible on debris from the world War ii aircraft excavated at a Uschel Wick recalls How the american Forest crash site in Eastern Germany. Bomber barely missed her parents hotel. German photographers prepare their equipment to shoot the site where remnants of the american b-17 were found. Photos by Ken George memories from Page 1 War ii. When he came to Eastern Germany last month for his insurance business he put an and in the local papers asking people to Contact him if they knew of any air plane wreckage in the area. About 10 people contacted Benkel and he soon found what he was looking for. After unearthing pieces of the cockpit and Bones at the site last saturday Benkel and two members of the local museum were about to Call it quits when one of the workers dug up the Gold ring. A tree Root had grown through the Middle of the warped and tarnished ring Benkel said. Benkel said there could be thousands of other downed planes in Eastern Germany but most of the crash Sites have not been investigated. Standing on the Steep Hillside where the ring was found Gert Kohler pointed to where he saw the b-17 when it was shot in the left rudder by an anti aircraft gun in nearby Jena. Kohler then a 15-year-old student was standing in his Yard when the sky suddenly was filled with 311 enemy bombers from the 8th . Air Force based in England. One of their targets was a factory in Jena that produced Glass lenses for cameras binoculars and target locators used in air planes. After the bomber took the hit in the rudder it went into a nose dive before leveling out Over the town of Eisenberg. The plane dropped most of its bombs in an empty Field but one of them hit a House and killed 10 people Kohler said. The bombs that were dropped on the Field did not explode and later were cleared away by jewish prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration Camp. The plane made a Quick Circle around the City and was heading for an open Field when Kohler saw it disappear. Kohler said he then Rode his bicycle to the site and saw body parts a rear machine gun and a flak Vest. He said people were afraid to get too close to the crash because of the exploding bullets in the fire that blackened a Large area of the Forest. Six year old use i Wick was standing on a table when she and her family heard the plane coming. Wick said the flaming bomber attempted to land in a Small Clearing in front of her parents hotel but the Pilot appeared to decide that the Clearing was too Small and began climbing again. The plane however barely cleared the hotel and crashed about 200 feet above the Hill beside their House. The aircraft was about 200 feet shy of Clearing the Hill Weik said standing outside the family hotel that was reclaimed last easter. It had been taken by the former East German government in 1958. German soldiers removed much of the plane two Days after the crash. Weik said she and other children helped remove Metal pieces of the plane that were used for the War Effort but some aluminium pieces remained until the mid-1950s. A when the Sun was shining in the summer the snakes would sunbathe on the warm pieces a Weik said. She also would go to the site and pick blackberries that grew among the wreckage. Benkel plans to dig at the site until he returns to Kaiserslautern on nov. 22, but the museum staff will continue the excavation. Benkel said he is excited about the Opportunity to search for air planes in Eastern Germany now that the Border is open. But he said his group faces disadvantages such As Long distances to travel and a Lack of hotel vacancies