Watch Lost in WWII Is Returned to U.S

EVANSTON, Ill. - Jim Hoel is very glad to have his watch back, even though it's stopped working since he last saw it — during World War II.

The last time he remembers wearing the old Gallet chronometer was on May 17, 1943, the day he used it while navigating a B-26 Marauder before the bomber was forced to ditch in a canal in the Netherlands.

He knows he no longer had the elaborate watch when he arrived at a German prisoner of war camp a few days later.

The watch arrived at his home this past week in a package sent from England by truck driver Peter Cooper, 56, who found it in the possession of an elderly neighbor in the village of Kirton, about 75 miles northeast of London.

"It's just eerie, isn't it? That was 60 years ago. I've sort of got gooseflesh," Hoel, 82, told the Chicago Tribune.

Cooper said the neighbor, "Tiny" Baxter, 89, told him his mother gave it to him.

"Whether she found it or it was given to her, I do not know," Baxter, a retired carpenter, said in a telephone interview.

The watch, an enlistment present from the bank where Hoel worked before the war, bore his name and Evanston address on its back.

Cooper was able to track him down at his new address using the Internet and friends who had contacts in the United States. He got his neighbor to give the watch to him so he could forward it to Hoel.

Hoel said the B-26 was one of a flight of 10 that encountered heavy anti-aircraft fire while en route to bomb a power plant near Amsterdam. He and three others of the plane's six crewmen survived, as did 16 other fliers from the 60-man mission. He spent the next two years in German prisoner of war camps.

Don't turn into an service vs. service thing.
The USMC took A LOT of casualties in the Pacific Theater of Operations. In fact, the casualty rates were higher for the USMC than the Army in WWII. THE PTO was a "holding" operation, where supplies and support took a back seat to the European war. They did a lot with a little.

FWIW, I'm a 15-year Army veteran and hold ALL of those guys in high regard.

During WW2, my Grandfather was the First Sergeant of a Combat Engineer Company. Just after D-day, they were building a pontoon bridge and taking sporadic small arms fire and the occasional mortar round. Anyway, overhead comes this smoking, sputtering German fighter of some kind. The pilot bails out and comes down on the wrong side of the river. The pilot is captured and my Grandfather, who spoke a little German, ends up talking to him and "borrowing" his watch.

Leap forward to the late 50's and to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL. My Grandfather gets called in to his supervisor's office to meet an engineer visiting from White Sands, N.M. My Grandfather walks in to the office and there sat the German pilot that they had captured in 1944. My grandfather remembered him because he had a huge birthmark on one side of his face. Of course, they talked about it and the pilot mentioned his watch. My Granfather laughed and told him "spoils of war". I still have that watch.

"The 8th AF lost more men in the skys over Europe than all of the Marines, in all of the Pacific in all of the war.....

Perhaps a larger PERCENTAGE of the total force in action over enemy territory, but certainly NOT A LARGER NUMBER of men lost in action.

Semper Fi

It would seem too few understand the sacrafice of the "fly boys" of WWII (Not picking on you, lots of folks don't understand) It was not uncommon to lose 30% or more of all aircraft *on a single mission* and with 10 or more crew on each A/C............

I pulled data on Maine casualties (dead and wounded) and for the 8TH.

My late uncle survived horible wounds at Anzio = only to be transfered to the 8th AF - he was convinced the Army was trying to finish him off. Luckly, an undstanding Commander assigned him to be a firefighter, he only had to unload the dead and dying......

From the archives of the US govt -
KIA Wounded, Died, Invalided
Total, all actions
Navy 34607 972 909 4647
Marine 17376 1682 510 10063
Total 51983 2654 1419 14710

From the Offcial history of the 8th AF:

From May 1942 to July 1945, the Eighth planned and precisely executed America’s daylight strategic bombing campaign against Nazi-occupied Europe, and in doing so the organization compiled an impressive war record. That record, however, carried a high price.

For instance, the Eighth suffered about half of the U.S. Army Air Force’s casualties (47,483 out of 115,332), including more than 26,000 dead.

The Eighth’s brave men earned 17 Medals of Honor, 220 Distinguished Service Crosses, and 442,000 Air Medals. The Eighth’s combat record also shows 566 aces (261 fighter pilots with 31 having 15 or more victories and 305 enlisted gunners), over 440,000 bomber sorties to drop 697,000 tons of bombs, and over 5,100 aircraft losses and 11,200 aerial victories.

I enjoy the freedom I have today because many a brave man, in all branches of service, paid for that freedom in blood.

BTW - I am a vet and vote in evry election!

Don't turn into an service vs. service thing.

My objection isn't to the Marine Corps - certainly a valiant group of fighters. I do object strongly, however, to the portrayal in the news media of the Marine Corps as the only branch of the armed services who ever do any fighting.

And this coverage wasn't limited to World War II. If any thing the coverasge was even more lopsided during 'my' war- the Korean conflict.

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