My grandmother's younger brother was Wells Gibb Mendenhall. I know him better as my great uncle Gibb. Gibb fought in the Royal Canadian Air Force during WWII. He was an Air Gunner. On 21 February 1945 at 01:55 hrs. he was shot down over Oberhaussen, Germany. I was privileged and honored to be able to visit his gravesite in Reinburg Germany.
This is the site where my great uncle Gibb's plane crashed, in Ober Aussen, Germany. It was in the back garden of this home that the plane crashed and burned for 3 days. Later on, the wreckage was moved from the back garden and inspected ... they found some bodies, which they buried, but not Gibbs. A year later (1946) when Herr Brugger, the owner of the home and garden where the plane crashed, was cleaning up the wreckage again and found the remains of another body along with a silver ring which had the initials G.M. on it.
3 comments:
That is such a neat story. How great that you were able to visit this place!
I was so happy to stumble on to this post. My children's grandmother Georgia Van Orman is Gibb Mendenhall's sister. We have heard much of his story, but these photos from his burial grounds are precious. Do you happen to know who has his ring?
Today is our son Gibb's 6th birthday, so I decided to look up something to read him about the origin of his name and came across this page. The other kids liked the pics but Gibb (age 6 today) lost interest rather quickly. I'll give him a little longer before he realizes how cool being an air gunner is. Thanks for putting this up!
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