Crazy Horse: the tragedy of B-17G SH 42-30280

Big Week: The Battle for Air Supremacy

On February 21, 1944, the second day of Big Week, the Boeing B-17G SH 42-30280 Chief Crazy Horse participated in the bombings. Returning from a mission over Diepholz, the aircraft crashed into the IJsselmeer. This Flying Fortress was a radar-equipped aircraft, highly advanced for its time, part of the 812th Bombardment Squadron of the 482nd Bombardment Group, a special Pathfinder group operating from RAF Alconbury in Cambridgeshire. 

Of the thirteen crew members, twelve managed to parachute to safety, landing between Nunspeet and Ermelo on the Veluwe. While nine were captured and sent to POW camps in Germany, four evaded capture with the help of the Veluwe resistance. They were sheltered in Ermelo and later transported by train to South Limburg, aiming to escape via Belgium. Tragically, one crew member, Ralph William Holcombe from North Carolina, perished in the crash. At 26, he drowned in the cold waters of the IJsselmeer. His body was found by a fisherman from Bunschoten on April 28, 1944, and brought ashore. Ralph W. Holcombe is honored on the monument at the general cemetery in Zeewolde and at the aviator monument near the crash site close to De Verbeelding in Zeewolde.

For a comprehensive account of this event and its broader historical context, the book Crazy Horse provides detailed insights into the mission, the crew, and Operation Argument, the larger Allied offensive during which the crash occurred.