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Sept. 16, 2015
HARTINGTON — The memories will always linger for a Hartington man who survived one of the biggest air disasters in South Dakota history.
Lawrence Dreesen, who is now 95, was aboard one of the three B-17 bombers that were part of a training mission over South Dakota during World War II.
Eleven soldiers died in a mid-air collision of two bombers during a maneuver to switch formation.
Dreesen, who still lives in his house in Hartington, has clippings from newspapers and photos that tell the story of the crash.
Dreesen doesn’t need to look at the news stories or photos to remember that fateful day in 1943, though.
“We had been transferred from a base in Idaho to the base at Sioux City. It was the third phase of our training,” Dreesen said. “It was the first flight for the three squadrons to make in a training run.”
A trio of B-17 bombers from the 393rd Bomb Group, the “Flying Sioux” had taken off from their home base in Sioux City to practice formation flying and to inspect bombing and gunnery ranges.
The 32-ton planes, which were fairly new off the assembly line at $330,000 each, flew at a low altitude toward Pipestone, Minn., then veered northwest to Huron, S.D,, before turning back to Iowa.
Dreesen, 23 years old at the time, was the radio operator. He was sitting in a separate compartment behind the pilot when he heard a significant thump.
“The plane on the right was changing positions with the plane on the left. It didn’t go low enough when it tried to pass beneath our plane,” Dreesen said. “I felt the bump. I looked out the window and the propeller of our plane was chewing up the tail of the other plane. At first we were told to bail out. Then the pilot said we would ride it out.”
With two engines out and a third on fire, the bomber was so severely damaged the pilot could barely keep it in the air. The plane struggled for another eight miles before belly landing on a creek embankment.
“It was a pretty rough landing. We hit a creek bank,” Dreesen said. “We landed by a farm place and came close to the house.”
All 11 crew members on the plane survived. There were no survivors on the other plane.
