People and Artifacts

The vessel Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse

THOMAS TSCHREPPEL was born in the South of Austria (Europe). At the end of 1913, he had set sail aboard the vessel 'Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse' in Bremen (Germany) to find his destiny in the USA.

Upon arriving in the Promised Land, the 24-year-old bachelor changed his name into TOM SCHREPPEL, hoping this would make him untraceable to the Austrian authorities in case they wanted to enlist him in the Army.

The other reason was that 'Tom Schreppel' sounded nicer and was easier to pronounce for the English speaking population, thus, an advantage in the integration process.

The growing war threat in the Old Continent had increased the demand for land minerals. The arrival of these Europeans was just timely to explore the coalfields in the state of Kansas. Tom and his fellowmen rendered hard labor with meager wages working as coalminers in the New World.

Tom fell in love with Barbara Glickenburger, of German origin. After their marriage they settled down in Girard, one of those fast growing towns around Pittsburg, the centre of the coalmine industry in Kansas.

Tom Schreppel

Barbara Glickenburger

We knew little about Tom and Barbara's firstborn son named Joe. For sure he grew up like any other American kid, going fishing, hunting and playing baseball, basketball or football.

On the 21st of May 1942, he made the most daring decision in his life by enlisting himself to the USAAF at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas at the age of 23.

His stations as provided through military records:

His unit, the 385th Bomb Group (Heavy), 548th Bomb Squadron, was formed in February 1943 and completed training at the end of May 1943. After that, their B-17 aircrafts had moved to England to reinforce the 8th Air Force, also known as the famous 'Mighty Eight'.

Sgt. Joe and the 548th Squadron, had to make the voyage by sailing on the Queen Mary. His new home base became Great Ashfield, a small town in East Anglia in the UK. He and his crewmembers had familiarized with their new B-17 bomber, serial number 42-5886, which they nicknamed 'The Jolly Roger'. They didn't fly combat until the 9th mission of the 385th BG. The target was the airfield of Vitry-en-Artois, France. It was what they called 'a milk run'.

Second mission to Regensburg, Germany was launched just two days later. The courageous but combat green-horned crew fell prey to highly skilled Nazi plane fighters. The Jolly Roger was shot down; a few of the crew had survived, while Sgt. Joe was heavily wounded. Rescued by the kind-hearted locals, to them he clearly uttered these words:

Joe Schreppel

Linda Schreppel

Married to Joe Schreppel, a nephew who is named after his uncle, Sgt. Joe Schreppel.

Linda and her son Joseph were the first ones who replied to my inquiries when I started my investigation.

Jeff Schreppel

Jeff is a History teacher and basketball coach at the Oswego High School. He provided me with more information on Sgt. Joe almost on a daily basis.

Thanks to the Internet our communication was very intens as well as inspiring; through email we exchanged text and pictures being used by Jeff instantly in the classroom and by myself in this research project.

Michel Bosman in 1945

Together with his scoutmaster Cuvelier, Michel Bosman cut the cords of Sgt. Joe Schreppel's parachute and rescued him from the fire. After the liberation of Belgium in 1944, Michel joined the Allied Forces and fought against the Nazi's till the end of the war.
(Photo taken in 1945. Contributed by M. Bosman).

I came to know more about Michel Bosman when I read his testimony in the Missing Air Crew Report over 'The Jolly Roger' (his unforgettable encounter with Sgt. Joe). Anxious to personally meet him, I came to the idea of adressing all the phone subscribers under the name Bosman, and began dialing those telephone numbers.

Michel Bosman today.

What a coincidence, the first number I called was immediately Michel and it was incredibly surprising to know that he's living just a walking distance from my village.

After a short negotiation, he agreed to be interviewed by me. After reading his own testimony in the Missing Air Crew Report, he confirmed all the written facts, but disowned having declared those facts.

He suggested that Frans Cuvelier, his former scoutmaster,
could have redacted the statement because by that time (December, 1945), Michel himself had already joined the Allied army.

Mrs. Cuvelier.

Michel Bosman's supposition that scoutsmaster Cuvelier could have written the testimony challenged me to do another investigation. With my former success of consulting the telephone directory, this time I wrote to a dozen of Cuvelier's in the region. After a few days, I received a phone call from Frans Cuvelier's widow.

This charming elegant lady told me that her late husband had died in 1989 but that she was well informed by him about the Schreppel tragedy. I was astonished when she confided to me that she was still keeping some artifacts that once belonged to Sgt. Joe.

Thanks to Mrs. Cuvelier, Sgt. Joe's hand-glove has been sent by mail to the Schreppel family in Kansas after more than 60 years of safekeeping.

Frans Cuvelier
Born: 1924
Died: 1989

(Photo taken in 1946. Artifacts contributed by Mrs. Cuvelier)

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Luc is a successful amateur researcher specialized in warplane crashes in the Northern region of Belgium. He lives in Zoersel, ironically the centre of this story.

Luc supplied me with numerous documents, witnesses' declarations and links. He was able to trace Jörg Kiefner, the German fighter pilot believed to be the one who finally shot down 'The Jolly Roger'.

Ball bearings.

They were the reason of the tragedy on August 17, 1943. Hitler needed millions and millions of ball bearings to keep his war machine literally rolling.

The Allied had to stop the production by bombing the factories in Schweinfurt. But the unpredicted strong German air defense decimated the American bomber fleets.

It turned into one of the bloodiest and costliest air battles in WW II.

Mrs. Jeanne De Feyter shows to Luc Cox, Justin Schreppel and his wife Misty, the exact spot where airman Joe Schreppel came down.


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Eye witness statement by Jeanne.

Mrs. Jeanne De Feyter as 13-year old.


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