Presentation by Jerry Beto compiling the research he has conducted on his uncle, Lieutenant Merrill O. Burton, who was a pilot during WWII.

1. Merrill O. Burton
His Journey

2. ● Overview
● Early Life
● Pilot Training
● War-Time
● Visit to Crash/Burial Site
● Questions & Answers

3. Overview

4. Date Comment
8/2/1916 Birth date, Harlem, Montana.
5/16/1934 Graduation, Harlem High School.
5/13/1942 Enlistment in Army Air Corp, Class 43H, Van Nuys, CA.
10/1942 Training: San Antonio, TX; Muskogee,
12/1943 OK; Greenville, TX – Majors Field; Houston, TX – Ellington Field;
Pyote, TX; Alexandria, LA; Grand Island,
NE-Kearney Air Field.
12/10/1943 Marriage to Katherine Mary Stoudt at Kearney Air Base.
12/13/1943 Departure from Kearney, to ferry B-17 to 8th Air Force, England.

5. 12/31/1943* Arrival in England.
1/12/1944 Assigned to 533rd Squadron.
2/20/1944 First mission (#68), Leipzig, Germany.
5/30/1944 Last mission (#121), Dessau, Germany.
5/30/1944 Burial, Village Cemetery, Piethen, Germany.
1946 Re-burial at American Military Cemetery; Margraten, Holland.
1948 Final burial at Riverside Cemetery, Dodge Center, MN.
*Approximate date

6. Early Life

7. Merrill’s Father & Mother
Morris & Ella Burton

8. Morris And
Ella Burton
1940’s

10. Harlem

11. Aerial Panorama--Harlem, Montana
Population 800-1,000

13. Training

14. 8th
Air
Force

15. November, 1942

16. June, 1943. Majors Field. Greenville,
Texas.
Basic Vultee-BT-13A.
450HP
“A Good Airplane”

17. Alexandria, Louisiana

19. Letter written by Merrill on August 27th, 1943
from Ellington Field, Texas:
“Dear Folks. If I never see the state of Texas
again, it will be too soon to suit me.”

20. Marriage December 10,1943.
Army Air Base
Grand Island, NE.
Three days prior to departure for
England.

21. Ridgewell

22. Organization Chart,
Eighth Air Force
Ridgewell

25. 381st
Bomb
Group
Ridgewell,
England

27. Aerial photo from the East, circa 1943.
533rd Squadron

28. Dessau-Junkers
Ridgewell

29. Letter written by Merrill on March 1st, 1944
from Ridgewell:
“Dear Dad. The thing that really gets the boys going over here is the
strikes back there. Most of them seem to be making good money and
we need the stuff they’re making. Besides that they’re in good old
U.S.A. If these boys over here were to get a hold of a bunch of strikers,
hell would be to pay for sure”

30. 6 Missions
1 20 Missions
Ridgewell
Dessau-Junkers

31. Leipzig 2/20/44
Villacoublay, France
5/20/44Minnie the Mermaid
Sweet and Lovely Schweinfurt 2/24/44
Patches n’ Prayers Augsburg 2/25/44

32. Shack Rabbit
Gremlin’s Delite
Honey
Frankfurt 3/2/44; Dusseldorf 3/4/44; Berlin 3/8/44;
Oberpfaffenhofen 3/18/44; Frankfurt 3/24/44;
Marquise/Mimoyeques, France 3/26/44; St. Jean de
Anglesey, France 3/27/44;
Rheims/Champaigne, France 3/28/44.
Berlin 3/9/44
Mannheim 3/20/44
Cherbourg, France
4/27/44

33. Dreambaby
Baboon McGoon
Princess Pat
Berlin 3/22/44; Hamm 3/23/44; Oldenburg 4/8/44;
Brussels/Woensdrecht, Belgium 4/10/44;
Eschwege 4/19/44;
Erding 4/24/44; Brunswick 4/26/44
Croisette/LePlauy
Ferme, France
4/20/44
Berlin 5/8/44

34. Dreambaby
Berlin, Hamm, Oldenburg, Woensdrecht(Belgium),
Oranienburg, Eschwege, Earding, Brunswick.

35. “This time the Luftwaffe made at least a token
attack, Lt Merrill O. Burton, ‘Pilot of Princess
Pat’, who left our formation because he lost an
engine, reported he saw Jerries attacking
another group to which he attached himself”
Berlin. May 8, 1944.

36. Ole’ Swayback Dessau 5/30/44

37. Last letter from Merrill----May 14, 1944.
“Dearest Mother:
Today being mother’s day, the least I can do is write you a letter, I guess, and
wish you the very, very best always.
The crew I had before I went on leave, are flying on their own now. So I
haven’t had a crew. However, one of the other pilots finished up yesterday and
I guess I’ll get his crew. I hope so, because they are a bunch of good boys.
I should be finishing up before long but can’t be very sure that I’ll get home for
quite awhile yet.”

39. Dessau-Junkers

40. Dessau-Junkers

41. Distinguished
Flying
Cross

42. Air
Medal

43. Purple
Heart

44. The beginning of my research:
“The Diary”

45. War diary of Alvin
Berry(Navigator).
Final entry of 5/30/1944 made by
Lt John J. Anderson.
Lt. Anderson was an eyewitness
and a friend of Alvin’s.
“We hit flak at the target and
while we were on the bomb run
suffered severe fighter attack for
about 15 minutes. There were
about 100 enemy fighters and we
had 7 passes at us in 15-20
minutes”

46. “Lt. Burton’s plane was on fire and
several parachutes were seen to
come from it before it went into a
spin and exploded.
I rushed back to our hut to itemize
Al’s clothing and personal
equipment before it was taken, as
asked by him. I also picked up this
diary which I will try to get to his
wife Naomi.
If I go down I hope someone get’s
this to Al’s wife.”

47. Interviews with surviving crew members:
Lt. Alvin Berry, Navigator
S/Sgt Robert Hammond, Bombardier
Sgt Robert Hittel, Tail Gunner
S/Sgt James Marbry, Radio Operator

48. Interview of Al Berry, Navigator, on last mission.
“Hit in the right wing, between #3 and #4 engines,
by a ME-109 at approx 28,000 feet”
“Get the hell out of here” was the last command he
heard from Merrill.”
“The wing separated, the plane started to spin,
creating centrifugal force which pinned Al and Bob
Hammond(bombardier) to the interior cabin wall. Al
started to lose conciseness and pulled his rip-cord
at the last moment. The plane exploded. Al’s flight
boots were torn off as he was blown from the
plane.”
“He regained consciousness at approx 20,000 ft”
“Several angry farmers surrounded Al and began
to kick and punch him.”

49. “Al was held as a POW in Stalag
Luft III in Sagan, Germany until
Feb 45. He was then marched in
snow up to his knees to Muskau
to escape the Russians.

50. Telephone Interview with Robert Hammond,
Bombardier.
“It was a clear, beautiful day. Our fighter escort
had just left us when the ME-109’s came in
from the front. Our plane was hit in the right-
wing fuel tanks by 20 mm explosive rounds.
I saw the face of the ME-109 pilot.
I grabbed my parachute, saw fire on the wing
and yelled to Merrill--”Fire on the wing”. Merrill
quickly confirmed the fire and yelled “bail out”. I
was the last person to speak to Merrill.
I pulled my ripcord at approx 8,000 ft. I was
unconscious most of the way down.

51. “I hesitated to pull the rip-cord because of
falling debris from the explosion.
Bob Hittel, tail gunner, and I were
captured first. I saw Al Berry the next
day.
I flew the previous day on mission # 120
to Pozen, Poland with Merrill.
Merrill was a good pilot.”

52. “I was held as a POW(with Bob Hittel--tail
gunner) at Stalag Luft IV in Poland. It was
a new camp, still under construction. I
entered the camp at 5’ 9” 160 lbs. No red
cross food for first 2-3 months. I weighed
approx 120 lbs when liberated.
Stalag Luft IV was closed in Feb 1945.
We then marched and moved
continuously thru Northern Germany,
near the Elbe River, until we were
liberated by the British on May 5th,
1945.”

54. Telephone Interview with Jim Marbry, Radio
Operator.
“I transferred to the 533rd squadron on 1/12/1944,
following the raid to Oschersleben, Germany(mission
# 59 on 1/11/1944) in which the 533rd lost 6 of 9
planes. Merrill transferred to the 533rd on the same
day.
Mission # 121 was my first flight with Merrill. I was
comfortable with Merrill because Captain
Watson(Pilot of my regular crew on “Dreambaby” had
“checked out” Merrill when he had arrived at
Ridgewell in December 1943. It was Watson’s
opinion that Merrill was a “good pilot”.
I fumbled with the escape hatch, but was unable to
make any progress.I was losing consciousness and
vaguely remember being pushed out by Pillot(waist
gunner). Pillot also helped Hittel(tail gunner) out
before bailing out himself.

55. Marbry(Continued):
I woke up at about 18,000 ft but did not pull the rip cord
due to falling debris. I finally opened my chute at 600’ to
800’ and landed hard---rolling forward. The fuselage
landed 25-50 yards from me and spun 1-2 full turns after
impact. I dove into a nearby wheat field and hid the next
11-12 hours. We had been shot down at about noon.
During the night they searched for me with dogs. After
walking for sometime alongside a country lane, I
bumped in-the -dark into a luftwaffe soldier. I explained
that I was an “American flyer”
He took me to his camp(very small, 4-6 soldiers). They
kept me up all night to talk--they were very curious. They
explained that Hitler was “no good”, they knew the war
was lost.
I was moved by train to Stalag Luft IV in the Polish
corridor, near Danzig, Germany.

56. continued(Marbry):
The Stalag had 4 compounds with 1500 prisoners per compound. The
Russians were advancing, and on about April 1st, 1945, I was jammed into a
boxcar for a 9 day trip to Nuremberg.
We were then forced to march to Moosburg, where we stayed in tents for the
next 3-4 weeks.
We were liberated on April 29th, 1945 by Patton’s army.

58. “Dreambaby” May 30th, 1944, as told
by Harry Hoop.
Photo taken upon return to base from
mission #121 to Dessau. Germany.
Fabric burned off vertical & horizontal
stabilizers as a result of the explosion
of Merrill’s plane.
Dreambaby flew immediately
adjacent(front & left) to Merrill’s plane.
Harry Hoop was Engineer Top Turret
Gunner on Dreambaby, and took the
photo.

59. Interview with Merrill’s sister,
Mary:
Merrill stayed on the farm until
December, 1936, when he went to
California to attend school but was
so “flying interested” that he spent
his money to learn to fly.
Merrill was listed as missing-in-
action until August, 1944

64. Poem written by Alvin
Berry(Navigator)
memorializing the events of
May 30th, 1944.
Written in September, 1944
while Alvin was a POW.

67. Official notification from the War
Department to Mrs. Morris
Burton(Merrill’s mother) that
Merrill was originally interred in
Piethen, Germany, later moved
to Margraten Military Cemetery
in Holland.
17 december, 1946.

68. My visit to Piethen
October, 2014

70. Cemetery
Crash Site

71. Left to right:
Heinz Renneberg
(eyewitness) from
Piethen
Jerry Beto
Manfred
Schreiber(eyewitn
ess) from Grobzig
Crash Site

72. Heinz, pointing to
grave location.
Piethen
Cemetery. 1944-
1946

73. Piethen
Cemetery.
Merrill’s grave site
is in the distance.
Grave Site

74. Merrill’s grave at
American Military
Cemetery.
Margraten, Holland.
1946-1948.

75. Junkers Ju 52.
Designed at Dessau.
Civilian and Military use
from 1931 to 1952.

76. Junkers Ju-87.
Stuka dive bomber.

77. Jumo(Junkers Motoren)
004 was the world’s first
successful axial
compressor jet engine ever
built, powering the
Messerschmitt Me 262.
Me 262 was the first
operational jet-powered
fighter.

78. Kothener Zeitung
(Kothen Newspaper).
October 29th, 2014.
(German)

79. Kothener Zeitung
(Kothen Newspaper)
October 29th, 2014.
(English)

80. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung
(Central German
Newspaper).
November 2nd, 2014
(German)

81. 1
Mitteldeutsche Zeitung
(Central German
Newspaper).
November 2nd, 2014
(English)

82. 2
(English, continued)

83. 3
(English, continued)

84. Questions & Answers