Memorial Day 2008: 2nd Lt. Lloyd G. Crabtree
This is my great Uncle Lloyd. I feel so fortunate to have gotten to get acquainted with him in the last years of his life. I’d always heard about Uncle Lloyd who’d done a stint in a prison camp during the war. But he and Aunt Marge lived in Houston and then retired to Oregon so I didn’t get to see them all that much when I was growing up. Aunt Marge was my (paternal) Grandmother Osborne’s youngest sister, and she was married to Uncle Lloyd.
Uncle Lloyd was the only survivor of his B-17 bomber group. They were on their 4th mission, flying over Holland when they were shot down.
Recently, Footnote.com put up Missing Crew Reports as part of their holdings. I searched on Uncle Lloyd’s name, not knowing what to expect, but up came the report for his crew. All the names are there as well as Uncle Lloyd’s account of the 11 January 1944 incident. Perhaps the most poignant portion of this packet of materials is the “Individual Casualty Questionnaire” that Uncle Lloyd had to complete for each of his crew. He had to write “I think he was killed by enemy gunfire in ship” 9 times, once on each form for each crew member. Once it is crossed out and replaced by “He probably was killed when ship crashed.” This last was about the navigator who had opened his chute by mistake in the nose of the plane and couldn’t be persuaded to jump when it was time to go.
This packet of materials was evidently sent to him about 2 years after he returned home. His letter is dated 15 March 1946 from Blanco, Texas. He and Aunt Marge went to the Hill Country of Texas to a sheep ranch for some recovery time. Aunt Marge has written about the healing time they spent there in her own memoirs.
In 1979, Uncle Lloyd responded to another grand-niece’s request for an interview of a combat veteran. It was the impetus that let Uncle Lloyd finally talk to us about his war experiences. He eventually wrote Every Twenty-Nine Seconds which tells of his experiences during World War II. He said one of the first things he recalled was being in the nose of the B-17 before daylight. There were about 6 of the big birds ahead of his on the runway awaiting take off, and they were supposed to clear the runway every twenty-nine seconds. He tells about seeing the Zuider Zee as he was floating down out of his “ship,” and the Dutch woman whose thatched roof he landed on giving him gingerbread and milk before some of Goering’s Youths took him into custody.
He included some correspondence he had with some of the crew members’ family members and with a Dutch researcher. The researcher asked Uncle Lloyd if he would go again. Here’s his reply:
As terrible as it was, it was the price that we had to pay to keep America free. Yes, I would go again. If we had not gone, this present generation would probably not be allowed to ask questions to search for the truth.
The freedom to ask those questions was really really important to Uncle Lloyd. He was a gentle, funny, loving man. This Memorial Day I’ve been thinking about him a lot.
This is a wonderful tribite to Lloyd!
By the email account of my son I inform you that as an eleven years old boy I saw Mr. Cabtree landing on the roof of the farmhouse of my parents. The lady mentioned in this article was my mother. I also saw the crash of the plane.
If you are interested to see some pictures of the actual situation of the farm house and the kitchen, please pass me your email account
Yours sincerely
Derk A. Eilander.
Oh my goodness, what a blessing! I have to read this to my husband, whose father flew B-17s also. You are really fortunate to have heard from Derk! I’m happy for you. Thank you so much for sharing your good news!
Lloyd George Crabtree is my uncle. He is the older brother of my mother, Mary Frances (Crabtree) Smith. He is the son of William Frank Crabtree and Jesse Cornwell. I spent much time with my uncle. He and Aunt Margaret were sources of enriching experiences for me as a boy. My uncle took me into Mexico, to a heavyweight prize fight, to a symphony, to a medical school cadaver display, and never let me beat him at checkers. He would not talk about his WWII experiences to me when I was a child. This past October as I flew from Amsterdam to Berlin, I wondered if I was somewhere over where he flew and over the place where “the flaming skull” was shot down. Aunt Margaret was a warm, intelligent and loving person. I miss them both. They provided parenting beyond what was available to me at home. Uncle Lloyd was kind, gentle and practiced dead pan humor. He and Aunt margaret taught the 3 year old Sunday School Class at Bethany Methodist in Houston for qite a while. Although childless, they loved and nutured and encouraged as they taught. I do not think Lloyd ever showed anger in my presence, and Aunt Margaret was only angry once in my presence. It was after we had seen the African Queen in McAllen and Lloyd was reading to me about leaches. He said something to my aunt that upset her to the extent that she threw her houseshoe at him. I guess she was ahead of her time in this respect also. She was a pioneer in the field of education and focused on autism. Thank you for posting this. An to the gent in Holland, I should very much like more information on lloyd’s capture at your home.
dfs@ballandweed.com