 |
| Fred Zinn in His French and American Uniforms |
By James Patton
Recently, The Military Times ran a feature article by Jon Guttman about how, on 7 October 1918, Cpl. Ralyn Hill, an Illinois National Guardsman in the 33rd Division, heroically rescued an injured pilot from a crash-landed plane on the German side of the Meuse River. The identity of the pilot (who died from his injuries) was not recorded at the time; it was later determined that he was 2nd Lieut. Wellford MacFadden, Jr. of the 103rd Pursuit Squadron, U.S. Army Air Service. Guttman’s story was picked up by several feeds, including NewsBreak and even Google News. If you‘re not familiar with the story, it’s well worth the read. HERE.
However, there’s another story worth telling, that of the person responsible for making the identification of MacFadden’s burial site. Friedrich Wilhelm “Fred Zinn (1892-1960) – his name is very German, but he was born in Galesburg, Michigan. After he graduated from the University of Michigan, his family sent him on the “Grand Tour” of Europe. So it was that he was in Paris when war was declared, and on that day he was one of 43 Americans who impulsively joined the Légion étrangère. Serving as an infantry soldier, it is claimed that he was the first American to capture a prisoner of war. He was wounded twice, the second time on 1 February 1916
On 14 February he (and several other prominent Americans) were transferred into the Aéronautique Militaire. After a brief visit to Michigan, he went through training and was first assigned to Escadrille F-14 as an Observer/Gunner, riding in a Nieuport 12. Later he was transferred to Escadrille SOP-24, where he flew in the back seat of a Sopwith 1A.2 “Strutter”. Since he was an American, he is listed as a member of the ‘Lafayette Flying Corps’ (not an official French unit). Although he was never assigned to the Lafayette Escadrille N-124, as they were a fighter squadron, he is known to have performed reconnaissance missions for them. Zinn was promoted several times while in French service, so had booked extensive combat zone patrol experience before the U.S. even entered the war.
He was a pioneer in the development of aerial photography techniques, especially for low level spotting of German troop locations and alerting the French forces opposing them. In October 1917, he was one of the first batch of Americans serving with the Aéronautique Militaire to be transferred to U.S. service. Reportedly, he was personally selected by Lieut. Col. ‘Billy’ Mitchell (1879-1936), then CO of the new US Army Air Service. Zinn was commissioned as a Captain and assigned to Mitchell’s staff at GHQ Chaumont, where he established the first aviation reconnaissance and photographic interpretation programs. As the G2, he also headed up the personnel section, which included the assignment of replacement air crew.
In November 1918, although he was one of a handful of Americans who had actually served for the entire war, he didn’t see his work as done. There were nearly 200 air crew lost in combat who had no known grave, and he proposed to lead a team of Army volunteers to go out and find them. The Army said ‘yes’, so while most soldiers went home to triumphal parades, he went to Berlin to talk with former enemies like Ernst Udet, and comb through the German records, seeking the fate of the missing Americans.
With a staff of four, by the end of 1919, Zinn had tracked down the remains or personal effects of 194 missing men. Only then did he close up and return home to work for the family business, which was milling grain for Kellogg’s cereals.
 |
| Zinn Manning the Observer/Gunner Post |
As said above, Zinn’s story intersects with Ralyn HiIl's story because it was Zinn’s team that found 2nd Lieut. MacFadden, buried two miles west of Brieulles in a French concentration cemetery. He had likely been first buried elsewhere, probably in a village or church cemetery. If MacFadden was the pilot that Hill rescued, it seems unlikely that he was shot down near Brieulles, which was not in the 33rd Division’s sector at the time.
The German records showed that there were no allied planes claimed by German pilots in that sector on that day. Since Hill’s story says that the SPAD crashed behind the German position on the east bank of the Meuse River, it seems likely that MacFadden had decided to strafe the German positions and was hit by well-aimed return fire.
Zinn joined the Officer’s Reserve Corps after it was formed in 1920. When WWII broke out, he went to Washington to meet with the new Chief of the Air Corps, then- Maj. Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold (1886-1950), whose staff was preparing the first comprehensive Air Corps Field Manual. Zinn wanted to designate a bureau to gather and preserve information about missing air crew. In spite of push-back and disinterest, with some effort he was able to establish the Missing Air Crew Reporting System (MACRS) – which was subsequently approved by the Chief of Staff, General George Marshall (1880-1959).
In 1942 Zinn was offered an active duty rank of Colonel, as were many senior business executives, but he only wanted to be in charge of the MACRS. The Army Air Force would not guarantee him that role, nor had they yet even implemented the plan, so Zinn went to a fellow Foreign Legionnaire who knew the right people, and Zinn got into the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
At the age of 50 he went through OSS training. Using an employment cover story provided by his friends at the W.K Kellogg Foundation, Zinn became a ‘spook’. His clandestine job was coordinating searches for missing air crew in enemy-held territory. He often worked in the field, personally overseeing the recovery of hundreds of missing men (dead or alive). On occasion he also performed counterintelligence duties for the OSS.
Click on Image to Enlarge
 |
| Honored Upon His Return |
Source: Pardoe, Blaine Lost Eagles: One Man's Mission to Find Missing Airmen in Two World Wars, Univ. of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment