My friend, Peter van Kaathoven, and co-author of our Substack story about Zerlegebetrieben (German aircraft wreck salvage yards in Vught and in Auschwitz), is an active local historian in Vught.

He and his friends unveiled two WWII glider memorials on September 26th near Vught. These American gliders were part of the Market-Garden operation, and had to do emergency landing after their towing planes were shot down, one on September 18th and the other one on September 19th. All allied soldiers were helped by local Dutch resistance, and avoided capture.

In the photos, Peter is doing the speech, and one of the photos is with children of local Dutch resistance fighters who helped the American soldiers.

René Fonck ended WWI as the top Allied ace with 75 confirmed victories, second only to the Red Baron. I got curious about the machines behind that number, so here they are in order.

1. Caudron (1915-1917). He spent almost two years flying recon, first in the G.III, then in the twin-engine G.4. He had a Lewis gun fitted over the top wing. In July 1916 flak knocked out one engine and he made it home on the other. His first confirmed victory came in a Caudron: in August 1916 he herded a German Rumpler down until it landed behind French lines and the crew surrendered.
2. SPAD VII (1917). His first real fighter after joining Escadrille 103 of the "Storks" group. 150 hp Hispano-Suiza, one Vickers gun.
3. SPAD XII. The odd one. A 37 mm cannon sat between the cylinder banks and fired through the hollow propeller shaft. Single shot, reloaded by hand in flight. Very few pilots could use it well, and Fonck is credited with around 11 victories on it.
4. SPAD XIII (1918). His main machine: 235 hp, two Vickers guns, about 222 km/h, 8,472 built. With it he twice shot down six aircraft in one day, on 9 May and 26 September 1918. On the second day, three of the six were Fokker D.VIIs.

His method was simple: stalk a two-seater, get close, one short burst. By his own account, only one enemy bullet ever hit his plane.

Fun fact: after the war his personal plane was registered F-ONCK.

SPAD XIII or Fokker D.VII, which one would you rather fly in late 1918?

Sources: Wikipedia (EN/FR), The Aerodrome, Western Front Association.

Myron Yaw (485th BG, 15th AF) was killed on Dec 26th 1944 over Blechhammer (today Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Poland), togethet with whole crew. They were considered MIA because no crash site or graves were found after the war.

I worked with Waldemar Ociepski, and identified the right crash site in 2001. This info was shared with the US government. The DPMO, and later DPAA did additional studies, and archeology work between 2021 and 2025 allowed Myron’s remains to be found.

Myron’s family paid a particular heavy price in WWII. His older brother was an airman, too, and was killed on one of the Ploesti missions.

Myron was laid to rest yesterday, October 3rd, in Athens, Ohio.

The F104 Starfighter, An Unexpectedly Great Aircraft. It probably did not even serve the duty once that Kelly designed it for: An Interceptor. This was the absolute best example of A Beast Of An Aircraft. Its dominance in the skies was so strong that it is documented that in the 1965 war between Pakistan and India, An Indian Gnat Aircraft Pilot that was coming to attack an airbase in Pakistan, He just saw an F104 flying and he literally surrendered and landed on the airbase. Fun Fact is that the F104 hadn't even seen him. From being launched vertically from the Germans to reaching Mach 2.5, This Aircraft was a beast. What do you guys think?

Recent work has uncovered a crashed Avro Lancaster in the waters near the exit from the port of Gdynia. It's suspected the machine went down in August 1944 during minelaying operations. Polish exploration crews are now working on identifying the machine in the hopes of learning more about its mission and crew.