The Hill of Remembrance

By tradition, the members of the Second World War American Civil-Military Re-Enactor and Short-Film Making Association invite the staff of the Ministry of Defence and the US Embassy in Hungary to a joint remembrance every year. On the chapel hill of Szigliget, two adjacent memorials commemorate those Hungarian and US soldiers who fell during the years of World War II in the service of their countries.

The American memorial is a personal monument too, since there are five names inscribed on its marble sheet, in addition to the lines conjuring up history. These are the names of five young men who lost their lives in the area of Szigliget on June 30, 1944. The five belonged to the 10-person crew of a B–24 bomber, which took off on a sortie against the oil refinery of Blechhammer, a town formerly part of Germany, today part of Poland. The 30-plus bomber unit was unable to reach the target due to unfavorable weather conditions, so the headquarters ordered the aircraft to abort the mission. A formation of five bombers, however, never received the order. They kept flying in a thick cloud cover, and did not notice that they remained alone until they reached Lake Balaton. By the time they were able, one after another, to securely turn into the direction of their base in Italy, the 35-40 German and Hungarian fighters searching for them in defence of Hungary’s airspace were on their tails, and four of the unprotected bombers burst into flames and fell to the ground. Only one US bomber was able to escape.

2nd Lt. Robert C. Evans, the pilot of the aircraft which hit the ground in Szigliget, showed superhuman strength in keeping his damaged plane steady so his comrades can have a chance to jump out of it. Seated in the cockpit, he was unaware, however, that four of his comrades had already been killed on board, and that another five had successfully left the four-engine aircraft, which was already in flames. 2nd Lt. Evans held out to the very end, when his plane went into a steep dive. During the last few meters he managed to pull it up, but he was unable to fly the damaged B–24 over the hills of Szigliget rising in front of him, so the aircraft crashed into the hill of Kamonkő with its belly down. The survivors all agree that they stayed alive thanks to the late Evans’ self-sacrifice.