Unintended Consequences: 9

Summary

Detailed Summary of "The Man Who Calculated Death"
Episode: Unintended Consequences: 9
Release Date: May 6, 2025

The Man Who Calculated Death, hosted by Suzanne Rico on PodcastOne, delves into the intricate tapestry of family history intertwined with the tumultuous events of World War II. In Episode 9, titled Unintended Consequences, listeners are taken on a gripping journey as Suzanne and her sister, Stephanie, unravel the mysteries surrounding their mother's tragic death and the unintended fallout of wartime actions.

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1. Introduction and Context

The episode opens with Suzanne Rico setting the stage for the ongoing narrative:

Suzanne Rico [00:00]: "Just a quick reminder that new episodes of The Man Who Calculated Death are available for free every Tuesday, wherever you get your podcasts."

Following this, the personal dynamics between Suzanne’s aunt, Tanta, and Heidi are introduced, highlighting the emotional tension stemming from Heidi’s deteriorating health and her contemplations on life and death.

2. The Bombing Mystery

As the story unfolds, Tanta recounts the harrowing experience of the farmhouse bombing that claimed the life of her sister, Heidi’s mother. The siblings grapple with the traumatic memories and the incomplete understanding of the event.

Tanta [02:05]: "Heidi has now qualified to use aid in dying drugs."

The core of the mystery revolves around the B17 bomber, identified as B17 6178, which mistakenly targeted their farmhouse due to mechanical failures, leading to unintended civilian casualties.

3. Initial Findings and Repercussions

Tanta and Heidi delve into declassified archives to piece together the events leading up to the bombing. Their investigation reveals the bomber’s mechanical issues and the subsequent bomb drop timing, which unexpectedly coincided with their family’s home.

Heidi [02:10]: "Do you have time to talk? Uh huh."

Tanta [05:24]: "I just can't believe that processing a new story when the cornerstone of the old one has just been ripped away is disorienting to say the least."

This revelation brings a mix of relief and sorrow, as they realize that the bombing was not a targeted act against their family but a tragic accident resulting from wartime exigencies.

4. Attempts to Contact Relatives

Determined to uncover the fate of the bomber crew, Tanta initiates contact with potential relatives. The siblings navigate a maze of disconnected phone lines and dead ends, reflecting the challenges of tracing wartime narratives across generations.

5. Rediscovering the Pilot's Fate

A breakthrough occurs when Tanta manages to connect with Judy Engelke, the daughter of Paul F. Hanshaw, the turret gunner on the ill-fated flight. Through heartfelt conversations and shared memories, they uncover that not all crew members perished in the crash.

Tanta [13:25]: "Judy begins with what she learned from her dad."

Judy shares poignant anecdotes about her father, Frosty Hanshaw, revealing his survival post-crash and his return to a peaceful life in Bedford, Iowa.

6. Revelations and Closure

As the investigation deepens, more details about the crew emerge, including the remarkable story of Lieutenant James Robert Derry, the pilot. Contrary to initial beliefs, Derry survived the ordeal, later thriving academically and professionally.

Tanta [36:00]: "James Derry wins OSU scholarship as the outstanding Derry Technology student."

However, the discovery of Derry’s passing in 2017 adds another layer of poignancy to the narrative, underscoring the long-term impacts of war on individual lives and families.

7. Reflections on Unintended Consequences

The episode poignantly explores the theme of unintended consequences through the lens of personal loss and historical events. Tanta reflects on the resilience required to navigate the aftermath of war, emphasizing that:

Tanta [42:14]: "The man who calculated death is written."

This sentiment encapsulates the broader message of the episode — that the ripples of war reach far beyond the battlefield, touching innocent lives and altering the course of families for generations.

8. Teasing Season 2

As Season One concludes, listeners are left with a glimpse into the forthcoming narratives that promise to explore further dimensions of the family's past and the lingering shadows of World War II.

Tanta [48:52]: "In Season Two, I follow the Lessers."

The episode wraps up by highlighting the intricate connections between personal histories and global events, setting the stage for more revelations in the next season.

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Notable Quotes with Attribution and Timestamps

• Suzanne Rico [00:00]: "Thanks for listening. And now onto the show."

• Heidi [01:00]: "I love you too."

• Tanta [05:24]: "I just can't believe that processing a new story when the cornerstone of the old one has just been ripped away is disorienting to say the least."

• Heidi [06:23]: "God, these young people."

• Judy Engelke [14:33]: "Just a hard working man. Very hard, hard working man. And he was a nice guy."

• Tanta [16:12]: "Paul Forrest. Frosty Hanshaw Sr. He's one mystery among 10 solved."

• Christine K. Hockabout [19:54]: "I still have that diary."

• Tanta [42:14]: "The man who calculated death is written."

• Heidi [41:42]: "I really think he had painful memories and some regret."

• Tanta [48:52]: "In Season Two, I follow the Lessers."

Conclusion

Unintended Consequences: 9 masterfully intertwines personal grief with historical investigation, offering listeners a deeply emotional and thought-provoking experience. Through meticulous research and heartfelt storytelling, Suzanne Rico and her family illuminate the profound and often unforeseen impacts of war, ensuring that the memories of those lost continue to resonate through the generations.

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Note: Advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content sections from the transcript were intentionally excluded to maintain the focus on the core narrative.

Transcript

[Suzanne Rico]

Hi everyone, it's Suzanne Rico. Just a quick reminder that new episodes of the man who Calculated Death are available for free every Tuesday, wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening. And now onto the show.

[Heidi]

Hey, you got everything you need? Call me if you need me, okay?

[Tanta]

Okay, I will.

Tanta. Heidi is tucked into bed, her big black and white cat taking up more room than he should.

[Heidi]

Smokey's watching over you.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Oh good.

[Tanta]

An oxygen tank sighs continuously in the background now. And while I'm here to take care of Heidi, I'm just not a very good nurse.

[Heidi]

Oh shit. It's your oxygen.

[Tanta]

The hose has disconnected.

[Heidi]

It wasn't even on.

[Tanta]

But as usual, my aunt finds a way to laugh at adversity.

[Heidi]

We are a shitty team.

[Tanta]

Good night.

[Heidi]

I love you too. So I just put Heidi to bed. I was so rattled by her difficulty breathing. And I remember the morphine with my mom. And that's sort of the sort of the end.

[Tanta]

Heidi has now qualified to use aid in dying drugs.

[Heidi]

I'm gonna miss her.

[Tanta]

So she'll choose her time to go. Her poison pill, as she calls the medicine, is already tucked in her dresser drawer alongside her watch and gold wedding band. There's no way I can finish this podcast in time for her to hear it, but I can share what I've learned about the bombing that killed her mother. A sudden, mysterious attack that left Heidi buried when the farmhouse imploded.

[Heidi]

Heidi.

[Tanta]

And so the next morning when she's especially alert.

[Heidi]

Do you have time to talk? Uh huh.

[Tanta]

We sit down.

[Heidi]

You're not gonna believe this. I figured out the mystery of of the Stutttenhof bombing. No way.

[Tanta]

How?

[Heidi]

I have in front of me the declassified archive.

[Tanta]

I fill her in on Colonel Matt Dietz and our long search detailing a.

[Heidi]

Missing in action aircraft.

[Tanta]

Bishoha reports that B17 6178 had lost two of its four engines back this.

[Heidi]

Way and then flew over the lake.

[Tanta]

Didn't hold us in here.

I've also printed the hand drawn map that puts the plane right over the farmhouse.

[Heidi]

It fell out of formation and about a minute later made a 90 degree turn to the left. And guess what time they dropped their bombs at?

[Tanta]

1.05.

[Heidi]

1.07Pm Just what you said.

[Tanta]

Yeah. It was five minutes after one.

I dreamed of this moment before then.

That's it.

[Heidi]

That's it.

[Tanta]

An epic, exciting, unveiling of the real story. To my Tanta's delight and surprise. Aren't you blown away?

I am blown away.

But her interest in the past has been Eclipsed by pain. And a poison pill nestled in a drawer waiting for her.

[Heidi]

And then nine people punched out with parachutes. And they were never seen again.

[Tanta]

Oh, they were never seen again.

[Heidi]

I know.

[Tanta]

This news elicits a deepening of the lines around my aunt's tired blue eyes. But then we're interrupted by a knock at her door.

Hello? Who's there?

[Heidi]

Probably Trouty and Tunda.

[Tanta]

Trouty comes barreling in like the life.

[Suzanne Rico]

Of the party she is.

[Heidi]

And you're doing okay?

[Tanta]

Yes.

Even bragging a little.

Well, I'm 90 and I weigh 100 pounds.

[Heidi]

Give me some high five on that one. Her interest in the past hasn't faded at all. So as soon as Heidi goes down for a nap, we sit down outside on a perfect California afternoon.

[Tanta]

What I really want to know. Did they want to kill our dad or just our family?

[Heidi]

For 75 years, Tanta Trouti has believed the farmhouse bombing was revenge for the destruction my grandfather's vengeance weapon caused in London.

[Tanta]

So I lay out that it was.

[Heidi]

Really just a bizarre coincidence very clearly. So on that day, a B17 bomber lost two of its engines.

[Tanta]

She starts reading reports of the crew dropping their bombs to lighten the load and then heading south toward Italy.

This was the last I saw of ship number 6178.

[Heidi]

And the time was 1307.

[Tanta]

My God.

I just can't believe that processing a new story when the cornerstone of the old one has just been ripped away is disorienting to say the least.

Did they aim for the shtnom?

[Heidi]

No. They had no idea you guys were down there.

[Tanta]

My little Tanta, 5ft tall and 100 pounds, grips my hand.

I mean that I'm 90 years old and I had a chance to find that out.

[Heidi]

So tell me how all this makes you feel after 70 some odd years.

[Tanta]

Well, it makes me feel grateful that we know that it was not an intentional killing.

[Heidi]

Yeah, but when I show her the crew manifest. This is so sad. With those three staggering letters next to each name Mia, her smile turns to tears.

[Tanta]

God, these young people.

[Judy Engelke]

God.

[Heidi]

Heartbreaking.

[Tanta]

All ten of them gone.

[Heidi]

All ten.

[Judy Engelke]

My gosh.

[Heidi]

No survivors. There will be no answers either to the question of the crew's final fate unless I can find someone who knows more than I do. The desire to find relatives is strong. A mix of grief, curiosity, and the same need for closure I think my mom had.

[Tanta]

So that night we can cheers. Right after a little toast for the.

Solving of the mystery.

[Heidi]

The farmhouse bombing has an answer.

[Tanta]

I get down to work Henshaw, Paul. Starting with the B17's turret gunner, his next of kin report lists a Bedford, Iowa address.

[Heidi]

Iowa cemeteries. And it's not long before I find a photo online of a simple granite headstone. Paul F. Hanshaw, Staff Sergeant, U.S. army Air Corps, World War II.

[Tanta]

The birth date, June 20, 1921, fits perfectly. But the death date.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

What the.

[Heidi]

Died May 1, 1989, in Bedford, Iowa. All right, it's gotta be the wrong guy. Or maybe. Jesus. Maybe he made it home.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

A new chapter opens. The Battle of the Flying Bombs.

[Tanta]

I'm Suzanne Rico, and this is the man who calculated death. Episode 9 Unintended Consequences the birds are about to fly.

[Heidi]

I see black in the future. Come in, come in. This is an invitation. This can blow your mind.

[Tanta]

Because it blew my mind.

[Heidi]

So you listen really well. This is the original. This is the original of the man Calculated Death.

[Tanta]

The man who calculated Death. Der Mann, der dentold er reghnete.

[Heidi]

Do I want that on speaker?

[Suzanne Rico]

No, I want mine on speaker.

[Heidi]

No, you want yours on speaker. This is recording now, though. Okay. I think it's his daughter, though.

[Tanta]

My niece Tia and I are hot on the trail of Paul Forrest Hanshaw Sr. Who went by his nickname Frosty.

[Richard McGowan]

I'm not available to answer the phone right now.

[Tanta]

No one ever calls me back.

[Heidi]

And I'll call you back. Jordan Hanshaw. I think that's the great granddaughter of our guy.

[Tanta]

Your call cannot be completed as the.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Cold party is temporarily unavailable.

[Heidi]

Strikeout.

[Tanta]

But then I find a thin thread to follow.

[Heidi]

Okay. This is Christine K. Hockabout. 712.

[Tanta]

The woman doesn't have the Hanshaw name.

[Heidi]

And that matches, but public records show.

[Tanta]

She was married to a Paul Hanshaw Jr. Who could be our tail gunner's son.

[Heidi]

So that's the same phone number that was the wrong one. It's disconnected because he died. But maybe this one. 5149, is her number. This is nerve wracking. Come on, be the ball. Hello.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Please leave a message after the tone.

[Heidi]

My name is Suzanne Rico. I'm a journalist and I am working on a story that has, in a strange way, intersected with. Hello? Hi, Christine. Yes.

[Tanta]

Hey, it's the first time I've gotten someone on the phone, and if you think calling strangers out of the blue is awkward.

[Heidi]

Was Paul Forrest Hanshaw Jr. Your husband? My first husband. Your first husband.

[Suzanne Rico]

Okay.

[Tanta]

Try explaining that. You're calling about a World War II plane crash.

[Heidi]

Senior. Correct. Correct. So this is.

[Tanta]

That may or may not have killed that person's father in law.

[Heidi]

My Story goes back to World War II Germany.

[Tanta]

I tell Christine about the bombing and the legend and how my research led me to her.

[Heidi]

In the last year, I've spent a year investigating this story, and I just learned that it was actually a beast that was having mechanical problems and dropped its bombs to get rid of the load before it crashed. And my father in law was on that plane. Your father in law was on that plane? Oh, my God.

[Tanta]

Yes.

I feel like a total crybaby.

[Heidi]

I've been searching for this for so.

[Tanta]

Long, but there's no keeping my professional facade.

[Heidi]

All of those crew members are listed as missing in action. Did your father in law make it out? Yes, he did. Oh, my God. I've got tears in my eyes. Well, I got goosebumps when you said that, so I thought I better pick up.

[Tanta]

I dive in with 100 questions. But since Christine married into the Hanshaw family, her knowledge of how her father in law survived is pretty limited.

[Heidi]

I mean, he never really elaborated on it. My husband's sister still is alive in California, so I will contact her, too, to see if she has any of that information. I think I may have left her a message. Her name is Judy in Visalia. Yeah, I would love to talk with her as well. And it just means a ton to me that you picked up. Okay.

[Suzanne Rico]

Oh, my gosh.

[Heidi]

Thank you so much. All right.

[Tanta]

All right.

[Heidi]

Thank you, Suzanne. All right, bye. Bye. Bye.

[Tanta]

Wow.

[Heidi]

When she said, yeah, my father in law was on that plane, that's so cool to think they were all dead and he wasn't. Well, yeah. And you can find out what happened to the rest of the crew members from that story.

[Richard McGowan]

Hi, Suzanne. This is Judy Engelke in Visalia.

[Tanta]

Judy Engelke, Frosty Hanshaw's daughter, is the person I need to talk to. And after a couple rounds of phone tag, I finally get her on the phone.

[Heidi]

Yes, Hi, is this Judy?

[Richard McGowan]

Yes, it is.

[Heidi]

Hi, Judy. It's Suzanne Rico calling you back.

[Richard McGowan]

Hi, Suzanne. How are you?

[Heidi]

I'm wonderful. It is so nice to hear from you. I do my best to piece together how our families intersect. It's a story that started when my mom died in 2013, and she asked us to finish a memoir about her life in World War II Germany.

[Tanta]

Judy begins with what she learned from her dad.

[Richard McGowan]

I knew he was a turret gunner because he was small, and they have to be small to fit down into that little space.

[Tanta]

You know, when Frosty Hanshaw, age 23, leapt out of that crippled plane.

[Heidi]

He.

[Tanta]

Landed in a tree on the side of a snow covered mountain. Northern Italy was enemy territory. But partisans working secretly against Mussolini and Hitler found him first. They kept him safe until the war ended on May 8. By that summer, Frosty had made his way back to Bedford, Iowa. He opened a little store and married Judy's mother.

[Richard McGowan]

Just a hard working man. Very hard, hard working man. And he was a nice guy.

[Heidi]

Nice guy. Good dad, Great dad.

[Tanta]

Hearing this, it feels like a door cracks open into Frosty's life. But what I love most are the stories that give me a glimpse right into his heart.

[Richard McGowan]

When my brother was born, my dad went down to the Western auto store and came home pulling a little red wagon for me because he didn't want me to feel left out.

[Tanta]

At that time, Frosty didn't have a car, so he walked those miles there and back.

[Richard McGowan]

And that red wagon is out on my patio now. And I have it filled with succulent. That's the word I'm trying to think of. It's pretty old now. And my girls, when I'm gone, are probably just gonna throw it in the dump. And that's okay. I'll be gone.

[Tanta]

You know, it makes me wonder what Judy's girls will do with the other heirloom from a grandfather who's been dead 30 years.

[Richard McGowan]

When I was growing up, my dad always threatened me. We're gonna have your wedding dress made out of the silk for my parachute. And I'd look at it and, oh, it was yellow. You know, it was.

[Heidi]

Whoa. So he. I mean, it meant enough to him to keep. Keep that. That silk from the parachute.

[Richard McGowan]

Yeah.

[Tanta]

Yeah.

Wow.

Paul forrest. Frosty Hanshaw Sr. He's one mystery among 10 solved.

[Richard McGowan]

Okay. Nice to talk to you.

[Heidi]

You too. Thank you so much.

[Tanta]

It'll be another month before I can connect to another family, but when I do, the answer to what happened to the rest of the crew will become clearer than I'd ever dreamed. Of. The ten men aboard Airship 6178, I will only ever find the relatives of five Morgan Blodgett.

[Heidi]

I found his.

[Tanta]

Like, it must be his grandson or great grandson.

[Heidi]

I found his mugshot.

[Tanta]

Oops.

I'm not calling him. For every hit Philip Kuchinski, there are a dozen misses.

[Heidi]

There's a picture of him. Is he wearing a veteran's hat?

[Tanta]

But like a gambler who keeps playing despite dismal odds.

[Heidi]

No, it's the wrong spelling. Shoot.

[Tanta]

I felt sure the next phone call would be the key to unlocking some inner sanctum of history.

[Heidi]

So hard to read.

[Tanta]

Mostly this Mindset dooms you to a life of disappointment.

[Heidi]

Thomas F. McGowan.

[Tanta]

But every once in a while.

[Heidi]

Come on, come on, come on.

[Tanta]

You hit pay dirt.

[Heidi]

U.S. army Air Corps veteran, having served in World War II. There we go.

[Tanta]

The MIA report lists the last known address for Thomas McGowan, the B17's tail gunner in Connecticut.

[Heidi]

Okay.

[Tanta]

And that's where I find a Richard McGowan.

[Judy Engelke]

You reached the McGowan's. Leave us a message and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

[Heidi]

Thanks. Hi, my name is Suzanne Rico. I'm a journalist, and I am working on a story about my history in World War II Germany. And I believe that your family and my family have a crossover.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Hello?

[Heidi]

Hi, Richard.

[Tanta]

Yes, yes, hey. I give another out of the blue.

[Heidi]

Explanation trying to figure out a piece of my family history, and I was hoping you might help.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

All depends what you need.

[Heidi]

Well, I'm calling because I have in front of me a missing air crew report from March 13th of 1945. And one of the crew members is listed as a Thomas F. McGowan Jr. And I've been trying to find some relatives that might be able to tell me what happened that day.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Well, you got the right guy.

[Heidi]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Tanta]

So Rick is the first person who knows this story better than I do.

[Heidi]

And the answer to this mystery.

[Tanta]

The intimate details of his father's story are part of his childhood fabric, like my mom's are with mine.

[Heidi]

Missing in action. Missing in action. Missing in action. And I thought they all died, but as I. As I researched further, I realized that at least some of them made it out alive.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Everyone but the pilot.

[Heidi]

Every. Oh, my gosh. You know this story?

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Yes. I've got my father's. He kept the journal. Now, he was 19 years old at.

[Tanta]

The time, you know, Jackpot. A journal written in 1945 by a teenage tail gunner whose plane was going down in enemy territory.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

In my father's diary there, it does mention that the crew all bailed out, but, you know, the pilot always stays to be the last.

[Tanta]

Right.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

And he never got word of whether.

[Judy Engelke]

Or not the pilot survived.

[Heidi]

But you still have it.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

I still have that diary.

[Judy Engelke]

Right, yeah.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

And it does list all the crew.

[Heidi]

Would you be willing to share that with me?

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Sure.

[Heidi]

Oh, my God. This is amazing.

[Tanta]

The McGowans are on the east coast, and I'm on the west. There's 3,000 miles and Covid between us. But I need to see that diary for myself. To leaf through the pages of the past that might hold all the answers. And so I get myself a really good mask and jump on a plane.

[Heidi]

Hilton Garden Inn in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the mayflower landed in 1620. Going to talk to Peggy and Rick McGowan.

[Tanta]

It's a Sunday afternoon in August, and.

[Heidi]

This is the first time that I'll be able to meet a descendant of someone that was on board that plane.

[Tanta]

In the Hilton's lobby. I have no idea who I'm looking for, but when a fit 70 something couple walk in, we seem to instinctively know each other.

[Heidi]

It's you.

[Tanta]

Rick has a of his father's mementos under his arm.

[Judy Engelke]

Want to dig into this stuff?

[Heidi]

Let's dig into this stuff.

[Tanta]

The first thing he pulls out is a photo of Tommy McGowan smiling in front of a B17. Dark hair, wavy and thick.

[Heidi]

That's him. He's always the smallest.

[Tanta]

Next, Rick shows me his dad's dog tags.

[Judy Engelke]

Okay, ladies. All right.

[Tanta]

Still shining after all these years.

[Heidi]

I can feel the hair on my neck kind of stand up because it's like you're poking around in the past.

[Tanta]

But there's real people back there. And then.

[Judy Engelke]

You ready for this?

[Heidi]

Am I ready for this?

[Tanta]

A torn piece of silk.

[Heidi]

Oh, my God. You are kidding me.

[Tanta]

It might be a rag to anyone else.

[Judy Engelke]

I played with it as a kid.

[Tanta]

I believe, but what I'm holding in my hands, army waistcoat, saved someone's life.

[Heidi]

You know, it's like it's only important to us, but the. But it's priceless.

[Judy Engelke]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a million stories like this one.

[Heidi]

Yes.

[Judy Engelke]

All over the place. But this is our family, so. And it intertwines with yours.

[Tanta]

And it intertwines with mine. Tommy McGowan enlisted in the US Army Air Force and was assigned an MP position in England. It was safe but boring. So Tommy volunteered to fly bombing missions into Germany. And while he looked at his new high flying assignment as a grand adventure, decades later, when Rick bought his dad a ticket to fly on a B17.

[Judy Engelke]

He called me and said, you know what, Rick? I haven't had a bad dream or a nightmare about World War II ever. So I think I'm going to sit this one out. I think I'll stay on the ground.

[Tanta]

This was a guy who had reason to have nightmares. Leaping out of a smoking plane in the final cataclysmic weeks of World War II was the end of boring. But for Tommy's family, it was the beginning of heartache and uncertainty.

[Judy Engelke]

Ah, here we go.

[Heidi]

I'll let you read that The Secretary of War desires me to express his deep regret that your son. Oh, my God.

[Tanta]

That's his.

[Judy Engelke]

The letter that.

[Heidi]

Sergeant McGowan, Thomas F. Jr. Has been missing in action over Austria since the 13th of March, 1945. Isn't that something? His mom got this.

[Judy Engelke]

My grandmother. Here.

[Heidi]

Imagine that.

[Tanta]

No, I can't imagine that.

[Heidi]

I can't imagine it. Yeah, it's chilling, but that's how I felt when I was looking at the mia. I was like, oh, my God, all these people died. Hell, I got telegrams.

[Tanta]

Imagine for a moment that someone you love has literally vanished into thin air.

[Judy Engelke]

On March 13, 1945. The Flying Fortress.

[Tanta]

All you know is that their parachute was last seen wafting down into the Italian Alps.

[Judy Engelke]

An aerial gunner became disabled en Route 2.

[Tanta]

Your mind understands that the odds of ever seeing this person again are slim.

[Judy Engelke]

The absence of further information. All those on board your son's plane have been listed as missing in action.

[Tanta]

But your heart can't help but hope.

[Judy Engelke]

I extend this expression of hope for his safe return. NF Twinning, Major General, USA oh, my God. But we turn the page.

[Tanta]

We turn the page and there is another telegram.

[Judy Engelke]

Western Union, this is May. Now, Secretary of War desires me to express his pleasure that your son, Sergeant Thomas McGowan Jr. Returned to duty in Italy. Fourth of May, 1945.

[Heidi]

That's it. Here's the good news. Okay, Short and sweet.

[Tanta]

There's nothing about Tommy's health or what had happened to him or his seven weeks being MIA as spring blossomed in Italy.

[Judy Engelke]

Well, as he would relate to us, that's where he developed a love for Italy. They went into these little towns and what are they gonna do? They're gonna hang out all day.

[Heidi]

Plenty of wine, plenty of pasta.

[Judy Engelke]

He's 19, 20 years old.

[Heidi]

Plenty of pretty girls.

[Judy Engelke]

Draw your own conclusions as you read the diary. You don't read a diary of something that's scary or think of impending doom or any of that kind of stuff.

[Tanta]

His father's diary. Rick's been saving the best for last.

[Heidi]

This is the key to all of it.

[Judy Engelke]

Yeah.

[Tanta]

It's small, with a brown leather cover, cracked by time.

[Heidi]

Nine missions.

[Tanta]

The writing is meticulous. Cursive. A lost art.

[Heidi]

Rick, I'm gonna ask you to be the reader. Just take it nice and slow and just start. Regensburg, Germany.

[Judy Engelke]

Regensburg, Germany, March 13th. Okay. This is, without doubt my longest, most exciting and strangest mission.

[Heidi]

I would say so.

[Judy Engelke]

Sense of humor.

[Suzanne Rico]

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[Judy Engelke]

Pilot to crow.

[Tanta]

Pilot to Crow so let's board Flying Fortress 6178.

[Judy Engelke]

Takeoff was about 0800. Weather was good.

[Tanta]

The plane heads over the alps with nearly 1,000 others, a fearsome flying spectacle. But as they drop down into Bavaria, their number one engine springs an oil leak.

[Judy Engelke]

Naturally, I expected the pilot to turn back, but he didn't.

[Heidi]

Oh shoot.

[Judy Engelke]

I think the strain was too much on the old engines because a half hour later, number two Corked or cranked or honked.

[Tanta]

Conked out.

[Judy Engelke]

Yeah.

[Tanta]

Rule number one in aerial combat, don't get caught out there alone. But this crew has no choice.

[Judy Engelke]

We had to turn back even though fighters were in the area, because we couldn't risk going over the target with only two engines, we dropped back to drop our bombs.

[Tanta]

This moment makes my head spin. Offloading their bombs is just a point of procedure for the men on board, but it will alter the future of a family. In a farmhouse thousands of feet below, the crew flies on, concentrating only on the treacherous thousand mile journey ahead over mountains 15,000ft high.

[Judy Engelke]

Things look good till we hit the Italian boundary. When number three started acting touchy. The pilot ordered everything out that would lighten the ship. I didn't like the idea of throwing the guns away, but it was the only thing to do.

[Tanta]

It's loud and freezing cold. A blanket of white below.

[Judy Engelke]

By the time I got to the waist, number three was out for the count.

[Heidi]

Oh, my God. So three engines out of four now.

[Judy Engelke]

Yeah. About this time I began to realize that I should have stayed in bed.

[Tanta]

The B17 has now crossed the Alps and is flying through wide open territory. But safety is still far away and its last engine is on its last legs.

[Judy Engelke]

And the pilot decided we couldn't make it because number four was acting funny.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Smoking on number four.

[Judy Engelke]

So we turned back north into the mountains so when we jumped, we'd have a good chance of getting away. Up to this time, I wasn't sure I wanted to bail out. But when number four started to smoke, I was quite ready to go.

[Tanta]

The crew lands on the side of a mountain covered in spruce trees and four feet of snow. By nightfall, they're all back together again.

[Judy Engelke]

No one had seen the pilot. We haven't seen him since.

[Heidi]

Yeah.

[Judy Engelke]

And we were picked up about 2230 by three partisans who were part of a searching party out looking for us.

[Tanta]

For the next several weeks, the crew lives with the partisans. And then just days before the German surrender, the Italians take them to the American FOB or forward operating base, where.

[Judy Engelke]

We were interrogated, examined. And deloused.

[Heidi]

And deloused. Very important, yes.

[Judy Engelke]

The next day we flew up to the 301st, where we landed about 1630, May 6th, 55 days after takeoff.

[Heidi]

Wow, 55 days.

[Judy Engelke]

Quite a show.

[Heidi]

Quite a show. Quite a show.

[Tanta]

It strikes me that Tommy's journal is the most understated accounting of that ill fated flight. I can imagine. Nothing like my mom's dramatic version from the ground, which she always amped up to Fairytale magnitude.

[Heidi]

Maybe that has something to do with what you said, that he was 19. This was an adventure.

[Judy Engelke]

Yeah.

[Heidi]

And meanwhile, on the other end of it, this farmhouse is in tatters. If he were alive, he'd be devastated. He'd be like, what?

[Tanta]

Oh, I understand that. Because I'd felt devastated when I thought the crew had died.

[Heidi]

There's already so much death and destruction in my family history. You know, with all the people that died in England and with all of the prisoners that were forced to build those V weapons.

[Tanta]

And I'm just so happy that most.

[Heidi]

Of them made it.

[Judy Engelke]

They did. Yeah. And that's why I'm sitting here talking to you today.

[Tanta]

But what about that pilot? Did he go down with his ship or did he make it to the ground alive?

[Judy Engelke]

The pilot was Lieutenant Derry, who we never heard from since he wished us good luck. I believe he was killed by fascists when he landed. I. I hope I'm wrong.

[Heidi]

James Robert Derry.

[Tanta]

Why am I searching for a dead man?

[Heidi]

James Robert Derry Family Tree because scratching.

[Tanta]

Below the surface of my mom's memoir uncovered this rich vein of history that took me into an era I'd only read about. I'll never feel the heat of a city on fire or hear the terrifying sound of falling bombs. I'll never pilot a crippled plane over a snow white mountain range or feel freezing air hit me on the way out. The story of that B17 crew, together with my moms, my Tantas and Oscar Jacobs, is the closest I'll ever come to understanding World War II. But there's another reason. The years I've spent unearthing the facts, secrets and legends of my family have taught me that people are only truly lost when no one remembers them anymore. US B17 crash Lieutenant James Robert Derry was 23 years old when he piloted that B17 into Germany on March 13, 1945.

[Heidi]

Moving on, let's try.

[Tanta]

He went by Bob, not James or Jim, so finding him online was even more challenging than the others.

[Heidi]

Photos and documents for James Robert Derry.

[Tanta]

All I know is his next of kin address was in Barnesville, Ohio.

[Heidi]

Ohio State. You go to Ohio State.

[Tanta]

A blurb From May of 1945 in the Ohio State University magazine has student James Robert Derry as missing in action.

[Heidi]

All right, here's something.

[Tanta]

But what I find next is the real kicker.

[Heidi]

James Derry wins OSU scholarship as the outstanding Derry Technology student.

[Tanta]

Because it's dated 1947.

[Heidi]

Mr. Derry, who was shot down in a bomber over Italy during the war, will be graduated in June. Holy shit.

[Tanta]

So if I've got it right.

[Heidi]

Awesome.

[Tanta]

Our pilot, the only crew member Tommy McGowan believed had died, made it, too.

It's gotta be him.

[Heidi]

So cool. Missing in action.

[Tanta]

The next discovery turns the excitement into a deep sense of disappointment.

[Heidi]

Yep, here he is.

[Tanta]

It's Darry's death notice.

[Heidi]

Passed away on the 18th of March, 2017.

[Tanta]

This was a year after Stephanie and I returned from Germany. So had I been quicker to work on the farmhouse bombing mystery, Lieutenant Derry might have been able to tell me himself what happened when his plane went down.

[Heidi]

Wow, that's a long life.

[Tanta]

As it is, I can only hope his family will help.

[Heidi]

Survived by his three children, Richard Derry.

[Tanta]

If I can find them, and Laureen.

[Heidi]

Of Homer City, whoever that is. And so begins another vaguely intrusive Internet search. Here's their marriage license. Wow, you can find out a lot of stuff.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Hello?

[Heidi]

Hi, may I speak with Richard Dairy, please? Hi, Richard, my name is Suzanne Rico, and this is gonna be the strangest phone call you've gotten all day.

[Tanta]

At first, Richard and his wife Lorene think I'm a scammer, okay?

[Christine K. Hockabout]

I'm trying to get my wife happy here. She wants me to write down your name and stuff like that.

[Heidi]

That's fine. Please do, please do. Hi. So many sc.

[Tanta]

Once they're comfortable, I'm legit. Rick goes into his dad's last moments on board that doomed plane.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

The pilot was the last one out. And just as he was getting ready to go, he thought, oh, he left his lighter on the dashboard of the cockpit. So he went back in there to get his lighter and there was like crawl spaces through there, right? And my dad was 6 foot 3. And for him to be going around to those little tiny passages they had in there just amazed me. Anyhow, the time he bailed, his whole crew was a long way away from him.

[Tanta]

Lieutenant Bob Derry wandered around in the snow covered mountains alone for a couple of days. And then he was indeed captured by Italian fascists. But instead of killing him, as Tommy McGowan believed, they turned him over to the Germans. And he ended up in an infamous prison camp called Stalag vii.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

So he got to eat one meal a day, he said, which was grass soup. Now, what that really was I'm not really sure I was going to question. And then he was there for approximately two months, till the end of the war.

[Tanta]

It was midsummer before Bob Derry made it home. He went back to college and earned.

[Heidi]

That scholarship, the $150 Robert R. Stoltz Scholarship, as the outstanding Dairy Technology student At Ohio State University.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

That's awesome. I didn't even know that.

[Heidi]

Oh, my gosh, you're kidding.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Oh, man. Oh, I'm glad you called me.

[Heidi]

Me, too.

[Tanta]

I've now formed a pretty good picture of the pilot who saved his cruise life, survived a plane crash and prison camp at the age of 23. Smart, competent and brave. A guy who volunteered to serve his country and never received any recognition for the miracle of his entire crew living to tell the story.

[Heidi]

I think your dad was a hero. I mean, I don't know. Do you think that he thought of himself as such?

[Christine K. Hockabout]

No. My dad was very humble. You know, he just said, I went and did what I had to do. And he didn't like to talk about it.

[Tanta]

I've heard that a lot. World War II was just too brutal to want to remember. Whether you were a pilot taking flak in the sky, a GI getting shot at on the ground, a prisoner building bombs in a dark tunnel, or a little girl in a farmhouse who had nowhere to hide.

[Heidi]

I'm sure that your dad had no idea even where those bombs hit because it was a wooded area. So he probably thought that he was dropping his bombs in the woods. But there was a farmhouse down there, and one of the bombs hit the farmhouse.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Did they get through it all right?

[Heidi]

Well, my grandmother was killed, but all the children lived.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

You know what's really. I feel so wonderful, Belle. You're not bitter from that?

[Heidi]

I'm not bitter. No, I'm not. I feel more. I gotta tell you, I feel more relief than anything else. Because, you know, it was, like, always this big question mark. And I think there is something to be said about knowing that it really was not targeted and nobody was trying to kill her. Yeah.

[Richard McGowan]

No matter how careful you are, there are unintended consequences.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Yeah.

[Heidi]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I really think he had painful memories and some regret.

[Tanta]

My grandmother's death certainly fits into the category of unintended consequences of war. The fact that the bombs dropped by airship 6178 killed the wife of the chief designer of the V1 flying bomb was just a one in a million coincidence. It wasn't my grandfather's fault. And it wasn't Bob Derry's either.

[Heidi]

Thank you for letting me get to know him a little bit. You know, our families cross in this really strange way, and it's just nice to reach out and find the other end of the string.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Well, this is really personal, but he wrote his obituary.

[Richard McGowan]

He wrote this about nine months before he died.

[Heidi]

I do a quick Internet search Wow. The first line says, the morning paper lays unread.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Yeah, that's it.

[Heidi]

Oh, beautiful. It brings tears to my eyes. Yeah, I just found it. And when we hang up, have a good night.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Thank you very, very much.

[Heidi]

Thank you.

[Tanta]

I go looking for the pilot in his own words.

[Heidi]

Born March 3, 1923, graduated Barnesville High School. Salutatorian of his class, smart guy Bob.

[Tanta]

Derry writes of volunteering to fight in World War II and how he was captured on his 14th and final mission.

[Heidi]

He and all the prisoners were marched to Moosburg, Germany, prison camp, or where they were liberated by American soldiers on May 15, 1945. So that's two months to the day from the bombing.

[Tanta]

Reading on.

[Heidi]

Wow. He lost 25 pounds.

[Tanta]

It occurs to me that while life's big moments might make up the skeleton that supports our past, Mr. Derry loved.

[Heidi]

Hunting birds in the fall.

[Tanta]

It's the little memories that create the soft connective tissue that sustains us.

[Heidi]

And fishing in the streams above Lake.

[Tanta]

Erie, like casting a line into a sunlit river or holding your mother's warm, familiar hand.

[Heidi]

I think it's time for me to appreciate how I and where I am and the moment. And then simply cherish these last days with my grandchildren, with my kids, with my husband, so I can take something with me.

[Tanta]

After she died, my sisters and I sang a German hymn she'd taught us.

[Heidi]

God stay with us, for it will.

[Tanta]

Soon be evening and the day has bowed its head. The song was both an elegy of love and loss and a powerful reminder that her story lived on in us.

[Heidi]

So finishing Mom's memoir gives us, like, a true physical anchor. Without it, it just gets sucked into the folds of history and lost. It disappears. I mean, mom wrote it for herself to wrestle with her own past, but she provided us this enormous gift.

[Tanta]

The memoir's a gift I'll pass down to my kids.

[Heidi]

But what I never expected when my.

[Tanta]

Sister and I first started reaching across time.

[Heidi]

1937. Heil Hitler. 1937. Heil Hitler.

[Tanta]

Is that I would find my own.

[Heidi]

Story to leave behind. This is a month after mom was.

[Tanta]

Born, following my family path through Germany.

This is Robert Lusse right there.

That's Robert Lusse right there, examining the choices my grandparents made in a country gone mad. You can say we were. We were all a bunch of fanatic Nazis, but we were patriots and we were inventors. We were creating and investigating.

[Heidi]

The farmhouse bombing proved to have a unique power. That was some postcard that somebody wrote.

[Tanta]

Connecting me with people long dead.

[Heidi]

Our grandmother wrote that.

[Tanta]

And to those who lived on the other side of history, I have to.

[Heidi]

Show you my mom's picture.

[Tanta]

People like Oscar, the Holocaust survivor who refused to let his brutal past keep us apart.

[Heidi]

I remember this, that she was a wonderful human being and I never ever forget her.

[Tanta]

Season one of the man who Calculated Death ends with my Tanta Heidi sharing her final stories.

We walked to the cemetery and I had brought flowers, you know, spring flowers.

[Heidi]

The memory of visiting her mother's grave with her three year old brother. Beads from a broken necklace stuffed in his pocket, still sharp enough to cut.

[Tanta]

And I went and got the water and came back and here he was with a little finger and he was taking the beets and he was sticking them in her grave so she has something to play with.

[Heidi]

That's just so.

[Tanta]

We leave the Lesser kids living at the Kinderheim, their father working as the handyman. But Robert Lesser will move his family across Germany again and again. From a freezing airplane hangar to a bombed out house until.

Well, I was home alone on a Sunday. I remember washing socks and there was a knock on the door.

My grandfather is finally found.

It was just like in the movies, you know, in a trench coat.

[Heidi]

Like an agent.

[Tanta]

Yes. And he said, is your father home?

But instead of war crimes investigators or the feared Russians, the intelligence agent at the door offers him the chance to join one of the most controversial secret missions ever.

[Heidi]

That's right. These were Hitler's top weapons makers. And Operation Paperclip became a classified military program to bring them to the United States.

[Tanta]

In season two, I follow the Lessers.

[Heidi]

To America, where my grandfather joins hundreds of fellow scientists and engineers who have traded swastikas for the stars and stripes.

[Tanta]

Because While World War II may be over, the Cold War has just begun.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

No matter where we live, we must be ready all the time for the atomic bomb.

[Tanta]

And as the Germans work to help the Americans beat the Soviets in a race with nuclear stakes, Robert Lesser comes face to face with his old rival, rocket scientist Werner von Braun. But this time, they're shooting for the stars.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

I believe a practical passenger rocket could.

[Heidi]

Be built and tested within 10 years.

[Tanta]

12, 11, at a place called Redstone Arsenal. These titans of 1940s technology will compete, collaborate and clash with once again. With one becoming known as the father of space travel.

[Christine K. Hockabout]

Liftoff. We have a liftoff. 32 minutes.

[Tanta]

And the other as the man who calculated death.

All of a sudden, we all grasp the truth.

Investigating this mind boggling mix of historical.

[Heidi]

Fact and family legend is next. Because stories don't die unless we let them. And a promise. I love you Mama. I love you too is a promise.

[Tanta]

The man who Calculated Death is written.

[H]

Reported and produced by me, Suzanne Rico. If you enjoyed Season one, I'd appreciate a review from Discount Sushi. Executive producers are Jon Cryer and Lisa Joyner, who guided and supported me through a long process from novel Joe Wheeler, story editor Rob Speight, Daniel Kempson and Nicholas Alexander sound design, mixing and scoring research Ivan D'Avoin, production management Cherie Houston production assistants Claire Crofton and Willard Foxton is creative director. Now to some thank yous to my sister Stephanie for her enthusiasm and unconditional support and Simone, who brought the memoir to life and performed the classical piano music to Tenta, Heidi and Tanta Trouty, who shared their memories and to my.

[Heidi]

Mom, who who is always with me.

[H]

Tia Peterson provided production help. Thomas and Fiona Krall read the voices of my grandfather and grandmother and Andrea, Sylvia, Hans and Melinda Lusser shared their knowledge. Barbara Schroeder, Nancy Daniels, Michael and Jennifer Samway, Dan A. Baer, Elizabeth Choi, Laura Noy and Lisa Pingator. I'm grateful for the feedback and encouragement. Last but not least, thank you to my captive audience, Ethan Griffin and Adrian. Nothing would be possible without.