A native of Elmhurst, Illinois, Donald Reihmer was assigned to the 79th.FS/20th.FG on 5 August, 1943, but was transfered to the 77th.FS as their Squadron Operations Officer on 7 February, 1944. He became acting Squadron C.O. on 18 June, 1944, a position he maintained until he was forced to bail out of his plane over the Baltic Sea, after being hit by light flak on a strafing run on 4 August, 1944. He evaded via Sweden and was returned to the Zone of Interior on 13 Sept., 1944.
In his time with the 20th. Reihmer claimed 1/2 Me-109 (air,) 1 Ju-88 (ground) and 2 He-111s (ground.) About his final ground victory Reihmer recently wrote: "The second He-111 I destroyed was on my final mission when I got shot down, therefore it was not recorded the day of
he mission because I was not there and my P-51 was at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. I was floating in my dinghy and would be
for the next 30 hours. I was picked up by a Swedish freighter returning to Stockholm from the German port of Lubeck. They
were picking their way through a mine field and had scads of lookouts looking out for mines. They had learned that a Finish ship
had hit a mine and gone down. They thought I must be a survivor. It was around midnight and I had the little red sail between me
and the very bright moon. It was so bright it hurt my eyes. I heard the noise of the ship plowing through the water and pulled
back the sail only to see this ship bearing down on me. All I could do is call to God for help and the bow wave washed me
away from the ship's path. I yelled for help and they responded by giving five or six blasts from the ship's horn, stopping and by
launching a boat to pick me up. The rest is a story in itself.
"Gosh, it's hard to believe that happened almost 57 years ago. When I was at Randolph Field, at Christmas time in 1942, I went to
Austin to visit some friends and met a man who had flown fighters in WW 1. That was only 24 years previous!"
He was awarded the Air Medal with three clusters, purple heart and 1 cluster and the Dinstinguished Flying Cross with 1 cluster. He resides today in Pennsylvania. |