A Northeast Minneapolis Army Air Corps sergeant during World War II and his fellow B-17 bomber crewmen were honored Saturday, Sept. 21, with a new memorial at Huset Park in Columbia Heights.
Staff Sergeant Walter Shimshock was killed along with seven other crew members when their plane, “I’ll Be Seeing You,” was shot down in 1944 on a mission to Poland to bring supplies to beleaguered Polish resistance fighters during the Warsaw Uprising.
The dedication of a memorial to the plane crew drew about 175 people including many dignitaries and others from Poland. Columbia Heights and Łomianki, Poland, are sister cities, and a similar memorial has been dedicated in Łomianki.
“The dedication was very emotional,” said Mary Shimshock, his niece. “I’m sure grandmother would have loved it. I’m sure she’s looking down.” Another niece, Terese Shimshock, agreed. “I was very teary-eyed.”
Shimshock, a graduate of DeLaSalle High School, was a waist gunner on the B-17 Flying Fortress, one of America’s workhorse bombers during the war. He would have been positioned in the middle of the aircraft, defending the plane with a machine gun out the window. Frostbite was a common job hazard, according to a website dedicated to the B-17; the windows “were open to a 200 mph, -50 below zero, slipstream of air.”
“I’ll Be Seeing You” was part of a mission on Sept. 18, 1944, to bring supplies to Warsaw. In all, the bombers brought about 1,200 containers of food, ammunition, medical supplies and arms to the Polish resistance.
There were 110 planes in the mission and Shimshock’s plane was the only one shot down. Seven of the crew members were killed when the plane exploded, and three got out in parachutes.
Shimshock injured his leg when he landed in a forest near Łomianki, a suburb of Warsaw, and was immediately captured by the German Army. Most accounts said he was tortured and then executed – possibly because of his Polish ancestry.
The other two crewmen who parachuted down survived the war.
The dedication at Huset Park began with a presentation of the colors by a color guard from the Grand Forks Air Force Base. There was a ribbon-cutting ceremony and the laying of a wreath by Agata Grochowska, Consul of the Republic of Poland.
Edyta Dudek, president of the Polish Cultural Institute of Minnesota, welcomed the attendees and emceed the event.
Dudek said the Warsaw Uprising was an effort by the Polish resistance to save Warsaw, hoping that the Soviet Red Army, camped on the outskirts of Warsaw, would join them in liberating the city. Instead, Dudek said, the Russian army sat for 63 days while the uprising was defeated and Warsaw was left in rubble.
“The air drops from the Americans were the only help we got from the Allies.”
Dudek said Shimshock was executed “because he was Polish.”
Columbia Heights Mayor Amáda Márquez Simula welcomed the many Polish visitors. “Your presence here makes this so much more meaningful.”
Márquez Simula talked about her two trips to Poland. “The Polish people in the war kept hope that someone remembered them.” She said Shimshock’s death was the ultimate sacrifice. “It was not in vain, because the mission uplifted the Polish people in their darkest hour.”
Mateusz Szpytma, deputy president of the Institute of National Remembrance in Poland, told the story of the American relief effort and said it was the largest airdrop of supplies in the war. “Walter Shimshock gave his life for the freedom of the Polish people.”
Minnesota Commissioner of Veterans Affairs Brad Lindsey, representing Gov. Tim Walz, said there are only 1,700 World War II veterans left in Minnesota, a number that once stood at over 300,000.
“The valor displayed by the crew of the plane was a poignant symbol of the resistance against tyranny.”