My name is René Bosma en I live in the little Dutch town of Oosterwolde.
Since 4 years I have been investigating the Air war over the Northern part of the
Netherlands. It is my main objective to gather as much information as possible
about the aircraft and the airmen which came down over the province of
Friesland during the Second World War. We consider it very important to keep
the memory of the Air war alive, especially the many flyers paid with their lives for our Freedom.

One of the aircraft I research is a American B-17 heavy Bomber (serial: 42-31086) of 96 Bomb Group. The plane crashed on the 16th of December 1943 near a little town in the Netherlands called Poppenwier (North site of the Netherlands). The B-17 came back from a bombing mission on the harbour installations in the German city of Bremen. But when they flown The North of the Dutch Mainland the group of Bombers where attached by German Fighter. one of the bombers was hit badly en started to tumble to earth. But because the bombers flown in a tight formation it collided with another B-17. One of the wings was ripped of en that B-17 (42-37739) crashed in the same area. It was a big tragedy because al the 20 airman of the 2 plans lost their. After the crash all the 20 airman where buried on the little graves site near the old church in the little town. It was in 1945 (after the liberation of the Netherlands) that the body where reburied at the American War Cemetery at Margraten, The Netherlands. Some of them are still resting here. Others where later reburied in the U.S.A.

The 2nd pilot of the 42-31086 was 2nd Lieutenant Albert Joseph Csizmadia. He was born on the 18th of December 1919. His parents where Alexander Csizmadia (1895) & Julia A. Ciszmadia (1902). Albert hath 1 brother: James A. Csizmadia (1920). In 1940 the family lives on 1476 Champaign Road at Lincoln Park, Wayne County, Michigan. He works as a Press Helper.
In 1949 his body was reburied in the USA en he is resting on the Woodmere Cemetery at Detroit, Michigan.

At the moment I research this crash en I was hoping that there are someone who could en will help me with some additional information about Albert:

• his military career
• his family
• his life before he sight in for service
• his repatriation are available

I also hope that someone knows some ancestors or relatives of Albert en will help me to get in contact with them.

My goal with the information I try to collect is to make a as precise as possible reconstruction about the crew en their mission on that day. So the story of the brave man who gave their live for our freedom never will be forgotten.


Thank you in advance en hope you could en will help me.

Kind regards

René Bosma, Oosterwolde, The Netherlands

My home address: Laak 33, 8431 SC Oosterwolde, The Netherlands
My email address: dikkefodde@hotmail.com