Overview

This blog will focus primarily on the clandestine activity of Captain Robert M. Trimble in Poland and the Ukraine, during the winter and spring of 1945. He was a decorated heavy bomber pilot stationed in Debach, England, and completed a harrowing 35 sortie tour. At the fulfillment of his tour he was sent, at first unknowingly, to our Station 559 in Poltava, Ukraine to aid in the rescue of downed American air crews and Prisoners of War in the Eastern Theater of World War Two. He had been duped initially into believing his mission was to simply return downed aircraft!
In a more general sense, this blog also honors the some 13,000 men and women who were stationed at the Poltava, Piryatin and Mirgorod Airdromes in Russia during 'Operation Frantic'. This was the great East-West experiment in the cooperation of two Allies--the U. S. A. and the Soviet Union--to perform "shuttle" bombing missions over Germany. Our troops nicknamed themselves the "Forgotten Bastards of the Ukraine" while stationed there, partly because of their feelings at times that our military leadership was not acting in their best interests. Much bias and dissent occured due to the language and cultural barriers present. But the countries perservered, and managed to complete the mission amicably under Captain Trimble's command.