Cpl.

Teddy Raymond Potocki

Airplane Propellor Mechanic - MOS 687

545th Bomb Squadron

384th Bombardment Group (Heavy)

Serial Nr 32141939

Killed 18/04/1944 - Ground Accident - aged 23

Resting place - Riverside Cemetery, Rochester, New York

Teddy Raymond Potocki was born on 6th March 1921, in Rochester, Monroe County, New York. His parents were Joseph and Mary (nee Lipinski) Potocki. Teddy had two brothers, Edmund and Joseph Jnr., two sisters and was engaged to Miss Bonnie Wethonig.

Teddy was a graduate of Benjamin Franklin High School in Rochester, New York and prior to enlisting had worked for the Bausch and Lomb Optical Company.

Cpl. Potocki was assigned to the 545th Bomb Squadron on 28th April 1943. His role as a Airplane Propellor Mechanic was to work on the propellors of the aircraft and involved all aspects of ensuring their optimal performance - they would remove units; clean, inspect and facilitate necessary repairs; work on the automatic pitch control mechanisms and once completed, reinstall propellor units back onto aircraft.

On the evening of 18th April, 1944 at around 23.00 Cpl. Potocki was returning by bicycle along with Cpl. James A. Moore and S/Sgt. David Kent Ollre (both also 545th Bomb Squadron) after an evening at Geddington. Although expressly forbidden, they had proceeded to ride their bicycles down, or across, Runway No.2. Due to day operations by the USAAF, it would be an easy assumption for them to make that the runways were inactive late into the evening. 

Unbeknown to the trio, an RAF Short Stirling of 1657 Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU), based at RAF Stradishall in Suffolk, was operating on this runway completing a circuit of "touch and goes" as part of crew training. On its fourth such pass, the aircraft was to strike the three men on their bicycles, killing them all outright. The impact damaged the large RAF bomber, resulting in it heading immediately back to their home base. Enroute, a fire broke out in an engine, causing the aircraft to then divert towards the emergency airfield at RAF Woodbridge, in Suffolk. The experienced pilot and co-pilot instructed the crew to bail out whilst they attempted to land the aircraft at the emergency airfield -  however, tragically, the trainee flight engineer was to fall to his death when his parachute failed to open. A few miles short of RAF Woodbridge, the Stirling was to crash near the village of Little Glenham in Suffolk with the loss of life of both pilot and co-pilot.

S/Sgt. Potocki was initially interred at Madingley American Cemetery near Cambridge, England before his body was repatriated, in line with family wishes, in August 1948 to his final resting place.

Research courtesy of Keith Andrews on behalf of 384th Bombardment Group Museum.

With kind thanks to the 384th Bomb Group website www.384thbombgroup.com for permission in using material from their records in the making of this story. It holds a wealth of information, documents and photographs of their activities during World War 2.

Further information courtesy of www.newspapers.com, www.ancestry.com and www.findagrave.com