Here's a unique story of a watch I picked up off ebay a few weeks ago. I was just perusing the vintage Venus 170 chronographs looking for a spare parts watch when I happened across this Clinton chronograph from a seller in Bulgaria. Upon scanning the ad quickly I noted that the back was inscribed with a name and "Detroit." I thought that was a little unusual to be in Bulgaria and that it might have a WW2 connection so I Googled the name and got a couple of hits. That sparked enough interest for me to purchase the watch and, while I was waiting for it to make the trip back to the US, I proceeded in look for more information on the name. It didn't take long to find that the original owner of the watch was a WW2 B-24 Liberator pilot shot down over Bulgaria in 1944. A couple of military web sites provided some information as to the circumstances. The bomber had been on a bombing mission to the Ploesti oil fields in Romania, and due to a Navigator error, had gotten off course and flown into a heavy concentration of anti aircraft fire. The plane had severe shrapnel damage and started losing engines and when down to one engine the crew bailed out. All the crew members survived and were captured by German soldiers and transferred to a POW camp in Bulgaria.
After a few more hours of additional research I found the original owners daughter living in Oregon and contacted her to see if she would like the watch back. She was pretty flabbergasted and definitely wanted the watch. It turns out she had some additional information on her father as he had kept a journal and the mission had been mentioned in a couple of books. His personal items, including the watch, had been taken from him at some point but later returned at the POW camp. It was unclear as to how the watch was lost again but probably bartered away, at some point, for food or privileges as food was scarce. All of the crew stayed as POW's until late 1944 when the Russian troops were nearing the area so the Bulgarians negotiated the release of the POW's and sent them to Turkey where they were returned to US control. The pilot immediately married his girlfriend on his return stateside. He passed in 2006 at the age of 85.
In the pic below the watches owner is kneeling, second from the right. I returned the watch last week as a gift to the daughter.
