World War II Pilot

D-Day - Codename: Operation Overlord - The Invasion Begins

2011-03-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

By June first we’d been bombing German occupied northern France unremittingly for over a month. Our targets were mostly railroad yards and fuel dumps near cities along the northern coast of France. Every time we flew a mission that first week in June we couldn’t help but notice the ships and boats that were gradually appearing in the English channel. We were usually flying 2 missions a day and the weather was pretty good those first few days.

Soon we were told that D-Day was June 5^th. We were restricted to the base, which was alive with preparations. They were painting all the planes with huge black and white stripes so we could tell our planes from the enemy’s.

http://387bg.com/Aircraft/B-26%20Carolyn.htm

You could feel the excitement on the base. We’d been having good luck hitting our targets but nothing much was happening on the ground in terms of defeating Germany. We were all anxious to get the war over and had great expectations for the invasion. Almost as soon as we were told about the invasion it was cancelled due to high winds and rough seas, plus low clouds that grounded most planes. A heavy fog covered the channel. Late on the 5^th we were gathered for briefings and told the invasion was back on for the next day, June 6, 1944. We listened as General Eisenhower spoke to the troops via radio. All I remember is: the world would be watching and they expected Victory. Here's what he actually said:

Transcript of General Eisenhower’s Message to the Troops on the Eve of D-Day, 1944

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened, he will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory!

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!

Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

-- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower photo info unknown, public information from http://www.army.mil/d-day/message.ht

After Eisenhower's message our COO unveiled the war map located on the front wall of the briefing hut and began going over the routes we would all take. We would start taking off just after midnight. We pilots each got our schedules and our Mission Sheet which told me that we wouldn’t be taking off until just before dawn, our usual time. I also knew what plane we’d be flying, that we’d be in #2 position in formation and flying at 4,000' altitude. The weather report listed clouds, fog, and the wind speed we could expect. We knew it was going to be a full moon. There were special code and color names and specific instructions on how we could communicate. Although we’d have a fighter escort, the fighters were also on a mission to seek out and attack the enemy. The briefing didn’t last more than 30 minutes but we were reminded of the importance of our mission and told that there would be as many as 2,000 planes in the air that day. Those of us who weren’t taking off in the first wave were told to head back to our barracks and get some sleep. But there wasn’t much sleeping that night.

Chapter 30 - May 1944 - Pre-Invasion Tactics

2011-02-27T18:49:00.000-08:00

During the month preceding D-Day I think about 3 of our missions over coastal defenses were aborted because of fog, bad visibility and bad weather, sometimes lasting as long as five or six days. Although the weather caused a few cancellations, we (450^th BS, 322^nd BG) flew another twelve missions in May. This was all part of the pre-invasion offensive. Most of the targets were railroad yards, fuel dumps, and essential transportation routes and bridges near cities along the coast of France or industrial targets in German Occupied France and Belgium. Altogether the Ninth had over 450 B-26s and A-20s flying.

Our missions were not much over four hours long because even though we carried about the same bomb load as the 4 engine B-17’s we only had about four and a half or five hours of fuel. Sometimes we carried 2 one-ton bombs and sometimes we carried forty 100-pound bombs. We were flying medium range and very accurate at hitting our targets. In May our accuracy was 90% on target. The RAF, which shared our base at Andrews Air Field, now had Mustang P-51 fighters and were again escorting us on some missions.

Two Engine B-26

P-51 Fighters

About the middle of May there was a full-scale practice for the coming Invasion. It involved paratroopers, gliders, medical evacs and all 450 bombers (about 16-18 groups) targeting bridges, railroads, German landing fields and fuel dumps, known sites of V-weapons, ports, and coastal enclaves. Many of the total 9^th AF missions had to be aborted because of heavy clouds and poor visibility throughout the month.

It was also during May that we finally flew our first Night Flight. If you remember, I was made Captain of our crew a few months earlier because our then Captain refused to fly at night. Then, the Command had second thoughts on the safety of flying at night. This was the first time we’d ever been assigned a night flight. In fact, we were part of the first night bomber mission ever flown in Europe by the US AAF. During the day we flew in box formation but at night each plane flew by instrument on a specific course and at different elevations – 500 feet apart. We took off every 30 seconds and went straight to our assigned altitudes. We weren’t in formation but you still couldn’t vary from your orders or you would risk colliding with another plane. It was surprising how black the night was. All of Europe was in “blackout” so there were no lights from the cities. The heavy cloud cover prevented star or moonlight. Although I think we were all more comfortable flying in the daytime, it was a successful mission and we hit our target.

Chapter 29 Operation Overlord

2011-01-23T20:41:00.000-08:00

Chapter 29 – Operation Overlord

Although there were rumors of a large scale attack ever since Eisenhower took over, we had first heard about Operation Overload (D-Day) in early May. The original date for OO had been cancelled because

Germany

still had some air power left and the command had decided to bring in more troops.

The Germans were working on installing huge guns on the north coast of France that could shoot “Buzz Bombs” (V-1s) with the ability to reach England. What we didn’t know was they also had a V-2 gun and a V-3 Rocket that could launch bombs from France that would reach the city of London. Reconnaissance had seen the German installations along the northern coast and that made the invasion even more urgent.

We’d all been on pins and needles waiting for the invasion operations to start. In the meantime all bomb groups were concentrating on keeping the Luftwaffe out of the air, out of crews, out of fuel, out of replacement parts and hitting any other target that would be useful. No one knew exactly where the invasion would take place either. We never knew where we were bombing until our briefing sessions before the day’s mission. There were lots of rumors about where it would be and some plans to trick the Germans into thinking it would be somewhere else. In the meantime, hundreds of ships were gathering along the southern coast of

England. We'd see them every time we took off over the English channel.

Chapter 28 – The Pressure Rises, The Going Gets Tough

2010-12-05T16:49:00.001-08:00

When we’d finally been transferred to the Ninth Army and relocated to Andrews Field in March of 44 it had been the result of the changing winds of war. Although we didn’t know it at the time, our transfer was probably due to three big changes in the strategies of the war.

One was the appointment of Lt. General Jimmy Doolittle to command the Eighth Army in January of ‘44. Until he took over, the fighters were our escorts and protectors. Their job was to bring us back alive. When Doolittle took over that changed. He was all about offense. He said it was time we took over air superiority if we were going to win the war. He changed the job of the fighter pilots from protecting bombers to destroying the German fighter planes. They were to seek out the Luftwaffe and attack. The RAF had been doing that all along. Now, the bomber squadrons were on their own! Our job hadn’t changed: Go in, drop your bombs, get out. 1944 - Lt. General Jimmy Doolittle & Major General Curtis LeMay

The second change had been what they called: Big Week – February 20-25, 1944. The Eighth, Ninth & Fiftheenth US Army Air Forces and the RAF launched a six day attack on Germany’s aircraft industry – the goal was to achieve air superiority over Germany. That meant breaking German morale as well as their industrial machines, marshalling yards and supply chains by destroying everything related to the aircraft industry.

There were different targets everyday. They focused on Hitler’s fighter manufacturing and assembly plants, Berlin (where most of the Luftwaffe was based) and other cities building aircraft. Almost 3,000 bomber missions had flown from England and 1500 from

Italy

. There was significant damage to

Germany

but there were also heavy losses for all four Air Forces that week. Moral was low on both sides. After that, pilots and crews were needed, so we’d been transferred into the 9^th and sent to

England

as reinforcements.

It was also in early February that we learned Eisenhower had been “officially” named Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. He would take command of Operation Overlord, what we now call the D-Day invasion - when he took over supreme command of all Allied Forces. He agreed with Doolittle, air superiority was required to win the war but he had a bigger vision of the roll of all the military.

Our B-26 Bomber missions during April and May had been successful. We were really good at flying in formation and staying tight. It must have been menacing to the enemy to hear and see all that firepower aimed at them. It was impressive from our end and made you proud to be part of the 322^nd. The other side of that is that the Germans were good at getting their anti-aircraft guns back in action and were also usually ready for us. Seeing the flack exploding all around you was as nerve racking as it gets. It was heart stopping to see one of your fellow planes burst into fire after a hit and spin to the ground. It took a lot of concentration to steel yourself to keep on going and keep your thoughts on the job. Luckily it didn't happen on every mission.

One of the big problems of carrying out the missions from Southern England was weather. England, the English Channel, Northern France were constantly being battered by thick fog and spring gales blowing in from the Atlantic, making visibility bad at low altitudes and completely obliterated at higher altitudes. Most of our targets that spring were on the Western front or over Germany itself. We were hitting our targets with accuracy. We were holding our own without Fighter protection. The Fighters were also having a lot of success because Germans had lost a lot of planes and crews in the Big Week – and it would take the Gerries over two months to get back into production of much needed planes.

Chapter 27 A WWII Thanksgiving in Britain

2010-11-23T18:49:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Story

An upper class British widow scrimped and saved ration coupons all year long to buy a

Turkey

and all the trimmings. It was to give the American G. I.s, who helped her maintain her proud but decrepit estate, a proper Thanksgiving dinner.

She spent days cleaning and decorating her house. She brought her fine china, crystal and silver out of the bomb shelter, wanting everything to be perfect for the Americans. She did all the cooking and her friends acted as servants for the day.

Everyone was seated in the formal dining room, Mrs. Bridgewater at the head of the table. The tantalizing aroma of roasting turkey filled the air. The soldiers were in their dress uniforms, anxiously anticipating their home cooked traditional American dinner. Toasts had been made. Discussions of the many blessings the group had to be thankful for, even though they were fighting a war far from home and loved ones, were complete.

The time came for the beautiful 20 pound turkey to be served. Cedric, acting as butler, came through the swinging door behind Mrs. Bridgewater’s chair with a flourish - and the turkey slid off the platter and landed on the floor! Everyone was aghast! The much anticipated dinner was ruined! There was complete silence. No one knew what to say or do – except Mrs. Bridgewater!

She calmly instructed Cedric: “Please pick up the turkey, put it on the platter, take it back into the kitchen and bring out the other turkey!”

Wishing you as happy a Thanksgiving as those G. I.s had all those many years ago!

Chapter 26 - Escaping the War

2010-11-14T20:39:00.000-08:00

Chapter 26 – Escaping the War

To relieve the alternating stress and boredom, we were given furlough passes every two to three weeks, usually for two days. The closest train station was in Braintree about 5 miles away. If you wanted to head for London, which was about 45 miles southwest by train, you needed a bike get to the station. You could usually find one somewhere on the base. There was even a guy on base who repaired bikes and he always had a couple ready to go if you couldn’t borrow one from another GI.

If you rode a bike into the station, the next person who arrived at the station might borrow it to get home. You always had to worry about finding a bike there when you got back. It wasn’t much fun to get back from leave and have to walk back to the base. There wasn’t much hitch hiking in those days, people just didn’t have cars. Occasionally you could bum a ride from one of the businesses that had a “lorry” (truck) but you might have to help him make a delivery or two.

People in the neighboring villages were pretty friendly about sharing their bikes. No one ever locked their bike but they did have their names on them. We’d try to avoid taking the bikes with names on them whenever possible. Every once in awhile the train station manager would send a truck out to the base to collect the bikes that belonged to the villagers.

It was safe to go into London now that the blitz was over. There was always something to do there during the day – and if you could find a place in the blackout - at night. The German attacks to demoralize London, “the Blitz” had started in September 1940 and continued until May of 1941 when Hitler needed his Luftwaffe to invade Russia. However, London was still under a “blackout” three years later. There were absolutely no lights allowed on outside at night. All windows had to have blackout curtains blocking any light. So, you liked to know where you were when it got dark. It was best to plan to be inside at one of the GI clubs where there was usually a dance, music, food and lot of people.

There were more than a dozen Red Cross Clubs in London some of them were for Officers only. Sooner or later we checked them all out and sometimes we even stayed in hotels just to get away from other soldiers for a day. Mostly we headed for the biggest and best club, which welcomed both officers and enlisted men, The Rainbow Corner. It was located in the West End, a few blocks from Piccadilly Circus – where all the theaters and shops were – so there was always something to do.

Sheet Music of a song about the Rainbow Corner

You could get a room at the Rainbow Corner for about 50 cents and they had real sheets. They had just about anything else you needed from a laundry to a barbershop. You could take a hot shower or a bath. The Red Cross was famous for supplying doughnuts and coffee to servicemen (even if they had to deliver them by mobile units) and you could usually get a sandwich and piece of cake or a bottle of Coca Cola at the donut canteen downstairs. They also served hot meals there, usually fish or rabbit and vegetables or something with beans. London had been under rationing so long you took whatever food you could get. There was usually a live band and dancing at least 3 nights a week and there were plenty of records for dancing if there was no live music. There were movies, magazines, newspapers, drinks, cigarettes and you could play cards, ping pong, games or do jigsaw puzzels. There were lots of friendly ladies that volunteered at the club and they were always ready to dance or play table games, write letters for guys that needed help with them, or sew something for you. There were even counselors for guys that were messed up.

Time passed too quickly when you were off base on a pass and it seemed like you’d just left when it was time to go back.

VETERANS DAY 2010

2010-11-10T22:03:00.000-08:00

Today we take time to remember, honor and thank all the brave veterans of all the wars who fought to protect our freedoms.

On this 11th day of the 11th month at 11:11 stop for just a minute and imagine you can hear the 21 gun salute and the playing of TAPS to honor and keep the faith with all our soldiers.

We can never thank them enough.

Chapter 25 - Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder!

2010-11-06T20:19:00.000-07:00

We flew our first mission on March 5, 1944. We were told never to talk about our missions, everything was very secret. We never knew where we’d be going until we went to our briefing sessions before each mission and got our assignments. Although, mostly we knew we’d be going over Holland, Belgium, France (all occupied by Germans at that time) or to Germany itself. The B-26s were assigned both primary and secondary targets. Our mission was to get in, drop the bombs and get out.

The targets included marshalling yards, roads, bridges, ammunition dumps, power stations and shipyards. We flew in formation in what they called boxes. The mission leader flew in the middle of the first row with #2 plane on his right and #3 plane on his left. Directly behind the leader was #4 with #6 on his right side and #5 on his left side.

Usually the leader was the only plane with what they called the Nordin Bomb Site. That was a special navigation instrument for locating your exact target. They weren’t very plentiful at the time and every plane in the formation was to watch the leader – when he dropped his bombs you dropped yours. If no one had a Nordin, everything was done by sight navigation.

B-26 In Flight

B-26s in Formation, Flak Exploding

We flew seven missions in March and twelve missions in April. On non-mission days we were doing a lot of training now that we understood what combat was. The crew always wore parachutes in case we were hit and had to abandon the ship. Medium level (altitude) bombing meant we were flying in the range of 8,000 to 10,000 ft. At 10,000 feet you had to wear your oxygen mask. It got pretty cold at those altitudes. We were dressed in uniforms with electric wires that we could plug in to get warm.

The biggest hazard was the anti-aircraft (ack-ack) guns being shot at us from the ground. We were doing daylight bombing and you could see it exploding all around you plus it created wind bumps every time it was close. Eventually there were diversionary tactics that we took at higher altitudes. The whole formation had to follow the same orders. Trying to divert to avoid ack-ack on our own would put the formation at risk of colliding with each other so there was no dodging bursts on your own. It made for raw nerves most of the time. The second hazard was actual attack by the Luftwaffe. That’s when our fighter planes (mostly RAF Spitfires) were supposed to protect us. So far we’d managed to escape both the ack-ack and the attacks with very little damage. We were also doing a fairly good job of hitting our targets.

One of our missions was called a “Grudge Raid.” You remember that the original B-26 low-level flying over Holland targets had been a disaster. They were flying right down on treetop level when they flew those first missions. One of the targets had been a power station, the other a U-boat base – both in the Netherlands. It was just across the border from

France

. Holland was occupied by Germany but the people of Holland were our friends. On that mission, the Command had decided to warn the people of Holland they were coming, so they broadcast the raid on the radio. Of course the Germans heard it too and were prepared for them. Nazis were even up in the tops of the Church steeples shooting at them. The Germans managed to knock out all but one or two of the B-26s and only a few men got back. I think about 60 were lost or missing. I heard that 24 ended up in German POW camps.

The Grudge Raid was targeting the same installations but this time we would be flying at 12,000 feet. That was our best altitude because by then they had found out it took the Germans seventeen seconds to track us and get a shell up to us at that altitude. Therefore, we never flew in a straight line for more than 15 seconds. Many times we could see big black clouds of exploding shells right where we would have been had we flown straight for another two seconds. I called that cutting it close. There were 300 B-26s on this Grudge Raid on the U-Boat installation.

The first week in May the 322nd threw quite a celebration when one of the B-26 planes, named the “Mild and Bitter” became the first bomber of the Allies to complete100 missions. Not only that, it had never lost an engine or sustained major damage and no crewman had ever been hurt on those missions. We weren’t assigned the same plane every time we flew, so over 166 men on the base had flown a mission on the Mild and Bitter at one time or other. It was the pride of the 9^th Army and it was a big celebration. By the end of July there were a total of 10 B-26s in the 322^nd that made it to 100 missions, a real tribute to their dependability. (After the disastrous start in Holland in ‘43 the B-26s ended the war with under 1% combat losses.)

About that time Command decided that we would do some night time training in formation flying. Our crew Captain, Lt. Davison decided that it was too dangerous to fly formation at night. He went to the Squadron Commander and told him he wouldn’t do it. The Commanding Officer called me in and told me what Davison said. He asked me what I thought about night flying. I said I thought it couldn’t be much more dangerous than flying over enemy territory in broad daylight and having anti-aircraft shells exploding all around us. He demoted Lt. Davison to co-pilot and made me crew commander. He assigned the same crew to me and gave me a new co-pilot by the name of Jimmie Deloach. Lt. Davison would be flying co-pilot with the C.O. from then on. It turned out we practiced some night flying but we never did actually fly any night time missions while I was there.

We flew another twelve missions in May. Most of them were on railroad yards and fuel dumps near cities along the coast of

France

that were occupied by the Germans. Our missions were not much over four hours long because even though we carried about the same bomb load as the B-17s (which had 4 engines to our 2) we only had about four and a half or five hours of fuel. Even though flight time averaged about 4 hours, there was about 3 1/2 hours prep time before leaving and some check out time after so there was a lot of tension and adrenaline flowing on mission days and it was always a relief to get back.

Chapter 24 - We Finally Join the War!

2010-10-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Finally, on March 3, 1944 we got our orders to go to

England

. We were transferred to the Ninth Army and assigned to the 450^th Squadron of the 322^nd Bomb Group. The 322^nd was the B-26 Bomb Group that had the disasters in Holland when doing the low level bombing back in the summer of ’43. However, it had not been the 450^th Squadron and we were now Medium level bombers.

Andrews Air Field, (Great Saling) Britain 1944

We were sent to Andrews Field which was located near Braintree, England in an area called Great Saling. It was called Station AAF-48. It was about 40 miles northeast of London in the County of Essex. Not too far away in a place called Bury St. Edmonds, there was an RAF field. (Royal Air Force) There were also a number of RAF Fighter Squadrons stationed at Andrews as support Fighters. The 322^nd had been based at Bury St. Edmonds when they flew the low level attacks on Holland but had been transferred to Andrews in June of ‘43. Also, in December of ‘43, about four months before we got there, Andrews had been attacked by the Luftwaffe (Germans) but there was no apparent damage to be seen by the time we got there.

Andrews was what they called a Class A airfield and was built by Americans about 18 months before we got there. Class A meant there were 3 runways, roughly located in a triangle shape. The main runway was 6,300 feet long, 300’ longer than usual. The other two runways were shorter. Andrews was the only British field named after an American: General Frank Maxwell Andrews, who had been killed in an airplane crash. Before that it was called Great Saling.

This base was the squadron headquarters and was a full operating base, not a training base. In addition to the headquarters, there was an iron hut building for mission briefings and debriefings, a mess hall, hospital, a chapel, store, supply warehouses, a motor pool and living quarters. The officer’s living quarters were on the east side and were mostly the corrugated iron huts with brick ends that had a door and 2 windows covered with black out curtains. The floors were concrete and there was a small stove in the middle for heat. They were cold, damp and musty. There was a bath hut with tubs, showers and hot water but little heat. Since our quarters were about a mile away from the runways we would mostly march from place to place. Bombs and ammunition were stored outside the perimeter in what they called munition “dumps.” They were a combination of concrete and dirt mounds to protect the ammunition from attack or crash landings. The fuel dump was on the north side of the base. There was a tower, two hangers and several maintenance shops for the constant repair of the planes coming back from combat. I think there were a couple thousand men on the base in one capacity or another.

On Mission days we were usually up at 5am and went to the mess hall for breakfast. Later, an Army truck would pick us up at quarters and deliver us to the briefing hut. Everyone was to be in the hut by a certain time and sometimes bring your equipment, other times get it afterward. That would include your full flight suit, flack jacket, warm helmet and hard helmet, gloves, parachute and combat gear. You didn’t want to put that on until you were ready to fly.

There was a stage at the front of the building (opposite the end with the door) and rows of chairs with an aisle down the middle. Behind the stage on the wall there was a map that was usually covered until the briefing started. Briefings started when the C.O. (Commanding Officer) walked into the building and someone yelled Attention! He would put us at ease and the Operations Officer would take over, reveal the map and give us the skivvy on the mission’s goals. It might be taking out an ammo dump, hitting a marshalling yard or whatever the target was. They would give us information about the target and tell us where we might encounter heavy anti-aircraft attack concentrations. We were given a lot of details, including things like the ships that we might pass over as we crossed the channel.

Crew pilots were given a Mission sheet which told them things like which plane their crew would be assigned to (by serial number) what place they’d be in the formation, what number they’d be in line for take off and what time they should start their taxi and take off. It told the Capt if there were other Groups on the Mission, what color the leader’s flares were, what the radio frequencies would be. They were given altitudes, wind speeds, call signs, locations for emergency landings and the list of the Fighters supporting us. There were code names and colors of the day which were only good for certain hours and prevented us from getting fake radio interference by the Germans. There were detailed instructions on how to communicate on the Mission day.

When I made Captain and got my first Mission sheet I was surprised to see the "Standard Operating Procedure to follow when landing on the Continent" clearly written out at the bottom. That would be equivalent to a crash landing – or at least a crippled emergency landing. The SOP said: 1. Whenever possible, land at a field at which 8^th AF Service Command Center facilities are located. 2. Have radio operator contact base giving necessary information. Pilot can contact ground station on VHF. 3. After landing, pilot will (s) arrange for medial assistance, if necessary, (b) fill out “Forced Landing Card” from rear of pilot’s or co-pilot’s seat, (c) safeguard all secret and confidential items on ship, (d) contact nearest 8^th AF Service Command Service Center representative if one isn’t on the field and (e) contact home base. (Use VHF or W/T in the air or on the ground.) 4. Crew members will be responsible for individual flying equipment.

After the main briefing, the Intelligence Officer filled us in and after that the weather reports. Then we’d set our watches so that everyone had the exact same time down to the second, so that we could follow the take off instructions exactly. Precision was extremely important. When the briefing was done and the C.O. marched out, we’d gather our gear or head back to get it and climb aboard the Army trucks that would take us all to our planes. Usually Officers went in one truck and enlisted men in another since we lived in separate huts.

Chapter 23 - Northern Ireland

2010-10-22T19:31:00.001-07:00

Chapter 23 - Northern Ireland

Our assignment at Langford Lodge (the name of a Royal Air Force Base, not actually what we call a lodge) was what they called a replacement pool for the American groups in

England

. We didn’t do much flying or even pull much duty at all. We had a lot of time on our hands. We bought bicycles from the guys that were moving out to new assignments and rode all over the Irish countryside. We went into Belfast any chance we got. One night in late November Lt. Davison and I even went to the Grand Opera House in Belfast. It was quite a dramatic event with costumes and wonderful music.

One thing that broke the monotony was kind of funny. We all looked forward to mail call and like everyone else I was always anxious to hear from my fiancé or my family. One day an envelope showed up – from the Man on The Street reporter in Jacksonville, FL! He hadn’t run my story in the paper but he’d sent the picture he took of me to the address at the Avon Park base and it had finally caught up with me! We all had a big laugh over that! There were some amazing things that the Army managed to do during the war.

On the whole, time dragged on so much that some of the crews volunteered to transfer and get checked out in B-17s just to get out of Ireland. One of my best friends, Jack Scarlett and his crew, did just that. However, I stayed with the B-26. Had I known we were going to be there for a total of six months or anticipated another event like the one I am going to tell next, I may have made a different decision.

One day our crew was assigned a training flight. All B-26s were being retrained in medium altitude bombing. Lt. Davison, the Captain, was interested in reading a book, so he told me to take the flight up with the flight engineer in the co-pilot’s seat. He sat in the bomb bay and read his book. Just as we took off and were leaving the ground both props went into flat pitch! It was happening again! Only this time it was both engines at once and I was in the left seat! The engineer and I both pushed the manual overrides while I tried to keep the plane in the air. You had to be pretty strong to control these planes and again we were going down fast! At the same time I was trying to slow down our descent I doing everything I could to keep us going in a straight direction and restart the engines. Just as we managed to get the props going again and start gaining some altitude we broke through a power line that was located just past the runway area!

The Tower said all they could see was a big flash and they thought we blew up. Somehow it didn’t spark the fuel or electrocute any of us and when the flash cleared they saw the “phoenix” rising into the blue. I made a large turn and got back in line for landing. It was good to have our feet on the ground! When we examined the plane we found a large hole burned into one of the props where we’d hit the power line. The locals weren’t too fond of us after that. I think it took a couple days for them to get their power back.

Chapter 22 – Assignment: Northern Ireland – Replacement Depot

2010-10-03T22:39:00.000-07:00

After a week of getting to know each other’s families and getting to know each other better, it was time for me to get on a train back to camp. I sure hated to leave my family and my fiancé. When we got to Jacksonville, FL I had to change trains to get to the base. I had a couple hours to walk around Jacksonville and I was looking for a phone to call Lorraine. Back then almost every newspaper had what they called a “Man on the Street.” He was a photographer who went around taking pictures of people all day and asking them a question. They picked a few to print in the next day’s newspaper. They would take your name and address and mail you a copy of the picture they took even if they didn’t use yours. Sure enough the Jacksonville Man on the Street snapped one of me. I gave him my address at Avon Park because I had no idea where I’d be the next week.

On August 25, 1943 we received our orders to proceed to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey for embarkation. We were put on a troop transport train that took a couple days to get to Brooklyn, New York. We were transferred to Camp Kilmer where, surprise!, we were to prepare to “set sail” for England. We’d trained for almost a year as pilots, engineers, navigators and bombardiers. We thought we would be flying to Europe! We were going to be the first group that wasn’t flying their own planes over. Apparently they had more planes than crews overseas. It would be another great experience: crossing the Atlantic by ship. Instead of getting into action in a couple days it was going to be a long trip.

Camp Kilmer seemed to be in mass confusion. Instead of leaving the next day, it was four days of waiting before we left. Luckily one night the officers got passes to go into New York City. Three of us headed for The Hurricane Club in Times Square (49^th & Broadway). The Hurricane was known for jazz and was the home of Duke Ellington at the time. This farm boy was living the high life. Once again, a photographer came along and took our pictures – for the princely sum of $1! This time I told the guy to send it to Lorraine.

After four days of hanging around Kilmer we were finally put on a train for a short trip to the Harbor where we boarded our ship – which turned out to be a converted cattle boat! We were part of a huge convoy of ships and escorts. About one day out of port our “ship” had trouble with one of its boilers. We had to leave the convoy and return to Brooklyn for repairs. For two or three days they worked on the old tub and we had to stay on board the whole time. There were over 2,000 people on board. Once the trouble was repaired we joined another convoy heading to England. That was a relief. Our imaginations were running wild thinking we would be going it alone across the Atlantic, a sitting duck for German U-boats. Altogether we spent twenty-three days on the ship before we docked in Liverpool, England. From Liverpool we took a train to Prestwick AB, Scotland, then another boat to Belfast, Ireland. In Belfast our group boarded another train going to a base near the tip of Lock Ney (Lough Neagh), Langford Lodge.

Tower at Langford Lodge 50 Years Later

Chapter 21 - Rumors, Leave & An Engagement!

2010-10-02T16:54:00.000-07:00

The base was a busy, busy place. Crews were in all stages of training and transitioning to leave the states. We were waiting on pins and needles for our assignments. We were in the 280th Bomb Squadron, part of the Mighty 8^th Army Air Force which was covering the European Theater. We knew there were bases in England, and Belgium – as well a support bases in Ireland, while the enemy had bases in occupied France, Belgium and Holland. Rumors abounded but we had no idea where we would end up. We already knew of the ill-fated disaster of the B-26 low level flying attacks on a power plant in Ijmiuden, Holland back in May (43). On May 14th “Eleven or twelve (sources differ) Marauders from the 322nd Bombardment Group took part in the attack, returning without loss.” The problem with that attack was that they didn’t hit any targets so it was rescheduled for May 17. Eleven B-26s took off on the 17^th. One plane had electrical problems and turned back. It was the only plane that survived. This time the enemy was prepared and the low level flying made them almost sitting ducks. The Mighty Eighth quit flying until July 16 when it was decided to put the B-26 back to work as a medium level bomber. Knowing all this made everyone nervous and apprehensive on one hand and anxious to get over there and do our part on the other hand - and then there was that guy with the red flags waving around in the back of my head.

In mid-August the Army decided that we were definitely shipping out, so they gave us a 10 day leave to day good-bye to our families. Some of the guys in our group hadn’t had a leave in over a year. I’d been extremely lucky. I’d had 3 leaves in as many months. Lorraine and I had been writing and even talked on the phone a few times since I came back from my tonsillitis furlough. I couldn’t wait to get back to my brother’s place to see her. I grabbed my bag and caught the Dixie Flagler train North.

My mom and dad, back in Nebraska, decided they would come out to see me before I shipped out and they got on a train headed for Chicago. As soon as I got off the train in Terre Haute my brother, his wife and Lorraine picked me up and we headed for Chicago to meet the folks. We got there the night before they arrived. My brother’s wife, who was a beautician, was up on all the best places to stay in Chicago. We decided to pool our money and enjoy probably the (first and) last luxury we could expect to have in the next few years.

We checked into the Palmer House which was in the middle of what they called the Loop. I was told it was the most famous hotel in the city. I was sure it was actually a palace. All of us were in awe of the beautiful, huge lobby and its extravagant furnishings. The Palmer House was famous for its night club, the Empire Room, but my sister-in-law had her heart set on going to the Trianon Ballroom to dance to the music of Lawrence Welk. The Trianon was said to be the largest and most beautiful ballroom in the Country. It was so huge there was no problem getting in on short notice. I’d never seen or imagined anything like it. There must have been a thousand couples there that night but there was plenty of room to dance and you could hear the music from any part of the large dance floor.

I have to hand it to my sister-in-law, she had set the most romantic evening I could ever have imagined. “The Champagne Music Makers” played for hours and their music set the stage for romance. I’d given it a lot of thought and I new I was going to ask Lorraine to marry me but I hadn’t really planned to do it that night. It was a magical night and I knew there wouldn’t be another one like it in the near future. While we were dancing I asked Lorraine to be my wife and she accepted. I don’t think our feet touched the floor the rest of the evening! Later we told my brother and his wife and the four of us celebrated. The next day sanity was restored and by the time we met my folks at their train we had decided to wait until I came home before we got married. The six of us headed back to South Western Illinois for the rest of my leave.

Chapter 20 - We Ditch in the Swamp

2010-09-24T16:22:00.000-07:00

When I got back to the Avon Park base, suddenly the tar paper shacks we bunked in were more uncomfortable than they had been before my leave. The quality of the food was hard to swallow and not because of my tonsillectomy. The August heat and humidity were oppressive. A week with family and the promise of a romance were hard to leave behind and had spoiled me a little.

The military has a way of yanking you back to attention. We went right back to calisthenics, marching to the mess hall, maintaining our quarters, attending classes and practicing flying techniques. Mostly that meant takeoffs and landings, which were never really monotonous for the pilots but the crew probably tired of them. There were also days when we did bombing target practice with no ammunition and eventually with live bombs.

We’d been assigned to flight crews of six. I was the co-pilot. One day when we were practicing take offs and landings we had a close call not too different from my first training flight with the Squadron Commander. Right after we were airborn and the landing gear was retracted, one engine went into flat pitch and quit! This was a 2-engine bomber! It was pretty hard to fly without one engine. We were past the end of the runway and over the swamp. All the power was coming from the other engine and it took everything we had to keep it from flipping over - at the same time we were going down fast. Things were happening very quickly.

Lt. Davidson, the Captain, alerted the tower we had an emergency landing and somehow managed to slide us into the swamp on the plane’s belly without doing much damage. Ambulances and fire trucks arrived. No one was hurt but we had to wade through the swamp to get back to the runway. I kept thinking of those water moccasins I’d seen and couldn’t get out of there fast enough for my comfort. We were lucky there was no live ammunition in the swamp.

The ambulance was waiting and took us back into camp to make sure we weren’t injured. They had to pull the plane out of the swamp, so later that day we got another plane and went on with training maneuvers - more take offs and landings. That was kind of ruff after the heart stopping event earlier. On the plus side, all the repetitive training, drills and memorization that the military drilled into us stood us in good stead in emergencies. You knew what to do.You reacted almost without thinking. I believe that belly whopper went on record as a crash landing even though they recouped the plane. It was another lesson that would pay off in my future. It gave us all something to write home about that night. And I was writing to "my gal" almost every night since I got back.

Secretly there was something nagging me, a little guy waving a red flag in the back of my mind. He was pestering me. I'd tried my darndest not to be a medic when I joined the Army and had ended up being a medic because I knew how to type (see Chapter 6). It's true, I got lucky and got into the Cadet program but I still had the skills of a medic and knew I would have to use them whenever a crisis required them. Things went smoothly for awhile. Then I saw that water moccasin and swore I would never ditch in the swamp. A few weeks later we ditched in the swamp. Then there was the other incident where the Squadron Commander gave me my first lesson and told me about the tendency of the B-26 to flat pitch on take off. About half an hour later it happened. I was beginning to think that these things all added up to something - what I didn't know. All I knew was that little guy was back there waving those red flags and I was starting to think I'd better pay more attention to him.

Chapter 19 Surgery Brings Another Leave Before Shipping Out

2010-09-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

Along with learning to the fly the bombers, playing war games and basically getting us into “survival” mode, the Army was getting us physically ready to go overseas into combat. It was 1943 and Europe needed pilots, planes and crews. We were all going through extensive physicals prior to being shipped out. I was having a lot of sore throats and the doctors decided that I had to have my tonsils out before they would send me over. So, they operated and gave me a 10 day leave to recuperate. It was too far to head for home in Nebraska, so the logical place to recover was back to my brothers place near Terre Haute. I checked out and caught the next train going north. I admit I wanted to see how my niece was doing with her new bicycle. Maybe she’d need another lesson from the lady who sold it to them. Again it was nice to be with family and I enjoyed the home cooking.

Luckily for me I didn't have to drop any hints about my interest in the lady with the bike, my sister-in-law was already busy doing a little matchmaking. She invited Lori, the lady who sold them the bicycle, to dinner a couple days after I got there. I was still having a little trouble swallowing but it didn’t seem to affect my ability to talk. They tell me the table was set with the best tablecloth and saved up ration stamps were used for a roast. I was just thankful there were mashed potatoes and homemade applesauce from the tree in the yard. I was hoping our guest wouldn’t notice I wasn’t eating anything that wouldn’t slide right down my throat. I passed on the apple pie and was glad to have honey and tea instead of coffee, which was hard to get then. (Rationing started in1942 and tires, sugar, coffee, meat and eventually almost everything you couldn't grow had to be purchased with ration coupons. People got two rations books a month. I remember one had red coupons and the other blue. There were lots of rules and regulations, it was a complicated program.)

I thought this lady was pretty special so we spent quite a bit of time together during my leave – at least when my niece would let us. My brother and sister-in-law insisted on teaching us how to play bridge and every night we were getting to know each other while playing cards. Before I left we agreed to correspond.

Chapter 18 Avon Park, FL - B-26 Transition - One A Day in Tampa Bay

2010-09-08T00:39:00.000-07:00

Avon Park Army Air Field was located roughly in the middle of Florida, east of Tampa. It stretched over more than 350 square miles of mostly swamp land in a county with the strange name of Okeechobee. Orange trees grew all over the area and that was quite an exotic sight to a dry corn farmer like me. No one seemed to mind if you helped yourself to an orange now and then either and I enjoyed my share. Like the water towers at Pampa and Enid airfields, the Avon Park field had its memorable building, a band stand. It was actually used for band concerts to entertain us while we were there. There was a lake on the north end of the camp and my first sight of a water moccasin there made me determined not to have to ditch anywhere in Florida.

The base had multiple uses but mostly it was for live bomb training. There were some military there for survival training and some for learning chemical warfare which was a sobering thought when we learned about it. There were also a lot of guys there training in aircraft maintenance. Not too far away as the crow flew, just outside Tampa (about 100 miles west) there was another B-26 training field, McDill Field.

We were being prepared to go overseas to fight the war in Europe and we were sent to Avon Park not only to learn how to fly the two engine B-26 (or the 4-engine B-17s)but to be trained in combat flying, bombing and gunnery skills. In other words, war games. We would be learning how to hit targets, survive, as well as how to do things like navigate by the stars. Florida is not too wide and when you took off it was only a matter of minutes, whether you headed east or west, until you were over either the Atlantic on the east or Tampa Bay on the west. This was pretty intense training with a lot of flying.

There were thousands of people on the base and very little base housing. Many of the guys, mostly officers and their families, lived off base in motels around the area. We were in very basic accommodations on the base.

The B-26 was a twin-engine bomber made by Martin. It had very high wings and they were short wings. It had large Pratt-Whitney engines with Curtis electric propellers. Since it had such a high wing loading and only two engines, if one of the engines lost power it was hard to control. The electric props had a tendency to go into flat pitch, which would cause them to over-speed and loose thrust if the power was interrupted. There was a manual override that would put them back into the right pitch again.

The large engines produced a lot of speed for a medium size bomber so take offs and landings were at speeds of 125-130 mph. Lower speeds caused it to stall on landing. I explain this because the planes had a well deserved bad reputation and it took experience and some strength to fly them.

The first week I was in transition our base lost six planes and crews just off the end of the take-off runway. Thus the B-26 had developed several rather depressing nick names. Martin Marauder was the best of them. It was also known as the Widow Maker and The Flying Coffin. There were a couple more I don’t choose to mention. The guys over at McDill were having the same problems we were and had coined the slogan “One A Day in Tampa Bay” to describe the sad situation.

I was lucky because my first flight was with the Squadron Commander and he gave me a very good briefing before we took off. Sure enough, just after take off the right prop went into flat pitch. We got it under control and had a successful flight. This training came in handy later when I was training in

Ireland

. Many modifications were eventually made to the plane and when all was said and done, the B-26s had the lowest losses of any combat airplane in the war. The B-26 flew over 11,000 sorties during WWII and was one of the greatest planes flown in the war.

Chapter 17 -The Train Trip That Changed My Life

2010-09-01T22:44:00.000-07:00

After about seven days of leave I caught the train heading east from North Platte to Chicago, the first leg of my journey to Florida. In Chicago, I transferred to a train called the Dixie Flagler that ran most every day down through the Midwest and South to Central Florida. The Flagler was a first class train that was then used mostly for moving troops. There were many soldiers and other military personnel on board, either on their way south for training or on their way overseas. The train had a club car that was open to any rank. It was a rolling party. Most of us couldn’t afford to pay for drinks but we had our own flask. I didn’t run into anyone I recognized, but it seemed like we all knew each other.

Along about dark that first night on the Dixie, I heard the conductor call out that the next stop was Terre Haute, Indiana. I remembered that’s where my older brother and his family lived now. On the spur of the moment, I grabbed my duffle bag and got off the train. I called my brother. He picked me up and took me out to their house where I enjoyed another home cooked meal and being with family. Their daughter, my niece, was all excited about getting a bicycle for her birthday. They’d bought her a used bicycle from a lady in town and the woman was to deliver the bike the next day. Luckily, she got there with the bike early in the day - before they had to take me back to the station late that afternoon.

I was smitten immediately. She was a cute, petite, outgoing gal with a great smile. She was friendly, spirited and had a sense of humor. She fit right in with the family and from then on she and my niece became great friends. We spent most of the day teaching my niece how to ride the bike. Everyone enjoyed Lori’s company so much my sister-in-law invited her to stay for an early picnic dinner before they took me back to catch that night’s train headed for Florida. It was a short stop but one that changed my life.

Chapter 16 - We Find Out The Answer To Our Dreams

2010-08-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

During all our flight training classes the army had been giving us tests: physical tests, mental tests, psychological tests, emotional tests, intelligence tests. You name it, we took it, most of time more than once. They were also constantly observing us and taking notes for our files. All this helped them decide the answer to the question we’d all been waiting for – would we be bomber pilots or fighter pilots?

It was every guy’s dream to be a fighter pilot. They were the “glamour guys” of the war, the ones newspaper stories were written about and newsreels (movies) were made about. They flew lighter, faster planes and their mission was to attack the enemy and protect the bombers. They were what you call "Top Guns" today. You might say they had the ability to control destiny - theirs and that of the bomber crews.

Bomber pilots and crews were always in demand. They suffered more casualties than the fighter pilots who protected them from enemy attack while they were flying straight through all the anti-aircraft fire (ack ack). The bombers were not only bigger and heavier planes, they were loaded with tons of ammunition. Their mission was to follow orders - to hit specific targets.

So it's no surprise there were different qualities required for the fighter pilot and the bomber pilot. That's what all those tests had been sorting out. Fighter pilots were independent, bold, aggressive, cocky, fast moving, fast thinking and highly motivated. There was a certain recklessness and exhibitionism that was not only tolerated in a fighter pilot, it was necessary. They were risk takers and loners, they depended on no one but themselves. They flew alone and made their own split second decisions. Their job was to guard and look out for the bombers, anticipate attacks and protect bombers. If the enemy came after a bomber formation the fighters were to engage them before they reached the bombers.

Bomber pilots were picked for physical strength, solid dependable judgment, emotional stability, leadership skills and being able to develop a team that worked like clockwork and trusted each other. They had a crew they were responsible for as well as an airplane.

After we got our wings, we were given a 10 day leave before we had to report in to our next base. I went home to Nebraska with my family, which turned out to be enroute to my assignment to B-26 Transition School in Avon Park, Florida.

I was going to be a bomber pilot.

Chapter 15 Graduation from Advanced Pilot Training May 42

2010-07-31T19:08:00.000-07:00

Finally in late May of ’42 it was time to graduate and get those coveted Silver Wings.

The graduation was held in the base theater at ten in the morning. My folks and my oldest sister came down from Nebraska and my oldest brother, the one that I’d worked for on the ranch, and his wife came. My other brother and his family, that ones that I’d lived with when I was working on the cotton inspection team, had been transferred to a small community in southern Illinois where he was managing a pipeline station. The closest large town to them was Terre Haute, Indiana. Later, that had a big part to play in my life.

Our Graduation was as impressive as any ceremony I’ve ever attended since. The pomp and circumstance started and ended with marching of course. It’s hard to explain the thrill of being in uniform and marching in cadence while singing an inspiring song like the Army Air Corp anthem or the National anthem. It made your chest swell up with pride. I couldn’t carry a tune but luckily I was drowned out by a corps that could, and I felt like million as I sang at full volume and strode into the hall. We took an oath to our country and listened to a couple of speeches which congratulated us on surviving the most demanding training course in the military. The Brigadier General told us that so far over 40% of the cadets who entered flight training had washed out before graduating.

Next came the moment we anticipated, the presentation of the Silver Wings by the Lieutenant Colonel R. C. McBride. At the same time, we were promoted to 2nd Lieutenant, received our gold bars and a big dose of pride and excitement. In addition to the wings and the bars we also got a packet of “calling cards” with our name and rank: Lieutenant Air Corps, which we promptly exchanged with the other guys in our class and gave to our families. There was another benefit that we (and our families) appreciated and that was our new pay scale. We were now going to make $1,800 a year, plus we were entitled to a 50% bonus for flight pay!
It was a tradition when you received your Silver Wings that the first person that had to salute you, had to give you a dollar! That was a lot of money in 1942 when a bottle of cola was 5 cents and the daily newspaper cost 3 cents. Usually it was one of the lower classmen. I was so excited I have no memory of who had to give me my dollar.

Chapter 14 Advanced Flight School - Pampa Texas

2009-08-09T20:48:00.000-07:00

After a week’s leave and a Greyhound bus ride to the panhandle of Texas about 40 miles northeast of Amarillo, where the Pampa Army Airfield was located, we started Advanced Flight School. It was February 1943 and the weather was often cold and sometimes stormy. The skies were generally clear with big cumulus clouds and fierce air currents. We appreciated the special uniforms, boots and gloves to help keep us warm when we were in the air, where it was many degrees colder than the Panhandle.

Although the airfield was similar to the one at Enid in terms of runways, hangers, control tower and water tower, the living accommodations were nothing like the nice two story barracks we’d had at Enid. We were now living in what might be termed a tar paper shack. Luckily we were there to learn to fly, and as far as accommodations we were all in the same boat, as always.

Now we were learning how to maneuver twin engine planes. They were faster, more complex, less forgiving and definitely more challenging. We had to learn how to handle the new power and speed. All the courses we’d learned in basic were geared for these bigger, more powerful planes. Meteorology and Navigation were delved into deeper here. And, we finally learned how to shoot those guns we’d been marching with. There was a skeet shooting range on the base and some of the guys had to spend a lot more time there than I did because of my pheasant hunting days. We were still doing calisthenics, obstacle courses and weightlifting. I had always been strong from my farming days but I was now feeling like quite the athlete.

We had about 12 hours of flying with the instructor before we did our daytime solo and around 25 for our nighttime solo. We practiced takeoffs and landings over and over, probably doing 80 or 90 during our training, most of them at night. Most flying was now done by instruments. There were six students per instructor in our class. Our instructor got our group checked out in an AT-9. Most of the instructors thought the AT-9s were too hot for students and kept them flying the AT-17s but we loved the 9s and had a ball with them. This is when we learned to love to fly.

Chapter 13 Basic Flight Training -2 Enid, Oklahoma

2009-07-18T18:57:00.000-07:00

Officially, we were doing our basic pilot training at the US Army Air Force Flying School in Enid, Oklahoma. We were Aviation Cadets. We were still on a fast and tight training schedule at Basic because the war needed pilots. Civilian manufacturers were building planes as fast as they could and the Army Air Force was training the men to fly them. Up until December ’42, when voluntary enlistments were terminated, the Army Air Force had been a volunteer organization. Then, if you were drafted into the Army, you could apply for enlistment in the Air Force but the Air Force recruiters skimmed “the best of the best” men from the Army for their program – and they told us about the rigorous selection because it meant we were surrounded by men of caliber. They were building our confidence, attitude and pride.

Things were a little less stressful at Enid because we knew we’d made the cut. Almost half the guys that started were gone, but we hadn’t washed out. Physical training was still a big part of our daily regimen. We marched to classes and infantry drill singing the Air Corps song, “Off we go into the wild blue yonder…”. We became part of a coordinated team.

Flight training in basic involved a lot of navigation, instrument flying, night flying, cross country flying, and formation flying. Learning how to do all these maneuvers involved both actual flight experience and learning in flight simulators called Link Trainers. Link Trainers were used mostly for learning instrument flying.

Formation flying was a challenge for most of us. You had to tuck your wing right behind the instructor’s wing and stay in exactly that position. It was easy if he was flying level and going straight ahead. It was still pretty easy to stay in position through speed increases and decreases. Soon there were turns, then climbing turns and even loops. We practiced over and over, the instructor constantly stressing the importance of formation flying. It seemed like that’s all we would be doing. Later, when we were in combat we’d be thankful for those stringent exercises.

Night flying was another challenge that required learning to go over and over the flight details from weather to headings to checkpoints. Every morning went to ground school learning how to navigate, studying plane engines and systems, practicing Morse Code. We learned radio procedures and theory of flight.

Finally, after weeks of practice we got to the end of Basic Training and were waiting our assignments to the next phase of training. Assignments were finally posted. I would be going to multi-engine advanced flight training in Pampa, Texas! Our graduation was celebrated at a Stag Dinner held in the cadet mess hall, but we didn’t eat out of our mess kits that night.

Chapter 12 Accessories Instill Pride

2009-05-14T18:43:00.000-07:00

Now that we were in basic training at Enid we could relax a little. We were told that over 40% of our class had "washed out," but we'd made the grade. The Army was going to instill us with pride and convince us we were the best they had. They heaped praise on us for making it to this stage of training, calling us "the cream of the crop" and telling us we had the right to be proud. We kept marching to classes in cadence singing inspirational songs. We were told we were going to be the "best trained air-force in the world." The silver wings helped a lot.

Coveted Silver Wings of Cadets

Cadet Insignia on Patch

Chapter 12 The Magnificent Flying Machines

2009-04-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

At Enid we got about 50 hours of training in the TB25 also known as the AT-24. No more open cockpit, 2 seater planes for us, this was an exciting plane! They ones we had were 2 engine, dual controls that could hold a 3-5 man crew. The nose of the plane was what they called the "greenhouse" made of plexi-glass to give the bombardiers as good a view of their target as possible. Of course we didn't have any crew we were still learning to fly.

Chapter 12 Snaphots of Enid, Oklahoma - Basic Flight Training

2009-04-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

Downtown Enid, OK 1940s

Winter Sports at Air Force Base

Chapter 12 Basic Flight Training, Enid OK

2009-03-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

Enid Oklahoma was about 100 miles north of Chickasha. After a couple days leave we were loaded on a bus that traveled straight north on U.S. Highway 81 to Enid. We arrived about a year after it was first constructed. The barracks were two story frame buildings that looked like very large houses. There was the usual parade ground and of course hangers and runways. Built as a temporary base, the main feature was a huge water tower roughly in the center of the base.

One of the first things they did at Enid was issue rifles. We had to clean and assemble them and be able to take them apart and put them back together. For an old pheasant hunter like me it was second nature but many of the guys had never seen a gun before. Surprisingly, we weren’t taught to shoot the rifles, we just had to know how to assemble them and carry them in marches and parades.

They were very strict about us keeping orderly quarters. The term “white glove inspections” came from military inspections. The officer would put on a white glove and run his finger across every surface in the barracks. If any dust accumulated on the glove or discolored it, demerits were handed out. When you accumulated demerits over the maximum allowed you had to “walk them off” on the parade grounds on Saturdays. It was usually one hour of walking for each demerit over the limit.

Day to day classes at Enid continued, much like at the previous two bases, with the usual physical fitness drills, obstacle course, close order drills, marches, and lecture classes on military indoctrination, common courtesy, math, weather, navigation and specialty classes on airplane instruments, airplane recognition and airplane mechanics.

After about 70 hours of flying and daily classroom training, we were assigned to the TB25 airplane, also known as the AT-24. They were dual control, 2 engine bomber planes that flew with a 5 man crew. They had a top speed of over 300 miles per hour.

By the end of Basic they would decide who would be fighter pilots and who would be bomber pilots. Of course we all wanted to be fighter pilots, that’s why we practiced our aerial acrobatics every chance we got. They determined the assignments by instructor recommendations, tests they gave us, performance in class and what they needed most at the time.

Chapter 11 Primary Flight Training Continues

2009-02-22T21:12:00.000-08:00

In Chickasha we received our training at a civilian owned and operated flight school, The Wilson and Bonfils Flight School. Classes were also taught and flight checks given by a military staff.

Close order drill, calisthenics and obstacle courses continued in Primary school as did the classes in airplane recognition, meteorology, and ground school. The Army method of learning was memorization. We were expected to be able to memorize everything. It was a good discipline and in times of stress, it stood you well.
Our accommodations at W&B were known as the “Country Club” because everything was civilian in the mess hall from food to dishes and in the barracks from the beds and mattresses to the linens. Everything outside the mess hall and the barracks was strictly military.

In the afternoons our flight training continued. I was lucky to have done my solo a little earlier than most of the cadets. I was able to spend more time shooting landings and practicing the basics and acrobatics. When he rode with me after my solo, the instructor taught me forced landings. He’d cut the throttle and force me to find a place to land. Luckily there were a lot of fields in Oklahoma. Just about the time the wheels were going to touch the ground, he would take over and climb to a safe altitude, then hand it back and tell me to practice something else. Soon he’d cut the throttle again and I’d be forced to land again. Later, I spent a lot of time practicing these forced landings myself. Little did I know all that practice would eventually save my life and the life of 6 other crew members somewhere over France.

There were flight checks at the end of each phase of flying lessons. There was nothing the “checkers” liked better than washing out the unfit pilots. If you didn’t make the grade, or even if they just didn’t like you, you could be weeded out. You got two chances. If you didn’t pass the first test you got one more by a different checker. He knew it was your second of course, and if you failed his check you were reassigned to navigator or bombardier school. Luckily, I never had to take a second flight check.

Winter in Oklahoma was pretty cold and many days we woke to snow deep enough to entertain us guys by making snowmen or blow off some steam by having a few snowball fights. Mostly we had 10 short weeks to learn how to fly and between that and military drills and classes there wasn’t a lot of free time.

When our ten weeks was up Class 43E had a Graduation ceremony. Those that made it through were sent on to Basic Flight Training. Our class was going to Enid Army Flying School in Enid, Oklahoma

Chapter 10 Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder!

2009-01-13T09:01:00.000-08:00

Beginning to Fly – Meet the Fairchild PT 19

We learned to fly in the Fairchild PT 19 and the BC-1. The rugged little PT 19 was a one engine trainer aircraft. It had two open cockpits, the instructor sat behind you. It had plywood wings, fixed landing gear and flew at the phenomenal speed of about 130 mph! In truth, this was fairly slow for a light weight plane. The PT was also pretty stable, two positive factors for would-be pilots. Because of the open cockpit, the wind and colder temperatures the higher you flew, we were fitted out in two piece flying suits with fur collars, lined gloves, warm felt boots and leather helmets with goggles. (When we weren’t wearing the goggles, they were to be worn around our necks. Once we had completed our first solo flight we could wear them on our helmet.) Later, when we were overseas, our flying suits would have heated pants liners, heated jacket liners and heated gloves but for now we were so excited we didn’t notice the cold.

In addition to actual flying time every afternoon we were attending ground school and continuing our physical training during the first half of the day. We were also being thoroughly taught “military indoctrination” (the name of the course).

I was lucky to be assigned to a great instructor who stuck with me even though I was getting air sick just about every time I went up. I still remember my instructor’s name was William Dwyer. We were learning all the fundamentals: take offs, landings, forced landings, “s turns,” stalls, spins, loops etc. After about 24 hours of training with the instructor he told me to take my first “solo” flight which consisted of 3 or 4 take offs and landings. I was one of the first cadets in the class to do his solo and was quite proud to go back to the barracks wearing my goggles on my helmet.

The worst part of this training was when we started doing acrobatics. After training with the instructor for several days I would go up by myself and do several snap rolls, get sick, then go back and do it all over again. It took about forty hours of flying time before I got over the airsickness but it never bothered me again after that.

Chapter 9 Hallaleujah! Cadet School

2009-01-05T22:12:00.000-08:00

I was first sent to an Army Air Corps base for recruits near Waco, TX. It was under construction at the time and after a few days, in March of 1942, we were sent to Kelly Field in San Antonio, TX for basic training. This lasted about six weeks. We did close order drill, took a lot of tests, did hours and hours of physical training and learned the usual Army routines. Weekends were for marching or parading.

We were billeted in tents while the base was under construction. They put us in alphabetical order and I became longtime friends with several men in my tent who had the same first letter in their last names. In addition to the tents, the base consisted of about 40 or 50 buildings that had recently been constructed to house classrooms, supplies, administration offices, residences for instructors, maintenance personnel, commissioned officers and noncoms and the Army Air Force Navigation School which had been transferred to Kelly from Barksdale Field.

Kelly was the training center for advanced aviation training of bomber pilots and crews. The demand for bomber crews had been escalating since Pearl Harbor and Kelly was a beehive of incoming cadets who would be trained to be navigators, bomber pilots or bombadiers as well as construction crews building almost as fast as new recruits arrived. But we weren’t ready for bomber school yet and as soon as we were through with basic training (April ’42) we were transferred out of Kelly. (A few months later, in July of ’42 it was renamed the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center.)

Next we were sent to Chickasha, Oklahoma for primary flight training at the Wilson and Bonfils Flying School. Cadets had begun training to become U.S. Army Air Corps pilots there in October of 1941. More than eight thousand recruits trained to be aviators there during the four years that the school trained pilots for the Army. (Ironically, by 1944 Chickasha had also become home to a Prisoner of War camp for German soldiers.) My dreams of flying were beginning to come true.

Chapter 8 We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Program ...

2009-01-02T15:49:00.000-08:00

PEARL HARBOR ATTACKED!

It was about 2:30 in the afternoon before most of us in Texas started hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor. You can’t imagine the shock and disbelief at the time, most of us had never heard of Pearl Harbor or even Hawaii.

It was a Sunday. Most enlisted men had a few hours of free time on Sundays. If we could get a pass we were off the base. It didn’t matter where you were, even if you weren’t near a radio, word about the attack on Pearl Harbor spread like wildfire. We heard that every radio program was interrupted by a bulletin that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. New bulletins came in every few minutes.

All military were advised to return to their base as quickly as possible. We found out later that in 2 hours 18 ships, 188 planes and 2,403 men were lost at Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt called a meeting of his cabinet. By nightfall, the West Coast was under blackout, expecting to be the next target of the Japanese. The next day FDR and congress declared war on Japan. Two days after that we declared war on Germany. The U.S. war machine was about to kick into action.

Chapter 7 I'm A Medic

2008-12-29T08:55:00.000-08:00

I’m A Medic

Sometime in the fall of 1941 a team of recruiters from the Army Air Corps came by the base at Camp Barkeley asking for volunteers for Cadets for pilot training. I was first in line to volunteer. However, when I took the physical they dilated my eyes to the point I could hardly see, then I failed to pass the eye exam. Needless to say I was very disappointed and it was the first of many "mysteries" as to why the Army did what it did. It seemed pretty obvious that you couldn't take an accurate vision test if your pupils were dilated, so maybe you should take the vision exam first, then be dilated to check the eye itself. But what did I know, I wasn't a medic - yet.

So, it was back to my job as a typist at the hospital. Shortly however, I was “promoted” from being a typist to running the base dispensary! I would be giving new recruits their shots and hold daily sick call. Just the job I had tried to avoid for a year! I received a crash course in basic first aid, then advanced medical training. The dispensary consisted of a Captain who was in charge (he was also a Doctor), a Sergeant (me) and about six enlisted men.

One day we were supposed to give shots to about 200 soldiers at 0900 hours. The officers had marched the recruits over to the dispensary and lined them up outside the building. It was sunny and hot that day. We were not supposed to give shots without a Doctor being present. The Captain was late arriving. After about an hour with all of those soldiers standing in line outside in the hot sun, I decided we should start administering the shots. A short time later I heard the Captain come into his office, which was the room next to where we were working. About that same time a Major from the reception center barged into our room and said “I hear you’re giving shots without the presence of a Doctor.” I said, “No sir, the Captain is in the next room.”

Before too many weeks went by, the team of recruiters came around again asking for Cadet Volunteers. Again, I was first in line. This time I made sure they didn’t dilate my eyes during the physical. I passed the eye examination, as well as the physical, and was finally accepted into the Army Air Force Cadet program! It had been over a year since I first tried to get into pilot training at Randolph Field but it seemed like a lifetime.

Chapter 6 Not A Medic, Please

2008-12-20T16:25:00.000-08:00

A couple of days after our arrival at Fort Bliss an orderly came to our tent and asked if any of us could type. I said yes so they took me up to headquarters and gave me a typing test. Not too long after that I was reassigned to the Receiving Office of the Hospital at newly constructed Camp Barkeley, a few miles southwest of Abilene, Texas. So, even though I had refused to enlist in the medics at Randolph Field I wound up in the medics anyway. At least I was working a typewriter, not a hypodermic needle.

It was only two weeks after I was inducted at Fort Bliss, and events in Europe were looking grim. The famous Walter Winchell, whose radio commentaries included politics as well as celebrity gossip, was insisting America should enter the War – as were many other outspoken Americans. Daily radio broadcasts, both locally and nationally, told of the day’s war events in Europe. Even the National Farm and Home Hour, a popular radio broadcast in the Midwest, reported the progress of the war in Europe on every show. On May 27th, 1941 President Roosevelt went on the radio to announce that Germans had overrun Greece and Yugoslavia and invaded Crete. Europe was at War and it was beginning to look like America was going to eventually be drawn into the war. Getting ready for whatever would happen, Fort Bliss was busy training soldiers.

Chapter 5 Joining the Army

2008-12-13T09:09:00.000-08:00

For almost two years since I left Nebraska I’d worked different jobs, mostly hard labor. In March of 1941, I asked my brother to drive me the 35 or 40 miles into Fort Stockton in Pecos County Texas. I volunteered for the draft. The draft center put me on a bus to El Paso and I was finally inducted into the Army at Fort Bliss, on May 9, 1941.

I didn’t join the Army to “serve or defend my country” or to “fight for our freedom.” I’d spent about six years since graduating from high school eeking out an existence during the Depression and the years of drought. I’d been a dirt farmer and had worked from dawn to daylight, driving a tractor all day and most of the night, six days a week, sleeping on a cot at the end of the field I was farming. I’d worked on a cotton inspecting team following the harvest from South Texas to North Texas and into Arizona during the hottest, driest weather I’d ever experienced. I’d worked on a cattle ranch, waited tables at restaurants and stocked grocery shelves. I knew there was a better life out there and I wanted to use my brain, not my back. I’d spent a lot of time in farmland fields stopping to watch when a plane flew over. I’d dreamed of being a pilot and leaving dirt, dust and boll weevils far below in my own dust. When I joined the Army I wanted to be trained as a pilot. I wanted to get more education and be able to pursue a career. At the time, Europe was already under siege by Hitler but in America we had no notion that almost six months to the day from my induction into the Army Pearl Harbor would be attacked by Japan.

Chapter 4 I'll Enlist If I can Be A Pilot

2008-12-05T21:54:00.000-08:00

I first tried to enlist in the Army Air Corps at Randolph Air Force Base in Universal City, northeast of San Antonio, in late 1940. Randolph Field was a training base for pilots, so it seemed like the best place to go to enlist. When I got there I found out they were only accepting guys applying to be Mechanics or Medical personnel. Because I only wanted to be a pilot I decided not to enlist.

Two weeks later I reconsidered. I knew enough about fixing machinery that I decided to go back to Randolph and enlist as a mechanic. At least I’d learn how to fix airplanes and I thought that might be a good thing for a pilot to know. When I got there they didn’t need mechanics anymore. I still didn’t want to be a Medic, so again I didn’t enlist. The cotton season was over and jobs were hard to come by. I hitch-hiked to a small Texas town, Girvin, which was about 300 miles northwest of San Antonio. It was a couple of miles west of the Pecos river, where my oldest brother ran a nearby cattle ranch. I spent the winter as a cowboy helping him out on the ranch.

Chapter 3 Leaving Nebraska

2008-12-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

I set out looking for something better to do with my life. I began by hitch-hiking to Uvalde, Texas. It’s a small town about 70 miles west of San Antonio on highway 90. I was heading there to visit one of my older brothers who was an engineer for the Illinois Pipe Line Company. He ran the pumping station in Uvalde.

I took odd jobs until that summer I was able to get a job with the government on a 3 man crew that inspected the cotton fields for boll weevils. The “inspector” ran the crew and did the paperwork. The second guy ran the inspection machine. I went around and picked up the samples from the cotton gins and fed them to the machine. When we finished one field, we went on to the next from South Texas to North, then into Arizona. It was hot, dry and hard work.

Chapter 2 Farming, Depression, Drought

2008-11-29T18:49:00.000-08:00

I started my journey to becoming a pilot in February of 1939, long before I even knew there would be a war, much less a war so big and terrible that it involved almost all the world and would be fought in air, on land and sea. Roosevelt had been elected by a landslide (532 electoral votes out of 540) in ’36 and had a “New Deal” for putting America back to work. Thousands of people were working for the WPA (Work Projects Administration) programs and lucky to be making $60-75 a month.

At the end of the Nebraska growing season that year (’39), my dry farming partnership (during the big drought) with my younger brother had netted me slightly over $60 profit for the entire year and I owed about $500 on a pickup. My brother worked for McDonald’s Department Store, I did the farming. Like the old adage says: If your head hurts, quit banging it against the wall. We gave up farming and he sold off the machinery we had and used that money to pay off the pickup, then sold it. It was time to make a change.

Chapter 1 - The Story of a World War II Pilot

2008-11-23T17:16:00.000-08:00

This blog tells my story as a World War II pilot. I did live through some historic times which the Millennials and even the Gen Xers seem to know little about. Even our own children, the Baby Boomers, don’t understand why we went to war and even less about why we put it all behind us and just got on with life when, and if, we got back. We never told them, how could they understand? We’re guilty of not wanting to relive bad times or share them with our children. We were also under orders not to reveal details of our service. That's why so many of our stories have been a long time coming. For what it's worth here's my war history. I admit, I'm still leaving out a lot of details mostly because I've forgotten them.

My story is no that different than hundreds of other young men who went off to World War II but I’ve been told it had its interesting moments. Of course, there’s much more to our stories than the time we spent in the Armed Services (like how our families coped at home) but that’s mainly what I intend to tell here.