, AO Nletter

T Ion New

C E R I G NC O N N E C

455th Bomb Group Associati

Spr ing 1996

FROMYOURPRESIDENTAfter many months of eager antici-pation the five days at the Groupreunion passed so quickly, and themonths since then just as rapidly. Itwas such an honor to have beens€lected to be president of thisgte t 455th Bomb GroupAssociation. I wish again to thankand express my appreciation to allof you for your offers of help.

I have always feh that the mostimportant iob I ever had was theone t had flying with our Bombcroup. Even though we had thebad and the sad times of combatmissions, we also had many goodtimes and made many lastingfriendships that continue to thi,sd^y.

Many military veterans have toldme that they have not attendedreunions because they have notremained in contact with membersof their organizations and wouldknow no one. I always tell themthat they may not know aoyonebut there are no straogers!Everyone there has shared thesame or similar experiences aodhas something in common; some-lhing different from civilian organi-zations.

'We hope to have our 1997 reunionsite selected by early spring. If atall possible we hope you e/ill beable to attend. You will have aSreat ume.

Best wishes and good health loyou all in 1996.

C. E. Rtggs

REUMON DATESET!

The 455th Bomb croupArsociatioo will hold its reunionSeptemb€r 24th tluough 27th 1997 atthe Holiday Inn Dafon Mall,Miam6burg, Ohio oocated next toDa''ton).

Our first tour on Thursday 25thwill be to the U.S. Air ForceMuseum. The day includes theIMAX Theater, plus tlree buildingswith aifcraft, other exhibits andmovies. A parry will be beld thatevening at the Holiday Inn. FotFriday ar)d Safurday, we have moretou6 in planoing.

On Saturday evening, 27th, asuper baoquet will be beldunder/among the aircralt in fieUSA.F Museum. You will want toattend this great occesion!

Save these dates of September24-27, 1997, for attending thi.s nextreunlon.

THERE'S LIFE IN THEoLD 455th!

Io 1961 the 455th was activatedagain as the 455th Strategic Missile\(/ing. On 25 June 1968, the 91stSlrategic Missile \Ji,lng replaced the455th SM\Y as the missile unit atMinot AIB \(4ren the 91st replacedthe 4551h, the 7{0th, 741st, and742nd Missile Squad.rons were reas-signed hom the 455rh to the 91st.

The 740th has recently adoptedthe nickname 'The culturadVultures". They have modified theold 455Lh patch, rhey will wear thispatch as a squadrcn morale patch.

lf you, or anyone in the 455thBomb Group Assoc. have any ques-tio0s feel free to contad me at(1At 72r?858.Enc Dekraat, SRA aS4FHlstorlanD@atunent of tbe Atrforce

FINAL FLIGIITSOur hea.ts are with and svmDathiesgo to the loved ones of ttie 455thmembetsS/Sst. Albert D. Alt (08/02,/95) BallGuiner, Harry Prosser/L Miller'screw, 740th B. Sq.lst Lt. Erwin M. Bosler (1.U31/94)Navigator, 741st B. Sq.lsr Lt. Jack A Compron (01/31194)Navicator. Iack Saine's crew. 740thB. Sa-. (Conectron of li$. SDims199'M,/Sst. Albin T Dal-lsrrom (11/1295)CtlieT, G.ound Communicatlons,740th B.Sq.znd Lt hleory L Mann'!.,p (07/21/95)Bombardier, Ceorge O. Keahey,screw, 74Jrd B. Sq.S/Sqr. ceorqe Burkhardr lll(0&72.{,/95 r waisr cunner, Jack HThomas' crew, 743rd B.Sq.S,/Sgr James \0. Cc,nnelly (01/19196)Tail Tlnet Cunner, Bill Lffer'screw, 743rd B. Sq.ft. Col. Dooald Melton (07,/11,/94)lst Pilot, 743rd B. Sq.Lt. Col. Richard L. Brimase(10/2295) 1$ Pilor. Plao; "RustvDusry", 743Id B. Sq.1st U. Orvllle L Lee (01,/05,/84) rsrPIot. Plane *Menacios Messilina'.74lrd B Sq.1st Lt. Charles A. Denton (12/26/91)Co Pilot, Oftille L Lee's crew, 743rdB. sq.S/ Ssr. Earl B Kohnke (09/0219)Radib ODerato/Cunner Orville II€e's cre-w, 743rd B. Sq:S/Sgr. Viaor P Jones (12121195)C.rlptogapher. 743rd B. Sq. and Hq.1st tu. Chades B. Thatcher(05/20187) Bombardier, FrancisHosimer's crew, 741st B. Sq.1st. Lt. Harry D. wade (03/26/92) 1stPilot, 741st B. Sq.

1st Lt. Lee Troy Smift (03/15196)Navigator. William H. ZinrmermanrscTeql, /rrJlo tl. lq.

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Help WantedtYour editor has original characterart of the followinS (last known1944 ad&esses>James Nonell Brown606 S 13thLaramie, WY

Rossel J Pede6on1402 3rd Ave NoFt Dodge, IA

Robert Mottin Jr.121 Greenwood Rd.Sharon Hill, PA

If you can trace these former mem-bers please let your editor know.

Is My Face Red!T]apo's can get you in trouble.

Spring 1995 issue, CerignolaConnection, Song Lillie Marlene,last verse, second line - "ryy'ho

then will love you, who will makeyouadd the uord yeanl, le uho utllmake )1ou yearrl.

Several readers have broughtlhis to your editors attention. AtIeast they are reading the CerignolaConnection,

DI,]ESAnnual dues of $15 are payableNovember 1 of the preceding year.Life memberships, $100. Make yourcheck payable to the 455rh BombGroup Association aod mail it toLou Hanseq 455th Bomb croupAssoclatton, P.O. Box 2E6,Spenc€r, Iow. 51301.

We would like to heatfromyout

Contributions and pictures maybe sent to your Editor, TomRamsy, 1211 Montclalre Ct,Appletoo, WI 54915. All materialwlll be returned after publication.Vhen seoding photographs, pleaseapply you! address label on the

back of the photo in order thatthese may be identified after publi-cation and then refumed to you.

If you bave a special "war

story" and it need not be flying orcombat, but a squadron or grouphappening, send it in. This makesinteresting reading for everyone.

It's Never Too Late!DeJpite your editors plea forphotos of the San Antonio, Texasreunioo, none were forth coming.If you have some you would liketo share with other members,please send them in along withcaption reference. I'll retum themafter printing. (put your addresslabel on the back of each one.)

HelplYour editor faithfully returnsphotos after publication of theCerignola Connection. Some havebeen returned for discontinuanceof forwarding. Address used wasfrom mailing labels on back of fiephotos. Returnees -

James D. MeheganMaurice Fulleralso original photos oiMulta Bona and airmenMaid in USAlf you can help let your editor

Multa BonoIn the s/inter 1995 issue of theCerignola Connection, page 6, weasked for identity of the airmenpictured- O.H. Buffington providedthe legend:L to R, Andy Delom, DonaldBauer, O.H. Buffingtoo, (Dognamed Pooch), Tom Conroy, M.R.Strickland, Villiam Nhon.

Dalsies Won't Tell!The flower chosen as a nationalstrnbol in remembmoce of all for-mer POWS is the Daisy. The

A Corection455th Group Tail Marking.

Ed: This correction was submittedby one of our rcaders, and coffectswhat is p nted in the unit history"Flight of the Vulgar Vultures."Your editor really doesn't remember any more. At my age now lprobably would join up with thewrong squadron. The subminedcorrection is as follows. The historyversion is in the winter 1995 issueof the Cerignola Conoection.

Each group and squadron haddistinctive tail markings for theirairplanes. This was coordinated bythe 304th Bomber Wing. The 455thhad a black colored diamondshape on the upper half of bothvertical stabilizers and yellow paint-ed lower stabilizers and rudders.The squadron symbols were on theupper rudde.Fblack verticalrectangle 740th, black four leafclover 741st, black horizontal stripe742nd, black diagonal stripe 743rd.The aircraft numbe$ were in blackon both sides of the rear part ofthe fuselage. These markings wereespecially useful duringrendezvous to insurc joining thepfoper group formation when fly-ln8 a mtsslon.

A Thought!\X4rat greater gift can you give yourdad or father inlaw than to signhim up as a member of the 455thBomb Group Association. MalcolmWilcox did that for his father in lawEugene Nunnally (Turret cunner,743rd Bomb Squadron, MikeMullineaux's crew). Eugene wouldlike to hear from former membersand frien& and can be reachedahrough his son-inlaw at: M.B.Wilcox, 3617 \X,tire Fern Rd. BeechBluff, TN 38313. He is in badhealth and a note would chee. himup

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Military Code of Conduc!, requfedof every military person engaged inthe defense of the United States,states that only name, rank and ser-ial number are to be vdiuntarilydivulged to the enemy- Americanfolklore has long deemed that"Daisies won t tell", making it a sin-cere tribute to the memory of thosewho have endured hardships insi lence.

The Chaplain'sCornerOur Thanks To Thee'lhere is so much in lif€ for whichwe cannot pay,'I'be thiogs we take for granted inour journey day by day.From early in the morning until theday is dooe,We ought to count our blessingsand name them one by one.

llealth, peace, happioess, love ofkin and fricnd.s,Birds, trees, flow€rs, seas - a IisIlnal never enos,Summer, autumn, winter, spring,each brings something rare,And we accept whal comes ourway wilhou! Ihought or care.\Y/e reaily ought to think a bir ofwhat we have and why,There is so much belongs to us -lhe stars, the moon, the s}ry.the very air wc breathe each day,the food upon rhe board;And the only way we can ever pay- "Our thanks lo Thee, O Lord.,

Ed Sotneuhere tn our fiembe6blp0e must haue a Mtnlster ubo uauLJllke lo uolunteer and glue your edt-tor a subfilsslanJior tbls comer,tulce a ))ear. Your ed. ar has beenJukng ln up n nou.

THE OPTIMISTI passed a sand lot yeste.day,Some kids were playing ball,

I strolled along the rhird base lioeWithio the fieldeds call.'Say, what's the scorc?' I asked.He yelled to beat the stuffing,'There's no one out, the bases full,They're winning forty-two tonothingl''You're getting beat, aren't you myfriend?'And theo in no time flatHe answered: 'No, sir, not as yetlOur side hasn't been up to batt'

Fhst Presrytedan CburcbReynoldsburg, OH

Milt Kaplan Writes -I am a member of the 455th

B.G. Assoc., Ioc. from the 743rdSquadron. I had attended thereunions of Colorado Springs andFon Wonh, but unfortunately couldnot be at the next two, However, Iam looking forward to the nexone.

The reason for my \'''riting thisletler is to inform you about one ofour members. He is Dr. lfalterFrankel, who had been the croupDentist. I recently saw him at hisretfement home in Boca Raton, FL.I met him 15 years after the war inPeekskill, NY wh€re he had lived. Ilive near there, and we becamefriendly. In fact, we used to go outto dinner togeiher with our wivesand mutual friends.

Two years ago, while travelingin Italy with his wife, he suffered amassive stroke. It has left him in abad physical condition. His e/ife,Evelyn, has been taking excellentcare of him. She is a wonderfulwoman. His son, Bflice, has alsobeen very supponive.

Vhen he learned that I wasgoing to visit him, he got up at7:30 in the moming lo prepare forthe visit. We reminisced about ourtime in Itaiy during the war andtimes after the war. He is an avidreader and follower of theCerignola Conoection and some ofthe members of the group whom

we both knew. It really meant a lotto him to having me visit him. I feltbadly for him and his wife. I planon visiting him again when weretum to Florida next year.

It would be nice if he couldreceive some mail from ihose whoknew and remembered him. Also,tly to make sure he continuesrcceiving the Cerignola Conoection.

Ed: Dr. Frankvls address l.s:57N N.w. Second AueApt 501Boco Raton, FL 334a7

Help In ObtatntngMissing Medals

As W'WII came to an end, largenumbers of service members weretransfened, discharged, etc. withtheir service records apparentlybeing closed out some time later.In many cases they retumed tocivilian life unaware of medals anddecorations being authorized afterthe fact and never awarded or pre-sented to them.

If yours are among the missingyou can submit a standard form SF-180 request to the NationalPersonnel Records Center alongwith a cover letter, discharge certifi-cate and a notarized "oext-of-kin',

statement. The minimal paperworkeffort and few mooths wait is $,,ellwonh the results! 'fhis proceduresupposedly applies to all veteransand nel:t of kin for missiog orreplacement medals through theCivil War to the present.

For those interested: Medals ofA-@ertca-1929AH Fakvtew Roa4Fountatn Inr\ SC 29644 supplieda booklet of directions, fofms, cor-rect phraseology and sample coverletters as well as a catalog ofmedals and decorations available.

To obtain a Standard Form SF-180 v,rite to rhe following:

Natlotal Personnel RecordsCent€r(Itlltary Irersonnel Records)9700 Page BouleyardSt. Iruls, Mlssourt 63132

F

HATS OFF TO THOSE WHO REALLY KEPT THEM FLYINGI

Reno Lerninger lar right, crew chief with JohnMaftsching "His planes just kspt coming back"

741.t ACi/l Ca^ti^

Ha^hl Piddla l^h^L to R: Stanlay Domitz, L.Maftsching

Frcnt rcw L to R: HenoLeminget, Crew Chief:Albed Hagemann, Line Chief;Kay Coleman, Crcw Chief;Raymond Hewit, Crew Chief.Back Row, L to R: JohnMartching.BSM;Elmet Bush, Crew Chief;Ane co Liberutorc, Crew Chiet;Henry McGtath, Eng. Clerk

A Great ldea From John Davis!I normally am not this prompt in answering letters,but your letter gave me an idea that I wanted toshare with you. In your letter you mentioned workingon the Cerignola Connection as one of your projects.I really enjoyed your letter. While having some ideaof parts of your background, of couce most of it wasentirely new to me. I lound it to be tremendouslyinteresting. ln our visits at the reunion, we talk tosome of the people but with many only for a matter ofminutes and with the others only a litlle concemingtheir present situation, activities etc. lt's only a veryfew that I find that I know any real background on, orwhat they've been doing since retirement, I think our

members really would enjoy knowing what happenedto the others after leaving the service.

Would it be feasible to have have members submitwhat they have been doing all these years. lt wouldbe enjoyable reading.

John Davis

Ed-l shonened John's letter but it's a grcat idea. lnseveral eaiy issues of the Ceignola Connection Ipublished Tom Mitchell's recap of membet contacts.Let me know what you've been doing since the endot V{WI, a little about yourselt. lt wi get in pint.

Ed Riggs, ou prcsident was the fi':st to rcspond tomy rcquest lot a recap ot the years since VML Let'skeep those cards and letters coming. We want toheat frcm you!"l left active duty at the end ol 1945 and retumed tocollege graduating from Wichita University (nowWichita State) in June, 1947, with a major inEconomics. I worked 30 years for Getty Oil Co., retiFing from the Tax Division, Finance Dept., in 1977.

When I lett active duty, I stayed in the Active AirForce Reserue retiring in 1969. I had severaljobsthat ranged from flying a plane to tlylng a desk. Mylast assignmenl was as a Liaison Officer with theCandidate Advisory Service, Air Force Academy.

Marge and I have two fine children. Our daughter,Linda Boyd (a college graduation presentl) lives herein Tulsa where her husband, Fred, is a senior vice-president with F&M Bank and Trust Company. Shehas a son and daughter and two step-sons.

Our son, Col. Gregory Riggs, PE, Ph D, is a 1972graduate of the Air Force Academy. For the past twoand one-half years he has been Base Civil Engineerand Cmdr ol the Civil Engineering Squadron at NellisAFB, Nevada. Greg and Brude have three daughters.

That's a brief history and probably more than youwanted to know, I do want you to know how much Ienjoy and appreciate your fine work with theCerignola Connection."

Whatever haDDened to old what's his name?

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THE STORY OF IIANSVON SWARTZ

This is the story of oneAmerican airmao who flew underthe name of Hans Von Schultz.

\X./hen the Nazis took cha.ge inGermany, they began th€ir system-atic persecution of all CermanJewish citizens. Dr. Swartz took hisfamily and what they could carrys/ith them and escaped throughSwitzerland and then to the UnitedStates.

The son of Dr. Swartz, HansVon Swartz, ioined the U.S. ArmyAir Force. (Aiter fifty years mymemory of the correct spelling ofhis last oame may not be accurate.)The Army 52 changed his name totlans Von Schultz. He joined the455th Bomb croup and flew hismissions under this assumed name.Ilis job was to mooitor all theGerman Luftwaffe fighters, Staffels,aod German ground stations ingeneral.

aor pl^I]e, 448754 *22 "Big c^sBird," had his special radio equip-ment instalied on the flight deck,over the bomb bay, in the rear ofthe plane. Our plane flew on theleft wing of the lead plane io oursquadron. Hans would monitor theGerman planes and stations andlheo pass along this information tothe croup Commander and our"Liflle Friends."

Hans agreed lo teach a class inGerman for the 741 Squadron. Wemet in the mess hall The first classhad 15 or 20 in aftendance. After afew weeks the interest waned andit was down to just the members ofour crew. Harrs taught us Germaosongs, how to count and variousGerman idioms aod words thatwould be most helpful to us incase we were shot down. He wasvery accommodating and willing tospend as much time as w€ wantedin order to leam the cerman lan-guage.

As the war wound down, IheGerman fighters had litde gas toengage our bombers. lfith ourfighter escort, P51's, P47's andP38's, they were not capable ofattacking us. They would use alone plane, Me-262, !o derermine6

the target we were heading for.Hans would modtor these trans-missions and rcpon them to theFlight Commander

No\\. fo. the rest of thestory...We finished a mission oneday aod Hans jumped out of thelear hatch and annouiced he hadcompleted his missions. He statedhe could now tell us his real name.He told us his name was notSchultz but really was Swartz. Hestated ooly 52 knew his real name.A few days later, as we preparedfor a mission, he came to ourplane again. He stated he hadmade a mistake in counting hismissions and he still had one mis-sion to go. He was, to say theleast, most apprehensive flyingwith the only crew that knew hisreal identity. We teased him someand he was very uncomfortablenow that he had revealed his realname. \X/e fioally assured him thathe was oot to worry. We promisedhim that there was no way wewould ever say anlthing if wewere captured. With this assufance,he seftled down and the missionwent vr'ell. We were hit with someflack but there v/as not much dam-age lo the plane. Needless to say,he was extremely happy andrelieved to have his 35 missionscompleted safely.

Paul T. Pelers, R. Walst GunnerBamb S tt lke Ph o togfttp berLt. Lestel G. nnwq)'s Creu

A PHONE CAIL TTIAT

to our base is well documented inthe history of our 455th BombGroup Now, here is the rest of thestory that pertains to Terry'Maisano.

One evening I was walking bythe 741st Squadron mess hall whenJerry Maisano came arouod the cor-ner of the building. We let out ayell and hugged each other. wehad spent most of our time in theArmy Air Corps iogether. This wasthe first that I knew that he or anyof his crew were alive. v'e wentinto the mess hall and had diraeraod he told me the story of whathad happened to his crew on the741-Sq 455 Bomb croup BombiogMission number 133 to ODERTAL

That night after my reuoionwith Jerry, I wrote a lefier to myparents in Detroit. I related thestory about meeting Jerry and thatwe had dinner together. Jerry hadgiven me his parents address andphone number so our parentscould talk and get together. errmy mother received my leftet sheimmediately called and talked toMr. and Mrs. Maisaoo. Theybecame very excited. They hadreceived the M LA. $/ire from thethe 15th Army Air Force thar rheirson was missing in action. Mr. andMrs. Maisano wanted to know thedate of the lefter but that was notenough. My mother gave them heraddress and they drove over to herhouse right away. They wanted tosee the letter, hold the letrer, andcheck the dare of rhe letter. Thelast infomatioo they had gr'as thattheir son was missing in action, buthere was a letter with a morerecent date which pfoved to themthat he was still alive. They ailreioiced in the news that their sonwas alive and well.

The two families kept in touchfor the rest of the v/ar in Europ€.Both Jerry aod I made it home safeand sound. I don't think my moth-er and Mr. and Mrs. Maisano everforgot the great joy arid elation andexcitement of that meeting.

Paul T. Pete6R. W6lst GunnerBonb Shi ke Pb otographerLt. lester G. Plnkleyb Creu

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WAS AN ANSWERTO A MOTHERAND DAD'SPRAYER

\I/hen Lt John T. Polaodo'screw failed to return from theirmission to ODERTAI, on October14, 1944, the customary M.LA. wirewas sent to the families of all thecrew members in the U.S.A. One ofthe members of the crew wasJerome J.

"Jery" Maisano. Thestory of their planes loss of twoengines to flack, landing behindRussiao lines, return via Turkeyand Cairo, Eglpt to Italy aod return

John MartschlngRemembers!

As for remembering "Yo Yo"you can see that I cenaioly dolReno Leininger who was her crewchief was a tent mate. He aod Iwere together oo his firsi ship"Rubber Check" wheo we flewtrom the states. We were goodfriends. During the fifties he cameto our farm in lowa and liv€d withus until we moved to Ofegon in1964. Y/e operated a repair shopon the farm. He is now living atRoute 2 Box 8, Der1er, MN 55926.This past summer he had heansurgery and a light stroke He isrecuperating slowly and we had anole from him aI Ch-ristmas time.

I have to comment about thearticle by \I/in Powers in CerignolaConnection and Softie.

Albcrt Hagematrn was 7.i 1slInre chicf not Al Hademann wewefc tcnt mates and became goodfficnds. LIe aod I had quite a bit inconrmon, he was a NebraskaIxrmer, I farmed in lowa and ourhcnteSe was similar. V/e visited himand his wife Bonnie in Nebraska inlhe e'ghties. We had correspoDdedsince oLlr djscharge. Al died sevenof eight ycafs ago and we st11l keptin louch wilh Bonnie but we didn'thcar fiom her this past Christmas.She was in i l l heaith a year ago.

Al was a ski l lcd mechanic.\I/hrlc he supervised the crewchiefs, he wasn't always lookingovef their shoulders. \C'hen theyneeded help he was there to helpand lo see lhat lhey had what theyneeded to do the job. lle respectedlheir abili es and expected the bestof them and they knew it.

As for a specjal engine changecrew, I never knew of one and I'msure I would have knowo about ilbecause of my close associationwith Al and the crew chiefs, four ofthem were ten! mates. Al's parl inlhe engine changes was to see thatthe crew chief had what he neededto work with, that a new enginewas at the change site along withextfa stands and the necessaryholstl,'lg equipment. He was alwaysavailable if his expe ise was need

ed and he usually assigoed anextra man to help. The ody time Iknew of him taking charge of arepair job was wheo a plane ofours landed near Salemo. He tooka crew and went there and madethe necessary repairs so the planecould be flown back to fte outfit.

The credit for the fast enginechange should go to RenoLeininger who also was an excellent and skilled mechanic. Hetrained his crew as to what eachwould do and the procedure lhatwould be followed when anenSine cbange became necessaryas he knew that would probablyhappen.

When the pilot radioed in thathe had an engioe failure and wasreturniog Al and Reno both werealened. I heard about it at thesame time. Al found an extrahelper ior Reno who got his crewtogether. As soon as the plane wasparked and the props quit turning,stands were in place and workbegan. Al saw to it that all fie necessary hoistinfi equipment, €tc. wasin place and a new eogine was onthe site. The new engine was start-ed up, lhere were no leaks and theground check was ok.

When S$. Mccralh, engineer-ing clerk ca1)ed 741st Headquartersto report planes ready for servicethe next day he included it Theoperation oflicef who knew Macwell said, "Mac, have you beendrinking, that plane came in atnoon wlth an engine out,', Mac,sr€piy was "Sgt. Leininger says itwill be ready to go and when hesays that it means ir will be.', A fewmmules later a jeep arrived in acloud of dust with the ooerationofficer. He hir the grouni, lookedaround and said "where is thalplaoe?" Mac said, ',up there slowtjming" pointing toward the sky.

News must have moved fast -lhe nerr aftemoon a car from 15thAir Force Headquart€rs al Bariarlived wilh photogaphers andreporters. They talked with Renoand his crew. After they ieft Renosaid to me "they haven't seen any-lhing yet." His last engine changetook iust over two and a half hours.

Much credit shoutd go ro thecrew chiefs. \x/hen a plaoe wasassigned to them, it became theirplane. It was almost like it was apart of their family. Not only didthey do their very best to keep it inshape but insisted the same of alltheir crew and everyone else whoworked ofl it. Since my crew and Iwere responsible for the autopilotjand bombsrghts for all rhe planesol the 741st, at one t ime or anotherwe worked with each one of thecrew chiefs. They always read thelog book after each mission and ifaDy of our equipment neededafientioo we were notified immedi-ately. VheD a plane did oot retumthe crew chief not only mournedfor the air crev/ but also for theplane that had been his pride andJoy.

Jobn Maltscbtng

Russ FelzertThrough a lirtle luchthe

kindness of a few people, Imade contact with LouHansen and joined the455th Assoc. lasr month. Ihad not been aware of thegroup prror Io thls.

It all happened af[er I posredan nquiry on the VeteraAs file onAmerican Online. I received 4responses. One led me to Lou andmy mentbership, aoother was lhe455th croup History Book. Thegentleman, John Workman, whoseiather was in the 459th Group, hadpurchased the book. He found rharthe Air Force Assoc. was going topublish a 459rh hjsrory, so he kind-ly sold the 455th book to me. Lousent me the 199i newsletters and Icongratulate you oo a job welldone.

rve flew "Censored,, On August23rd, my 22nd missioo (Group,i101), we got hit bad after wedropped our load. They shot outone engine, hit our tank andkaocked out our hydEulic system.Needless to say, it was a scarytime. I'll never forget the scene ofour chief engineer, John Cichonstanding in the bomb bay entrance

Conlh0€d on pag€ B 7

fitrE

i Iiuci0 l

rlMl]lg

to the flight deck, with 8as drip-ping oo him, sbrugSin8 his shoul-ders in an "I don't know what wecan do" gesture.

The smell of gas permeated theplane. Everyoie was thir*ing'what do we do" v/hen I askedover the intercom, if anyone had amatch, I wanted a cigarefte. Ithought our copilot Ridgely, wasgoing to shoot me. He shouted,'You dumb s-ob do you want toblow us up? vhen I started tolaugh, everyone else did, and weall setded down.

v'e were out of formation, fly'ing alone over the Adriatic, hopingto make it back to base. vith ourhydraulics gooe, we decided tbeoDly way we could make a safeaod successful landing was to tieparachutes to the side gun mountsfor brakinS action. Halfuay home,over the Adriatic, Ridgley startedhollering, "we'll never make it, let'sbail outl" \filh my parachutealready tied to the mounts, Ihollered, "no one is bailing out,we're going in!" Everyone con-curred.

We made it to the base, Cichonhand cranked the landing gear. Iwas to give the signal over theintercom to throw out the chuteson landing. I shouted 'No\0" whenour wheels hit, the chutes wentout, we rolled about 100 feet andthe chutes billowed. !?e stoppedand everyone scrambled out, fear-ing an explosion. In the aftermath,pilot Hall, Cichoo and I receivedDFC'S for this mission.

Ed: Russ ond lour edltor uere onthe corhmtttee Jlor the JX6t 455th BGReunlon tn Mlluaukee, thls seuerallears alrler WWII. I never sau orbealdfrom Russ un tl hls letElcafie tblt Febn0ry. Izt's bope ,noremefibers utll come lnfrofiAfied.an Onltue. It's great toreneu odfden^bl$.

MEMORIES FROMJOHN MARTSCHINGAn article in the Sortie (15th AirForce Publication) about the 455!h

8

Bomb Group brought back manymemories,

The principle behind the aclions ofthe 455tI was, there was a job tobe done and eYeryone would dotheir best to get it done. I am surethis was the same with all of theFifteenth Air Force.

I was a member of the originalCadre formed at Clovis Air Base inthe summer of 1943, that becamethe 741s1 Bomb Squadron of the455th Bomb croup.

We were moved to Alamogordo,New Mexico for a short stay, thenwent to Salt Lake City where wereceived most of our personnel.From there we weot by troop trainto Laogley Field, virginia.

As I understood it we were the firs!Healy Bombardment Group lo betrained by the 1st Air Force. It wasall hurry up and push to get in asmuch practice bombing and experi-ence in navigatioo and cross coun-try flying as possible.

Most of the planes we receivedwere end of the line models thathad been parked for some timeand required a great deal of servic-ing. Some had to have the bomb-sight aod auto-pilot equipmentalmost completely replaced beforethey could be used for practicebombing.

.we even received one

that had been a sea search planethat could not be used at all forbombing but was used for naviga-tion and cross country flights.

We had a group Bombsight andAuto-pilot Maintenance shop withall four squadrons working oul ofi!. Each squadroo's personnel tookcare of their squadron's planes. Iwas section head for the 741stsquadron. There was supposed tobe an officer aod three noncomsfor each squadron's bombsightmaintenaoce section but there wasonly one officer io lhe group atthat time, Lt. L. V/. Taylor. Thegroup worked well together andthere was much cooperation.

when our training at Langley was

completed, we received newplanes and those of us who flewoverseas went to Mitchell Field,New York for our overseas pro-cessing.

\tre left Mitchell Field December 18and fles/ to Florida. From there ilwas to Puerto Rico (we were suFposed to go to Port Au Prince bulhad to detour around a storm) thenalonS the coast of South America,with overnight stops, to Brazilwhere we were held up by badweather. we finally got clearance toleave and left Natal and landed atDakar on New Year's Eve. This tripwas about the range limit for aB-24. 'ire v/ere lucky aod had goodweather all the way. When wesighted the coast we could see theairfield - good navigating. FromDakar we flew north withovernight stops at Agadir,Marrakech and Oran before ioiningt}le rest of our outfit about twentymiles fiom Tunis at a makeshift airfield.

we spent the rest ofJanuary, 1944wairing for a place to go in Italy.On the 1st of February we crossedthe Mediterranean and entered Italyat the inslep Oo landing at a fieldnear Cerignola as soon as weturned off the runway, we gotstuck in the mud.

Our ground personnel who hadgone over by troopship convoywere waiting for us and reallyseemed happy to see us. Theywere camped in an olive grove,sleeping in pup tents and hadnothing good to say about theweather in Ilaly \ve who flew inhad no pup tents so we were putin a big empty hospital tent. Thenext morning half of it was flood-ed. \Yy'e were issued the regularp)'ramidal tents, one for each eightmen. After a liftle looking aroundwe decided to put them near theflight line where our planes wereparked. I don't thiok anyone askedpemission or authorjzation to dothis but it worked out well as it putthe crew chiefs wirhin walking dis-tance of their planes.

i'

II

we soon got the bad oews that theships with our equipment and supplies were sunk by the last cermanraid on Bari. Even rations wefe aliftle short in supply for a while, alot of dded food was used but wehad an exceptional mess sergeanlof Italian descent who was adept attrading for fresh produce.

Now was when the resourceful-ness, ingenuity and some unnamedqualities of the men of the 455thwent to work- Some equipmeotwas obtained by regular requisi-tion, a sometimes slovr' ptocess.Some was obtained by othetmetlods. There was a big supplydepot near Bari. If an inventorywas ever takeo I wonder how theyaccounted for what wasn ! there?

\When we ardved in ltaly, I learoedtha! the 455Ih now had fourBombs jght Maintenance Officers.

After a short time and before wegot squadron B.S.M. shops set up,all B.S.M. personoel were puI ondetached duty at GroupHeadquane6. Captain L.W. Taylorwas made officer in charge and theother three officers transfened toduty elsewhere. I0e set up shop ioone end of a large building nearthe old castle that was used forGroup Headquarte6. It took a lotof cleaning up and we had to putin a dividing wall. The necessarytools and test equipment statted tocome in. I will never know why itwas all checked out to me. Could ithave been because my serial num-ber started with a ooe? Our originalequipment lists called for a jeep foreach squadron. we finally gol awaf weary one that evideody noone else wanted. Here again, knowhow, aod ingenuity kept it going.\X./hen we needed to go to Bari forpa(s or to the repair facilities therewe checked out a vehicle from thegroup motor pool. The 741st flightline was closest to headquaners sowe did a lot of walking.

The group shop wo*ed out verywell just as it had at Langley.

Although each squadron took careof its ovn planes if some unusualproblem came up everybodyhelped. Our orders said we wereallowed a certain percent tolerancefor error. By unanimous agreementit was decided that did not applyto ou shop. \fe all realized thatthere might be a time when livesmight depend on our work. Thiswas brought very much to ourattention one day. After ooe mis-sion one entire Air Crew from the74lst came to the shop and told usthat after their manual controlswere desfoyed they came backand landed oo auto-pilot. We hadfound, according to technicalorders, that the planes could not belanded oo auto-pilot. After someinvestigation we found the reasonwas not enough elevator controland found a way to conect it andmade the change on al1 the planes.

The plane mentioned earlier wasrepaired aod put back in service,Oo the next mission it received stillmore damage and couldn't make itall the way back but again landedon auto-pilot near Foggia, toobadly damaged to salvage.

Some time during the summer of1944 we received orders for eachsquadron to select and train anoth-er eolisted man. This brought theshop count up to sixteen eolistedmeo and one officer. The 455thB.S.M. shop was mted as one ofthe besr in the 15th Air Force.Someooe in the higher lanks musthave thought so because six of theenlisted men were awarded theBrooze Star Medal.

When we firsl set up our tent, cotswere not available, so rather thansleep on the ground we foundsome boards and made forms thenlaced them with 'requisitioned' .fieldtelephone wire for springs. \febuilt a stove that burned 100oclane gas piped io from a tankthe refuelers kept filled. As rim€went o1r we acquired boards frombomb crates and floored the tent,theo we pped out the sean$ ontwo sides and buih a wall thus

increasing our space. AlbertHagermann, our line chief and Iwere always on call so a fieldphone sat on the floor between ourbeds. A P-38 wing tank was found,cleaned out and mounted on astand theo filled with water whichs/as piped in to a wash basin madefiom an orTgen tank. Electricitywas wired in aod a speaker washooked up to the radio in the communication shack nearby. Ve hearda lot of music and one day werecomplimented by Axis Sally. ''

Tbis is just a little of one man'sexperieoce in the 15tb Air Force. Iam proud to be able to say that Iwas a part of it. I am still io touchwith Sam Speakman wbo was 741stphotography section head andReno Leiningef who was crewchief on the plane I went overseason.

I v/ould be happy to hear from anyother member of the 455th BombGroup.

Thaok you for inviting me to iointhe Fifteenth Air Force Associatioo.

T^hn \y r ' Mad. .h ind

3000 N\v Roosevelt DriveCorvallis, OR 97 330-1164

Ed: 455tb Group Bombslgbt andAutopuot Malnl enance Pefsonne ICaPt. LlY. Taylor, Group OIfker; A.Wooluotth; , PW. Treadwell; I E.O.Heatb; LS. Nolan; StephenJ.Spltalskl; Gene Slurgllli lero!Stmpson;Joe Catuaru; . D.H. Staft;Robert Had.tng; I.V Sboots; C.W.Poue6;'John W. Maflscblng 741st;Ialand H. Rlddle, 741st; Stanle),Domltz, 741s, Jabn D. Statett.Jr.,741st'Squadron Sectton Head

Thought For The Day!

You may have treasures aad wealthuntold,Chests of silver and chests of gold.fucher thao I, you will never be.I had a mottler who read to me.

a

743rd H.Q. Staff Officers. SeDtember t944Front tow: lncludes Lt. Col. ihayer; Capt "Doc" Kollat; L!Fullet Haringlon: 1st Lt. Sol (Russ) Felzet, newty appointed Squadrcn Navigalor.

USO Troupe enleftained at 73rd's Officerc ClubThanksgiving, | 944.Frcm lett: Benny Meoff. lamaus Chicago band leadet; lslLl. Sol (Russ) Fel?er O C. prcsidenr; ML end M6.Grynnq comic and dancer; CapL Kotlar; Mrc. BennyMetufl and unnamed lady, dancers and Lt. Col. Thaier.

Hanging out after a missian!L!. Pinkleys Aimen, 741st Bomb SquadrcnI lo R. Chatles claeseL Nase Tuffer Gunnet;E.A. Craven, Tail Tuffe! Gunnet; Paul Peters,Waist Gunnet: Ted Skrcback, Ball TutrctGunnet Red Cayle, Waist GunnerBadioOpercloL plus 2 boys hom Ceignoh.

Main operatians buildjng of the 455th Bomb crcup. RedCrcss is the doot an the left. Brieling rcom middle doot.(Phola couftesy Ken Lacey)1 0

Aimen u,/ha flew with.Lt Kelly June 26, 1944, the only pjanehom 742nd la return hom Moosbietbaum tarcet. Th6y wereillustnling some of lhe fightet attacks on side of phie fot Air

L lo R: Cpl Kenneth D. Lacey, Balt Turet Gunnet: Cpl JamesB. Thomas. Fltght Engtneer Ta Gunner: Sgt HowardBlunberg Reht ,ryaist Gunnet: Sgt Ches!* R. pnn, LefrWaist Gunner: Sgt Wlham F. Pell.ey. Tap Tuftet Gunnet; CplAnlhany C. Brcdeur. Radio ManNase Tunet Gunner

Me-109 in vlhich Romanian pilot returned Col Gunn toCengnola. The llag paint $as stil haist Alhen it tandec!.

NEW NOSE ARTI

Eugene Nunnally, 743td Squadrcnstands guard

'r!:

Rusty Dusty crew identified!Frcnt Row L to R: Sgts Schiavo,Russell, Amborsini, Tuthi , HiBack Row, L to R: Lts Janoski,Keiselbach, Spier, Mc Cawley742nd Souadrcn

I l

Photos ftom the album of M.D" Wil@x

rValiant Is The rVord For"Glammer Gal"

Not so many days ago,December the third to L€ exact, ahalf silver and half olive drab B-24rolled out of the Service Squadronand down the landing stdp and rosegracefully into the skies.. .. .. uponwhich hangs a tale.

She had just undergone a striFping tha! would cause Glpsy RoseLee to don her robes and hang herhead in disgrace. Minus her turrcb,orlrgen system, bombs, etc., sheresembled some son of secretweaPon

It was on anolher December 3rd,that she made hef first appearance inthe 740th Squadrcn The year was1943, the place was Langley Field,Virgrnrr 'Ihere, ship Number 198, asshe wa-s known thcn, wrs placed rrthe caprble llaods ofM/Sgl L.O.Bolken.

Sgt. Bolkeo crewed her to Iraly,and for ll, al nafter has been crewlngher cver sincc lt was on or aroundApril znd, 1944 vrhen shc was laidup lbr repairs following the raid onthe Stclr Ball-bearing factory fiat shewas christened, "clemmer Cal."\Y'4ren she rcturncd from the Ste).rmission, her pilot brough! her in fora landing with drylighr showing thruher h$elxge L1 dozens of place 'Ihe

Jeines hxd trown every rhinS I]]reyhadi but oncc again "clammcr Cal"limped back home. However sheflew again, and now after her 77!hmFsion over cnemy territory) shcw;Ls tagged, "Barde Weary" and thcs!flppng puess began.

It would perlmps, nrake a novelending to our rale if we would saylhit Glammcr Gal" was almost lraded oll when she first arived in ltalybeceuse of super-charger trouble. Wekept her, however, and now alier740 some odd hours she has thesxne super chargers and also drevery neat picture on thc fuselage.Her tightr,.)g da),s are over now butI ll bet fiat if "Glammer Ga-I" couldtalk, she would tell some very excit-ing tales of dog fighr fid her expe-dences in flak alley. Goodbye toCombat "Glamnler cal" You andthe crews you carried luve done a

grand job. We'll say, "cood Luck" forSgt. Bolken too because we knowfull well of the deep affectioo he hasfor you.

Sgt. E.S. Grear - IL CASIOROARDENIE

The Flying SgrDid you ever see a d.ream walking?No? Well, I oever did eilher Vai[ aminute tho, while I ask you anotherquestion Did you ever see a FirstSergeant sprout wings and fly? [f youhavm't before, you soon will. Wordhas just reached our ears that we aretrading our Filst Sergeant Chas.Adrrns for znd ft. Chas. Adarns. OurSergeant is oow on llying status andis acting Firsr Sergeant for theSquedron. As soon as he can put inten missions, he will receive his com-mission. He deserves the break andwe're all pulling for him

FTAM IL C,+'TORO ARDE\IE

A Tale Of Escape AndElasionT he folloe/ing is an account byYrilliam (Bjll) L Rogers of the 7401hSquadron about his crew being shotdown over Yugoslavia and pickedup by the Chemik. This is a rypicalexperience lbr those crews goingdown arld falling inro the hands oflhe Partisans and Chehiks. Billemphasjzes the pfiI his radio operator played to assist in the escape ofthe crcwr 'Jim Barker was the radiooperator on a replacement crew forIhe 740th Squadron. llis lfe in rheSquadron revolved around the six-man tent, which he shared withoner crewmen, tre mess !en!. writ-ing home, and flylng combat mis-sions. Our crew had floq,n 16 com-bat missions over Rumania,Cermany, Austria, Czechoslovakia,Yugoslavia, northern Italy, southernIrance, Bucharest, Ploesti a,1d'once-is-enough' to Fredrickshaven.'l'he missioo o., 8 September '1944

was Io desffoy the three bridgesacross the Danube River in the Cityof Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

"Belgrade was a relarively shofi dis

tance from our base. The Grouparrived within eyesight of the IP atleast 4,000 feet belov/ the assignedbombing altitude. The lumberingformation was led into a 360. tumto gain more altitude. Precious littleadded footage had beeo eamed$r'hen the whole nightmare surfacedagain with at least 40 bombers mat-ing a second very slow full cirdeturn to the rightl Still in the shadowof the target, the mission was modi-fied from the 20,000 feet specifiedto or y 18,500. There was frenziedrecomputations by the lead bom-bardiers for their bombsight settingsas we pressed on to the IP and tar-get to bomb at 18,500 feet. After'bombs away' the next maneuverwas to execute a tum to the rightand get rie hell ou! of rherel Beinga flight leader fo. tbe first time, Iheld my heading for an additional30 seconds to ir1sure all B-24's inthe fiighl had dropped their bombsfor good coverage wben all hellbroke loose inside our plane. \X/ereceived a dfect hi( from a batteryof four German 88mm antiaircraftguns. I gave tbe signal to bajl outby ringing the warning bell while ina steep turn to get away from theflak and then issued orders over theintercom, 'BAIL OUTI'

'Jim Barker was one of the last loleave the airplane and he was metby cerman soldiers who had spedfrom Belgrade to capture thost justshot down Barker a.lways carriedchewing gum, cigarettes, and catdybars in his flighr jacket when on amjssion. He landed on a highwayiust as the Germans arrived. Ratherthan putting his hands in rhe air, heslowly dragged out those goodies -chewing gum which the Germansaccepted greedily and looked formore, tbcn lhe candy bars and final,ly the cjga.etles came from Barker,sjacket, in a ploy that was potentiallyexplosive, he delained his captorsas long as possible. Fortunately, thisdislraction, which was an overrruse, was successful even thoughBarke! did not know its benefiLsuntil much iater. In Barker's boldmarner, he risked his own safety sothat others of the crew could escapecapture. Because of his delaying

con nuod on Pa!615

Conlinu€d rbm paqs 14

actions, the Serbian Chetniks under,grouDd 'Freedom Fighters s/ereable to wh6k away other membersoI J!_n s aircrew Io Secure 3reasSeven &embe6, includinq the co_pilor Mlliam (Bill) e. 6ru*4or6,were back in Italy within eiqht davs(Brll gave rhis accoLrnr of rh;rrescape: "The crewmen were hiddenin two-wheeled ox carts coveredwith corn $alks and sraw Theyslepl ln tarm houses and bams andwere fed by the local peopie untilarrvmg at an airfield near theAdriatic Sea where tbey wereprcked up by a C-47 esconed bvP-51's.durrng daylrghr and f lown rol la ly )

cuers switched to a wood sidingrrom Ine cart, using my parachuteraDflc as a cushion, and positionedthree wooden poles uoder the sid_lng tor sL\ men to carry me to asmall v lage of Rrpant wtile aChetnik doctor attended my woundthe best he could, the Germansearchers entered the other end ofrhe_villaSe Agarn, the Cherniks carned me to a more secluded spot inan abardoned school house wherewe stayed for three da)s."Mthin this short period of time,ahosr 3,000 friendly Serbian peoplecame to see a genuine Americanclespite the loss of civilian livescaused by erratic bombing tiat wassupposecl to destroy the brideesOnc of rhose friendly, vrsirorisnitched and informed the cermansor our location. At about midnight, Iwas pacecl on a metal cot into asmall. panel Luck which took us toa terolan peasJnts house where noUerman soldier dared ventureinslde. I was placed on a largeround table in the kitchen wlerecnrctens scurried back and forth onthe dirf floor

"The nexl day, we were passed onro a grocer's home where we had aseparate bedroom which was usedtor clowned airmen. 'ffhile there.the Chetliks had to relreat backinlo their Ravna Cora mountainsrronghold I declined the invjtationto go along because jMok six menjrJst fo carry me, I wa6 not discov_ered by the Germans and two dayslater, a Partisan Lieutenant showedup to provide a means for escao€ toItaly The frrsr few days of rravelwas vra a tour_wheeled woodeawagon w,tth corn sblks as beddingand clrawn by a team of horsesBesides the driver, who went thesho'-Iesr route cross country. a loncPJlisin soldier wirh a riJle walkedslenuy about 30 feet behind rhecr'1 On.the third nighr, l slepr in aranls3n hospital Jnd then wasloaded into a railroad freisht carearly $e followrng momlig toeeth_er wjth abour 50 orher wounaJameo and women. The straw on thelloor was irfested with lice andticks. I raveled all day and night

lying mostly flat on my backDecause oi _my injured ieg. Aboutnoon, tne door opened to the boxcar_ard a man,s head popped insideano yetled, ,Are there any yankshere?' An American officer helDedme from the box car and I had amost w€lcome hot bath, new cloth_mg and a wonderful home cookedmeal. I was then flown to anAmerrcan general hospital in Bari,rlaly on t7 October 1944. Soootnereafter I wrs evacualed medicallyto the U.S. on a Ljberry ship con_ver-red rnto a hospital Than_k-fully, Itully recovered "

Capture by tbe German soldiers wasthe prelude to exleoded sufferinsthat.Barker prefers to forget. He"wasnusucd through Budap€st andvlenna.to uppermost Grmanywnere he remained captive fivemonttr.s in Stalag Luft IV prior tobeing forcefully e cuated L,r mid_wnter because of the Russian offen_sive llarker marched nearlv g00miles during the debilitatin; rhreemonrh.s whrch followed. Diring the,bracK Hunger March,' (he worn,nassled prjsoners of war had tosleep in bams and open fields olusendurl'rg (he bombs and srrafinc bvtheir own Allied Air forces Forlseemlflgiy endless five or slr davs.Jim and other pov/'s had no foodor ctink except mehed snow. Hewas treed at Bitterfield, about 15m es south of Dessau. Gemanv.He had wirhered away a third ;f hisnormal body s/eight and rcquiredfwo months hospitalization inIrance before being able Lo travel.He convalesced for two months atnome aod remained a patient in am]]rtary hospital for another 60 dnyswnere he wJs presented lhe purDleHean and other decorarions Jimruity recovered.

'As pilot, I was the last to leave thecnppled B 24 I feh a w"mt surge inmy fl8ht leg 3s I bounced dov'Tl tothe bomb bay catwalk to ba our. Idid not have time to remove mvflak vest, mie west, and my o.xipenm,rsk hose wrs flapping in tre w:inOas I openecl my parachute. I felt asnarp paln m my injured leg butwas able to wiggle my toes; therewas nope. Aller painlully hitting rhcgfound on a small hill, my waistgunner, Gcny \li/agner, rppeiredano wc lteard voices s.tyme'Chernik Because of tf,e biief,nssthJI crews downed rn yr.rgosl:vJsnoutd scek Tito s panisans srncethe Chetniks would kill Americans.lrcfe wds a d emma Ccn), suggcsFec Ihrr he would go to thc malrlhjghway below !o get lhe Germanswho 9'erc belrevcd ro provide med_rcal lid ind dccenr trertrnent forprisoners However, the same vojcesbcbind rhe hill were styinq ,doc-reur. I reasoned that no oie wouldaclfiinister medical care to someoneand {hen kill them so we weitcd forthem !o arrive. 'lhey

were friendlvand offered lheir assistance for med_rcJl crre.tnd escape. I was gralefllIlrat \Vagner $ayed although notKnowrng that rhe Cherniks conrlnued to be pro-Aliies.

''l was placed in an ox cafl butcould not stand the pain in mymjured dght leg from the bumDvroad afthough there q,.as a layer ofcom stalks for my comfort. ihe r..,

Back in his own Squadroo. BillCrawford took command of hisdeplered crew with a reDlacementco-pilo! and o|her crew membersano llew combat mission ftrmber 1gto Munich only 18 days after theirescape. He and his crew comDletedthe requrred missions eady lanutrv1915

Some Fought tothe End

The fighting sPirit of our cre*sis leeend. Some may call it justplaur "gust.' The Sunners rode inthe back ol the oPen t -24, manytimes in sub-zero weather, withotltquestion and never flinched at lhei;comins fiqhters. some blazedaway at'ihdenemy fighters untrJthe end. This is ao account tromthe Air Force Historical war Diaryof lhe 74lst Squadron: "Lt

.Keogh sairplane was rammeo neao-on oYan enemy rEnter overMoosebiarbaum, Austria on 26 June1944. Despite the loss of oneenehe shlared off and secondafrie. this qallant crew, well-discl-plined, examplified their devotionto duv by continulog to detenothef aircraft and enabled it tomake a bombing run in whlchexcellent hits were observed on oilstorage tanks, power plant, com-munications and other lr6tallatlonsorle of the crew, s,/Sgt. AlfredPuslal, tail tunet gunner, was sin-gled out for praise by.returninS air-men. His Suns kePt Dlazng^unt[ .the last, even as the Plane rlameoand &opped into an heroic obliv-ion." The Silver Star wa.s awarcleoto the next of kins for Lt Keoghand his crew listed as missing inactioni 2nd Lrs. Harry F Mccrackenand Howard O. vralstedi T/SgtsDendy L. Frederick, Jr' andFredeirck Q HuSSins; and S/Sgts\o'lliam G. Logue, Jr., Stanley w'Lundquist, Alfred Puslat and HaroldL. \0atson.

It is believed the German fiSht-er pilot was out of control fiomdamage from our guns or he mis-calculated his anack. Nevertheless,it was not uncommon for the mostskilied German fighter Pilots todive throuqh the formation, comingdanqeror.rsl=y close (o the bomberswith-theit guns blazing to disbu.sethem. Thls was esPecially dle caseto hit the formation prior to reach-inp the tareet to try and disburse itSo?re Gerian piios would rolltheir afplanes an their backs andco rhroush our fonnation flYlngIpsrde down. The determination ofoirr crews kept the formationtoqether. There is no singl€ casewf,ere our bomber forces turnedaway from the target because ofenemy opposltloo.

1 6

The Isle of VisThe Isle of vis was a haven for

crippled bombers and fighters thatcoiid not make it to Italy frombombinq larqets in Austna,Hungat and the Balkins. It is oneof the three most westemDalmation islands in the AdriaticSea. nestled between Bisevo andSusac. vis is, a rock island, had nofresh water but boasted of a naturaland protected harbor for ships Theruowav was qravel and only 3,500feet loire loctted in a valley. Theishnd w�as a junkyard of wreckedB-24's. B-17's, B-25's and othertvDes of aircraft They had been6illdozed off rhe runs?y andstripped of usable sPare Parts andequipment. Some airpianes !r'ererepaired and flown back to lheirbases On occasion, there woulonot be room for a criPPled bomberto land and the crew was asked tobail out over tbe airfield and let theairplane crash in the sea ln theea;lv staq€s of our combat, theisla;d w;s frequently bombed bYGerman Stukas, To invade theisland would have been very costlyfor the Germans, thus it Provided asafe emergency landing sPace forrhe Alhed airplanes. Vhile at Vis,doened flyers feasled onYugoslavian wine and SPam unti ltheir transponation bacK nomearrived which was a small high-speed supply boat or a c-47

THE 455TH BOMBGROUP IN COMBAT(a continulng serles)

Mission 10, March 18, 1944All groups ol the 304th Wing weresent to attack the ManiagoAirdrome in the Po Valley. Ourgroup managed to get 39 B-24'sotl the ground. Four aircraftreturned early and 35 dropped41.5 tons of fragmentation bombson the target. Bomb strikesshowed that five enemY alrcraftwere destroyed on the ground.There was no flak at the target andall planes retumed safely.

Mission 11, March 19 TheGroup was briefed to bomb the air-craft factories at Steyr, AustriaEscort was Provided bY P-38's to

the target area. The wing leadertumed away from the Primary tar-oet because of bad weather, soihe 455th bombed the airdrome atGraz, Austria, The bombing resultswere poor. Flak at the target wasintense and accurate. EightMe-109's made an overheadattack through the formation. Ourounners claimed one enemy fight-;r shot down and one Probablydestroved. Two of our aircraft col-lided on the way back to base withall crewmen lost. No Parachuteswere seen. Twenty crewmen weremlssino ln action. Several otheraircrafiin the formation sulfereddamage lrom the flying debris ofthe two aircraft that collided.

Mission 12, March 22 TheGrouo was briefed to bomb themarshalling yards at Verona, ItalyOne group of P-38's escorted usto the target. Again, our Primarytarget was cloud-covered so webombed the secondary, themarshalling yards at Bologna, ltalyThe aroup dropped 82.5 tons of500tGP bombs kom 32 B-24's.llak at the target was intense butinaccurate. No fighter oppositionwas encountered and all planesretumed sately.

Mission 13, March 24 Wewere again briefed lor the SteyrDaimlerPuch Aircraft FactoryAoain. clouds foiled the 36 B'24'sth-at took otl loaded with 100#incendiary bombs. These aircraftmanaged to drop their bombs onthe Bimini, ltaly marshalling yardsBombing had mixed results and allplanes retumed lo base.

Mission 14, March 26 TheGroup was again briefed for theDaimlerPuch Aircraft Factory atSteyr, Austria. Again, weatherturned the Group back and Riminimarshalling Yards were again atarget ol opportunity. This time,only 19 aircratt dropped theirbombs. The others either broughttheir bcmbs back to base or jetti-soned them in the Adriatic. Allplanes retumed safely.

Mission 15. March 28 A maxi'mum wino effort was ordered toattack ani destroy the marshallingyards at Verona, ltaly. Forty B-24's

colhuod tbh P.€a 16

took otl but 17 retumed early asthey lost the wing formationbecause ol bad weather, Twentv-one ol our B-24's dropped 52.5tons on the primary target. Flak atthe target was intense and accu-rate. Twenty to 30 enemy fighterswere observed in the target areabut they did not press their attackssince our escort ol P-38's drovethem off. Eight enerny aircraft wereobserved to be shot down bv ourfighters. Atl planes retumed safelv.

Mission 16, March 29 Theentire Wing was to attack themarshalling yards at i/|ilan, ttaty.The 455th out uo 40 B-24's loadedwith 500# GP bombs. Two aircraftretumed eady and 38 aircraftdropped over 97.5 tons ol bombson the primary target with verygood results. There were no flak orfighters at the target area. All9lanes retumed safelv.

Mission 17, Marih 30 TheGroup sent 38 8.24's loaded with500# incendiary bombs to theindustrial center ol Sofia, Buloaria.Nineteen of them dropped thdirbombs by otfset method throughbroken clouds. Thlrleen alrcraftcould not identity the target andbrought their bombs back to base.Flak at the target was moderate tointense and accurate. Bombinoresults could not be observed

-due

to cloud cover, All planes retumedto base.

The Group flew 13 missions inMarch. We put 447 aircraft overthe targets and dropped ovet 877tons of bombs on the enemy. Welost 20 crewmen and two aircraft,We claimed one enemy fightershot down and one Drobable,Enemy flak damaged three of ouraircraft. That's not bad for what wehad been through, Weatherimproved and we were kept busyin the months ahead.

APRIL 1944April was lhe beoinnino of"Operation Pointbtanik' desr:gned to

break the back of German fiohtermanufacturing. This was a tireatto lhe entire Allied bombino etfort.The Germans expected to-getsome immunity from ajr attacks by

locating many of their biggestassembly and production complex-es to the south and east. Thesewere out of range of lhe Britishand 8th Air Force bombers basedin England. Several missions hadbeen flown by the 'lsth Alr Forcebombers againsl Regensburg andWiener Neustadt fighter productionand airfields. This would be amonth of operations principallyagainst aircratt production and air-fields. By its end, production esti-mates stood at 250 aircraft amonth within range of the 1sth AirForce vs. a planned rate of 650.

Mission 18, April 2 The croupwas ordered lo bomb the stevrDaimler-Buch Aircraft Factory: Theattack on Steyr was a highly'coor-dinated operation with 13 heawbomber groups hitting the Stey;targets, three heavy Bomb Groupscarrying out diversionary raids onBrod, Nihac troop concentrationsand i/ostar. This was the targestoperation in point of numbers ofplanes the 1sth Air Force hadattempted up to that dato. A totalof 432 heavy bombers dropped onSteyr wilh '127 B-17's and 137B-24's operating against theWalzlageMerke and 168 B-24'shitting Daimler-Puch.

The first enemy fighters wereencountered at 1030 hours.Between 60 and 70 single enginelighters were engaged by P-38escort, with violent individualencounters taking place. Anothergroup ol enemy liohters wereengaged by P-47 escort at 1040hours. With the exception of lourto six Me-109's which attacked lhelead bomber group, all of thesefighters were etlectivety deal with,Between 1100 and 1115 otherfighters from Austrian bases wereassembled north ot the frontier_Twin engine fighters were concen-traled over Graz and single enginelighters over Klagenfurt. Thesefighters attacked aggressivety atlthe way to the target and back aslar as the Klagenfurt area. Thetotal force put up irom Austrianbases was about 100 sinoleengine fighters and 40 to-50 twinengine ajrcraft. 15 to 20 Me-109,s

attacked our bombers overYugoslavia on lhe retum ftight.

Total enemy opposition, 2.15 to220 single engine aircraft and 40to 50 hflin engine aircraft. Includingshadowing aircratt, 260 and 275sorties were put up against thewing formation.

The first enemy fightersencountered by the 455th was at1045. 15 to 20 Me-109,s with be ytanks were engaged by lhe escortbut did not attack the lormation.The heaviest concentration oflighters was encountered 15 mileswest of Graz and continued theattack until the target area. Most ofthese aircraft were ire-109's, FW-190's and Me-110's. Between 20and 25 Me-210's and JU-88'sattacked the formalion through thebomb run, while large groups ofsingle engine aircraft plcked up theattack on the retum trip.

The attacks on this missionwere the heaviest the Aif Forcehad encountered since theRegensburg raid of 25 Februarvand certainly the heavlest the455th Group had encountered thuslar

As a result of the raid theassembly, testing, packing and balland roller bearing plant washeavily damaged.

MISSION STATISTICSEnemy Losses:DestroyedMe-109 's . . .15FW-190's . . .11Me-210's... ' l

Probably DestroyedMe-109 's . . .13JU-88's...3FW-190's...1

DamagedMe-109 's . . .3

Our losses: The 741stSquadron which had two aircraftover the taroet was the onlvSquadron to- suffer no crelilossesduring the operation. Four aircraftwere lost one from the 740thSquadron, one from the 742nd andtwo from the 743rd.

conlhu€d on Pa!€ 18 17

conlinuod ircm Pag6 17

Presidential Unit Citation:The Group received the

Citation under General OrderNumber 3225 dated 12 September1944 for the mission-

Mission 19, April 3 ThisGroup along with all the groups inthe 304th Wing attacked the mainmalshalling yard at Budapest,Hungary. Iwenty-eight B-24's ofour group, loaded with 500# GPbombs, attacked the marshallingyards. The flak at the target wasintense and accurate. Enemy fight-ers were sighted but did not presstheir attack. Casualties were onebombardier killed in action, onenavigalor sedously wounded, andon-- pilot and four gunners slightlywounded by flak. All planesreturned to base.

Mission 20, April 4 This groupand all other groups in the 304thWing attacked the marshallingyards at Bucharest, Rumania.Thirty-four B-24's of our Groupdropped 85 tons of 500# GPbombs with good results, Severalstrings of bombs were seen to fallin the target area, although theresults were obscured by smokelrom prevjous bombing. Flak at thetarget was moderate and accurate,Fifteen to 20 [/e-109's and FW-190's made unaggressive attackson the lormation and were drivenoff. All planes returned to basesafely.

Mission 21, April 7 Four hun-dred sixty-nine B-24's and B-17'sof the 1sth Air Force attacked themarshalling yards at Treviso,lvleske, Bologna and Ferrara. Ourtarget for 32 aircraft was themarshalling yards at Bologna, ltaly.The Group dropped 64 tons of100# GP bombs wilh good resutts.We met no enemy fighters and ftakwas sljght and inaccurate. Allplanes retumed to base withoutincident.

Mission 22, April 12 ThirtyB-24's of this group dropped 65tons of '100# GP bombs on the air-drome at Bad Vaslau, Austria. Thisairdrome is in the vicinity ol Viennaand when you go into that area

1 8

you can expect fighter opposition.Between the lP and the target, theGrouo was attacked bv 50 to 60enemy fighters trying tb break uplhe lormation. They were not suc-cessful as the group gunnersclaimed seven destroyed, fiveprobably destroyed, and threedamaged in the air. Flak was veryintense and heavy but did not getto our Group and all planesreturned to base.

Mission 23, April 13 Thisgroup and other groups of the304th Wing attacked the TokolAirdrome at Budapest, Hungary.Thirty-six B-24's took otf loadedwith 100# GP bombs and 36 of theaircratt dropped them on thetarget. Flak at the target was mod-erate to intense, and accurate butthe group sustained little damage.Thirty to 35 enemy fightersattacked during the bomb run. Ourgunners claimed two destroyed,one probable, and we claimed ninedestroyed on the ground, No loss-es for the group.

Mission 24, April 15 We wentback at the marshalling yards atBucharest, Rumanla. This tlme wehad 36 8"24's loaded wlth 500#GP bombs. We also had ourlriends with us in the form olP-38's. They kept the enemy fighlers away, bul we hadn't found away to stop the flak. We camethrough with minor damages andall planes retumed to base."The B-24 was an easy air-plane to fly. lt was easy to landand take otl, but at high altitudesin lormation it was another kind ofplane. With the high wing loading,it became sloppy on the controlsand it was difficult to hold tn posi-lion," - Pilot's conment

Mission 25, April 15 FortyB-24's took off to bomb anotherRumanian target, the airdrome atTurno Severin, not far fromBucharest. We again were loadedwith 500# GP bombs. We shouldhave run into stiff fighter oppositionbut they surprised us. Flak waslight and inaccurate, and thefighters never showed; a "milk run'for a change.

Mission 26, April 17 We were

back to Sofia, Bulgaria. The bombload was 100# incendiaries, Theweather tumed bad and the forma-tion split up. Only 29 of the 37B-24's bombed the target. Theremaining airplanes brought theirbombs back to base.

Mlssion 27, Aprll 20 We senta maximum etfod of 42 8.24's tobomb the Monfalcon, ltaly shlpyards wilh 500# GP bombs. Whatshould have been an easy targetturned out to be a real rouoh one.We were jumped by 30 to iO sin-gle englne enemy flghters, We lostone airplane and ten men weremissing in action."ln lhe early part of our mis-sions we were without lighterescort after we reached the headof the Adriatic. For lhat reason,enemy lighters were a real ftorn Inour side. They could always pickon a straggler or someone out ofposition in the tormation.' - pilot'scomment

Mission 28, April 21 We wentto the well once to otten as weheaded lor the marshalllng yardsal Bucharest, Rumania. Thlrty.fourB-24's drooDed 85 lons of bombsbut ran into a hornet's nesl otenemy flghteG. We claimed fiveenemy fighters shot down andseven damaged, but we sufferedthe loss ol four Dlanes and 40crewmen missing in action. wewere jumped by over 40 enemyfighters, not a good day.

Mission 29, ADril 23 We werebrieled for the Bad Vaslau air-drome south of Vienna, Austria.Our bomb load tor the 26 B-24,swas ten 500# RDX bombs. Theseare very high explosive bombs.Both the flak and the flghters werenot up to Viennese standards, Weescaped wlthout damage and did afine bombingjob on the target.

Mission 30, Aprit 24 Thirtv-three B-24's loaded with sOO#'cpbombs took off to bomb themarshalling yards at Bucharest.Although the flak was heavy andaccurate, we managed to comethrough with a few holes and allplanes retumed safely.

Mission 31, April 25 We wereback to bombing alrfields in ltaly.

cor nuod on PalE 19

Conbued t on PaO€ iB

This time it was the airfietd atTurin- Fhk was light and no tight-ers chaltenged us. All planesretumed safely,

Mission 32, Aprit 28 Ourbombing efforts were stijl in ltatvThirty-three B-24's attacked the'harbor at Porto Stefano. Flak atthe target was moderate but oneof our airplanes was hit and lostcontrol. It ran into another in theformation; we lost two olanes and20 crewmen missing iri action.Inere were two parachutes seenbut that was all kom the 20 crew_men,

Mission 33, Aprit 29 We tookoff to bomb the Aircraft IndustrialComplex at Toulon, France. Thiswas our first raid over French terri_tory and we ran into enemy fjght_ers as we approached the taroet.Our bomb load for the dav wa-s1000# cP bombs and thd 30 B-24's dropped 85.S tons on the tar-get. Flak was heavy and accurate.We. saw six enemy lighters butsunered no casualties. All planesretumed to base.,

"Flak in the area around Toulonrs very neavy and accurate. lt wasrumored that there is an anti_air-craft tralnjng school in the areaand the instructors are Dracticinoon us." - Pilot s comment

Mission 34, April 30 Weended the month with a raid on themarshalling yards at Milan, ltalv.Thirty B-24's dropped SOO# Gpbombs on the larget with goodresu[s. Ine flak was verv heawbut inaccurate, perhaps that is whvour bombing was so good. Atlpranes retumed salelv.

April was our busiest month todate as we ftew 17 misslons with648 planes over the target. lt wasarso our cosfliest as we lost 1S air_cratt and 110 men missino inaction. The group dropped over1,313 tons of bombs on theenemy. We claimed 53 enemvfighters shot down, with 42 oroba-bles and eight damaged. So weoro Inltrct some damage on lheenemy fighter force but in oureyes, not enough to compensatelor our losses.

MAY 1944Mission 35, May 2 Thirtv-six

B-24's toaded with iOOO# cpbombs took off to bomb the mar-shalling yards at Verona, ltalv. Thetarget was completely cover6d bvctouds and all the planes retum&to base without incident. All crewsreceived credit for a mission.

Mission 36, May 5 Thirtv_sixB-24's were scheduied to take500# GP bombs to bomb the mar-shalling yards at ploesti, Rumania.It was enough to make you catchyour breath when you saw thallong red line of the ftiqht oath onthe map of the briefing room go allrne way across the wall to all thosetlak gunsll The target was coveredwith smoke but the lead bom-bardier got a good sight on the tar-gel ano we were able to droD ourbombs. The fighters pressed theirattacks and we lost one aircraft tothem. Flak at lhe targel was veryintense and accurate. We chalk6dup our rosses at one aircrafl andlen men missing in action. Onecrew member reported that the flakwas so thick we could havewalked on it.

Mission 32, May 6 That lineon the brieling room map was stillpointing in the direction of ploesti.although this time il was themarshalling yards at Camoina.Rumania. This is between plo;stiand Bucharest. Thirty-four B-24,sloaded with 500# Gp bombs struckthe target, Flak at the target wasInrense and accurate. FiOhterattacks were very heaw-bv asmany as 50 enemv aircrad. Welost one aircraft lo fighters andmany more damaged by ftak andngnlers. We had one crewmankilled and ten crewmen missino inaction.

Mission 38, May 7 We wereback to Rumania lor the third davin a row. lt couldn,t oet anvrougher than that. fhis timi. 36B-24's would drop their bombs onthe marshalling yards atBucharest. The llak was intense asarways at this larget and .15 fiqhl-ers made repeated attacks on thelormation. We came throuohunscathed, with no casualiies and

all planes retumed to base.Mission 39, May 1O We head_

ed in a different direction. the air-craft factory at Wiener Nuestad.Austria, just soulh of Menna.Thirty-nine B-24's caffvino ten500* cp bombs attaciedthe tar-get. The enemy lighters were thereIn great numbers and the flak wasvery Intense and accurate. Ten ofour ptanes received heaw and 27slight damage. One crewman wasseverety wounded and three oth_ers slighfly, but we managed toDnng a[ ptanes back to lhe base_. . Mission 40, May 12 We wereoneled to bomb communicationtargets-in northern ltaly. Thirty-oner1-24's lound the primary tarcetcovered by clouds and we b-ornbedme.harbor at Spezia, ltaly instead.Ergnr or our ptanes brought theiroomos back to base as thev couldnot see the larget. There wbre nocasualties.

Mission 41, May 13 Thirtv_three B-24's toaded with lOOd# Gpbombs attacked the marshallinoyards al Botogna, ttaty. There iasno flak at lhe targel and weDrought all planes back to basowithout any casualties,

Mission 42, May 14 Th€ DUshwas on by the sth Army lor Romean-d we hetped by sending 416-24'�S tO drop g, 940 twentv-pound fragmentation bomba on thearrdrom_e at Plasenze outside olHome. there was light flak at lhelarget and no flghters. Crewsclaimed a "milk run,,as all Dlanesretumed to base without incident.

Mission 43, May 18 We wereDacr( in the oil business. We wentwrth.4l B-24,s toaded with SOO#ur- oomos lo bomb the refinery atDacia Romano, Rumania. Thistime the flak took its loll as we lostlhree aircratt to flak and 30 crew_ ,men were missing in action. webombed.by pathfinder for the firstrme ano saw many fires burninoin the target area; a good missiolDUt a heaw price was oaid.^^ .Mission 44, May 19 We sentJb oomoers to bomb lhe harbor attjenoa, ttaty. The flak was liohtano not very accurale so it lirnedoul lo be an easy mission for acnange.

1 9

Our Alrcrews TookCare of Each Other

The closeoess that develoPedamong out aircrew is indescdbable.They assisted each other duringcombat, many times at the risk ofthek own lives. A good example ofthis is the citation received bYwesley A. Poore of the 743rdSquadron for the avr'ard of theDistioguished Service Crossr "Fot

extraordnary heroism in action asnavigator of a B-24 tt?e alcraftover vital stxategic enemy installa-tions on 18 May 1944. Priot toreaching the target, intense enemyfighter action and accurate antiair-craft fire rendered one of theengines of his aircraft useless, thusforcing it to drop from tbe Protec-tion of the formation. Despite thecrippled condition of his aircraft,he skilltully guided the pilol to tbetarget for a successful lone bomb_ing run. lmmediately uPon releas-ing the bombs, severe damagefrom aggressive fighter aclionforced the aircraft to lose altituderapidly. en the order to aban-don aircrafl was 8iven, Lieut€nantPoore observed one of the crewmembers with a dar ared ParA'chute. \qith characteristic selfl ess_ness, Lieutenaot Poore exchangedhis o*'n parachute for the damagedone. After being assured that allmembers had parachuted to safety,Lieulenant Poore strapped the dam_aged parachute to his harness andjumped from the plane. By manip-uLating rhe-sbrouds with his hanG,he was able to safely descend torhe ground. Lieutenant Poore'sexemplary actions have upheld ihehighest traditions of the mililaryservice and reflect gteat creditupon himself afld the ArmedForces of the United States ofAmerica,"

\tesley gave us a liltle diff€rentversion bu! nevenheless does ootchaoge his concem for a fellowcrew member- He iodicated that

20

Sgt. Nelson's Parachute was notdamaged but rather it would not fithis hamess. Wesley's parachute fitso he clamped it on Nelsoo's har_ness and he bailed out. Io doingthis, Vesley did rlot know whetherNelson's parachute would fit hisharness Through a make-shiftarrangemeot, he was able to attachthe pamchute to his hamess at hiships, most improp€r for a chestpack. Atso, the pilot, Lt. ThomasMarkham, was the last to leave thestricken airplane. All crew memberswere captured bY the Bulgariansthat same day except Markham. Hewas captured later and executed bythe Bulgarians. The ctew returnedsafely to Italy in September 1944wilh the group that escaPedthrough Turkey led by Hugh Graff.

Wllmer Wallack'sStory

The following is a story of theexperiences of Lt. Vilmer S.wallack and his crew of the 740thSquadroo: 'The early mominghours of 21 April 1944 began forour crew as other mission momings had before with the unpleas-ant wakeup call about 4:00 a.m.The normal grunts) gfoans andpleasantries were tossed at th€disturber of sleeP in a nol too com-plimenlary manner by the four offi-cers who occupied the four_mantent. Similar activities were under-way by our six enlisted crew m€m_b€rs in another part of theSquadron area. Breakfast, missionbriefiog and launch of the firsl aircraft at about 8:00 a.m. occurredroutinely. Ho9r'ever, the crewwould be called upon this day toutilize to lhe maximum extent theirtlainlng and skills to survive therigors of high altitude combatoperation.

"The target was the railroadmarshalling yards at Bucharest,Rumania deep within German-held

territory and defended by healyconcentations of flak guns andlarge numbers of German andRumaoian fighters. It was a majoreffort with 17 bomb grouPs beinglaunched by the Air Force. Mycrew was made up of the follow_ing: end Lt. B€n B. Mclnturff, co-pilot; end Lt. Michael constantino,navigator; end Lt. Jack L. Hager,bombardier; S/Sgt. Merlin Lodge,engineer; S/Sgt. John L. Moore, Jr.,radio operator; S/Sgt. Joseph E.Abbink, ball turret gunner; S/Sgt.James P. Cronin, waist gunner;s/Sgt. Harry J. Gaynor, waist gun-ner; and S/Sgt. John F. Franco, tailgunner.

"Following assembly of thegroups into their flight formatioos,q/e headed over the Adriatic Seawith figbter escon on a course forBucharest, As we crossed the coastof Yugoslavia at 10,000 feet, ah€a1y build-up of clouds wasforming and the formation flewbetween layers and changed coutsefrequendy to keep aircraft clear ofthe clouds as the Group continuedils climb to 20,000 feet. Our 'tail-

end-charley' posilion in the secondsection of the formation and thevarying rates of climb to stay clearof the clouds, required us Io useexcessively high power settinSs tostay with the Group. \X/e wereunable to do so and fell behind theformation. It seemed unwise for usto feturn to home base alone as wewere too far into enemy territoryand enemy fighters had beensighted; rejoining the formationwas our best aiternative. Becauseof fie solid cloud-cover over lhetargets, the Ail force issued a recallfor the bombers to return. The455th and rhree other groups failedto receive the lecall and continuedon to lhe target without fighterescon,

"About 20 minutes ftom the IPwe had an electricai failure oo thesupercharger of the #3 €ngine,reducing the power and conse-

cdlr.{.d tom Pag€ 20

quently, the airspeed. I orderedHager, our bombardier, to salvo thebombs to lighteo *re ship in hopesof building up our airspeed andrejoining the formation. My intentwas to cut across the flighl path ofthe Group and to reioin it after thebombs were dropped and the for-malion turned from the target toretum to base. The flak was mod-erately hea\.y and accurale, and wewere hit by shrapoel in the *1 and+2 engine superchargers whichcaused a further loss of power andwe fell fanher behind the Groupformation. We also took a direct hitbetween #1 and #2 enginesLuckily, there was no fire. Any pro-tective cover from enemy fightersthe Group formation would havegiveo us was no longer withinreach; we were on our owo,

"As we ieft the flak area, wewere aftacked by seven enemyfighters equipp€d with cannons.'l'hey fired their cannons dufingrepeated afiacks but slayed out ofrange of our 50 caliber grrns. Theyhit the #2 engine and we had tofealher it. w'e took numerous hi(sin the rear of the fuselage and alarge pan of the righr verrical stabr-lizer was shot away making direc-tional and horizontal controi diffi,cuh to maintain. our gunners wereout-gunned by the enemy cannonsbut prevented the fighters fromcoming into closer range with asteady stream of machine gun firc.

"l put the B-24 in a sleepdescent to enter the undercast andlose the fighters but the cloudswere farther below than I had estimated. The fighrefs continuedattacking and hir rhe #3 engioewhich we feathered and continuedfor the clouds. By rhis time, |beErnners in the rear had exhaustedtheir ammunition and our aircraftwas just barely under contlol. Iordered Cronin and Ga)dor toassist Abbink in rerracting rhe ballturet aod helping him back inro

the aircraft as he could not exit itin its extended position. In theircontinuing altack, the fighters cornpletely disabled the #1 engine,causing the propeller to ove$peed(runaway). Vwe

could oot feather orstop it and were rapidly losing altitude. ryy'e used full power on ourremainlog good engine, #4, tomaintain ahitude and control theaircraft but it was hopeless, so Iordered the crew to bail outFranco and Galnor were hit bysfuapnel from two shells thatexploded in the rear of the aircraftwith Franco's iniuries being themost sedous Cronin and Abbinkfastened (snapped) Franco's para-chute on him and dropped himthrough the camera hatchj Gaynor,Abbink and Cronin followed. Logeand Moore went out the bomb baydoors with Corrstantino and Hagergoing out the nose wheel door.This left Mac and me wilh the air-crafi as we fought to keep it flying.

"Seeing the parachutes, thefighters closed in and raked th€ship with lheir smaller caliber guns.One burst shafiered the co pilor'sside window and windshield. Iyelled aI Mac to leave and I wouldbe close behind. As Mac ieft hisseat, I shifted to the far right sideof mine and held full righr rudderafld aileron s,'irh my lefr foot andhand. The ship passed through rhefirst layer of clouds and I kept fullpower on #4. I looked back to seeif Mac had cleared the bomb bay.He was hanging on to lhe frontedge and then I saw his hands dis-appear so I proceeded Io leave thecrippled ship. The ahimeicrshowed 12,000 feet so there wasIime. \vith #4 engine power fullon, the ship went into a flat spin tothe left, throwing me against theradio table and onto the flight deckfloor. I managed to crawl to therear of the bomb bay on the catwalk and dove head firsr out theaircraft Our active combat and lheB-24 was no more but the fate of

our crew was yet to be determined\X/hat awai6 our destiny?

"I passed through the last layerof clouds and came down in aoewly plowed, muddy field aboutone-fourth mile outside a small vil-lage, 20 miles south of Bucharest.Thinking I mighr avoid capture, Iheaded in a direction away fromthe viilage. I was spotted and twoshots were fired over my headwhich brought me to a halt withmy hanG raised. I was captured byfour soldiers from a small garrisonio the village and about 25villagers. I was searched, taken tothe village, intenogared and held ina small headquarters type building.Shortly afterwarG, Hager,Mclnturff, .{bbink and Loge wcrebrought in Constantino, Irraoco,Galmor, Cfonio and Moore werepicked up and taken to anothervillage some distance away. Somevillage women brought us sweetcakes and tea as we sat onbenches under a large shade tree.Villagers gathe.ed around, somesolemn faced and some smiling,making commenls and gesturcsIhal were nol unfriendly orthreatening.

"Aiter sleeping on the floor of asmall building, we were taken toBucharest in a large, horse drawn,high two wheeled wagon by fourguarcls, We were carried in a streetcar from the outskirts of the city tothe Queens Guard Garrison whichwas being used as a lemporaryholding poin!. \Y/hile oo rhe sfeetcar, Mclnturff was given 1,500Rumanian lei by a young matronlywoman for cigarettes and othersmall personal items. Both theRumanian and German military hadadministrative offices s/ithin thegarrison. We slept in our clothesfor the first s€ven oights withoutmaftresses or blankets. Constantinoand Moore came in on the 23rd ofApril while Franco, Hager andCronin were held at a hospital forlreatment. Franco's multiple shrap-

co hu€d on Paga 22 21

oel wounds were sedous, Gaynorand Cronin's less so but infectedand painful.

"After having been rnterrogatedseveral times, we were taken toour permanent POW camp wherewe joined other POv's. The foodwas bad and there was not enoughof it. It consisted of unflavoredbeans, coarse, dry grain bread, andgoat- and perhaps even dog- fla-vored soup as indicated by piecesof jaw bones with teeth in it. Oneoigh! we were brought a field potof plain cooked barley whichlooked and tasted like glue.Constaotino, of Italian descent,could carry on a fractured conver-sation with the Rumanians. Afterdark, he got one of the guards tohelp bim carry the pot back to lhekitchen io the middle court yardand exchange it for a pot of barleysoup seasoned with a smallamount of meat, potaloes, tomatoesand onions. FIe did this without thesenior Rumanian personnel being.lware of it ve had a feas!.

"The weather was damp andcold much of the time during Apriltnd into May and lhere was nohear in the buildings. we only hadone blanket each so we slept inour clothes to stay warm andstayed under cover mo$ days.Some of us caught colds and hadsore throats, and at least one POWhad to have his tonsils removed ata Rumanian hospital. There wasvery liftle medication al the campbur shots for diphtheria were given!o all POWS in the compound. Mythree crew members who werewounded by flak returned from thehosprtal but Abbink looked badand there were still pieces of flakremaining in his throal area thedoctors did not get.

"The Air Force continued tobomb the oil facilities near ourcamp during the day while theBritish bombed at night. Somebombs fell dangerously close with

22

one landing in the courtyard whichdamaged ooe side of the buildiogand blew all tbe windows out. Wespent a lot of time in the basementand under bunks during ah raidsby the Allies. On some occasions,we were locked in our rooms dur-ing bombing attacks and crawledunder our bunks wilh our handsover our neaos.

"King Michael of Rumania visit-ed our camp in April and we filledout POW forms for the Red Cross.A small canteen was set up forRumanian and German use, butavailable to the Pol0f's if they hadmooey to buy sweets, cigareftesand other small items. We soldwalches, rings and crash braceletsto the canteen owner to purchasethese items. This boosted ourmoralel

"On the 29ri of April, twoPOrV's escaped but were capturedand placed in solitary confinementThe cooks, kitchen help, latrineorderlies and barbers were Russiantrustees and quartered apan fromother POW'S. The food continued!o be bad and there was notenough of it. \0e spent lime cleaning the lice from our blankets andclothing and on one occasion, wewere furnisbed blow torches toburn the lice from our bed springs.Shower baLhs with warm waterwere infrequent and we were with-out water altogether on many occa-sions. During water outages, sanitary conditions became intolerable,particularly in the toilets. \i/e tooksun baths by laying across side-walks alongside of the buildingwhich made the Germans walk inthe street to get around us to theiradministfative offices. They orderedthe Rumanian guards to run usback into our rooms. We 'bad

gered the Rumanian officers aboutwho was in charge. This provokedthem and they ordered the guardsto take us back to the sidewalkstor sun bathing. The Germans gotvery upset but did nothing. We

played the Rumanian guardsagainst the Gemans every chadcewe got.

"Ve wete moved to an aban-doned secure school house con-verted into a PO\tr camp $r'hichwas fafther from the oil targets.From this, we got a warm shower,clean clolhes and a bettei facilitywith no Gemans. It was the samefood but better prepared. The officers occupied one side of thecamp, the enlisted men the other.Some British atmen were broughtin as well as American flyers. Thecamp soon became crowded asday and night bombing increasedagains! Ploesti, Brasov andBucharest with more downed air-men. Outside recreational activitiesincreased, even basketball play. AnIoternational Red Cross officialcame to check on us but didn'tplomFe any lmprovements nofwere there any. At times, theRumanians would give us fundswhen we did not receive our RedCross packages, permi0ing us tobuy a few necessities from the can-leen. We were permined to writeone Red Cross card each week orIen days.

"Vith the camp filling wilhPO\f's, we were moved to a hospital which was only 600 yards fromthe Bucharest marshalling yards, animponanr target to the Allies. Priorto lhe move, the food tations weredecreased with bread cut out of rhediet, leaving nothing but weaksoup and b€ans with very littlemeat. The stepped-up bombing ofthe marshalling yards continuallykept us on the alert and in thebasement. Bombs dropped allaround the building and a large firesrarted in a big apanment buildingacross the street. Numerous otherfires were visible.

"POW'S from the 1 August 1943low level Ploesti raid joined us 3August 1944. They smuggled in aradio which we set up eacheveniog and tuned in to fie British

Conlinled toh Paq6 22

Broadcasling Company (BBC).wheo not in use, it was takenapart in five or six pieces and eachprece given to a PO\v. rwhen theradio was to be used, theseindividuals dropped their piece offio a room, the radjo reassembledand firsl-hand news fro BBC wasreceived. Battle front informationwas posted on a large wall map. Itbecame evident our informationwas morc accurate than theRumanrans' and our status mapreally 'bugged' the Rumanianofficers, especially the Colonel.

"As the oil facilities weredestroyed and the Russians weregettlng closer to th€ area, the foodand treatment improved and wewcre under just the control of lheRumeniar6. Letters fronr homeafrived ntore frequcnlly and moreRed Crcss parcels were receivedOn 11 August, the RumanianP.enier reportedly offered hisresiSnauon to King Michael TheRumaniaos sta(ed gaining controlof the ciry fiom the Germans on 23August 19.i4. We raised Rumanian,American end Russian flags as lhePO\v choir sang the Star SpangledBanner ,A.lthough the gates wereunlocked, we were ordered to stayin can)p because of street fighlingwilh lhe Germans. Several pOV/'saflempled to leave fte city butfound it surrounded by Germans.

"The Germaos did not gjve upeasily. During the nighr of 25August, we had eight bombinSraids by them and most of the oe)dclay The bombing of rheir airfieldby the 15Ih Air Force stopped rhis.We were soon Io be back in Ilaly.',

Rumanian DoctorsSaved POW's LlfeVictor Mc\rilliams, fi$t pilot of the74lst Squadron provided thisaccount of a mlssioo he and hiscrew flew over Ploesti on 5 May1944: "The takeoff and flight roPloesti was uoeventful. This wasour third trip there and the onlything different was the amounl offlak. It was much worse this time;the puffs of smoke from theexploding shells were so €losetogelher it looked like there wasno way through them. We took analmost direct hit on the right wing,knocking out numbers three andfour engines. The plane pulled tothe right and stafted a spiral downward. I reduced power on numbersone and two engines to about onethird to straighten out the plaoeand salvoed the bombs. My waistgunner, Harry McDowell, reportedthe airplane was on fire. I orderedhim aod others to get the ball andta tunet gunners out and bail out!Ooe member in the forwardsection of the airplane wasreluctant to leave but a liftle nudgeconvinced him.

"I was preparing to leave but Iknew I had been hir in rny leftwrist and leg with slrapnel. Atabout 12,000 feet, an Me-109pulled alongside and the pilotmotioned for me to get the hell outof there. I thought it was decent ofhim. lxy'hen I stood up, I knew myleg was practically severedbetween my knee and ankle. I nev-enheless left the ai.plane and land-ed in a tree; I had problems gettingdown from it. A linle old lady wasstanding there crying and wringingher hands. A man in uniformarrived and pointed a pistol at myhead until he discovered I was ser!ously injured and he left for help.Two othe.s soon amived and putme in a car. About five miles downthe road, it had a flat iire. Soon a

crowd of people arrived andpeered inside to see a downedAmedcan flyer. Another car arrivedand took me to the Bucharesthospital.

"Ihere were two Rumaniad offfcersand two doctors in the operatingroom where they took me. Theyqu€stioned me about the empty j0caliber sheil I had for stodng mor-phine shors for inflight use. I hadtlouble convincing them it was notan explosi\.e. I was asked if Ineeded a shot and responded thatsince they had giyen me one Iwould be all right. I gave them myname, rank and serial number andpassed out. My left leg was ampu-tated by the Rumanian doctorsabout two and one-half inchesbelow the knee."l awakened the next moming in aroom with another American. I saidsomething to him and he lookedsurprised and said, ,you aresupposed 1o be dead. Theybrought you io here last nighr andsaid you would be dead beforemorningl' I had lost a lot of bloodand the Rumanians said they hadnone for a transfusion."I miraculously survived and sawmany more bombing raids exceptthis time, on the receiving end. Thehospital took a dbect hit and theylater moved us to another location.To show there is humor in allthings, the dust was so thick onecouldn't see an),'thing and someonedown the hall shouted, ,Open thedoors and windows aod let thisdust outl' There were no doofs orwindows left in the bay. I wasmoved to a school house and itwas there that I saw the rest of mycrew, and was ove4oyed thaf theyall survived."

23

From Your EditorKeep sending in your war sto-ries and other contributions. l' l lget as many in the next issueas possible. lf you are sending .photos, put your name andaddress label on the back sothese can b6 roturned to you. lfyou havs coples of group orsouadron newsletters these arewelcome and make enjoyablereading for everyone. Mako acopy, or l' l l return your original.

Association AddressChange

455th Bomb Group Assoc., Inc.P.O. Box 286Spencer, lA 51301

Please send all GroupAssociation mail and dues toLou Hansen at this address.

When addressing your editorregarding the CerignolaConnection to:

B-24-ROG!

lf this car passes you, it'sBill Green. He says itstands for B-24 RadioOperator Gunner. He's hadmany episodes of recogni-tlon, pleasant conversationsat service stations plus hornhonking and waving drive-bys on the freeways. Billwas an original crewmember of the Mickey Lynnon her lirst 50 missions.

Tom Ramey1211 Montclaife Cl.Appleton, Wl 54915

'.'The Cerignola Connection ispublished twice yearly,occasionally more often. Allmistakes, errorc in spelling,grumna, punctuation, namesand refercnces arc strictly thefault of the computet and not ofthe editot.

455rh Bomb Group Association, Inc.P.O. Box 286Spencer, lowa 51301 PAID

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