memories of the 801st-492nd bombardment group carpetbaggers

8/7/2019 Memories of the 801st-492nd Bombardment Group Carpetbaggers

1/416

@[1 801sY492NDI f [ } : 8 r E B O M B A R D M E N T GROU


2/416

A BLACK B24 LIBERATOR BOMBER TAKING Off FROM U.S. AIR FORCE STATION .179AT HARRINGTON.ENGLAND DURING WORLD WAR IL CLANDESTINE NIGHT MISSIONS WERE FLOWN FROM THIS SECRETBASE. DROPPING MUNITIONS AND SUPPLIES TO UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE FORCES IN NAZIOCCUPIED EUROPE. FROM APRIL 5. 18 . .... TO APRIL 21. , 945. THE 80t,492ND BOMB GROUP *CARPETBAGGERS~ ALSO PARACHUTED AGENTS INTO FRANCE, HOLl.AND. NORWAY. DENMARK AND GERMANYFOR SPYING AND ESPIONAGE ACTIVITIES. IN ADDITION TO FLYING NIGHT BOMBING MISSIONS.

ii


3/416

MR. R08tRT N. FleHSIOO ..ooHNe RYAH 8t.1ID APT $3:1~N ANTONIO TX ?e~4S

Privately printed by the 801st/492nd B0mb-ardment Group As so cia ti on , a n on -p ro fit u. s.veterans organization, registered with the IRS,Tax #54-1402171, as a ma~rial to the men oft he 8 01 st /4 92 nd B om ba rd n' En t Group in World War II.

'\

ii


4/416

'.~

(

iii


5/416


6/416

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank all of my 801st/492nd Bombardment Groupcomrads ~ho have supplied information and articles forthis book.

Where stories included can be attributed to aspecific individu~l, that individual's by-line has beenadded.

Most of the stories recorded in this book have beencontributed by men who were members of the group duringWorld War II. In some instances the sources used havebeen official military records and records of relatedentities. One of the most frequently used sources hasbeen the 801st/492nd Bombardment Group Association's"Carpetbagger Newsletter".

I I)wemany thanks to my principa~ typist, SofiaGonzalez of Zapata, Texas and to my wife, Jean CarterYoung, who was my principal proof reader.

My sincere appreciation to my war time comrads,Peter Sanders and Robert Sellers, for the design of thecovers and the frontispiece.

Lastly we owe a vote of thanks to our CarpetbaggerNewsletter editor, Richard T. Sizemore for supplyingthe photographs~

Robert W. FishSan Antonio, TexasAugust 1990

v


7/416

PREFACE

THIS BOOK IS A COMPILATION OF SOME OF THEMEMORIES OF THE MEMBERS OF THE 801/492 BOMBARDMENTGROUP WHICH FLEW MISSIONS SUPPORTING THE UNDER-GROUND FORCES IN GERMAN OCCUPIED TERRITORIES OFTHE EUROPEAN CONTINENT DURING WORLD WAR 11. BE-CAUSE THESE MEMORIES ARE OVER FORTY FIVE YEARS OLDTHEY MAY VARY SOMEWHAT FROM THE DETAILS OF THE ACT-UAL EVENTS WHICH THEY PURPORT TO RECALL. DUE TOTHE EXTREME SENSITIVITY OF THE CARPETBAGGER OPER-A~IONS DURING THE WAR YEARS PERSONAL DIARIES ANDSIMILAR RECORDS BY INDIVIDUAL AIRMEN WERE STRICTLYPROHIBITED. THIS COMPILATION IS THE FIRST WRITTENRECORD OF MANY OF THE EVENTS RECORDED HEREIN.

THIS BOOK IS NOT COMPILED TO BE A HISTORY. ITHAS BEEN COMPILED PRIMARILY AS A MEMORIAL TO THEMEN WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE RECORDED EVENTS.

FOR A MORE FACTUAL AND FORMAL ACCOUNT OF THEHISTORY OF THE CARPETBAGGERS THE READER IS REFERREDTO BEN PARNELL'S BOOK ENTITLED "CARPETBAGGERS,AM-ERICA'S SECRET WAR INEUROPE" , PUBLISHED BY THEEAKIN PRESS OF AUSTIN, TEXAS.

ROBERT W. FISH20 SEPTEMBER 1990

vii


8/416

CONTENTSA Unique StoryThe Roots of the CarpetbaggersCapt. Estes Meets the LuftwaffeM y First Encounter with the German Air ForceLike Father Like SonJust Thought You Would Like to KnowProp WashETO CarpetbaggersEager Volunteers for Carpetbagger OperationsContinuityA Heflin PolicyBackground of Col. Robert w. FishA Risky BusinessDuty Above and BeyondMiss United NationsHarringtonCommanding OfficersUS Army Air Force Acquires Station 179Instrument Approach Procedure to 179Road and Rail Map of NorthamptonshireThe Unseen ArmyA Salute to Mechanics from an Unknown PilotMany Branches of Services were Needed in AAF1077 Signal Company Service GroupTime and Distance Distorts MemoriesKing and Queen Visit TempsfordScarlet Pimpernals of the AirNotes From an Abreviated DiaryCalling the ShotsOn BaseMap of Harrington AerodromeAs I RememberBullet Hole PatchersStoned PropellersDr. Paul J. Gans is Court-martialedGans Celebrate 50th AnniversaryTalk About a PartyReflections of a More Serious NatureIn Memorium - James BakerCapt. PaulF. AderMemories of Life at HarringtonProducing Grey HairNo-Mustard-on-the-FrankfurterOver-the-Hill to Grandmother's HouseThe Disappearing ActA Traqic FatalityThe Group Radar SectionG.roup Headquarters as of 18 June 1845The Waste of WarCarperbaggers IdentifiedWW II Style DressThose Dangerous Pub Missions

131011121314151 8202021242627282 93031323334353738444549545557586061626465687071737677788083878889919394

ix


9/416

Mass Tr~nsit System at Harrington96Bicycles Were Not Buried 97History of Special Services 98The Lamport Swan 99Pig Tales 100In a Pig's Eye 101In the Dark of Night 102A Memorable Night 103Lt. F~ank G. McDonald and Crew 104Evading a Night Fighter 106One Aircrew's History 107Trials and Tribulations of Heddleson and Henderson 109Tradgedy at St-Cyr-De-Valorges 119My Trip to the Dedication Ceremony 120Behind the German Lines 123The Fitzpatrick Crew Saga 124Carpetbaggers Return to Belgium 131A Crew Chief Well Remembered 132Field Changes 134Ground Crews 134It is Easy to Get Lost in the Dark 135A Carpetbagger with the French Forces of the Interior 136Another Mystery Solved 142Experience Pays Off 143Music from World War II 144Two for One 145Carpetbaggers Efforts Increase 147Goofing Off 148Finding Comrads 149A Bit of a Record 150High Flight 150Fiftieth Anniversary 151The Annecy Mission 153Confusion 157US Airmen Help the Maquis 158My First Trip into Annecy 160Cold Feet to Freedom 162A Senic Tour 163Carpetbaggers Cover All Germany 164Mission #9 165Mission #16 165News Report from Stars and Stripes 166A Flight into the German Redoubt 167Lucky Rabbit's Foot 168A Tearful Coincidence 169Beaucoup Courage 170Another Darby Memory 171Landing Behind the Lines 172Mission # 15 inca C-47 174Behind the Lines 176Random Memories 177Mission #13 180Playing a Double Header 181The Art of War 183

x


10/416

Night Gunnery SchoOlSandy's Gunnery MuralYanks Drop from the SkyA Mission to NorwayRescuing Carpetbaggers from NorwayExtracts from a LetterThe Beauties of Norway at NightA Wartime Night FlightA Near MissLong Ago and Far AwaySt. Elmo's FireAir Transport Command and the ProjectsHorses Dropped BombsTransport and Troop CarriersHow We Were Shot Down by the RussiansCome Fly with Me-NorthLt. Hudson's CrewMemories of a Post War FlightThe Night I Obeyed the LadyJohn W. Gillikin SurvivesMission #6The Joe Who Wouldn't GoToo Many AirfieldsMission #7Memories by Raymond J. ElliottA Free Trip HorneAn Angry JoeMy First Flight to ParisThe Voice of Charles DeGauileJustice MiscarriedA Bizarre StorySome Notes on A-26 OperationsRoss D. White Remembers the A-26Red Stocking MissionsIn My OpinionMajor Edward C. TresemerLife in StockholmThe Path of Most ResistanceA True PatriotTarget Practice by a Bored German GunnerA Mission to Denmark"V" for VictoryA Scary Return from DenmarkA Flight to DenmarkThe Danes Return HomeMemories and a ResumeRank Has Its privilegeCome Fly With Me-SouthNot All Were Night Missions859th Squadron ~n ItalyCarpetbaggers in ItalyA Tale of a Red Tail~eturn to the PastSome 859th Squadron Key Personnel

185187189194195196197199200201 --203204207208209210211214219221223224226227228229230231234235236237237238240243246251253255257262264266269273274275277278279280281283

xi


11/416

Some 859th Bomb Squadron PromotionsSome 859th Squadron Personnel Missing in ActionAwards of the Air MedalStatement of 11 February 1945859th Squadron Statement of 26 April 1945OSS Mission to the eBICarpetbagge~ Fairbanks Attains Racing FameBrer Rabbitt406 Bombardment Squadron History SummaryI Couldn't Believe He Wanted Me to Fly in the Co-Pilot's Seat406th Bombardment Squadron History SummaryLetter to Col. Fish from Lawrence BlumMission #8Once Upon a TimeAn Honest CritiqueLiving DangerouslyAnother SurvivorMy First Night Bombing MissionMemories of Night Bombing MissionsNight Bombing BeginsAnger Induces StupidityAfter You AlphonseThe Gas.HaulAnother Gas Haul MissionClose Encounter with the MaquisThe Trip HomeA Real Ghost StoryMedalsA "Gonging" Ceremony Gone AwryCroix de Guerre 39/45 Avex PalmCommendation from HeflinGeneral Orders No. 43Croix de Guerre CitationCommendation by General SpaatzSpecial Forces HeadquartersCommendation from the French HeadquartersCommendation from Special Force HeadquartersCommendation from Frank SilkenbakenA Gathering of the LiberatorsB-24 AnniversaryA Restored B-24The Warriors of Willow RunWillow Run Production LineA World War II Bomber Flies Again

284285286288289290291293296297298302303304311312313314318324325326328331333336341344345347348349350351352354355357358359360363365366

xii


12/416

AUNIQUETORYby

BEN PARNELL*

(The following presentation was given at the 19~eCarpetbagger reunion inlas Vegas, Nevada. It was recorded in report on that reunion. It is presentedhere as it appeared in the Carpetbagger"Newsletter.)

I amhonored to be here to address this group. Over 4a years have passedsince you flew in, serviced or dispatched those black-painted Liberators overwar-time Europe.

To paraphrase a recent newsletter: Youwere special menfor special times;the best that America had to offer. Youwere the cream of the crop. Youwereyoung, bright and highly trained:.

As you were aware, the Carpetbagger Operation was and is a unique story.There are a few areas of this operation that I did not cover in my"CarpetbaggerUbook.

The as s Operation out of Leuchars Field in Scotland was under the commandofCol. Bernt Balchen whowas born in Nor..raybut a naturalized citizen of theUnited States.

The first of these operations was called "Operation Sonnie" under the coverof the Air Transport Command;o transport 2,000 Nor~egian male subjects fromStockholm to England by air. Seven crews trained at Ha...~ngton flew Liberatorsmodified by installing seats for 35 ~~d painting out the AAFinsignia. Thesecrews wore civilian clothes and the. plane was not armed. Over 4,000 individualswere brought out in "Operation Sonnie".

The "Ball Project" began in June 1944 and continued until September 1944.The black-painted Liberators were equipped with a "Joe Hole" and fully armed.The Harrington trained crews wore USAAFuniforms. Col. Eblchen was to carryout two distinct operations from Leuchars at the same time. Someof the Carpet-baggers who served in the "Ball Project" were: . Pilots Dd.vidSchreiner, GeorgeBledsoe and Orrin Boland; crew membersWilford Bollinger, Albert K..--a.sevac,A.L.Sharps and Frank Miller.

Ashort-lived operation called "Sea otter" was organized with the intentof kidnapping WolfgangFeher, head of the Nor~egian Gestapo. This mission wasscon abandoned when it was decided that many, manyNortl'egians would be murderedin reprisal. The effort was not all wasted. While working out the details ofthe kidnapping, it was learned that a couple'of Germany's V-2 missles had landed

1


13/416

intact in Sweden and one was available to the Allies if they could get it out.It was immediately flown out in a war weary C-47. -

There were other Carpetbagger tY1le openatd.ons, In November 1544. MajorBestow Rudolph left Harrington with a Carpetbagger Liberator to fly to New Deli,I nd ia , c ar .r yi ng a s p as se ng er s ass personnel to study the feasibility of Carpet-bagger operations in the cm Theater. It was decided a new group would beorganized for the CBITO from tmits already there. During the last of March1945, 2 carpetbagger Liberators and crews were transferred to the 14th AF andleft Harrington on PCS to Kunming. China. to help establish Carpetbagger operatic

A s you know my brother was one of you. He flew ~ high altitude dayiightbombing missions from North Pickenham; e Ca rp etb ag ge r m is si on s f ro m Ha rr in gt on ;then flew e Leaflet missions from Cheddington before the fatal crash on NovemberH~. l~.

You have a strong organization. I enjoy my contact with you and youroperation. Together we have served as sort of a clearing house for informationrelating. to former Carpetbaggers. The best to you and your organization in thefuture.

/S/ Ben Parnell

* Ben Parnell is the author of the book entitled "The Carpetbaggers - America'sSecret War in Europe" which is the best and most complete history of the Carpet-bagger operations printed to date.

2


14/416

.,'0-,

THE ' R Oars OF THE CARPE I'BAGGERS(Contributed by Robert w . Fish)

The following story of the origins of the Carpetbagger personnel whoconducted aerial operations from the British Isles during World War II is basedon many memories stored for half a cent~ in the deepest recesses of the author'smind. Many of the facts of these memories have been partially obscured by thepassage of this long period of time, while others remain as fresh as they wouldbe if the experiences had occurred only yesterday. If I fail to stress somefacts and incidents that should be expressed, and if I color other experienceswi th hues of color that my comrades may think they do not warrant, I beg theirtolerances. In their turn many of my comrades have contributed their memories asthey perceive them as viewed through the fogs of war and the constraints of time.I honor their memories.Many of the Army Air Forces personnel that composed the initial Carpetbaggerorganization came from the 46th Squadron of the 41st Bombardment Group. The 41stGroup was activated in 1941 when the 19th Bombardment Group at March Field inCalifornia was split into three groups, the 19th, the 30th and the 41st early in19'+1. In May of 1941 the 41st Group moved from March to Davis Monthan Field atTu cs on , A ri zo na . O n 9 December 1941 the 41st Bomb Group moved to Muroc Dry Lake(which later was designated Edwards Air Force Base). The squadrons of the 41stwere each equipped with four obsolete B-18 aircraft. At Muroc the aircraft ofthe 41st Group were used to fly anti-submarine patrol off the Pacific coast ofthe United States. One of the aircraft operated by Lt. Robert W. Fish's crew,with Lt. E. W. Tresemer as navigator, was used to calibrate the fledgling radarequipment that was being installed along the west coast.

Early in 1942 the 41st Bomb Group was re-equiped with some new two engineLockheed Husdon bombers that had been built for sale to Great Britain. Thesebombers were a military conversion of a Lockheed passenger aircraft that had beendesigned and built for civil airline use. It was a poor excuse for a militaryaircraft, but it was deemed to be better than notr~ng. It had a short range andcould carry only four depth charges.

From Muroc the 41st Gp. Headquarters was moved to Hammer Air Force Base atFresno, California. Its squadrons were dispersed at Bakersfield, Visalia, Fresno,Merced and Oakland Naval Air Station.

Within the assignment of roles and missions under the War Department, anti-

3


15/416

submarine patrol was one of the Navy's missions. At the start of WWI the Navyhad not built capability sufficient to satisfy that mission. Therefore it wastem:porarily assigned to the kJ: :my Air Forces.

Early in 1942~ the 46th Sq~on under the commandof Lt. Col. Clifford J.Heflin was movedto-the Cherry Point Marine C"orpsAir Station a.nd assigned anti-submarine patrol duties on the Atlantic Coast. At this time it was still equippedwith the Lockheed HudsonBombers. Cherry Point was a major airfield with idealfacilities for air operations. The 46th Army Air Corps Squadron was sent thereto provide anti-submarine surveyance off the Atlantic Coast until the Navycouldobtain sufficient aircraft to_assume its anti-submarine mission.

While on this mission at Cherry Point, the 46th BombardmentSq_uruironwasredesignated the 22nd Anti-8ubmarine Squailxon. It was subsequently equipped withB-24 type aircraft and transferred to Bloominthal Field at Wilmington~ NorthCarolina.

InAugust of 194-3 the 22nd Anti-Submarine Squadron was moved, via the NorthAtlantic air route, from Wilmington~ North Carolina. through Gander Field inNewfoundland and. Prestwick in Scotland, to Dtmkeswell in southern England, tofly anti-submarine patrol over the Bay of Biscay. The 4th Anti-Subma.:i:'ineSquadronwas also movedfrom the east coast of the United States to Dunkeswell to part-icipate in that same anti-submarine patrol mission.

It was while f+.ying on these anti-submarine patrol sorties that two of theair crews of the '2zDa Squadron encountered their first Germanair opposition.The stories of those encounters are chronialed in subsequent pages of thismemor'Jbook.

By the aircunn of. 1943 the United States Navy had acquired enough B-24 typeaircraft -t;oenable the Navy to assume their anti-submarine patrol duties out ofDunkeswell. The 22nd. and 4th Anti-Submarine Squadrons were relieved of thatmission.

On 24 October 1943, Lt. Col. Clifford J. Heflin, the Squadron Commanderofthe 22nd Anti-Submarine Squadron; Major Robert w . Fish, Squadron OperationsOfficer; Lt. Robert Sullivan, and Lt. Bruce Akers, the Squadron EngineeringOfficer, were called to a meeting at Bovingdon Air Base west of London.

At Bovingdon they met with Colonel Williamson, A-3 of the Eighth Air ForceBomberCommand;Group Captain Fielden of the RAFSpecial Unit at Tempsford AirBase;, Colonel Oliver of the Eighth Air Force Headquarters; and Colonel Haskelland Major Brooks of the United States Office of Strategic Services inLondon.

4


16/416

At this meeting the officers of the 22nd Squadron were sworn to secrecy and,then they were briefed on a new mission being assigned to their unit. This newmission was designated by the code name "Carpetbaggers". All of the personnel ofthe 22nd Squadron a n d only the non-aircrew personnel of the 4th Squadron would beinvolved. Two new ~quadrons would be organized from the manpower pool of the twoa nt i- su b ma ri ne s q ua dr on s.

Under the code name. "Carpetbaggers". the two squadrons would be assignedthe mission of ' parachu tdng saboteu rs, intelligence agents, weapons and othersupplies to the underground forces of the countries on the continent of Europethat had been overrun by the German Armed Forces.

For all practical purposes the personnel of the two anti-submarine squadronswould form the air arm of the Office of strategic Services (ass). Workingclosely with British Intelligence, the ass would provide for overall supervisionof the mission. The ass would designate the targets, package the a_~, ammunitionand other supplies into air drapable containers, train agents and saboteurs to beparachuted behind the German lines, and provide for the required communicationswith the reception parties in German occupied areas.

The Army Air Forces would be responsible for supplying and training aircrews,providing aircraft, providing for special modifications of the aircraft, and forplanning and conducting the air operations required for each mission.

Shortly after the Bovingdon meeting, the 22nd and the 4th Anti-SUbmarineS qu ad ro ns w ere d eac ti va te d. O n 28 November 1943 two new squadron designationswere assigned to the Carpetbagger units. These new squadron designations werethe 36th and the 4a6th Squadrons. Lt. Col. Heflin assumed command of the 406thSquadron with Captain Boone as his operations officer, and Major Fish assumedcommand of the 36th Squadron with Captain st. Clairas his operations officer.Both squadrons were attached to the 482nd Pathfinder Group at Alconbury AirB as e, Hu nt in gd ons hi re , E ng lan d.

Prior to the entry of the Army Air Force units into Carpetbagger operationsthe personnel needed to be trained and the B-z4 aircraft needed to be modified.

The RAF had a "Carpetbagger type" unit in a fully operational mode atTempsford RAF Base in Bedfordshire north of London. Arrangements were made withGroup Captain Fielden, the commanding officer of RAF Tempsford, to have theexperienced RAF personnel train cadres of the US Army Air Force intelligence andaircrew personnel on Carpetbagger techniqu es.

The training at Tempsford consisted of both classroom and flying training.

5


17/416

The aircrews were thoroughly indoctrinated in the techniques of low altitudenight navigation and in making parachute drops at 400 feet above the terrain inthe .black of night. The operational flights in order to avoid radar detectionand tracking by the Germans were required to fly at extremely low altit~des.Air dro~s had to be made at very low altitudes (400-600 feet) and at very lowair speeds to assure that the parachuted. containers did not drift from thetarget area.

O n 2 5 october 1 9 4 3 a cadre of officers and enlisted men were placed ontemporary duty at Tempsford to observe RAF training and to undergo training fortheir newmission. Major Robert W. Fish. Lt. Sullivan and one aircrew led byCaptain Robert Boone were the first personnel to receive training at Tempsford.Other crews quickly followed them to Tempsford.

Captain Boone. after receiving a thorough indoctrination at Tempsford, wasplaced on TDY to the air depot at Burtonwood to oversee and coordinate themodification of the anti-submarine B-24's into Carpetbagger B-24's.

Most of the missions to supply the underground forces were flown during themoonlight period of each morrbh, Moonlight was required to facilitate nightpilotage which was the primary form of navigation used to locate receptioncommittees on the ground. The most experienced aircrews were sometimes used tofly missions dur~ng the dark ~eriods of the moon when requirements to su~plyu ndergrou nd u nit.s w ere extremely u rgent.

The moonlight periods of November and December 1 9 4 3 were used to train USAFaircrews. This training was conducted ~rimarily at the Tem~sford RAF Base.

The pilots, oombardiers and navigators each flew two nighttime operationalm is si on s w it h ar, :1J\F crew in an RAE' aircraft. Lt. Col. Heflin was the firstpilot to fly his two flights with the RAF. Major Fish. Captain Boone and Captainst. Clair fIe'; their missions with the R.AF o n succeeding nights of the Novemberm oo nl ig ht p er io d.

It was during this 1 9 4 3 November moon period that the first member of theAmerican Carpetbaggers was lost to enemy action. On J November 1 9 4 3 , CaptainJames E. Estes went MIA while flying a "buddy" mission with the RAF. A fewnights later, Lt. Gross on 11 November 1943 went MIA under similar circumstances.

To assure continuity in the leadership of the new Carpetbagger mission, Lt.Col. Heflin would allow no more than one of the officers in command positionsto fly combat on anyone night.

While at Tempsford. Lt. Sullivan made a detailed study of the RAF intelli-

6


18/416


19/416

The Carpetbaggers would return to RAF Tempsford for the operational moonperiods of February and March 1 9 4 4 . Some missions for the March period wereflown from Alconbury.

On 21 February 1944 the 36th and 406th Squadrons were relieved from assign-ment to the 482nd Group. On 2 6 Fe br ua ry 1 9 4 4 these two squadrons were relievedfrom assignment to the First Air Division and assigned to the VIII Air ForceComposite Command at Cheddington Air Base in Hertfordshire, England. On 27February the 328th Service Group was designated as the Group Headquarters ele-ment for the Carpetbaggers. Col. Hef'Li.nassumed COITUnandof the 328th and heappointed Major Fish as the Deputy Commander. Major Edenfield was appointedExecutive Officer, Capt. Fletcher was the Adjutant and on 3 March captain Sandersof the 406 BS was moved up to become Group Operations Officer. Lt. Sullivanbecame the Group Intelligence Officer. On 25 March 1 9 4 4 the advance echelons of36th and ~)6th Bomb Squadrons arrived at Harrington. On 28 March the 80lstBomb Group (Provisional) was designated the Group Headquarters for the Carpet-bagger mission. The 36th and the 406th Squadrons and the support units wereat~ached to the 801st.

On 1 7 May 1 9 4 4 the 788th and the 850th Bomb Squadrons joined the Carpet-bagger mission at Harrington. The 788th was under the COIDf.lanaf Lt. Col.Leonard McManus. The 850th was under the command of Lt. Col. Jack Dickerson.

The arrival of these two additional squadrons caused major problems atHarrington. Harrington had housing accommodations for only two squadrons. Thetwo new squadrons had to move into tents. Two tent areas were built, one foreach of the new squadrons. Some members of the new units felt they were dis-criminated - against. Fortunately both Lt. Col. McManus and Lt. Col. Dickersonwere strong leaders. Their leadership created in many respects, a highermorale among the men in the tent areas tp~ existed among some men in the Nissenhut housing areas.

On 13 August 1944, the group designation of the Group Headquarters waschanged from 801st Bomb Group (Provisional) to the 492nd Bomb Group. Col.Heflin assumed command of this new group designation. The manning of the head-quarters staff remained unaffected by this new group designation. The squadronnumerical identities became the 856th, 857th, 858th and 859th.

Several other operations, not previously mentioned in this introductionwere associated with the Carpetbaggers. One was a leaflet operation that was,primarily operated out of Cheddington Air Base. The 801st/492nd furnished some

8


20/416

aircraft and crews for this endeavor. In this operation the aircraft and crewsinvolved flew at high altitudes at night over Germany and the German occupiedcountries and dropped millions of leaflets in support of the Allied operations.. .The butk of these missions were planned at and. flown out of Cheddington and notout of Harrington . Carpetbagger aircraft out of Harrington did at times carryand drop leaflets, but these operations ~ere mainly an adjunct to and diversionfrom the main air resupply operation. Leaflets when carried on Carpetbaggeroperations were dropped enroute to or enroute from the supply drop zone to helpmislead the Germans as to the main purpose of the Carpetbagger flight.

I n S ep te mb er 1 9 4 4 G en er al P at to n' s Third Army tanks Qut ran their supplylines and their drive against the Germans bogged down. The 492nd CarpetbaggerGroup was assigned the task of hauling gasoline to Patton. The B-24's wereused for this mission. Extra tanks were installed in the bomb bays for thismission. The outer wing panel tanks were also used for 80 octane tank fuel.The fuel was de1.ivered to grass fields in France and Belgium. Upon landing the80 octane fuel was pumped out of the aircraft into storage facilities and tankertrucks. This operation lasted about one month and during that pericd 822,791gallons of gasoline were delivered. Because the 80 octane tank gasoline had achemical reaction with the linings of the aircraft fuel tanks, those tankscould no longer be used for aircraft fuel. This'condition so limited the rangeof the aircraft that they were useless for either bombing or Carpetbaggeroperations. It being too expensive to change all of the contaminated tanks,the aircraft were flown to the depot at Burtonwood and the 492nd was issuednew B-24 aircraft.

After the invasion of the continent by the allied armies and the liberationof major parts of France the demand for Carpetbagger operations diminished. TheArmy Air Forces inEngland now had a sufficient surplus of aircraft as to allowfor diversification of US ai= operations. Headquarters decided to develop anight bombing capability. That mission was assigned to the 492nd CarpetbaggerGroup.

As soon as a nighttime bombing capability was developed in the 492nd Group,the US Eighth A i r Force and the British Royal Air Force designed a concept ofusing the two forces in support of each other. Under this plan the 492nd bomberswould Launch a feint toward targets deep in Germany and on a route many milesfrom the route to be followed by the RAF. The 492nd aircraft would appear onthe German radar and cause the Germans to Launch their night fighters. The

9


21/416

492nd Group would then drop its bombs on nearby targets and be on their wayhome before the German fighters caught up with t.hem. At this :point the Germanswould know they had responded to a feint. They would have to get their fightersback on the ground and refueled to face the RAF attack. Theoretically theseactions significantly reduced the german defense against the deep penetratingincoming massive RAF attack.

One of the last operations that the 492nd launched was reconnaisance flightsover the Ruhr Valley to show our non-aircrew personnel the awesome effects ofhaving to bomb the German nation to its ~~ees. The devastation was aL~ostunbelievable!

CAPTAIN JAMES ESTESMEETS THE GERMAN LUFTWAFFE FIGHTERS

Captain James Estes of the 22nd Antisubmarine Squadronwas flying an antisubmarine mission out of Du~keswell whenhe attained the honor of being the first of our aircraftcommanders to be accosted by German fighters. Captain RodmanSt. Clair was his copilot. My failing memory denies me thenames of the other crew members.Captain Estes went down to see the source of smoke he sawrising from the water in the Bay of Biscay. He found an RAFplane that had just been shot c;)wn by the Gerillans. The fighterswere still in the area and attacked Estes' aircraft. Estestook violent evasive action but his aircraft suffered extensivedamage before the Germans ended their attack.

Captain Estes was a small southern man whose ability tomaneuver the heavy B-24 was handicapped by his diminutive size.Due to his short legs he had a problem exacting full ruddertravel from the B-24. Under the stress of the situation, hecalled to his copilot, "Hep me, Saint!, Hep me!".

He landed his heavily damaged aircraft, (Playmate # 1) ata small airfield at Lands End, England. Mone of his aircrewwere injured but the aircraft was so badly damaged by the Ger-man machine gun fire that it was beyond economical repair.

10


22/416

MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THE GERMAi'fAIR FORCEby

ROBERT W. FISH

InSeptember 1 9 4 3 while flying an anti-submarine patrol o ver the Bay ofBiscay I h a d my first encounter with German Air Force fighter aircraft. Wewere flying just above a thin stratus deck, searching the area with our radar.

I h a d my regularly assigned crew on board. It was the crew I ~zd with mewhen we h a d flown the North Atlantic route to England. That crew consisted ofLt. James A. Cassidy, copilot; Lt. Edward Tresmer, navigator; Lt. Crzrles Teer,bombardier; T/Sgt. William Jesperson, engineer; T/Sgt. Al Sage, radio operator;S/Sgt. Ha ro l~ F al k, a ss is ta nt e ng in ee r- gu nn er ; S/sgt. Min or Bab in , as si st antradio operator-gunner; S/Sgt. Joseph Bennet, waist gunner; and S/Sgt. SamuelCooper, tail gu nner.

Our RAP Liaison Officer, Squadron Leader "Beep" Beaudeau was along onthis mission as an extra pilot and tactical advisor. "Beep" had com:pletedthree tours of duty as a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain before heT "' asa ss ig ne d t o o ur s qu ad ro n.

After we had been out on patrol for several hours I turned the pilot'sseat over to "Boop" while I went to the rear of the airplane to attend tothe wants of nature.

Just as I a._ 1Tied aft of the bombay in the aircraft I five German fighteraircraft appeared off our right side. They were flying a right echelonformation. They pulled ahead of our aircraft in preparation for a head onattack against us. Just as they turned into our flight path, Sqdn. LeaderBeaudeau dived our B-24 down through the thin layer of clouds which was less thanone hundred feet thick. This maneuver thwarted the Germans' attack. Theydived through the clouds and lined up in echelon again for another attack."Beep" then climbed our aircraft back up above the cloud layer. en top again,the Germans positioned themselves for a head attack. Again they were foiledby our diving through the clouds. After these maneuvers were completed eightor ten times the Germans left us and flew back tow~~ France. Why they didn'tsplit their forces, part above and part below the clouds, we will never ~~ow.When they left us th~y probably did so because they were Iowan fuel.\\We were fortunate to have had Sqdn. Leader Beaudeau with us that day. Heknew the best techniques for thwarting the German attack.

11


23/416

Whenwe landed at Dunkeswell and reported this incident at our debriefing,.our intelligence offic.er informed. us that the fighters we had encourrtez-edwere probably from a German fighter training base near the coast of France.The pilots were probably students and were not knowledgeable enough infighter tactics to really press their attacks.

L I K E FATHER L I K E S O N(EXTRACTEDROM A CARPETBAGGEREWSIETTER)

Carpetbegger Profile - WnenCarpetbagger Jim Burger, nowliving in Linwood,N.J., was a youn~ co-pilot (weren't we all?) on Lt. Leona.~ Brenner's crew atHarrington, little did he think that he'd have a son,: who -- 43 years later --would be flying supersonic aircraft out of a base O!l~Y 20 miles aw?.yat Alcon-bury: (And, coincidentally, a base where the 80lst/492nd BGhad it's beginnings,flying Carpetbagger missions in 1943 and 1544). But ~ that is exactly whathappened. Jim's son, Major James E. Burger (not a junior -- namedafter Jim'sfather) is a "Hot" pilot of a TR-l, the successor to the fa,1110US-2 Reconnaissanceplane -- flying qut of Alconbury. (I included an article en this aircraft in theMarch 1987 Newsletter.) James and his wife, Heidi, and 3 year old son, Bowie,live near the base. Jim proudly points out that his son James has been recentlyaxazded an Air Medal for "Exceptional Airmanship and Courage"; nAdifficult mecalto get in peace time tn Jim said. (Dad has one also -- for 14 missions out ofHarrington -- plus an OakLeaf Cluster. But -- inthose days, he ~as beingshot at.) Jim is rightly proud of his son's achievements in the Air Force. "AnAir Force Academygraduate, he's not only a TR-l pilot, but is also a check pilotfor all NATO Reconnaissance Units. This month, he is slated to becomeChief ofhis branch. n O f course. "POp"was no slouch at Harrington either. On A:pril 23,1945, with the war winding down (we thought) Jim's aircraft was badly shot upby Germananti-aircraft fire. So badly, that the plane was" junked" whentheylimped back to Harrington. Twoof Jim's crew mates were woundedand receivedPurple Hearts. Oneof them, Jim Monahan, is on our mailing roster living inWheaton, Md. ~NO other crew mates of Jim's are also on our roster JoeMcConnell of Sacramento, Calif. navigator; and Al Trassati of Torrance, Calif.bombardier.

12


24/416

IIJUST THOUGHT YOU 'D LIKE YO KNOW .....

The first reference to the group being c al le d " C8 .r pe tb ag ge rsII. was by GeneralJimmy Doolittle in a conversation between General Tooey Spaatz, his deput, ~~j.General Fredrick Anderson and Col. Bernt Balchen at a dinner one evening when arequest for planes and' crews were made for operations in Norway. Available planeswere scarce as everything was tied up for 'an expected push starting soon in F~ce.General Doolittle, who had just become Commanding General of the Eighth Air Forcemade the suggestion (hi~ own words), "How about Col. Heflin's Carpetbaggers?They are already under as s orders. Intelligence has cleared them and we can pullsome crews out of that groUp.1I

Thus was born an identity, f.rom a code name to a fact.The above was taken from an autobiography by Col. Bernt Balchen in his book

"Come North With Me". *******The above extract from Balchen's book is in error. The incident related byBalchen W'as probably the first time that he ever heard the word nCarpetbaggersliapplied to clandestine operations. It was not the original application of thatword to such operations.

The Army Air Forces in England and elsewhere.maintained a list of code wcrdsand nick names to be used to enhance the security of various projects and oper-ations. The word "Carpetbaggers" was one of those words which was selected andapplied before Balchen's operations in Norway were conceived. It was firstrevealed to Colonel C. J . Heflin on 24 October 1 9 4 3 when he and a few members ofhis staff met with Eighth Air Force authorities at Bovingdon Air Station. It wasat a later meeting as referenced in the above paragraph that Balchen's Norwayoperations were brought into the r'Carpetbagger l' family. As H ef li n' s o pe ra ti on sofficer I was privy to both projects.

Ro bert W. FishColonel USAF Ret.

13


25/416

PROP WASH

The 13th Annual 8th Air Foree Reunion will be held ~n Pittsburgh, Penn. --October 14 - 18, 1987. (Four weeks after our Harrington Reunion/Dedication.)This reunion will s~ute the fighter groups of the 8th Air Force --- Our" Li t tl e F ri en ds ".

The Air Forces Escape and Evasion Society Annual Meeting will be held atSan Antonio, Texas, May 24 - 28, 1987. Those interested can obtain details bywriting to them a.t P. O. Box 844, Beaufort. South Caxolina 29901.

Bill Dillon sent in a letter he received from Forrest S. Clark of the SwissInternees Assoc. of South Plainfield, N.J. Clark related how he had been shotdown on a 44th B.G. B-24 mission over Augsburg, Germany on April 12, 1944 andwas interned in Switzerland. Seems that in Decem.ber 1944, he and otherinternees escaped and traveled to Annecy, France, where they were flown back toEngland by one of our crews. Clark wrote, "I have a special place in my heartfor the Carpetbaggers." (It's nice to be appreciated.) Bill thought some ofyou might recall that particular flight from Annecy to Harrington.

Sebastian sent in this gem, culled from old records: "August 14, 1944 --B-24 'Slick Chick' took off -- 12~5 hours -- mission to the town of Montargis,France -- Jedburgh Team 'Bruce' on board -- consisting of Lt. Jacques P. Favel.2nd Lt. Louis Giry and Major William E. Colby. (Recognize that last name? Heended up Director of the CIA a few years back.) Do any of you remember whocrewed that mission?

Bill Dillon and Sebastian Corriere have successfully convinced the 8thAFHS to rectify the mistake they originally made in our Memorial Plaque,unveiled at the Air Force Museum Memorial Wall in Dayton, Ohio several yearsago. Seems they had. the 801st BG shown at North Pickenham as of June 6, 1944.Actually, you 80l~t fellows know that you were at Harrington then and had. beenfor severa1months~ The 8th AFHS resisted correcting the mistake for severalyears due to the cost, as well as not wanting to ~1destroyn t he wall, taking itdown. Thomas L. Thomas, board member of the 8 AFMMF. notified Bill Dillon inDecember of a happy compromise. They are going to affix a new p1a.que on a benchback in the Memorial Gardens, containing addendum and corrections for severaloutfits. However. due to Bill's persistence, our correction will be firstlisted (and longest) as follows: (Nice going, Bi1l!~!)

14


26/416

E T 0CAm'ETBAGGERSby

GEORGE A. REYNO LDS,

DEDICATImi:This publication is respectfully dedicated to all former membersof the 492nd BombardmentGroupand the European Air Transport Commandwhowere,for an enemy, all that the name "Carpetbaggers" implies. Andespecially thosefor whomduty required their lives or limbs.

**********Curiosity of friend and speculation by foe abounded. But the deep mystery

surrounding airmen in a series of projects that began under the code name"Carpetbagger" remained as intriguing as the dull-black dress of the!r aircraft.The true purpose of these missions in the European Theater of Operations (ErO)is one of the longest, best-kept secrets of WorldWarII. Now,with officialrecords declassified and personnel unrestrained, the gist of those extensiveoperations can finally be told.

Naturally, the flyers were called "Carpetbaggersn when they began droppingleaflets in that initial project over France in 1943. Then aircrews in subse-quent but different projects were dubbed with the term and carried it for thewar's duration. Delivery of espionage agents and vital supplies for the under-ground, propa.ga.nd.aeaflet drops and retrieving interned airmen from neutralSwedenbecametheir tasks. These were done under a guise of electronic countermeasures, reconnaissance or Pathfinder Forces, and routinely in weather thatusually gr.oundedcombat flights.

The U.S. lfrmyAir Forces and RAFcolaborated in the projects from Cctober1943-May 1945. To a man, dedication, strict silence and. devotion were the priceof accomplishing a colossal assignment, and the tab grew extremely high. FromJanuary-May 1944, twenty-five of their fifty B-24s were shot down, and eightothers were scraPJ?edbecause of battle damage. Today, muchof the total accountlies buried beneath the-'Baltic and North Seas. But surviving essentials tell anincredible story of successful accomplishment rarely expected from m i l i t a r y units.

Born in chaos, the unit thrived amid mobility tmknownto most organizations."The 479th Anti-submarine Groupwas disbanded in August 1943, and from its remnantscame the original Carpetbaggers-charged with agent and leaflet drops in France.Next the Eighth Air Force created new squadrons, a n d this collection of personnelwas attached to the 482nd BombGroup (Pathfinder). Additional personnel and "

15


27/416

eventually increased to seventy-two crews operating sixty-four aircrat, and ata given time, forty of the black Liberators were operationally ready for service.When actvities were later assumed by the Air Transport Co~~nd, C-4?ts replacedthe war-weary B-24s.

A British Mosqo bomber bearing the American star and 'bars is taking offfrom Watton AAF 5 0 S . England on a weather recon mission in connection with Carpet-bagger operations. These swift aircraft had sufficient speed and r~~ge toreconnoiter flight paths and objectives in a timely manner, and became animportant function in the highly sensitive projects. These ships as well asthe popular Spitfire were on loan from the RAF. The slower and farther rangingB-1? '71ying Fortress" was also employed in Ca.r1: letbaggerctivities.

Cargo containers were predestined by the Office of Strategic Services (CSS)for specific places. Here, crewmen are stenciling on code numbers to insureproper delivery and minimize errors by aircrews. Every conceivable type ofequipment and supplies went into the containers which were loaded into the bombbays with a parachute attached. They were released in the fashion of bombs overa drop zone. One primary item that went into the containers was radio gear forresistance groups, freedom fighters and patriots for relaJ~ng vital intelligencedata back to the Allies.

More than 400 different items were dropped over occupied Europe in theCarpetbagger' operations, and included the usual military hardware, medicine,food, money, assorted tools, radio gear and booby traps. Leaflets or "nickels",originated these missions and even warned dwellers al::":lghe French coast onJune 4th that a massive invasion of the continent wasimmient.

Agents, or "Joes", dropped by the Cazpebbaggens carried identificationpapers, ration, census and occupation cards, certificates of residence and birthcertificates-all expertly forged. They were always dropped from the perilousa".titude of 600 feet. Lower, it wa::;;azardous for the person, and higher,s po il ed a cc ur ac y.

A shadowy veteran of 35 Carpetbagger missions waits on a hardstand atLeuchars, Scotland for its next assignment. Note the flame responders on thetop turret gun barrels. missions chalked up just beneath the cockpit windowand a special radio receiving antenna on the nose section.

The antenna is for the "Rebecca" receiver, simliar to shoran, which pickedup the "Eureka" transmitter. A ground party, or "reception committe e Of displ.ayedone of three versions of white-red lights in a triangular form as a preliminaryrecognition signal. Airmen then requested the day's code letter from the

16


28/416

reception commi tteeby S-phone, a walIde-talkier type radio. Eureka. transmittedthe code, and if Rebecca received the correct letter, a drop was made. Suchprecautions were necessary to prevent super-sensitive eguipment and personnelfrom falling into enemy hands.

SCOTLk1 D - SCANDINAVIAKenneth Armstrong of Boody, Illinois recalls some of the activity. "In

September 191-1-4bout forty of us were sent to a small RAl " bas e a t Leu cha .r s,Scotland. There we saw those black B-24s we had serviced earlier at Wattonplus others in green. They had resumed Carpetbagger-type operations into Norway.I remember one "specific flight when agents were dropped, and on the return run,the B-24 was shot down by a Russian ship. The Reds claimed mistaken identityfor a JU-88. All of the crew was rescued from the North Sea except the CO,Lt. Col. Keith N. Allen, who was killed by the anti-aircraft fire. The Russianstransferred the men to a British ship, and they arrived back at Leuc~~s tenda ys lat er. "

"The black B-24's were used for night operations, T.. hile the green jobs wereused in daylight missions. Those flown in daylight had the U.S. civil or NC,serials. They flew into Stockholm, Sweden's Bromma airport, and the crewswore civilian clothing and carried passports issued b, y the American Embassy inLondon. There were ground crews in stockholm posing as civilians to service theplanes. How we envied those fellows. Then we found out that all Americans werebeing shadowed by enemy agents and their rooms ransacked daily, unsuccessfully.to find information on the routes our planes were using. The planes carriedsuppt.Les and mail. into Sweden for the Norwegian Legation. On return runs theybrought back Allied airmen from internment or Norwegians who had escaped to theneutral. site. The Noro'legianswent into a special army unit being trained inScotland. Once, the entire Nor . ..ian governmental staff was flown out."

" Ab ou t T ha nk sg iv in g 1944, our unit moved to Hetfield. Operations by theblack B-24s soon ended, but the green ones continued their flights until thewar ended. The Leuchars unit was awarded the Meri tirious SQrvice Award. Theydeserved this badge, because crews flew missions of up to thirteen hours everyother day and in all kinds of weather. Many of the planes were shot down incombat, and another CO, Col. Clifford J. Heflin, was killed in this type ofaction."

17


29/416

EA GE R VOLUNT EE RS FJ R CAR PE TB AGGE R CPE RA TI ONSby

FLT . C OM MA ND ER G EQ RG E JOlillSON

(A n account of. volunteering in the service, by default, and the ensuing"finger-pointing". )The order came into the 467thBG that our squadron was to be stood Qown frothe daytime bombing operations. That's when r~ors started to fly. We weregoing to be sent to the Middle East -- we were going to be sent to the Fa.r East__ _ or our sauadron was going to be broken up and we were going to be g8ing Q u tas replacement crews. Naturally, at times like these, when something is so drasthere's all kinds of rumors. We watched the other J squadrons go out on daylighcps and we just sat there waiting.

Finally word came in tha~ we were going to be sent to a place called Chedd-ington. Nobody had ever heard of Cheddington --- ~~d of course they wouldn'tbecause it was a secret airfield. We arrived at Cheddington and spent, I think,about J days, not knowing why we were there --- couldn't fi~d out, of course,because at Cheddington nobody talked to anybody. So, I think, it was the morninof the 4th day, we were all assembled in this steel and concrete buildip~ andCol. Fish got up on the platform, stated that he was gcing to tell us 2 or 3things --- that wr.~t he was going to say was absolutely TOP SECRET --- it was noto be repeated under any circumstances, any-...ere, anytime. He was going to giveus something to think about. First he said, "You are going to learn to fly yourairplane 400 feet above the ground 10 miles per hour above stalling." Youcould hear the intake of breath in the room. He said, "And in addition you'regoing to do this at night and you're going to do it as a single ship mission. n

Now, of course, by that time we were so dumbfounded, I don't think there weany gasps. I think we all just stopped breathing. .And he said, "I'm going togi ve you 5 minutes to think about it. 11 "Now," he said, "If you don I t want to bea part of this all you have to do is to get up and walk out. You'll go back toyour group and . nothing will be said and it won 't reflect against your record butremember what I said in the begi.nmng about saying anything at all to anybody. ttWe were all sitting there in rows as crews. That's to say pilot, co-pilot,bombardier, navigator, engineer, radio operation --- down the line. So we satthere looking at each other and then we were lJoking at the other crews but itseems as if most of us didn't have anything to say, really, because we didn't

18


30/416

: m : : :w what to say. The first pilot to stand up pro1::a.blyould have others standingtoo but it would look as if he wanted to be the first. Ididn't want to be thefirst to stand up. I could sense that my crew wasn't too fond of the idea and youcould sense that the others felt pretty much the same way but I suppose this wasone of those times when the woni "chicken" comes into play.

Anyhow, 5 minutes elapsed, Col. Fish got up on the platform and said, "Verywell, I will then accept that nobody has decided to leave the room and that allof you are to become part of the program." So he moved aside a curtain. and a.huge map on the wall by the platform ruld it exposed a lot of red ci~les aroundEurope. And he said, " NOW , these are the locations of the Undergrow1d Groups.the Maquis, the French Force of the Interior, the Partis~~s. These ~~ the peopleyou are going to be working with. You'll be going in at night --- by yourself ---delivering supplies to the underground and you'll be dropping agents." He con-tinued to elaborate. He Showed us another map trat indicated where the anti-aircraft batteries were located allover Europe and inormed us that our commu-nications with the underground was s~ good t~at if the Germans moved an anti-aircraft battery -- wi thin 24 hours it would be known in London at 03S Eead.-quarters and the information would be relayed to our base, Harrington. anothersecret base and that circle indicating tha.t a..?'J.ti-aL--craftattery would be put Ln 'its new place. When he was finished with the briefi~g. we went outside. This wasthe first time we got to mill around and talk. So some of the pilots looked at meand said. "1o[ell.why didn't you stand up?" At the time I was a Flight Commandez ,And I said. "Why didn't 1tand up? Why didn 't ~ stand up?" I dian't want tobe the first to stand. up. My crew looked at me and said, "Why didn't you stand up?We're not too fond. of this idea." It tU-"1'"tledut that nobody was particularly fondof the idea. They weren't necessarily looking for some kind of exotic adventureru'ldthen we all busted out laughing because we all knew it was the old game of"chicken" again and nobody wanted to' be No. 1.

To this day. I believe that if some one crew, some one pilot had stood uphis crew probably would have stood up with him -- they'd walk out and there t s notelling how many more would have got up and Trralkedout behind him. But thatwasn't the case, so we were all in, and that's the way it began.

19


31/416


32/416

BACKGROUNDF COL. ROBERTW. FIS~

Born: Michigan, May30, 1917Reared in OhioGraduate: Ohio state University

Degree: Electrical EngineeringGraduate: Army Air Corps Flying Training Program, Class 40-c, june 21, 1940First Military Assignment: 19th BombGroup March Field, Calii'orniaMay1941: Assigned to 46th Squadron of 41st BombGroup

David-Monthan Field, Tucson, ArizonaDec. 7, 1941 was Officer of the Day at Davis-Monthan Field, Tucson, Arizona.

Group Commanderwas on leave. Squadron C.J. not available. Movedthe 46th Squadron out of Tucson by 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 8, 1941 toMuroc Dry Lake, CaliforniaEarly 1942: Flew calibration of new rada= net on \iest Coast [J.S. Al.so flewanti-submarine patrol on west coast.

Mid 1942: With 46th Bomb Squadron was transferred to Che=r'J P:Ji!1t Marine CorpsAir Field in North Carolina for anti-submarine patrol of east coast46th BombSquadron redesignated 22nd ~~ti-Submarine Squadron

June 1943: 22nd Anti-Submarine Squadron transferred to England;~t. 1943: Assigned to the Carpetbagger russion 801st/492nd GroupJuly 1945: Transferred to 3B4th BombGroup at Grafton-Under,.;ooa. in U.K. Moved

J84th to Istres Le Tube near Maxsailles, F-rance. Mission at Istreswas to fly tlp.igh point" U.S. Service men to Casa Blanca, Africa onthe first leg of their aU- lift trip home. Also flew displacedforced laborers from Germany to their respective homelands, i.e.Greece, Turkey, Prica, etc.

Nov. 1945: Returned to U.S. Assigned Tactical Air CommandHeadquarter r.!c!)illA.F.B., Florida

Sept. 1946: Assigned to Ohio state University to get a degree in PersonnelManagement

July 1948: Assigned student, Air Command and Staff School, Maxwell A.F.B.,Alabama

Jan. 1949: Assigned Tyndall A.F.B., Florida as Instr'.lctor Air Tactical School,Squadron Officer Course

Jan. 1951: Assigned Air University, Max..re1lA.F.B., Alaba.'lIa.as instructor in

21


33/416

Air Commandand Staff College. In June 1951, I was asked to go toWashington, D c. to organize a new "Carpetbaggerlt force within theU.S.A.F. Ideclined the honor. I had !lla4.eplans to be transferredto Headquarter strategic Air Command. I judged that Strategic AirCommandwould be a major advance in mymi1it~J career.ThIee times a senior officer from the Pentagon visited meat fi1.aX'tlellA.F.B. Each time I said, "No thank you, Iwant to go with S.A.C.1fShortly after this third visit Iwas called to the office of theCommandantof the Air University. That was Gene=al George Kenny.WhenI reported to him, he said, "The Chi.ef of the Air Force wantsto talk to you. n After that remark. he picked up r.is telephone andcalled the Pentagon. He then handed me the phone. IDut the receiverto myear and said, "zes Sir. IIThe voice I heard on the telephone said. "CoLoneL, tbis is Vandenberg.I want you to cometo \vashington, D.C. and help organize an uncon-ventional warfare capability within the United States Air Force. Iunderstand that you do not desire to do tbis. Why?"I answered him quite frankly. "Sir, I wcz-kedunconventional warfarein W~~I. I feel that returning to that activity would be a stepbackward for mycareer. I feel that a tOlZ" as a planner in strategicAir CommandHeadq_uarters would greatly enhance myvalue to the AirForce and would at the same time enhance mycareer."General Vanderberg's next commentwas, nAt this time I need you herein Washington on our unconventional warfare plans. That is whyI amasking you to come to Washington. If you evez- determine that thisjob is adversely effecting your career, I expect you to call me."A lowly Colonel just does not say "No" to the Chief of Staff. Isaid, "Yes. Sir: I'll be there. n Wihin two 'rreeks I was in Washington.I helped organize and train the Air Resupply and Co~~unications Service.In the process, I arranged that I would be given commandof the 3 r dWingk~der this progr~~.

In 1953. I took commandof the 582nd Air Resupply and Communications \-ling. Iorganized and trained its personnel. These wings were large organ-izations, being composed of over 8,000 personnel.


34/416

In 1954, the A ir Force severely curtailed the Air Re su ppl y a nd Com mu nic at io nsProgram. The strength of the 582nd was reduced to about 3,000 men.I was reassigned to Headquarter Military Air Transport Service asDeputy Chief of Staff for plans.

Dec. 1955, I was a.ppointed Air Attache to the Republic of Nationalist China onTaiwan. That was an interesting assignment. I was the only DefenseAttache assigned to a. Country at War.

1958-1963, Air Staff Headquarters U .S.A.F.Policy: Unconventional Warfare

1963-1964. National War College1964: Ge or ge W as hi ng to n U ni ve rs i t y

M as te r' s D eg re eI nt er na ti on al A ff ai rs

1965-1968, Headquarters Air Training Command1968-1970, Vice-Commander. L o w r y A.F.B. Military Training CenterFeb. 1, 1970, Retired with 30 years service1970-1987, Lived at Zapata. Texas along Ri,o G ra.."1dend Falcon LakeJune 1987, I10ved to Air Force Village II, San Antonio, TexasM il it ar y D ec or at io ns :

Legion of Merl t with two bronze starsU.S. Distinguished Flying CrossR.A.F. D is ti ne -l is he d F ly in g C ro ssFrench Croix de Guerre a vec PalmDanish Liberation MedalNorwegian Liberation MedalBelgian Liberation MedalU.S. Air Medal with Four ClustersOu tst an di ng Uni t A w a r dAmerican Defense MedalAmerican Campaign Medal with one Bronze StarAs ia ti c- Pac if ic Cam pa ign Med alEuropean-African Campaign Medal with one Silver and one Bronze StarWW II Victory MedalNational Defense Service MedalAir Ferce Longivity Service Medal with f our Bronze :a.k Leaf ClustersRepublic of China Cloud and Banner

23


35/416

A RISKY BUSINESS

by BOB FISH

My tar~et was a drop zone named Henry V in the south-eastern part of France. My mission was to deliver three"Joes" and a bombay full of containers to that target.

Our trip to the target area was uneventful. We crossedthe French coast at an altitude of 4,000 feet to get abovethe possible dange~ of machine gun fire from coastal defenses.After crossing into France I immediately dropped down to be-tween four and five hundred feet above the ground. This alt-itude was good for pilotage navigation by my bombardier. Butmore important it helped to keep a German night fighter fromattacking us from below and from the rear. If a figr.ter wasgoing to attack from the rear he had to come at me from above.

To defend against an attack from below we had only thetwo fifty caliber guns ir. the rear tail turrent. By our stay-ing low we could force him to attack from above where we couldbring the two top turrent guns to bear on him as well as thetail turrent guns. To my way of thinking this position doubledour defensive fire power.

Approaching the target area we immediately saw the lightsof the reception party and I opted for a straight in run onthe target. I lowered the landing gear and lowered half flapsto slow the aircraft to between 120 and 130 miles per hourwith a somewhat reduced throttle. It appeared to me that ourdrop zone was on a fairly large cleared space on a hill sidein fairly hilly area. As soon as I lined up on_the targetlights I lost sight of them under the nose of the aircraft andmy bombardier riding in the glassed-in nose had to guide meinto the release position.

Our plan of attack was to salvo the containers and thendrop the "Joes" -allan one pass over the targe~ We plannedto drop from 600 feet obove the ground, I had two instrumentson the aircraft instrument panel which I could use to control

24


36/416

my altitude. One of these instruments was a barometric al-imeter which gave me my altitude above mean sea level. Thesecond instrument was a radar altimeter which showed my act-ual altitude above the surface over which we were flying. Afew seconds before we reached our container release paint Inoted that our altitude above the ground was reduced to 550feet and decreasing. I doubled cheeked my barometric altim-eter and it.was steady at the selected altitud~ above mean sea'level. This told me that the earth surface under the aircraftwas sloping upward. By this time I was flying strictly byreference to my instruments_ I increased the power on theaircraft motors so that we could start a climb. Even thoughI put on a lot of power the heavily loaded B-24 respondedslowly. The altitude above the ground was 500 feet when wedropped the containers. Immediately thereafter the three "Joeslldeparted at an altitude of about 400 feet.

With their departure I raised the landing gear, movedthe throttles to maximum power and started a gentle climbingturn to the right.

The tail gunner called me on the interphone system andreported that all of the parachutes had opened. We headedtoward our horne base in_England. The remainder of our flightwas uneventful.

The next day we received a radio message from the IIMaquisllat our target area acknowledging the receipt of our load. Butthey had some bad news for us. The first "Joell landed O.K.The second "Joell had a hard landing and suffered a broken leg.The third one slammed into the ground and was killed.

We held a critique to ascertain what went wrong. Thereception party had laid out their target lighting pattern ina position that caused us to drop on a rapidly rising hillside.It being dark at night time we had no way of knowing thisuntil the reading on the radar altimeter showed a decreasingaltitude above the ground while our barometric altimeter show-ed we were flying at a constant altitude.

The parachutes we used in WWII tended to oscillate when

25


37/416

. first opened. After a couple of wild swings the oscillationstended to rapidly dampen out. Due to the rising hillside ourthird "Joe" was dropped at approximately 350-400 feet. Eventhough his parachute opened he was slammed into the ground bythe oscillation with sufficient force to cause his death.

CA.qp E'I ' "3AGGERSSTA.~!~G: (L-R) unidentified, unidentified, unidenei:ied,Ca p t . ~ a r v i n 3 1 o c k =a n , DC; Ca p t . ~ d ~ a r d B e c t c ~ e r . DC.~ E LI ~ G : ( L- R ) Ca ? t . ~ l ? h E v e r l y , ~c S q cn S u rg . ; Ca ? t.Lor en ~a rti n, Sq d n $u rg .; ~ aj o r P au l G an s, Gp . Su rg. ;unidentified. ~orris Tu~er ?hoto

DUTY ABOVE AND BEYONDSUBMITTED BY MORRIS TURNER

The following article appeared in a Northampton news-paper in 1944. Lt. M. L. Turner, one of the judges, is MorrisL. Turner who was the Med. Ad~. Officer at Harrington. Heserved under Major Paul Gans, Group Surgeon. Morris said hisclaim to fame at Harrington was that he was the individual

26


38/416

who usually dispensed COll'~atcrew whiskl.:::ytoeturnil1.~crawsfcl:owing their missions.

n !.nss UNITED NATIONS IIFeature of the dance organized by Mr. E. Martin on be-

half of the First Cadet Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment,Northampton Company, held at the Salon-de-Danse, Northamp-ton, was the choosing of "Miss United Nations" by an inter-national committee of Allied fighting men.

Nearly 30 competitors entered the contest and thefinal selections were: 1) Miss P. Green, 2) Miss D. Joy,3) Miss I. Jeyes.

The judges were: Lt. L~ M. Turner, USAFF of GeorgiaiSous- Lt. A. B. Clapper, FFFF of Paris;FIt. Lt. M. Kopecky, of Bohemia; FO A. H. Davis,RCAF ofMontreal; PO F. Bromage, RAAF of Melbourne; RFM J. Groop-man, of the British Army, who has recently returned fromHolland, and Capt. C. W. Couch from the NortharnptonshireRegiment.

The proceeds will be devoted to the Company WelfareFund. The dance section of the Northamptonshire RegimentalBand played.

2 7


39/416

H A R R 1N G T O N . S ta .1 7 9 I

HARRINGTONSTATION 179MAP BY ARTHUR CARNOT

BASE INFORMATION BY GEORGE JOHNSONAIRFIELD CODE H R

Elevation is 535 feet above sea levelBuilt by 826th and 852nd Engineer Battalions

Built to Class A Standards******

Resident Flying UnitsFrom 11 Jun. 43 - 31 Mar. 44

A Satellite of RAF OTU84 Using WellingtonACFrom 1 Apr. 44 to 13 Aug. 44801st Bomb. Gp. (Prov) Using B-24's and C 47's

From 14 Aug. 44 to 4 Aug. 45, 492nd Bomb. Gp. Using B-24Is, C-47's, A-26's- Mosquitos

28


40/416

COMMANDINGOFFICERSBOlstj492nd BOMB. GROUP

Col. Clifford J. Heflin 1 May 44 to 26 Aug. 44Lt. Col. Robert w . Fish 26 Aug. 44 to 2 Sept. 44..Col. Clifford J. Heflin 2 Sept. 44 to 22 Oct. 44Lt. Col. Robert w . Fish 22 Oct. 44 to 17 Dec. 44Col. Hudson H. Upham 17 Dec.44 to 29 Apr. 45Lt. Col. Robert W. Fish 29 Apr. 45 to 5 Jun. 45Lt. Col. Robert L. Boone 5 Jun. 45 to 7 Jun. 45Lt. Col. Jack Dickerson 7 Jun. to 1 Jul. 45Maj. Ernest W. Holzworth 1 Jul. 45 to 4 Aug. 45

Harrington was the most westerly of Eighth Air Forcecombat bases, being situated s~ miles due west of Ketteringarid a similar distance south-east of Market Harborough.The airfield extended south from the village of Harringtonacross the B576 road and was some 500 feet above mean sealevel, making it also the highest base used for combat oper-ations by the Eighth Air Force. It was built by the 826thand 852nd Engineer Battalions of the US Army in 1943, as aClass A airfield intended for heavy bomber use and was com-pleted in the Spring of 1944.

Harrington was selected as the base for the Eighth AirForce's Special Operations Group which was established thereat the end of March. A provisional unit, the 801st BombGroup had four squadrons using black-painted Liberators fornight operations over enemy-occupied territory. Their missionwas the support of resistance forces in France, the lowcountries and Norway, by parachuting arms, equipment andagents. In August 1944 the organization became officiallyauthorized under the designation 492nd Bombardment group.with the liberation of France, operations were on a diminish-ing scale and eventually the group was reduced to two squad-rons.

29


41/416

US forces left Harrington in July 1945 and althoughit gradually fell into disuse returning to farmland, itreceived a new lease of life when it was selected to becomeone of the RAF's Thor missile sites in the early 1960's.Three rock~t launch pads were constructed together withancillary buildings, the whOI~ area being declared topsecurity, fenced off and floodlighted. The IRBM W5-31SAmissile system had a range of 1,500 nauticle miles and wasdeveloped by Douglas Aircraft Corporation of America during1955-56. Deployment with RAF Bomber Command began in Dec-ember 1958 before being phased out with the advent of themanned V-bombers in 1963.

UNITEDSTATESARMYAIRFORCEAQUIRESST_~_TION79

On May 1, 1 9 4 4 Colonel Heflin accepted a deed to the Harrington airfieldfrom RAFSquadron Leader E.D. King. The British Union Jack was lowered andthe Stars and Stripes raised on the flagpole in front of Station Headquarters.At night. practices were held, involving a c-47 making a night landing on ashort stretch of runway. by flashlight, and unloading eighteen men. before9.uickly taking off again. Seven men stationed on the ground with ordinaryflashlights, guided the plane in for the landing. Colonel-Heflin was the pilotof the C-47 and he made a remarkable landing right on the mark. Avery busyday for a'_l involved. ground and air personnel.

30


42/416

, I'" I'" ' :l \a . .s \ . .~\ . .~ e \ . ... , . .. . . . #0% \ Ao.E ;l . . . ;: ." .. . . .-, 0 \ . .or: " . . .. . . . '" \ . . . . -. , . . I!! M\ J:l "!)VW 0'100 \ ;t(\ OOOl"" !l..,. 0'11(_ , '.u..: - ----. . . .c ~ . c )0:- . . ...r~ ~ i i 0 0 . . . .. . . '" . . '"'" ' . . . . . . . . . . . II. -cII. ..: . . . Do . . . . . . . . .:> . . . -e '" . . . : ..:U C N '" . . .- - . , - '" u .. ; u. . . u

~1-, . . . . :rl :rl z0; . . . . M . . . . . '" '" ~. " " J:l :r n '" '" '". . z 0 III. . 7- ., I- . . .: - . . . . . . - . . DO . . ." .c. . . . . to . . , . . . . . is '" 0 . . " - . . . u :c . . . . .". . . . . ila .. t. w . ,, "" . . . . ""I ~ - ' " A . . . . . . :- . . . c" . . . . . . . . "" . . . . " . . . " . . . !i .." . . . . . . . . O'! . . . . " . .. . . . . " . . u_ e "I . . . , '" . . 0- e . . . 0 " . . . . - . . . .. . . "1.1 0 . . j!: ~ . . '" . . . :0 .; _ , :J ~ . . . . . . . " : . . . . -. 0 III - U 0 0 ~ . . . . . . . . :. . .'" 0 "I> . . . It> 0_ . . . . . . . . . . . ti u_ . . . . . . c wZ . . . . . "#o:i . . . DO. . . . C DO ~ . . u . . " u A . . C " 0 ". . I ~ l "0 . . . . e . . . . . . . . . . . . . - . . .e . . ~ . . " . . . ~ .; co ' " - - 0" ... : r . . :J ~- . . lO t ..0 . . u C . . . . . . -'" . . . . . ." 0.. !!" 0" . . 0- . .c " . . 0 " . . _ , to E . . .. . w _ . . . . . . -0 -" . . . . .." . .. . . . :I 0'" . . . . . ~ . . . :0 w w " , . . e.g - 0 ' . . . . . . e.c >< . . . . . . ! S f ' ~ " . . . ~ .. . " - " 0 ~ " . . " II . . 00 Z II, . . . . . " = l- e '" . . " u = - . . . - . . . . . e. . . . . u 0 z.c . , 0... " ;:. s


43/416

ROAD AND RAIL MAP OF NORTHAMPTONSHIREThe followinl Ordnonee MoltS coyu NONhomplonshitc: O_i,,


44/416


45/416

night, keeping two planes flying.While Mac and plently of others are hitting the sack, the Operations men

are just settling into their stride. O:perations at headquarters gradua1_ly worksup steam. until about 4:1.5 in the morning, it will rival Grand Central. Rightnow everyone is waiting for the orders to come through from Division. As soona s the teletype ticks out the details of the mission, the ops phone will startringing allover the base, bodies will jerk out of bed, jeeps and trucks willroar as the first preparations are made.

A SALUTE TO MECHANICS FROM AN UNKNOWN PILOT!

Here's to the people with the greasy hands,Who fuel the plane when the pilot lands;Who fix the canopies and stop the leaks;Change the tires and oil the squeaks;Who smooth the scratches and rivets the panels;Check "loud an d clear" on the radio channels;Who read the write-ups; and make repairs;Check wires and cables for chafing and tears;Who pull the chocks and walk the wings;AI1d do a million maintenance things;Who watch as the bird takes off and flies;

So here's a salute to the gals and guysFrom a group of fliers who seldom ponderThe ones who keep them in the wild blue yonder.

Sumbitted by Storm Rhode--lOO BGReprinted from "TALL TALES", 8AFHS.Ge or gi a Ch ap te r.

34


46/416

MAi'tYBRANCHES OF SERVICES WERE NEEDED INAAF

A1though the greater part of the AAF was composed of its own ~ersonnel,the troop basis authorized by the War Department for the AAF included largenumbers of men from other branches of the A:rmy as well. In Aoril 1943, forexam~le, enlisted personnel from the other arms and services who were assignedto the AAF made up one-quarter of the total enlisted strength of the air arm.In November of that year the AAF was authorized to integrate arms and servicespersonnel into the AAF proper, but the transfer was s~bject to numerousrestrictions and progressed slowly. ASWAAF ~ersonnel performed duties which hadbeen traditionally outside the sphere of Air Corps functions, such as thosebelonging to the Medical, Ordnance, and Finance Departments, the Signal, Eng-ineer, Quartermaster, and Military Police Corps, and the Chemical WarfareService. Most of the enlisted personnel of these br~~ches were classified asnon-specialists and did not attend service schools. Appropriate training forspecialists was provided partly by the AAF and pa_~ly by the particular branchesconcerned, but in keeping with the move toward integration of a_~ and servicespersonnel, the A A . , r ; ' assumed increasing control over their training. If en'_istedmen. they were usua '_ly sent to AAF basic training centers before assignment tounits or schools, and after 1943 distinctions in treatment between ~r;' andASWAAF personnel were less and less apparent.

Throughout the war the greater ];lart of individua: ordnance training forthe AAF, particu:'arly that of thiDi and f ou rt h e ch el on s :p ec ia .l is ts ,w as c on du ct eiby the Ordnance Department. In order to supplement the graduates of the serviceschools and to provide sufficient numbers of technical personnel for operationaltraining ~~ts, the First Air Force instituted its own ordnance training inFebruary 1$43. The First Air Force program, taught at two schools, consistedof instruction and practice in ordnance supply procedures, automotive mainten-ance and operation, small arms, and ammunition supply and issue. Graduates ofthe course were usually absorbed into ordnance sections of the operationaltraining squadrons. After the middle of 1944 the ordnance program of the FirstAir Force, being no longer needed, was te=minated.

Excerpt reprinted from The Army Air Forces in !,{orldWar II. Edited byW.F. Craven and\J.L. Cate." .

35


47/416

During the war, the AAF required four technical specialists for every manwho flew. The ratio total ground personnel to flying personnel was nearly sevento one. and for every m a n actu ally committed to ai r combat there were sixteenindividuals who served within the AAF on some noncombat assignment.

In the early days of the Air Service. practically all enlisted technicians,whether or not they were concerned directly with the maintenance of aircraft, hadbeen known as airplane mechanics. But as the work of the technicians became moreand more specialized, the term "airplane mechanic" was gradually restricted tomen who maintained airframes, aircraft engines, and accessories integral to theplane; these accessories included such equipment as propellers, hydraulic andelectrical systems. carburetors, and generators. Tehnicians who specialized insuch equipment as armament, cameras, and radio devices---equipment not consideredstrickly as parts of the aircraft---came to be known by special names and weretrained in separate programs. The primary responsibility for aircraft mainten-ance in the AAF during the war belonged to teams of enlisted mechanics, eachteam working under the direction of a noncommissioned officer called crew chief.Before the war it had been customary for each pilot to supervise the maintenanceof his own airplane. but after 1941 this responsibility was assu med by a non-flying squadron enginee~ing officer. Maintenance activities in the squadronwere lim ted to the first and second echelon , that is to say, to regul.arservicing ..of aircraft, routine inspections and adjustments, and minor repairs.For the more difficult jobs, including periodic overhauls, the squadrons dependedupon depts and sub-depots serving the needs of more than one combat unit for whatwas officially designated third and fourth echelon maintenance. The distinctionbetween these several levels of service depended in no small part upon ad if fe re nc e i n e qu ip me nt .

During the year 1938-39 fewer than 900 men had been graduated from the basicmechanics course of the Air Corps Technical School at Chanute Field. BetweenJuly 1939 and Au gu st 1945 graduates of courses in maintenance given by or forthe A4F totaled more than 700,000. Although this number includes m~~y whograduated from more than one course. it serves to show the staggering proportionsof the maintenance training that had to be provided. When it became apparent inthe Spring of 1943, that the demand for mechanics was nearly satisfied and thecasualties among ground crews were proving extremely light, the number of traineeswas drastical1.y reduced. After June 1943. students were no longer entered incivilian m~chanics schools, and the number of factory schools and AAF technical

36


48/416


49/416


50/416

It s ashaJne that Col. Heflin has his back to the camera, but it t S a goodpicture of the rest and of Maj. Fish. Maybe I shouldntt tell stories out ofschool, but I wonder if Fish remembers putting his nose wheel th:::oughthehanger roof at the end of the runway in Bangor, Me? We were fully loaded andtaking off for England, I remember it was a short runway and Benny Mead hitthe brakes to turn on the runway and we were going 70 mph.AnT~ay~ the jokewas on all of the crews because Fish' s plane had all of our B4 bags. He toldthe crew to lighten the plane as he circled to land and 'I resse me r, bisnavigator, threw all of t he b ag ga ge e xc e1 Jt h is own over the beauti=ul pineforests of t-faine. After we were at Dunkeswell for about two weeKs Col. Heflinasked me one day when I was getting in unifor~, but I, along with others,had a good excuse. Ha , ha ,

You know Doug, we went over seas as the 22nd Anti-Sub Squadron and werestationed in Dunkeswell, England--near Exeter from where we did patrol duty inthe Bay of Biscay. When replaced by the Navy, we were sent to Alconbury withthe Pathfinders probably because of ou r 1 2 hour over the ,water flights.Anyway, we ended up a s C ar pe tb ag ge rs : I remember flying two missions withan English crew as they wanted the navigators to get a little doctrination ofmission procedure. The crew pictures I ~~ sending were taken wbile assigned22nd Anti-Sub Squadron, but all were the originally formed CarpetbaggerSquadron. The pilots of these crews were: &jor Benny Mead (my crew), Capt.Van Zyle, Capt. Jr. Estes, Col. St. Clair t Col. Boone t L ie ut s. 1 '! lI 'i 1l ie "Stapel t ' 'P in ky ''W il li am s, C la ud e C um mi ns t Sanders, Rudolph, Archibald andSchreiner. When I was shot down in May we were not a full squadron--aroundseventeen planes, and when I returned to England in Sept. Col. Heflin bad justleft. They said Gen. Degaulle had visited the base the week before and passedout a few French Croix De Guerres--one of which was awarded to Major BennyMead.

Incidentally, the ranks that I gave were those which the pilots hadachieved by Sept. ' 4 4 . I did forget to mention that I sent Bowman an inter-esting invitation--maybe you could get a copy from him? When we finally founda home at Harrington we were all sent an invitation to a party which was tocelebrate the opening of our Officers' Club. I must have sent it home becauseit was in the album. Incidentally, the party was a terrific success!!!:

When I read about Jim Heddleson and the area st. Cyr de Valorges I got astrange feeling which I will relate to you. We made a drop in the South of

39


51/416

France and it could have been to the same operator. We went straight in to the.drop and everything went O.K. until Benny turned togo on course home. I alwaystold him to turn right or left to avoid the highest ground in the area. JohnMead, our Bombardier, always looked out on a level keel to .play saf'e , and all ofa sudden he started screaming for Benny to pour on the power while climbing.It's a good thing that he did because when we closed the bombay doors we wereon the tree tops. When we got back to base we were all taking pieces of woodand pine branches that were caught in the doors while closing (for souveniers).I checked my maps at briefing and reported that this hill was not on the areamap. Could it have been the same place where Jim Heddleson's crew met theirdestiny?

Well Doug, Iguess your tired and bored with reading about now so I'mgoing to sign off. Thanks for the letter and information. Keep well and Ihope you can use the .info and pictures.S in ce re ly Yo ur s,

lsi John A . Reitmeier

********John A. Reitmeier16 Rutgers Dr.Delran, NJ 08075Dear John:

Doug Walker sent me a copy of your letter to him which w~s dated 11 June1978. I was very pleased to receive your version of my adverse flying incidentat Gander Air Base in Newfoundland while enroute to England during ~VWII. Ifyou have no objections. I plan to use your account of the incident when wepublish our book of memories of our Carpetbagger activities.

At the reunion in England in 1987. when I offered to compile this book ofmemories, I stressed the idea that many of our memories would be dimmed by bothembellishment and the passage of time. I consider your memories of my incidentat Gander to be a good illustrative example.

I will now chronicle the incident as I recall it.The night I was scheduled to take off for England many, nany other aircraft\were similarly scheduled. I must have been about the 20th or JOth9plane in the

40


52/416


53/416

the air. Our engineer, Sgt. Jesperson, was observing our take off from the sidewindow aft of the bomb bay. He reacted ver'! quickly. He came on the interphoneand said, "Don't retract the gear; we have large amounts of bazbed wire hangingon them and we may never get them down again". Captain Love, my co-pilot, movedthe retraction switch to the down position.

By this time we were into the tree tqps of the pine forest s~ounding theairbase. Our propellors were really cutting off the tree tops. In a fewseconds we flew out of the trees and were over Gander La~e where the air wasvery smooth. We nursed the airplane up to 2000 feet in the s~ooth air and thenwe radioed the airport control tower and explained wbzt r2 d happened.

The tower gave us landing instructions but we iaformed the tower that withthe gasoline load we had on boaxd we were very much too overloaded to land. Weappeared to be flying O.K. and we wanted to dump some of our weight beforeattempting to l~~d.

We asked Lt. Tresmer, my navigator, and the other crew members in the rearof the airplane to throw out everything they could to lighten our load. (John.there went your B-4 bag.) I asked Sgt. Jesperson if he could rea_ ~ange thehose connections on the bomb bay gasoline tanks so as to oe able to pump thatgasoline overboard. He did it.

After some two hours of. circling over ~~der lake we were ready to land.By this time the overseas flights had a ll d ep ar te d. ~'le put all of the creT,oI'except the pilot ~~d the c~-pilot in the very tail end of the airplane so as tokeep the nose of the aircraft off the concrete as long as possible. We knewthat the aircraft would be resting on the nose of the fuselage when it came toa stop.

Our engineer, Sgt. Jesperson, had a_~ged with one of the other crewmembers, that as soon as the airplane stopped its landing role, he, Jesperson,would drop out of the fuselage a n d the other crew member would han~ him a fireextinguisher. That was very good planning.

The problem was that the other crew member had his finger on the releasetrigger of the fire extinguisher. Under the tension of the moment when hehanded out the fire extinguisher he squeezed. Sgt. Jesperson caught the fullforce of the discharge of CO2 right in his face. Our only casualty during thewhole "incident was the slight frost bite that Jesperson suffered on his nose.

M Y co-pilot during that incident was apparently a very religious man. Heseemed to pray a lot while our travails endured. To this day I have always

42


54/416

suspected that it was more his prayers than my piloting skills that guided usthrough our perilous situation.

Within a week, the Army Air Forces provided us with a new ai_~lane, B - 2 4type, and we flew on to England.

Except for my ~ersonal bias, I believe this c~Ionicle 'is a fairly accurateaccount of what happened. I was there. Iwas also in the left seat.

W it h N os ta lg ia .,/s/ Robert W. Fish

* .... *****Dear Col. Fish,

I was surprised to hear from you and sorry tbat our stories differed.However you know how details ca.n change when something is repeated numberabletimes. O f course! was in Dunkeswell, England by then, patiently awaiting thearri val of my:&-4 bag.

If it interests you, I was in the cockpit when we took off from Gander andBenny Meade was sweating out the short runway, in that we were fully loaded.He approached the runway verJ fast and applied his brakes to aic. in turningonto the runway. We were going seventy miles per hour by the time we. werelined up on the runway. We completed our take off with plenty of concreteunused.

I hope you have a picture of that inspection line at Tempsford. Our crewwas in the line, but not in the picture. However it was very good of you andthe King and Queen, 'but a shame that Colonel Heflin's back was to the camera.I took the picture from my-album and sent it to Doug Walker or someone elsewho was gathering memorabilia about the Carpetbaggers.

Anyway, my letter to Doug Walk~r reveals how I recall the incident of yourtake off from Gander Air Base and the incident of my missing clothes. ColonelHeflin did ask me once when I was going to get into the proper uniform.

I wish you success with your book and future goed health. It will beenlightening to read about the Carpetbaggers because I never reali=2~ that the801st/492nd Bombardment group grew so much.

I was shot down i n May 1944 and upon arriving back at the home base knewmostly only thoselfrom the original 22nd Anti-submarine Squadron.

While-at the processing center in Atlantic Cl'ty, New Jersey, I went to

43


55/416

dinner and bumped into Colonels Boone and St. Clair; also Major Tresmer. Fromthe processing center I was assigned to Pueblo Air Force Ease in Co lo ra do w he reI again met Major Meade an~ Captain Van Zyle. I flew most of my missions withBenny Meade. After the war I tried to locate Benny but to

memories of the 801st-492nd bombardment group carpetbaggers

Documents