The airmen jumped to attention as our commander and his staff entered the auditorium. 50-caliber machine guns was added to the B-17G model, introduced in early 1944 because of the deadly head-on Luftwaffe fighter attacks. The chin turret in the nose containing twin. The A in the triangle on the tail of the aircraft shows that the plane belonged to the 91st Bomb Group, and the triangle was the insignia of the 1st Air Division of the Eighth Air Force. 50-caliber machine guns in the tail was Philip (Flip) Lunt from California, who cheerfully flew on his knees in the most nausea-producing position in the aircraft. In the ball turret under the aircraft belly, was Chicagoan Frank Topits, whose small stature and aggressive nature helped make him effective as a marksman.
50-caliber machine gun in each hand and wearing extra ammunition over his shoulders. He would climb aboard the aircraft carrying a 75-pound. Husky, competent Vermonter Gordon Wiggett manned the right waist gun and also kept our armament in operating condition. Always smiling, Elmer (Mickey) Diethorn from Pittsburgh, was our flight engineer and top turret gunner.
B17 BOMBER CREW PROFESSIONAL
Joe Ashby, our Missouri bombardier, invariably did a professional job and sometimes doubled as navigator. Marylander Bob Roberts, as navigator, was never lost he also flew a second tour. Bill Behrend, the New Jersey co-pilot, could not wait to get into combat and later became a P-51 Mustang fighter pilot after he had finished his Flying Fortress tour. The others on the crew had proved themselves as solid citizens combat-wise. Also, he sang many of the Gilbert and Sullivan patter-songs, adding a new dimension to our musical repertoire. It turned out that, when he used a throat mike, he had no speech impediment.
In addition, we were a singing crew, and he would have to play his part. I told him that we would try him out on a test flight but that he would have to be able to communicate perfectly with the crew on the inter-communication system because crew survival in combat depended on teamwork. When I asked why he wanted to leave his safe job with the air police for this dangerous duty, he said that he wanted to do his part in the war. When he approached me the week previously, requesting to be a member of the crew, it took him almost five minutes to make his wishes known. We had our doubts because Rudy had one of the most severe cases of stuttering in my experience. This was Rudy’s first flight with our crew, and it would be a test to see if the crew would accept him as a regular member. Rudy Malkin was replacing our newly grounded G.M. Ward Simonson, our radio operator and medic, was in the hospital, and his replacement was P.J. This time, there were two different faces among the 10 of us. Most of us had trained together in the States, and this was the 11th time that we would be flying over Fortress Europe. Our crew sat together in one apprehensive clump, drawing reassurance from each other’s presence. Outside the blacked-out buildings, we moved about as if we were in the bottom of a black well, shivering in the damp cold that penetrated through out winter flying clothes.Īt the auditorium, where the briefing was held, our ID cards were checked by the sentry who was stationed at the door we didn’t want any unauthorized persons flying our mission for us. There was little banter and no unnecessary conversation as we washed and dressed unhurriedly breakfast was scheduled for 5 o’clock, and our mission briefing was scheduled for 6 am. The aircrews were awakened at 4 am on February 22, 1944, at our base at Bassingbourne, just south of Cambridge in England. (Read more first-hand accounts from the Second World War inside the pages of WWII History magazine.) Our Singing Crew For some of the crew, it may have seemed like just another mission for me, sitting in the pilot’s seat, most of the 8 hours of flying were filled with unrelieved tension.
It is taken from my dairy and from the official Eighth Air Force records of that mission.
The following story describes one of our air raids when I was piloting a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II.
0 kommentar(er)
