Chances are you will not be coming home. Odds are against you. You gotta fly 300 miles an hour across the tops of trees straight into hell–flak, machine gun fire, exploding buildings, shooting flames, German Me-109s. You drop your bombs. You blow it all up. And then you gotta make it back.
“I just made up my mind I was going to survive for my wife and…baby,” said Lt. Dick Butler, a pilot of the B24 Liberator “Earthquake Magoon,” who had just found out his baby had been born a few days before.
The Ploesti Raid. One of the most daring raids in World War II. The target? Oil refineries, Ploesti, Romania. Cripple the German war machine. At the mission briefing Lt. Butler heard General Lewis Brereton say, “This mission is so important that if we lost every airplane but still destroyed the target, it would be worth it.” Colonel Leon Johnson, commander of the 44th Bomb Group, said nobody had to fly if they didn’t want to. Lt. Butler learned that no one backed out.
The Ploesti Raid was just one of the many harrowing missions that Lt. Dick Butler, with the 44th Bomb Group of the 2nd Air Division of the 8th Air Force recalled in a very emotional, very detailed interview by my father, Joseph Dzenowagis, a navigator with the 467th BG, and my mother, Helen Dzenowagis, a writer for the Lansing State Journal.
Lt. Butler who would rise to the rank of colonel, tells us about his experiences in three wars: flying combat in B24s in World War II, B29s in Korea and B52s in Vietnam. I must confess that I as I digitized Colonel Dick Butler’s interview it was too difficult for me to watch all of it.
At the end of the war in 1945 and in the years since the 2nd Air Division raised funds to create a “living memorial”, what is now named the American Library 2nd Air Division Memorial, a place to not only remember those lost, but to also build upon the cultural and enduring ties between the peoples of America and the United Kingdom. The Library, in Norwich, England, has books, events, lectures and an extensive research archives, serving as an important resource for information about a family member who served, about the war and about American culture.
I want to mention that we encourage you to become involved, to find out more about how you can connect, research, volunteer or contribute to the American Library Memorial to the 2nd Air Division, a Library that honors the men and women lost on the Ploesti Raid and the hundreds of missions of the 2nd Air Division:
https://www.americanlibrary.uk
this picture is second Lieutenant Richard D Butler 506 Squadron later 67th Squadron of the 44th Bomb Group the picture was taken at West Palm Beach Florida where we were at Morrison field waiting our departure for an overseas uh assignment we did not know at that time whether we were going to the Far East or North Africa or England we did not find that out until we got to maricat in Morocco French Morocco we went we went North to England instead of going to the east to an assignment in North Africa or further around to India or China this is the crew of earthquake magon looking at the picture the upper left Henry zwicker the Bombadier next man was the pilot Walt bu Walter bunker then myself Richard Butler co-pilot and the far right in the top row is William newold the navigator in the front row on the left Clement Banger tail Gunner next William Middlebrooks a wasti gunner next Gerald Mason radio operator next ly Neer the flight engineer then Chamberlain waste Gunner and on the far right Warren kooken the ball turret Gunner this was the original crew that went over in January 1943 with the exception of the of Clement Banger the man the lower left who was a replacement Dale Gunner as of this time may of 1997 three of us still alive Henry’s wicker the Bombadier was killed on the witer newad mission of one October 1943 and uh the only ones the rest of us survived the war the only ones still living are myself Bill newold the navigator on the far right back row ly neeper in front row and Warren Ken front row far right and we’re all members of the second air division Association this picture was taken of Colonel Richard D Butler uh 1968 at that time I was commander of B52 Wing at 320th bomb Wing at uh Mather Air Force Base California I was uh attending University of Southern California at Los Angeles when the war started and uh as soon as the war started I went down to uh the office that was accepting uh applications for entry into Aviation Cadet training and I signed up and uh I went I was sworn in on the 19th of uh January 1942 how old were you I was 20 years old why did you enter the service because there was a war on I wanted to be a part of it tell us a little bit about your early training prior to the time you went over SE I was born raised in San Diego California and uh after I graduated from high school I went to San Diego State College for a year and uh then I went up to University of Southern California for a year and then back to San Diego State because back at San Diego State I could get the civilian pilot training course that was being offered and I went through civilian pilot training got my private license then I went back to USC again where I was when the war started what about your training from that time up until the time you uh completed operational training well uh we went to my first place I was assigned to was a month of pre-flight at uh williamsfield Arizona then I went to primary flight training at uh Ryan San in San Diego and then the basic flight training at Merced Army Airfield and Advanced Training at uh Luke field Arizona where graduated and then went to Salt Lake City where they assigned us uh to B24 training went to Davis Monon there back in Arizona and through the phase training Davis Monon peblo Colorado went over Utah peblo Colorado again uh then we were in process of departing for overseas did you fly overseas yes what r southern route what was that like it was pretty routine we didn’t have any problems uh we left from Morrison field in West Palm Beach Florida and went to uh binin field in Puerto Rico where we for some reason we were there for several days and uh then via the southern route departing departing from natal across to Bathurst at that time the car had not opened and uh it was all quite routine uh from baath then on up to French Morocco at maricat and at that time we found out that we were going to be going to England up until and we didn’t know where we were going where did you land in England we landed at uh Land End I can’t quite recall the name of the field but it was right the town was Nuki NE e w qua y was down there then you moved from there directly to directly to ship what was it like on that first few weeks you at shipped them it was uh kind of disconcerting because they had been taken a lot of losses right up till then that was we got there in February of 1943 and the 44th had been hit pretty hard we were part of the 506 Squadron the original 44th had gone over with three squadrons 66 67 68th and we went over as part of the the fourth Squadron the 506 uh after we were there for maybe uh a week or 10 days they sent us over to hethel where they were trying to set up a combat crew training school uh it was very unimpressive uh we were the first ones they tried to put through it and uh it really didn’t amount to much but we were at Heth for about a week or 10 days that was supposed to get you ready for combat That was supposed to get us ready for combat did the men uh that you first met tried to frighten you about the whole situation oh no I don’t think anybody tried to frighten us at all no no they didn’t try to frighten us uh they were just relating what was going on do you recall your first mission out of shipon first mission out of ship them uh was uh a diversionary flight for the b7s we were flying uh several diversionary flights 44th was the only group in eng B24 group in England at the time the 93rd was still on their their first trip down to North Africa and uh so first couple of missions uh were diversion flights we just go out the channel make a couple of faints at the coast of France and then back when did you first experience a real full-fledged Mission no Mission into France where was that what was it like well I remember uh I don’t remember what the target was I think the target was an Airfield and we were attacked by uh the yellow noosed Abbyville kids that were so famous at that time had quite a reputation and we saw the Yellen no’s on the FWS 190s and uh I think an airplane or two were lost but uh we did not receive any damage what was your next significant mission that of that period the most significant mission was the uh Keel mission of May 14th 1943 and we flew that mission and that was quite an experience what do you remember about that mission I remember how difficult was to fly formation at the altitude we were at we had a lot of problems it was extremely cold and the uh free air temperature gauge was clear against the peg it’s I think that thing was set it the maximum on that gauge was about 54 or 56 below zero and the peg was over there and uh the propellers controls would freeze up and uh it was we were flying a wing position it was very difficult we could see the b7s up above us ahead of us and uh we saw them drop their bombs and when they dropped their bombs there was a lot of junk in the air that came flying back at us and the sky was just full of flak and junk and then B24 is from our own group that were ahead of us we were carrying uh bundles of incendiary and when those bundles came out of the airplane the straps that held them together and so forth separated and so there was just a lot of junk flying through the air something something hit our airplane just above my co-pilot’s windshield scared the heck out of me the way it hit so so hard on that uh it was a a very difficult Mission there were number of airplanes lost uh including our Squadron operations officer who was flying as a substitute uh John Swanson and uh fortunately why they be at least became a prisoner of war how did the crew uh react to that mission that was pretty serious what was their attit what was their attitude after they got on the ground we were just very thankful we were just very thankful there were no uh nobody said I’m not going back or anything like that we hope they’re not all like that what did what what did you think about the possibility of completing your missions after that one I fully expected that uh I would probably wind up as a p because uh I had enough confidence that I thought I could survive one way or the other uh I remember Henry zwicker our Bombadier was a fatalist and he said we’ll never survive this war he was the only one that didn’t and the others how did they feel what did they did they express their possibilities of survival thought boy uh chances are chances are we uh we probably won’t complete a full tour but nobody actually we had a very confident crew except for the one person I mentioned we were all pretty confident people I know I was and I uh was the only member of the crew that was married I was also the youngest on the crew and I had just made up my mind that I was going to survive for my wife and our expected child after the Keel Mission were were there any others during that period of time before you went to Africa that was significant to you yes we uh the next mission after Keel was a mission down to the submarine pens at Bordeaux France and that was was just a few days later and we took off from Shum and went down to uh a field near L’s end and we staged out of there by then I there were two groups 44th and the 93rd and uh we made a successful attack down at the against the submarines gordeaux France and uh we flew at low level down across the bay abis and then the last possible time we climbed up to bombing altitude and it was an easy Mission except it was long at that time it was the longest uh mission that had been flown out of England how long was it about I think it was about 12 hours about 12 hours as I recall the 44th LED it and it was a very successful mission after after your stay in uh England what do you recall about your trip to Africa when you in the in the movement of the 44th at that time our crew uh experience was a little bit different for some some we didn’t know why but the group left and we stayed at ship them our our crew stayed at shipon we didn’t know where they’ Left for and why we were left behind after several days why we were given orders to fly to an airport near London and uh there we were met by some people and uh some large crates were brought out and strapped in the Bombay uh these were big wooden crates uh if I recall maybe 8 or 10 ft long and maybe a foot thick and maybe 4 feet wide and they were strapped in the Bombay we were also a civilian came aboard and he was our passenger and then we were given orders to go to maret where we picked up orders then from proed on over to Benghazi these crates turned out to be uh some of the uh models of of pesty that were used in the preparation of the mission what do you recall about your first few weeks there in uh your new base when we got there when we got there the uh group had already flown four or five missions uh mainly against Sicily and I guess maybe uh a mission or two against the tow of Italy because of the invasion of Sicily so some of those people already had some missions in and we were kind of jealous cuz those counted toward the tour of four and five and they were compared to missions out of England they were much easier although they did lose couple of airplanes at sometime uh other than that that why we encountered uh pretty rough living conditions the we had to dig our own uh trench around the the tent and wct the tent it was very hot we had to put up mosquito Nets over our beds not to keep out mosquitoes but to keep out the Locust which were just all over the place and uh it was very rough living conditions food was very very rough SE ration type stuff and uh we uh I remember we were warned repeatedly not to venture out into the desert where there was a lot of wreckage because of the fact that there were some snip ERS still around those are the main things I remember about it what do you remember about getting ready for the pl pesty Mission we flew uh some missions first uh see we flew a mission that I recall to FIA and we flew a mission to Naples and we flew mission to Rome I think we were the among the first to bomb Rome and I remember uh all the warnings were given to us make sure you don’t hit the Vatican and I believe that mission was either the 18th or 19th of July and right after that we started the serious preparation for a low-level attack in our position we still didn’t know where it was to be uh we flew all of the low-level practice missions and no unusual experiences except uh we flew awfully low what do what do you remember about the briefing before you left I remember being an open air theater type place where General br got up and briefed us on the importance of the mission to where we were going to be going and uh I remember clearly the statement that he said it was so important that if he lost every airplane but still destroyed the target would be worth it after that I remember our commander Colonel Johnson saying that uh anybody that had reservations didn’t want want to go on the mission come to him and he would understand and uh nothing would be said the person wouldn’t have to go on the mission I later heard that nobody accepted his offer how um much time did The Navigators and the pilots have a chance to study the maps for some reason I wasn’t included in the studying of the maps an awful lot not just me I think the co-pilots were left out of it some the pilots uh not an awful lot of time was spent by the pilots in our flight studying it The Navigators and the bombadiers spent a lot of time at it when and we really didn’t know what they were doing how how how many days or was it just a few days before they that they were studying those Maps were they studying the maps The Day of the mission no it was a day or two a day or two uh the day before the mission when we found out where we were going they spent all all day studying yeah what do you recall about takeoff and then the uh the move toward the target area we got up about 4:30 and our takeoff was to be about 7:30 and of course it was a dirt Runway Runway was was just dirt out there in the desert and uh they had gone out with with water trucks tried to wet it down some hold down the dust but as soon as one or two airplanes took offway that was all gone the 998th took off ahead of us and we saw one of their airplanes crash on takeoff and that was kind of disconcerting we saw that airplane go in uh there was an awful lot of dust the dust was just h horrendous but visibility wasn’t so very good because of the Dust but uh take off and assembly on straight climb out was pretty routine what was your feeling of apprehension after your takeoff and getting into the air and knowing what might be ahead of you uh I don’t know whether apprehension or what I was my thoughts were mainly concerning my wife and I just found out that our baby had been born uh just a few days before and uh my concern was mainly about them how do you think the crew was taking it things were pretty quiet uh not much chatter going on like a lot of times uh the crew was pretty subdued Walt bunker was the pilot I was a co-pilot and uh Walt was certainly not a religious I individual but unbeknownst to each other we’d both taken along copies of New Testament I was very surprised to look over and see W reading his new testament I was certainly reading the Psalms in the back of mine do you feel you couldn’t keep busy enough to keep your mind off of other things we weren’t all that busy we weren’t all that busy know it was rather long flight over the Mediterranean we’d seen the the smoke from where the airplane from the 376 had gone in wondered of course what had happened there but uh we were leading a a three ship element so formation flying was not all that difficult it wasn’t as difficult as flying on a wing and uh we were taking turns of course flying the airplane so uh when one of us was not flying why uh we were uh thinking about other things as you approached the U the area that started to give difficulty what happened that in in terms of the difficulties you started to experience on the on the on the route did you encounter clouds did you have to fly through clouds yeah that was the first uh difficult thing that happened to us uh that was not briefed to us and uh we weren’t prepared for when we Cloud uh encountered the the clouds over the mountains and uh we lost sight of the two lead groups really didn’t know what became of them and uh we were St oing around trying to work our way through the clouds and uh all of a sudden why the clouds loomed ahead of us and we had to fly into them in formation and that was scary but luckily why everybody held their position we came out on the other side we as I said were flying a lead on a three ship element and the leader that we were flying we lost sight of and we just had to we just held it steady and we luckily came out on the other side all right but some time was lost as we dodged around trying to work our way through the clouds before we actually had to fly through some what was your next most difficult situation on the route the let down once we were out of the clouds the let down was pretty uneventful and uh once we got down to low level where we were in formed up well uh and proceeding across the plane till we got down fairly close to the pesty area and and started encountering fire from the ground uh I distinctly remember some hay stacks opening up they just opened up and there was a gun shooting at us there was a a train going along off to our right there along a track and I saw the sides of the box cars just flopped down and guns started firing from the cars that were there and then we all commented look at those guys what we thought was a hospital because it had a big red cross painted on the top of it and something opened up there and they started shooting at us from that and that we were so low that that was a almost level fire across and uh by that time of course we were getting real close to the Target Henry’s wicker the Bombadier was Hing left left left left left and which we did and uh then it was bombs away exactly on the Target and uh our Target was the blue Target the flight that was led by Colonel posy on the credit to Manor refinery at brzy it wasn’t too we’d taken some hits but nothing serious up until that point but immediately after the target why we had a hit of some kind in the number three engine knocked it out and then almost immediately after that we hit a barrage balloon cable between number three and four engines the cable SNA and piece whipped against the fuselage real hard right I guess that’s what it was uh quite a jolt we lost all the instruments for the engines on the right side when that happened uh Walt said feather four I looked out there and I could see four was turning but but three was the propeller was all bent and the engine was stopped and just windmilling out there I feathered three he said I Fe said feather four and he reached up and he hit number four Feathering button and uh I then reached up and unfeathered for but for the brief few seconds there we had two engines out on the same side and I imagine that right wing tip missed the ground by no more than 10 or 12 ft before with both of us on there we got straightened up it was the right wing that went down sure yeah the right wing went down because it was number when you when you hit the thing to get it back started again what point did it start the engine start up again almost immediately yeah it was as the wing was down yeah and then what happened we got it going again and uh we proceeded on and uh right then the fighter attacks started we had no fighter attacks previous to the Target but I would imagine be that the fighters came from probably in the Bucharest area so they were coming at us from from the south uh we were as low as we could get and then an me 109 was coming at us head on and I thought sure that guy was going to hit us because there was he was he wasn’t making any effort to pull up over us and he passed under us and I called the tail Gunner and I said that guy explode he says no he’s climbing out how that guy got underneath us and out the other side I wouldn’t have any idea why do you suppose he was doing that well he was making a head-on firing pass at us and he uh elected to go under us rather than over us how high are we then pardon how high were you gosh I would say we were no more than 100 ft we were we were as low as we thought we could get so how long did you proceed in that that kind of elevation oh maybe 10 or 15 minutes and then we started to climb out we had flying on our left wing uh probably one of the most skillful pilots in the whole organization fellow by the name of George Jansen and uh George was on our left wing and when those two when we lost those two engines George said later that we just came almost to a screech and halt right then and George actually dropped his gear and his flaps to stay in position to slow down enough to stay with us and then as we picked up speed of course he picked back up and so forth uh I say he was skillful pilot he had been a crop duster before the war and after the war why went to work for Douglas aircraft and became one of their leading test pilots for the rest of his career as your as you moved along what happened in the next 10 or 15 minutes we climbed out we kept uh no more flak no more firing from the ground at us uh several fighter attacks some minor damage but nothing nothing serious nobody got hurt uh we climbed on out and uh on three engines and uh the next I remember some clouds and the fact that uh two airplanes slowed down to stay with us because we were on three engines uh as we crossed the coast again got down toward Greece we saw some biplanes and it looked like they were going to make fighter attack against us but they didn’t come they didn’t come close they peeled off before they got close enough our gunners fired at they were close enough our Gunners fired at them I don’t think they hit anything and then it was basically a routine three engine flight back across to Benghazi as you came back to coming to The Landing what did you see around you were there any other planes with you I don’t recall any other than the two that were the two that were on our wing staying with us uh when we got back to Benghazi there was something going on on the runway and I know they held us up for a while before we could land apparently somebody had some trouble we uh finally had to land uh because we were getting so short on fuel and uh we had to use the emergency hydraulic system because of lost of number three engine and uh Landing went okay when uh you got out of the plane and started to have contact with people on the basee when did you learn the extent of the losses uh my sit individual situation was a little bit different I didn’t uh even go to the debriefing uh some people met us and immediately looked at our dog tags and they said you hey you’re type B blood and they put me in a vehicle and whisked me off to the hospital and uh I was there for quite a while giving blood transfusion it seemed like a I’d never given one before and uh somebody was with type B type B is apparently not a real common type and so by the time I got through at the hospital the debriefing was all all over with and uh they just took me back to the tent and so I didn’t get any of the free booze or anything when did you get the information about what happened from the guys uh what they learned at the debriefing and so forth how much did they really know I don’t think they knew very much we all REM they all remembered certain incidents or things that they they saw but overall picture they didn’t know too much uh the target we were on was not hit previously by the 93rd we were on the credit Tool Man out at brzy and uh the rest of the 44th of course had to go to the white five Target that had been hit prematurely by the 93rd when uh you talk to other crew members did they have any reaction that they expressed about the mission your own crew it was it was quite an experience and very very rough and boy I hope they don’t send us back there what do they think about their chances of survival after that mission I don’t recall I don’t recall how soon after did you get to fly again I think uh we uh got to take an airplane and fly over to Tel Aviv for three or 4 days kind of an RNR type flight and I’d say maybe three or 4 days after the plest mission is when we went over there and uh we were over there for a few days I say a few days probably two or three days and then came back and the next mission I recall was uh Mission I believe it was on the 16th of August up to fogia and we were leading the Squadron and just before the IP why we lost an engine and fell out of formation and uh so we aborted the mission of course the rest of the 44th went on in bomb fogia which we’ve been to before on a milk run and I think the squad the group lost eight airplanes how many more missions did you have after that I don’t recall any more missions down there before we went back to England and uh when we went back to England we were transferred our crew was transferred from the 506 to the 67th because the 67th had lost so many airplanes and Cruz and uh Bill Cameron became the 67th squadron commander and Walt bunker who’ been my pilot became the Squadron operations officer and I took I got the crew uh we might have flown one or two missions after we got back to England and then all of a sudden they turned around they sent us back down to North Africa and we went back down to uh Tunis this time the reason we were told and I think later read that uh The Landing by the American forces at Salerno was not going well and they needed some aerial support so they sent us down there to lend that support but by the time we got there even though it was quite quite promptly why the forces had broken out and we weren’t needed uh for that purpose we flew a mission to I forget which seek which came first we flew One mission to Leghorn a bombing mission to Leghorn Italy and then we flew a mission to Pizza Pisa leaning Tower Place uh both of those were very easy missions and uh then on the 1st of October they sent us on Mission up to weer newstead Austria to bomb the measurement Factory there I forgot that after pesty sometime long in there we did fly we had a mission up to Wier newstead in Austria turned out to be a very easy Mission practically no opposition so this time we were flying out of Tunis and uh the reaction was entirely different we really got clobbered on on that I was flying the deputy lead in the Squadron we had six airplanes and uh the leader of our Squadron we got a Massive Attack by em 109’s from the left front quarter head on and uh I saw the leader that I was flying formation on get hit and blow up and so that put me in the lead position and I didn’t see anybody around me and I called the tail Gunner and I said are they closing up on me and he said who and I said the rest of the formation he says they’ve all gone down so I was by myself out there we were on the low the low Squadron so I went over and I just tucked my nose under in the number four position under the group leader and stuck our nose right up practically in his bom CU I was scared so how many were in your squadron when this happened there’s six or six oh uh uh I knew that that was a dangerous position because way back when in early days they tried to fly that position in formation and the guy that was in that number four position always got shot down so they’d abandoned that kind of a formation but I was so scared I didn’t know any place else to go and uh oh uh a pilot in another airplane watched us and he says that dick Butler boy they they they’ve had it they’re they’re going to get it because the feder attacks continued and planes were lost from other squadrons on that same Mission and uh then after we came off the target there and Target area and so forth the formation pretty well what was left of it disintegrated uh we had an number three engine shot out again and a lot of holes in the airplane and we started back for Tunis but then we had a loss of a lot of fuel and uh as we decided we’d have to go into and so we made a an emergency landing at katania cly and we as we approached to on three engines there uh we knew we didn’t have any hydraulic system and uh we had a lot of damage in the wing area trailing wedge ly Neer the fight engineer went back looked things over and he says I think you better just put down half flaps for the landing because there’s a cable going out there two cables going out there and uh I’m afraid that uh one of them is shot through one of them is broken he says but the other cable ought at least hold half flaps so we were coming in rather fast on Final Approach because we thought we only had half flaps and just uh at about maybe 100 ft or so the right flap popped up and the left flap went down full and we hit the ground in quite a quite a skid got stra stened up and we’re rolling down the runway and of course the forces hadn’t been in Italy in Sicily very long and I remember a row of b-25s parked along the right side of the runway and a whole bunch of 55 G gallon drums parked along the left side so I couldn’t turn off uh and uh we weren’t going to be able to stop and as we approached the end of the runway here came a sicilian on a bicycle riding across the runway in front of us and all of a sudden he saw that we weren’t going to stop and I saw his leg start churning like crazy we rolled off the end of the runway into the sand aways and the nose wheel collapsed and stood the airplane on its nose so when did you finish your missions uh December of December of 43 and how many more did you have after that bad landing gosh I don’t know we left the airplane there in Sicily we had one man that was badly wounded uh he was a substitute crew member and he was badly wounded and he went to the hospital there and we were stuck in this place and uh about the second night we were there we were in the tent that was used as a club we were in there having a drink and a friend of mine from high school and San Diego came in and he was in a Troop Carrier outfit and was based in North Africa and he’d holded some 55 gallon drums of gasoline into Kenia and so we bummed a ride back to Tunis with him but by the time we got back there the group had moved out they’d gone back to England I was left there so uh my friend uh was there with us with his c47 and I said can’t you take us away we got to get back to England so he hauled us over to uh Oran which was about halfway to Marat and he said boy he said I can’t take any any further than this my outfit’s going to be looking for me and uh so then we hitchhiked our our way back to England and uh got a c-54 right out of Marat up to Prestwick and then got on the train and worked our way back to ship them and walked in and they said boy we thought you guys had gone down if they hadn’t heard from us oh that was uh probably the middle to the 20th of October somewhere around there and missions were really beginning to pick up then there were getting to be more outfits in England and and so forth so we uh we flew a lot of missions into brm emden places of Soul engine or some of that I remember and that was it how many did you finally complete 28 and then the war you left uh left Europe at what what month well I wound I came home a hospital patient uh we had an airplane that had flown my last mission was to Breman and uh we’v been badly shot up at Breman we’d been badly shot up so the airplane was in repair for several days it was time for a test hop on it and there was also a training mission to be run that day I had a new co-pilot fellow that had come in from the uh anti submarine business he had a lot of B24 time but no formation time so we were to fly this practice mission to get him some formation experience and do a test hop at the same time everything went all right until we were getting ready to land and we were down to 800 ft in the traffic pattern and all of a sudden there was an explosion in number two engine and when it exploded why the other three engines all quit and down we came from 800 ft uh we went through a tree and landed in a brussel sprout field and uh it was a quite a severe crash uh I went out through the left side of the airplane the co-pilot went out through the right side everybody got out of the airplane all right it burned quite severely General Johnson was in the tower uh had shipped him and he saw us go down and he was one of the first to arrive out there at the crash scene I had a broken left arm and a broken left ankle and the co-pilot had a broken right arm and uh the Bombadier had uh some cracked ribs when the explosion occurred why something came through the left side of the fuselage and cut off the radio operator’s left ear which was recovered and they sewed it back on and uh as I said I wound up up in the hospital as did the co-pilot and uh we were eventually evacuated back to the States because they said the type of breaks we had uh would take so long to heal in England that there wasn’t any point is staying there what hospital did you go to when you get back uh we came back on the ill to France and we went into to holler and General Hospital on Staten Island and we were there for maybe as long as a week while they’ve got enough patients together to put on a hospital train and the policy was to take returning people back to the General Hospital closest to their home and being from San Diego the closest hospital for me was at Santa Barbara so put us on this Hospital train and started us back across the United States the co-pilot Jerry Grill was from Michigan so he got off there in the midwest someplace and uh I continued on I got feeling very very bad kept getting worse so they took me off the hospital train in Ogden I believe it was Ogden or Provo there was a general hospital there Bushnell General Hospital and put me in the hospital I had the measles so I stayed there for a while must have been 10 days two weeks of course I was anxious to get home and and uh then they when I finally left there they put me on a train heading for Hoff General Hospital at Santa Barbara as we got down that way I got feeling real bad again and I went up at Hof general hospital with a bad case of the flu so I I had kind of a I guess I was just very badly run down and so boy so it took me a while to get home well when you got home to Santa Barbara when did you get to see your family your wife came up to Santa Barbara right away M she came up to Santa Barbara right away how did you end your career for World War II at that time what what happened after I got out of the hospital uh that was in June would have been June the 44 is when I finally got out of the hospital that’s about 6 months after the accident uh I’ve got an assignment to Harrington Kansas and Harrington Kansas had been a staging base where Crews had come in pick up their B24 and leave for overseas the same day that I arrived at Harrington Kansas it be became a b29 staging base and the first b29 arrived there at the same time I did and uh so I became base operations officer there and uh got to fly several different airplanes we had a strip down B24 that I love to fly we had a strip down B7 a strip down B25 and then of course got to fly to b29 quite a bit and uh I was there when the war ended in in Europe and then they decided to move the staging for the b29 to the West Coast because they would all be going out to the Pacific so we were moved out to Merced Army Airfield which to be was to be a b29 staging base but by the time we got in place the war in the Pacific handed so we didn’t I stayed in the Air Force and I was always in strategic hair command are you flying all the time yes yesh when did you finally get out January 19 71 as you look back on your long career what’s the most important memory that you think uh you have from it oh wow I would it didn’t dawn on me at the time but as of the years of past I think probably the pesty mission was probably the most really the most significant thing Through The Years uh on active duty and after retirement where you’re still working for a living and and so forth you really don’t stop to think about those things too much but uh in reflection now why I think we probably I probably contributed the most because of that plest mission because in our Target which was the Creditor Min Refinery at brzy was the only one of the targets the refineries that was an an aviation gas facility and we completely wiped it out our uh flight I say the 18 airplanes of led by Colonel posy our our Target was completely wiped out never resume production uh during the war and that shortage of Aviation gas affected the Luft waffle significantly they had to reduce their training for their pilots by quite a bit and I’ve read that uh because of that shortage that the interceptors were not able to take off as early for defending Germany as they had been previously they had to wait till the force got closer in so I think we had a significant impact on the war but as I say that I flew in the Korean War flew b29 missions in the Korean War flee some B52 and KC 135 missions in [Music] Vietnam but in answer to your question I think the most significant thing would have to be the pesty Mission when you were flying the missions in Korea and Vietnam was it the same degree of danger that you felt no no no no way no comparison those were combat missions in the other wordss combat Mission yeah in Vietnam yeah mhm and the b29 missions up over North Korea I uh I did not experience any fighter attacks very very minor FL attacks did you did you have a lower level of apprehension because of your experience and what you’ve gone went through well possibly possibly uh d52 missions that I flew in Vietnam were all at night high level uh I didn’t ever see any Flack or or missiles and the missions that I I flew of course I was a colonel at that time in Vietnam and and so forth so I didn’t fly as much as a routine crew member uh but never I didn’t never see any Flack or any Fighters and KC 135 missions were interesting because of refueling Fighters and there’d be a lot of chatter and a lot of excitement caused by that what do you want the world in history to remember about your contribution to the war effort h I tried that’s about it
2 Comments
Incredible stories, great man.
My uncle was in the 44th BG, 67th squadron as a ball turret gunner.