Gasparshistory Episode 3 Deja Vu 2.1

The host of Gaspar's History Podcast, Gaspar, is discussing the upcoming mission in Episode 3, Déjà Vu. The 8th Air Force is planning another attack on the Luftwaffe Air Depot at Romilly-Sussein. The mission will involve 80 B-17s and 21 B-24 bombers. The 306th Bomb Group will lead the attack. The formation and flight plan have been adjusted for this mission. The escorts for the bombers will be provided by Spitfire squadrons. The payload will consist of 10 500-pound bombs armed with a one-tenth-of-a-second fuse. The leaders of the mission are Lieutenant Colonel Delmar Wilson and Major James Wilson. The planes and crews are preparing for takeoff. Hello, and welcome back. This is Gaspar, and you are listening to Gaspar's History Podcast, where we are continuing our Meat Hound series with Episode 3, Déjà Vu. In our last episode, we flew a mission in the B-17 named DFC, that stands for Distinguished Flying Cross, to Romilly-Sussein with 2nd Lt. David Steele and Lt. William, Uncle Bill Warner as part of the 423rd Squadron and the 306th Bomb Group. It was Steele's first mission since joining the squadron the day before, and the mission was a success, not because of their precision bombing, but because all of the planes that went on the mission had returned safely. It's now a week later, and the 8th Air Force has made the decision to have another go at the Luftwaffe Air Depot at Romilly-Sussein. It looks like 2nd Lt. Steele and Lt. Uncle Bill Warner are going to get this week off, as I can't find their names in the mission reports, even though there is a vague reference to Warner, and I'll get into that a little bit later in the episode. Plane number 42-29524 is 11 days from starting her trip to England, and I thought I would fly past this mission, until I found a human interest story, so I decided to build an episode around it. So let's jump into Episode 3, Déjà Vu. Once again, the 8th Air Force was going to take a run at the Luftwaffe Air Depot at Romilly-Sussein. Only this time, a week later, the mission would call for a different flight plan into and out of France, while also assigning a new bomb group leader. The Romilly-Sussein Depot continued to operate, and had not suffered any significant damage during last week's attack. I mean, the 306th didn't even drop a bomb on it, so I guess the other bomb groups had similar results. The historical documents that have survived the war on the extent of the Luftwaffe operations at Romilly-Sussein are nearly non-existent. We know that the Germans, at a minimum, had at least a repair facility. That was enough, I suppose, for military intelligence to order its destruction. I have always been told that military intelligence, along with Jumbo Shrimp, are oxymorons. To be fair, our story also reminds us that the brave French resistance and underground operatives were active and viable, and their records are even more scarce than the Luftwaffe's, so there is always a chance that the French are feeding the 8th Air Force information on the importance of the Luftwaffe's operations at Romilly-Sussein. Today was going to be a big raid. The 8th Air Force's plan was to send five bombardment groups consisting of 80 B-17s and 21 B-24 bombers on a daylight mission. This time, the 306th bomb group would get the pleasure of leading the attack. The 306th was expected to get 19 aircraft into the mission, followed by 17 from the 91st, 21 from the 303rd, 23 from the 305th, and 21 from the 44th bomb group. The 44th bomb group was in the second wing and they were flying the B-24 Liberators. The initiation point would once again be the lovely town of Beachy Head, England, which was considered the rendezvous point and zero hour. The planes then would head out to 8 miles west of Dieppe. That should take them about 18 minutes, then 5 miles north of Estame, France, in 48 minutes, Romilly-Sussein at 64 and a half minutes, Beauvais at 96 and a half minutes, and then back to Beachy Head at 134 minutes. This flight plan and flying time estimate is considerably quicker than I had estimated in their first mission, but they are flying a little different path and at a little faster pace today. The main point to remember is that the actual flying times are significantly longer due to the takeoffs, getting into formation, and then the landings. The cool thing with this mission is that the mission report details exist, and these details help us to translate where the aircrafts were when the crews start to log attacks on their planes. How many of you have ever been on a CB radio or a ham radio? Maybe you're a ham radio operator. The 306th call sign today, just like a CB radio or ham radio, was Smokey One, and Smokey One would be the tip of the spear today, which meant they were going to get the Luftwaffe's first response. They were going to be flying high altitude, but also be the lowest in the group at 20,000 feet. The airspeed was going to increase over last week to 160 miles an hour, so it is always good to mix it up, routes, speed, altitude, because flying in a set pattern or level for a long period of time was going to get you killed. As I mentioned last week, the formation of the B-17s was really critical to their defense. This week they were going to make a change to that formation, and Russell Strong in his book First Over Germany, he suggests that they were flying what they call a strung-out formation of V's and 3's. So what we'll see is the crews are going to have some editorial comments about this formation, so just hold on a bit. Let's talk a little bit about the escorts today. There were three Spitfire squadrons that were to escort the bomb group into and around Rhone, where they then would be turned over and basically they're turning them over to their own devices. So the bomb group then is on their own from Rhone and then back to near Beauvais, where six Spitfire squadrons would meet them and then escort them home. And I know that the pilots and the crews were thankful for whatever escorts they could get, but if you're foreshadowing, you must be thinking to yourself, how long can unescorted daily bombing missions continue, especially as the targets get deeper and deeper into Europe? And the answer might surprise you, because it's longer than you think. The payload today was 10 500-pound general-purpose bombs armed with a one-tenth-of-a-second fuse. That meant that after the bomb was armed and triggered by striking something, there was a one-tenth-of-a-second delay before the firing pin struck the detonator. This in theory would allow for the bombs to penetrate roofs and get inside buildings before they actually exploded. The bigwigs were flying today, a regular who's who of top brass. Lieutenant Colonel Delmar Wilson, who is the deputy group commander of the 306th, he's going to pilot and be in the lead plane for the mission. His co-pilot is Major James Wilson of the 423rd Squadron. So it was the Wilson and Wilson show in the lead plane. Lieutenant Colonel Del Wilson is 31 years old. He is originally from Spokane, Washington. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington State University, where he graduated in 1936, another good year for family history. He joined the Army Air Corps by enlisting in the Aviation Cadet Program, which was at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas, and that's where he ultimately got his wings. He had been appointed the Air Executive Officer in September of 1942, and had first flown with the 423rd Squadron on that fateful day, October 9th, which was the bomb group's first mission. Major James W. Wilson, he is the 423rd's commanding officer. He's 25 years old. So yes, the commanding officer of the Squadron is 25 years old. He's originally from Rawlings, Wyoming. He is a 1939 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, and he too got his wings at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas. It does seem a little odd that the leaders and the bigwigs are 25 and 31 years of age, and remember Uncle Bill Warner from last week? He's 28 years of age. So let's go ahead and move this along, get these planes and air crews into the air, and we will bring them into formation and talk about the planes and the crews as they come into line. Wilson and Wilson led the Squadron and provided the rally point from which to build the formation. They were flying Lieutenant Raymond Aircraft and his crew today. That plane was numbered 4224557, and she was another one of those no-named F beauties that I call them, and she had come into the Squadron as a late Thanksgiving present. The bombardier today is also the bombardier for the 306th Bomb Group. His name was Lieutenant Frank Dickinson Yalcy. He was 27 years old, a native of Winifred, Kansas. He had moved to Glendale, California just before high school, and a curiosity here. He and Steele were both in Air Cadet School at the same time in Ontario, Riverside, California, so I'm very curious to know if they actually knew each other in the States before ending up in the same Bomb Group. Now coming up and tucking in behind the Wilsons, first of all is Captain Brady with Lieutenant Ralph Jones, and they're flying our old friend from last week, the Unbearable. Captain Brady was one of the original members of the Grim Reapers, that's the nickname of the 423rd Squadron, and he had helped to bring the Squadron over from the United States. He was from Denver, Colorado. He was a preacher's kid. Lieutenant Jones was originally from Idaho. He had joined the service just over a year ago. He was living in Los Angeles, California. He was 23 years of age and single, and not to give anything away, any endings or spoilers, but Lieutenant Jones and Lieutenant Steele would both be on the same runway to finish their missions, their 25 missions, about the same time. The good news today was that the Unbearable's communication system was working. She was also returning her fabulous waist gunners, Stein and Sansky, who each had knocked down an enemy fighter during last week's mission as the Unbearable notched a hat trick of kills in her defense. And do you remember Private Sansky? He was the waist gunner who was able to take down one of those Fokker Messerschmitts at 900 yards. For those of you who just had a coronary, I know what I just said, so listen to the last episode to understand its reference. The third and final plane in this lead element is again my favorite, but in an updated version due to the incidents surrounding last week's mission, and the incidents being, well, she was shot to pieces, which is a literal description. Yes, it is just who you thought, the Wahoo 2, with Lieutenant Rewarden again piloting with Lieutenant Maliszewski as our co-pilot. Lieutenant Rip Rewarden had flown back-to-back two crippled aircraft in a row, and he had to wonder if his luck was running out. I remember my 2nd Ranger Battalion uncle saying he was always thankful that a late war assault on some dam in Germany had been canceled because he felt like he'd used up his nine lives. So even the saltiest of veterans had that voice in the back of their head. I also don't think I would want the nickname Rip, and every two seconds having some Wahoo call out, hey rest in peace this, and rest in peace that. The original Wahoo from last week was now on the scrap heap and would be salvaged in the upcoming weeks, while the Wahoo 2 was an early Christmas present from the people of the United States. And with Lieutenant Rewarden's recent history of returning shot up aircraft, and an episode named Deja Vu, let's hope the Wahoo 2 and her crew can make it home. Coming up now is the second element in this spread formation, which again is not going to surprise you. The crews do not like this spread formation at all, and we will see why very soon. But this is Captain Mack McKay. He's leading the second element of the squadron. He's in another one of these no-named F beauties, and he is also from California. He and his crew from last week had three enemy aircrafts destroyed, and they had escaped the mission last week with relatively minor damage. So tucked in now his number two position, or five o'clock behind him, is a new name, a new pilot name, in a familiar plane. So the DFC was piloted today by Captain Salata, who would later become the commanding officer of the 368th squadron on my birthday. Another birthday reference, Deja Vu. Captain Salata's co-pilot today is Lieutenant Warren George. Lieutenant Warren George has a couple of missions under his belt. He is a native Texan, 22 years old, and he and Steele grew up just 100 miles from each other. Captain Maurice Victory Salata. Yes, another pilot with a cool name. Captain Salata's middle name Victory is appropriate since he was born on November 11, 1918. So what do you think the odds are that he was actually born at 11 a.m.? That makes him 24 years old, and it is a very good reminder that the First World War is still less than 25 years from ending, and the world is back at it again, only this time on a much larger scale. I have wondered if Captain Salata wanted us to call him the space cowboy, or gangster of love, or Maurice. Joking aside, I like them all. Do you remember those cats that came in with Steele and Hamilton on the 11th of December? Well, a couple of them are flying today, not with Steele, but with Captain Salata and Lieutenant George in the DFC. Staff Sergeant Walter Petrowski would get the thankless job of ball turret gunner, and Staff Sergeant William Hall would be today's left waist gunner on the DFC. Walter Petrowski was 29 years old from Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, where when he was 16 years of age, the stock market crashed, which was 1929. It is therefore highly likely that his one year of high school was then interrupted by the necessity to find some work. So when he enlisted in the Army in May of 1942, his occupation was listed as making shoes and boots in a New Hampshire factory. He was single and no children, which was a really good thing based on his current line of work, which was ball turret gunner. On the other hand, Staff Sergeant William Hall was married. He was 28 years of age, and he had completed four years of high school. He had been working as a bus driver when he enlisted in the Army in March of 1942. He would later be trained as a toggler, but that will be highlighted in an upcoming episode. Petrowski and Hall were part of Steele's crew and had come over with the rest of the team on the 11th of December. They were excited to fly and gain some experience, and they would finally get to see what it was like to regulate oxygen and fight off the Luftwaffe at the same time. So as the DFC slotted herself into position, there was a lot of nervous energy, as you can imagine, and Petrowski would look over his left shoulder and see Old Faithful 2 coming into position. As the Old Faithful 2 came cruising up, Staff Sergeant Counts could see Lieutenants Urey and Hopkins at the wheel and was hoping they didn't have the same engine trouble that they had had last week. It is important to note that the 423rd Squadron had the lowest premiums on their trip cancellation policies because they had the best maintenance record in the bomb group. It's time to give some love to the crew chiefs and mechanics, and I'm able to call one out specifically due to the reference in the 423rd's combat diary. Master Sergeant and Crew Chief Joseph Tarana was taking care of the Old Faithful 2, and according to Russell Strong in his book, First Over Germany, Master Sergeant Tarana is also credited with having one aircraft named, She Has To, be one of the planes in the 306th bomb group that actually flew over 100 missions. Lieutenant Purvis Urey was a very early member of the squadron dating back to March of 1942, and spoiler alert, so cover your ears if you don't want to hear this, Lieutenant Urey would be the seventh pilot to finish his 25 missions, and then he would be transferred out to the Combat Crew Replacement Center, and then transferred again to the 401st Provisional Combat Wing as tactical advisor to General Nathan Bedford Forrest III. So does that name ring a bell to you? Did you expect to hear that name in a World War II 306 bomb group story? Probably not. Lieutenant Urey's commanding officer was in fact the great-grandson of Civil War General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the KKK. I have no knowledge of General Forrest's beliefs or biases, but I must imagine it would be rather awkward knowing the lineage and family history of your commanding officer, especially in an institution as structured as the military. Lieutenant Urey did not report to General Forrest for very long because the general was killed in a bombing mission in June of 1943. Later in the war, Captain Urey himself would be involved in a flying incident in the United States that would cause quite a stir, but that too is a story for another day. Old Faithful's co-pilot is Lieutenant James Hopkins. There seems to be some issues with getting his name right, so maybe he had an accent or something, I don't know. In the combat missions, he's listed as Hawkins. In the diary, it is listed as Hopkins, and since the diary lists no Hawkins as pilots, then we're going to go with Hopkins as the right answer. There really is not a lot known about Lieutenant Hopkins, so I guess we'll see how he does and if he survives, but what we do know is that he is being trained by a very good pilot, so we know that he's getting really good experience. Behind the Grim Reapers was the first element of the 367th Squadron, affectionately known as the Clay Pigeons, so not really the best of nicknames, but it is, as we will see, very appropriate as we follow the Meat Hound and Lieutenant Steele's tour of duty. Captain John Lambert described his position as leading the third element in the first square. That helps to paint a little bit of a picture of the formation. He was flying 25175, a brand new plane that had just been delivered in time for the mission. In fact, there's some argument that the plane was actually delivered that morning of the mission. Co-piloting with Captain Lambert was Second Lieutenant William McKern. Then the other two aircraft in Captain Lambert's element were the Excalibur 24464 that was flown by Lieutenant George Bucky, and then Terry and the Pirates, that was plane number 24489. It was piloted by Lieutenant Louis McKesson and Second Lieutenant Quentin Burgett. What another great name for a ship. It makes me immediately think of Monty Python for whatever reason, but the Terry and the Pirates was a popular comic strip in the 1930s and 40s, and it was about a teenager who would later become a pilot. Captain Raper of the 368th squadron was flying with co-pilot Fryer and our friend from last week, Sons of Fury. Also in this element are, again from last week, Lieutenant Buddenbaum flying a no-name 24502, and then a newcomer to our story, Lieutenant Robert Selos flying Montana Power number 24465. The Montana Power's co-pilot is Alex Cramarinko, probably destroy that name. He was trained in Lubbock, Texas. The navigator on Montana Power is a Lieutenant John Hogan, and the bombardier is Lieutenant Charles Ketchy. So that makes up the aircraft and the crews in the fourth element of the squadron. The fifth element, that sounds pretty cool, doesn't it? The fifth element, like some kind of martial arts movie or something. This element is being led by the Sweet Pea, and Captain Ryan is piloting, and Second Lieutenant Simmons is co-piloting. One of their aircraft had to abort, so the last plane in this element is Captain Melton's aircraft of 24501, and that's another one of those no-named F beauties. The sixth and final element in the tale of the train is being led by Captain John M. Howard and Lieutenant Gustav Holstrom in 24498. Howard and Holstrom were in the 369th. They were nicknamed Fightin' Bightin, and it would be a crew from the Fightin' Bightin Squadron that brings over 42-29524 from the United States in just over a week. It is also that same crew that designs the logo for the Fightin' Bightins. Tech Sergeant Ben Gordon, he was in the top turret, and he was the engineer of the aircraft. He was calling out in his intercom in his Philly accent as the last two aircraft were coming into position. The last two aircraft of the tale element, which frankly would turn out to be problematic and was what made matters worse, they were in the Clay Pigeon Squadron are Lieutenant Danton Nygaard in 25071 and Lieutenant John McKee flying the Rose O'Day. So the bomb group is now formed up. They hit Beachy Head, which was the initiation point. They have 17 of their 19 scheduled aircraft with them, and they start heading for their next navigation point on the way to Romilly-Sussane. It looks like a very nice day, very good weather. It's freezing cold outside, and obviously it's a lot colder at 20,000 feet. What were Uncle Bill Warner and Steele doing today? They're not listed on any mission reports, but Warner is penciled in as piling in a plane on one of the flight sketches. So I suppose it's very possible that Warner was flying and Steele was with him, and they were one of the two planes that aborted the mission. Maybe someday I can find a reference to this while I'm looking for something else. The bomb group was escorted by the British Spitfires. They crossed over the English Channel and into France, and then as the Spitfires peeled off, there was the greeting from the Nazi party awaiting for them. The crews of the 306th Bomb Group were hot. The Germans knew that they were coming, and they knew where they would be. So how come the army posters say, loose lips sink ships, never show an aircraft? Well, I did some research, and I actually found a couple of those posters that did show aircraft or references to aircraft. So I guess there were a couple out there. What I am about to tell you may not be exactly the correct timing or sequence, but the results and consequences are. The air crews that survived this mission were stunned. They defined the mission as a rough one. Many sat on the tarmac after the mission, just staring into space. Others found a bottle and a pack of cigarettes. This is an example of when you get punched in the face, knocked down, get up and keep fighting. And by the end, you're not exactly sure of all of the timing of all of the punches, but you know who got hit, who hit back, who went down, and who limped home. The attacks today by the German pilots were very persistent, and the crews of the 306th Bomb Group noted that their tracers did not deter them at all. As soon as the British Spitfires turned the 306th Group over near Rhone, the attacks commenced with silver fuselage Focke-Wulf 190s. The pilots and crews also noted that these were running attacks in all directions, but we will see that the most effective attacks were from the front and the nose. Just outside of Paris, Captain Lambert's element with Excalibur and Terry and the Pirates, they were not only dealing with enemy aircraft, but they were also having aircraft trouble. The Excalibur had sloppy controls and her superchargers were going in and out, and so there was a question on whether or not she should have even been flown that day. So I say, when you're just outside of Paris and deep in enemy territory, it really is the wrong time to decide that the aircraft was not fit to fly. Once again, the day saw a flying circus of colored planes from the Luftwaffe. I really do enjoy reading about the multi-colored plane combinations. I might have to build several models of my favorite combinations, but at least one of them must be one of those yellow-nosed bastards. A pack of Focke-Wulfs comes through the squadron, and Captain Lambert reacts to the evasive action that Old Faithful 2 and DFC are taking, cursing the moves as dangerous and unnecessary. The Focke-Wulfs make an S-pattern through the squadron, and Terry and the Pirates takes a direct hit in the brunt of the cannon fire. Pieces of her start falling off, and she quickly loses two engines. Staff Sergeant Baumgardner, in Captain Lambert's tailgun position, is reporting the status. Three Focke-Wulfs with yellow noses, white wings, and small crosses press the attack on Terry and the Pirates, and she starts to lose speed and altitude. 20-millimeter cannon fire tears through the nose of the aircraft. 25-year-old First Lieutenant Sidney Burke, a native Floridian from Jacksonville, Duval County, was manning a machine gun in the navigator position in the nose of the aircraft. As the 20-millimeter shells hit, he was killed instantly. Burke had been with the squadron since June, and he would be awarded a Purple Heart. The nose of Terry and the Pirates was nearly blown off the aircraft, and as Bombardier First Lieutenant Robert Freeman was manning a gun and getting ready to prepare for a bomb run, he too was killed by the withering 20-millimeter shells as they exploded in the nose. Lieutenant Freeman had just arrived three days before Steele and was a replacement for the Clay Pigeon Squadron. Terry and the Pirates continued to lose altitude and speed, and the three Focke-Wulfs continued their attack while Lieutenant McKesson and Second Lieutenant Burgette were doing everything they could to keep her in the air. Even though the nose of the plane was decimated and Burke and Freeman were dead, Lieutenant McKesson was able to keep Terry and the Pirates from stalling and rolling over. However, this meant that the Focke-Wulfs would continue their pursuit, and they did. The gunners were doing their best to keep the fighters at bay, but they had lost the protection of the formation, so it was one versus whoever decided to show up, and at that moment it was three Focke-Wulfs. Both of the waist gunners were from New Hampshire, Sergeants Lucien Bedard and Fletcher DeWolf, with their French heritage, okay, maybe French-Canadian, but still French, and they were over their ancestral homeland and fighting as hard as they could. The engineer in the aircraft and top turret gunner was a 21-year-old native of New York and had Czech heritage. He spoke four languages and his name was Ludvík Dežanka, probably again butchered that name. The tail gunner is Sergeant Richard Cox. He was from Bradford, PA, and the ball turret gunner was manned by Stanley Millick, who was 23 years old and from New Jersey. The radio man, who was also manning a machine gun, his name was Delmar Swires. He was from Oregon. Delmar Swires is now the second Delmar mentioned in this story, because you may remember the bomb group is being led by Delmar Wilson, so now we have Wilson and Wilson and Delmar and Delmar. Anyway, back to the gunners. These brave men, or if these brave men were able to knock down any of the fighters, it simply is not recorded or documented, so the least that we know is that they were putting up the best defense that they possibly could. Another burst of cannon fire shook the Terrier and the Pirates, and it killed ball turret gunner Stanley Millick and wounded radio man Swires. Pilot McKesson ordered the bailout, but none of the crew went out. At least there was no recorded parachutes from the squadron. Lambert's tail gunner, again Sergeant Baumgartner, could see that Terrier and the Pirates was drifting farther and farther towards the ground, but she was still under control. The next part of this story was reported by Tech Sergeant Delmar Swires as part of his family stories and recorded in his obituary. According to Swires, the pilots were able to crash the aircraft into the Seine River, and even though he was wounded with shrapnel, he made it to shore where he was immediately captured. There is merit to Swires' story because the pilots, Louis McKesson and Quentin Burgett, along with DeJonca, Bedard, DeWolf, and Richard Cox, all survived and became POWs after the war. No parachutes were ever spotted, and another aircraft, our DFC friends, had later recorded that they thought the plane actually landed at an airfield. So, airfield, river, some similarities in that reference. Let me add a little editorial note about myself and part of the purpose of this podcast as it relates to history. I want to make sure that I apply proper etiquette to these airmen, planes, crews, and history. Many of these men will be killed, wounded, and simply messed up for the rest of their lives. Some will continue their reckless abandon and burnout early. Some will find comfort in a bottle and never find their way out. Some are going to shake for years, but they're all going to have nightmares, and some are just going to hide it better than others. My great-uncle was in the 2nd Ranger Battalion from its training in the United States to England, and then Pointe du Hoc, Brest, the Hurtgen Forest, and Czechoslovakia. He died at a very young age, complications from post-traumatic war, stress syndrome. He's only slightly referenced in books, and since he never wanted fame, I suppose that's best. However, I always wanted recognition for him and the family, and what I've learned over the years is that history gets rewritten by those who live the longest, and that's not right. Therefore, I apologize if I've given you names of crewmen and planes which are not known or famous, but I'm trying to intentionally recognize those that deserve it, and even with that, I am sure I, too, am going to miss someone. Back to the story. It was great flying weather, and the visibility was quite good. In fact, the Sons of Fury would report that they could see the Eiffel Tower, and you know they wished it was under better circumstances. As the 306th Bomb Group approached Romilly-Sussein, they noticed that the facility was heavily camouflaged, but it did not matter. The Bomb Group delivered their early Christmas presents. The results of the bomb run were mixed. There were a few direct hits on hangars, but mostly the patterns were scattered. If there is such thing as a scattered pattern, or doesn't that just make it random? The Bomb Group then turned west and headed out of town. They were a lot lighter than when they came in. The run for the coast was quite harrowing, and even though the flak was heavy and bursting inside the Bomb Group, it would be the fighters that inflicted the most damage today, and the Luftwaffe pilots had a clear disregard for their own personal safety, and Captain Lambert's ship confirmed that they were not deterred by our tracers. It's about this time that a squadron of all-black and leopard print Focke-Wulf 190s, ME-109s, and even one JU-88 entered the battle. As this group headed up to meet the 306th, the Germans again took out one of their own with a direct hit from flak at 15,000 feet, and another instance of the irony of war. Over the next 30 minutes, the Bomb Group would record how unprotected the nose of their ships really were, and how they would be just subjected to immense abuse. We will hear about acts of courage, and we will have a little twist to our story. The Luftwaffe had found a weakness in the formation and started to put pressure on the last element, the sixth element, being led by Captain Howard and Lieutenant Holstrom. Howard and Holstrom were tucked in over Sweet Pea's right shoulder, and Sweet Pea recalls the air just being completely filled with enemy fighters, mostly yellow-nosed, white-bellied Focke-Wulfs, but there were also some of these all-black planes in the mix now. Captain Howard's element was attacked in succession, and Howard's no-named F-Beauty took a 20 or 30 millimeter cannon shell right through the nose of the aircraft. Second Lieutenant Conrad Jefferson Farr was killed in the attack. Farr was 24 years old and had been with the squadron since the summer. He was originally from Colorado. Howard and Holstrom's plane is then shot to hell. Second Lieutenant Farr had been killed. The upper turret had been hit. Tech Sergeant Gordon, the man inside the upper turret, had been wounded in the neck and head. Ball turret gunner Pete Pappas has frostbitten legs. The brakes of the plane are shot out. Sergeant Harold Lightbone, the radio operator, has also been wounded, but he continues to man his gun and is providing an excellent defense. Both of the wings have holes in them. Some of the rounds have struck the propellers. Gustav and Howard are able, though, to keep her in the air and in formation. What is the most startled or scared that you've ever been? You know, scared as in someone or something that makes you jump. Can you imagine how one jumps when the aircraft they are in and flying is hit and the cockpit explodes? That is what it must have been like for Lieutenant Nygaard and the crew of the 25071 as 20mm rounds explode the cockpit and rip through the fuselage. They had been attacked from the front by one of those yellow-nosed bastards, and the bomb group watched as the cockpit literally exploded, and the aircraft went out of control and started to roll wingtip over wingtip. To the left of 25071 was the Roseau Day. Waste Gunner Sergeant Darwin was on his lucky seventh mission, and as Nygaard's aircraft exploded, his mind raced back to that fateful day in October when they flew their first mission. You see, that was the last day that he had seen his comrade-in-arms, Tech Sergeant Irwin Wiesenbach. Tech Sergeant Wiesenbach was flying in Captain Olsen's aircraft, the Snoozy II, and it, too, was just off the Roseau Day's wing when she was attacked from the front by those yellow-nosed bastards. The attack decimated the top of the Snoozy II and then caused a small explosion that almost took the top of her completely off. The pilots were killed by the gunfire, and Darwin's friend had been knocked out of his top turret gun position by the shattering glass. Sergeant Darwin could see Irwin was still alive when he climbed back into his top turret gun position. He then watched in helpless horror as the Snoozy II then headed for Earth with his barracks mate still in position and still firing back at those yellow-nosed bastards that were circling the plane like buzzards. He never saw any parachutes, and his heart sank. It's hard losing friends, and you never forget them. He thought to himself how Irwin was a hero. Today, once again, his friends and barracks mates have taken a direct hit. They are spinning out of control, and it's like deja vu all over again. Lieutenant Danton Nygaard was flying his second mission since he arrived with the squadron in October, and he was burned on the face, arms, and hands. His co-pilot, Lieutenant Daniel DeButts, had flown his last mission and was killed. The aircraft was out of control and spinning with no hope of saving her. Nygaard was trying to get his senses about, and the ringing in his ears was contributed to his equilibrium being off. He was able to put on a parachute with Lieutenant Tross, who was the bombardier's help, and they crawled to the nose hatch where Tross sent Nygaard out of the hatch first, and then he quickly followed. Staff Sergeant Cecil Floyd, who was the engineer, he grabbed Lessman, the navigator, and pulled him from under some debris. Lessman was able to get a parachute on, and he too went out the nose hatch as the aircraft slid under 4,000 feet. We know that Cecil Floyd was alive at this point because he had helped Frank Bob, what another great name, Lessman, get out of the aircraft, but he never made it out of the plane and was killed. So was he wounded and succumbed to his wounds? Did he go through the plane looking for other survivors? We just don't know. We can only speculate and wonder. Cecil was 24 years old from Purnell, Oklahoma, where he lived with his aunt and uncle. They would later bring him back to the United States for burial. Robert Sanlin, the radio man, was also from Oklahoma but a little further east in Wagner, Oklahoma. He too was brought back home to be buried. Arthur Bloom, a gunner, was 25 from Akron, Ohio. Arnold Pearson was a gunner. He was 22. He was married and from Indiana. Edwin Simonsack, a gunner, 27 years old, from Scanton, PA, and Stephen Ross, gunner, 23 years old, from Michigan. They were all also killed. Lieutenant Danton Johnson Nygaard would be captured and sent to Stalag Luft III, where he would recover from his wounds, but he would remain a POW for the rest of the war. He would eventually retire a captain and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The next time you're in Arlington, you should go by and pay your respects. Back on the Roseau Day, Staff Sergeant Garwin's thoughts were broken up by the youngster of the group, 17-year-old Carl Warheit. He was the ball turret gunner, and he was calling out attacks and constantly firing at those yellow-nosed bastards. Sergeant Warheit was a loyal Hana, Pennsylvania native, where he lived with his mom, four brothers, and sisters. Carl had left high school early, I should say, and enlisted in the Army when he was 16 years old, obviously needing his mother's approval, of course. He had now been in the Army for 15 months. Darwin was 22 years old, had been in the Army for just over a year, so he was Carl's senior in age, but not time in service. Darwin had joined up after his four years of high school and was pretty good with his hands, because he made a lot of clay pottery, which frankly would have been a lot better thing to do today than what he was doing. The German fighters continued to pick at the tail of the bomb group, which meant that the tail gunner and Captain Melton's, no-named F. Beauty, a Corporal Limerhirt from Hebbion, Illinois, was helping to drive off the attacks, but the fact was the Luftwaffe pilots were going to be persistent today, even if it meant their own lives. A Focke-Wulf 190 made an attack from 8 o'clock and pressed the attack through the Roseau Day. Darwin, from his waist gun position, sent tracers out to meet it, and Limerhirt was also able to get a burst into it, and the Focke-Wulf rolled over, headed for earth, and Limerhirt followed it down, watching it hit the earth and burst into flames. The Roseau Day was painted with a three-leaf clover with Roseau Day in big letters above the clover and the nose side gun on the left side of the plane. The photos are in black and white, so I don't know if there is any green or Irish green lettering or coloring in any of it. You can only speculate, but she would not be so lucky today. This was Lieutenant McKee's fourth mission, and both McKee and Haymaker, the co-pilot, were experienced and had originally hoped to bring the bomb group over to England in August and September, but even though they were experienced, they really did not have a long tenure of missions under their belts while flying with the clay pigeons. Another Focke-Wulf made an attack on the Roseau Day and was able to place well-aimed shots into her wings and engines. The Roseau Day shuddered, shook, pieces of her started to fly off, and the engines started to go out one by one. McKee and Haymaker were trying to evade the attacks, but to no avail. The damage had been done. The good news was that the crew was unharmed. Haymaker was calling out engine performance or the lack thereof, while McKee kept the aircraft under control. The Roseau Day started to drift out of formation and was losing altitude fast. Corporal Lemonhurst, who was giving Captain Milton updates, while Sergeant Forrester and the Sweet Pea was doing the same for Captain Ryan. 19,000 feet, 18,000 feet, then the coup de grace, a wolf attack that sends bullets through the ball turret, and the number four engine is out. Darwin tries to get to war height, but there's no hope. He's gone. The gunners were trying to keep back the wolves when McKee made the call. Abandon ship. Thomas Marchant, the navigator, and George Matthews, bombardier, went out the nose hatch. Leonard Haymaker then went out the bomb bay doors. Tail gunner Walter Wynn went out the tail hatch, while Helmuth Roeder, the other waist gunner, went out the side hatch. The engineer was Stanley Garner and radioman Francis Hess. They also jumped out and through the bomb bay doors. This left McKee and Darwin. At 15,000 feet, McKee exited the aircraft. Staff Sergeant Darwin thought about his mom, his family, and he worried about them. He knew they would get the terrible news. Then, with little haste, Darwin Wisenbach went out the side hatch. His chute opened and he started to glide towards the earth. Darwin Wisenbach was the twin brother of Erwin Wisenbach, who was in the Snoozy 2 when it was shot down on the first mission to Lille on October 9th. Some of the other crews thought they saw a parachute or two come out of the Snoozy 2 just before it hit the ground, but in the two months since the Snoozy 2 went down, Erwin's body had not been recovered, nor was he a POW, so he was officially listed as MIA. As Darwin Wisenbach drifted towards earth, he watched the Roseau Day fall out of control, and he was sad for Carl Warheide's family. He was so young. The Roseau Day hit the earth and exploded. The other crews in the 306th watched the scene and recorded it. Sons of Fury counted eight parachutes. Buddenbaum's crew counted nine, as did the Unbearable. A Focke-Wulf was circling and following the parachutes down. The Luftwaffe had been accused of shooting down crew members in parachutes, but today, I suppose, he was marking positions because all nine airmen made it down safely and without incident. Eight of the nine crew members were quickly captured. Marchant, Matthews, Hamaker, Wynn, Roeder, Garner, Hess, and Wisenbach. The bomb group was limping home, but they were not out of danger yet, and they had already lost three aircraft, and others were in peril. Captain Howard and his crew were shot to pieces. Second Lieutenant Farr had been killed, and three other crew members are wounded or injured. The aircraft is now at the tail of the formation and trying to tuck in behind the Sweet Pea. The crew was still trying desperately to defend the aircraft while Howard and Gustav tried evasive action. Sergeant Lightbone, while he was wounded, was able to knock down one of those yellow-nosed Focke-Wulfs in the middle of this intense firefight and sent it spinning towards the ground. No parachute. Howard and Gustav would get the ship home with no further incident or injury and no brakes since they had all been shot out. So what is going on with my favorite aircraft? Deja vu. The Wahoo 2 was shot to hell all over again. The left horizontal stabilizer is gone. The No. 3 engine is out and feathered. The No. 2 engine is damaged. The hydraulics and oxygen systems have been shot out. The co-pilot's window has been shot out. The elevator control is shot out, and all four officers have been wounded by enemy cannon fire, which caused a, quote, undetermined explosion in the nose of the ship. Ripp and Maliszewski skillfully and courageously keep the Wahoo 2 flying, and they make it home. On a positive note, not only has Second Lieutenant Gerald Rotter put down a fabulous bomb pattern on Romney Sussane, he also put down one of those yellow-nosed bastards with a dark blue body during the intense fighting after the bomb run, and that was two minutes after Tech Sergeant Robert Stevenson dropped one from his radio position. This would be the third time in a row Ripp, Riordan, and Maliszewski have brought home a badly damaged aircraft. Maybe they are lucky to fly with. I wonder if they're going to get a Wahoo 3. As the bomb group neared the protection of the Spitfire squadrons, we get my favorite description of one of the woundings. Lieutenant John Hogan, yes, just like Hogan's heroes, who was the navigator of the Montana Power, is wounded by a 20-millimeter shell that comes through the nose and hits him in the wrist and shoulder as it fragments. The nature of the injury was, quote, bleeding, unquote. I find that description bloody brilliant. How did Steele's crew fare flying in the DFC today, Hull and Petrowski? They had a front row seat to the carnage and dished out a lid of their own. They also helped to corroborate part of the story as it relates to Terry and the pirates. The DFC witnessed six B-17s go down, three of which were from their mates in the 367th squadron. They also witnessed McKesson make a forced landing in what looked like an airport, so maybe it was a river. Staff Sergeant William Hull was from Chico, California, and he was at his waist gun position, and this again was his maiden voyage, when he saw a Focke-Wulf dive from 11 o'clock at Captain Lambert's aircraft. Hull started firing at the diving Wolf, and it burst into flames about 100 yards from Lambert's aircraft and spun off into the wild blue yonder. As the bomb group neared thoroughly, the ground crews counted 12, 13, 14, 14, 14. The ships with wounded and injured crewmen dropped their flares and medical personnel met them at the aircraft. Many of the crew members simply sat in silence processing the day. It had been a very difficult day indeed. It did not matter that the target had been hit. It simply is never a good feeling when a crew is lost, but how should one feel when three crews are lost? Additionally, two more planes were severely shot up and another crew member had been killed. The Wisenbachs would receive news that their second son, Irwin's twin brother Darwin, had also now been shot down and is listed as MIA. Cecil Floyd's body was eventually returned to the United States and was reinterred in Purnell, Oklahoma. His aunt and uncle, who he lived with, were devastated over his loss, and his Aunt Sarah wrote the following poem. We were left so sad and lonely six years ago when our most beloved one passed away. We mourn for you, dear Cecil, but not with outward show. For the heart that mourns sincerely mourns silently and low. More and more each day we miss you. Friends may think the wound is healed, but little do they know the sorrow that lies within our hearts concealed. May God grant you a crown, dear Cecil, in that mansion over there. It is our daily prayer for you since you left this world of care. We too shall strive to enter that mansion in the sky. He is promised to the faithful when from death's slumber we arise. A precious one from us is gone. His voice we loved is still. A place is vacant in our home that can never be filled. Julie Warheight received news just before Christmas Day that her son Carl was missing in action. She would later get the news that he had been killed and he was buried in a cemetery in France. She requested that her son be kept there alongside his comrades and not be returned to the United States. Charles and Esther Farr would receive news just before Christmas that their son Conrad had been killed in action over France on December 20, 1942, and every Christmas after that it was like deja vu. Remember Lessman and Trost from Nygard's aircraft? Well, they're still evading capture. McKee and Erwin Wisenback had also not yet been captured and they too were on the run. Yes, that's right. Erwin Wisenback had parachuted out of the Snoozy 2 at a thousand feet and two months later had still not been captured. This concludes Episode 3, Deja Vu. Stay tuned as the next mission is on the runway and will take us on a journey of courage, friendship, and sacrifice. And maybe we get an update on those Evades that the Krauts are having a hard time finding. Until next time, just think of the things you can find when you're looking for something else. Gaspar out. you