An Air Crew Member during W.W.II, on a B-24 Liberator Bomber as I Remember It.

By: Joe Peterson

There were 6 of us at Salt Lake City Air Base who came to gather to be assigned to an aircraft crew. Special Orders were published listing us by name, Coven was the Flight engineer, and upper turret gunner. McCamish was the Radio Operator who could also fill in the upper turret Gunner. Richard Hall was the Tail gunner and assistant Radio Operator. John Karavish was the ball gunner and Armor. Bill Person was a waist gunner and assistant armor. I was a waist gunner and assistant engineer.

Upon our arrival at Peterson Field in Colorado Springs, CO, we assigned to the same barracks. There we began our training as a crew for the B 24, Liberator bomber. Two days of ground school and one day of flying was our schedule. On week ends we explored Colorado Springs.

The army was nearby and they were rough on the Air Force troops caught out alone. We tried to always pair up with 2 or more of our crew. I don't remember which one but one of our crew got roughed up one night.

Here is where we met out Pilot, Lt. George Laszlo, the CoPilot, Lt. Mathew T. Nemeyer, the Navigator Lt. ? and the Bombardier Lt. Sandford.

We use to play soft ball as a crew for exercise and nicknamed the Pilot, "Casey" for his power with the bat. The name stuck and even to day I still only think of him Casey. Our dealings were mostly with Casey as he was our leader and the other three had other things to do.
 
Richard Hall was married and his wife was there with him so he was not in the barracks with us. He lost his wife in childbirth shortly after we arrived in England and he was returned to the states and I took that position in the tail most of the time. After they removed the Bombardier from all but the lead and assistant lead aircraft I use to fly in the nose position and toggle the bombs when the lead ship dropped. We picked up another waist gunner.

Rackheath, was our home away from home, we met the other crews and listen to the war stories from the men who had been there since March, many of them were with the original group who had trained in the states. The ground crew were the ones who had trained in the states and came over as a group and did not get to go home after a certain number of combat missions. The number of missions we had to fly was 35. It had been increased from 25 to 30 then to 35 by the time we arrived. Records from "Poop from Group" indicates more were relieved because of emotional problems or wounds than finished the required number of missions.

We weren’t assigned an Airplane but flew the one we were assigned for each mission. The Engineer and Pilot flew one mission before the rest of us, to aquatint themselves with the routine. Our first two missions were calm enough to give us confidence. The first one was to Lubeck Germany, a long one, we flew over the North Sea due east past the Zider Zee in Holland and across the South of Denmark almost to the Polish border before turning south to Lubeck. I don’t remember how the mission went but we were on edge all the way. Then on the 3rd we went to Lille France, a so call "milk run" as we didn’t take off until about noon, it was a short hop across the channel and back, with no opposition expected. It was a nice clear day with a few fluffy clouds floating around. General Pattons tanks were pushing the Germans back into France and Germany.

The lead crew missed dropping the bombs as a nice fluffy cloud had obscured the target (Railroad yards) just as we passed over it. No one shot at us, so the leader ordered the formation to do a 180 degree turn and come back at the same altitude. About the time we dropped the bombs we got hit by anti-aircraft fire in the left wing between engine number 2 and the flight deck. The explosion had blown the top off the upper turret and broken the head off one of the cylinders on number 2 engine. It had ripped the fuel transfer panel off the bulkhead wall and gasoline was spraying in a fine mist all over the flight deck. The Engineer in the upper turret was killed instantly. The Radio Operator on the flight deck had his chest blown open, and was dead lying on the floor. The flight deck was a mess with gasoline spraying out all over the radio room.

I had gotten out of the tail turret because we were loosing altitude and I had no power in the turret. When I got to the waist I found George Brennan taking the Flack vest off of Bill Person.(George was flying with our crew as Red Hall had Left us by that time). I gave him a hand and in getting to the wound area. I asked where the ball gunner was and George told me he had gone up front to see what the situation was, or if any one was alive up there, as we were still losing altitude. I decided I better go and see what was keeping him. When I got up front the ball gunner was in the fetal position on the flight deck and shaking. I learned later that he had noticed the engineers legs hanging loose, expecting to help him he had released the seat and a headless corps popped into his arms. I could understand why he was in shock, but I did not know it then, I shook him and got him on his feet and through the bomb bay back to the waist.

The Bombardier and Navigator never came up on the flight deck to my knowledge. I supposed they were killed also. I asked the pilot what we were to do and he just keep repeating, we are going home. The copilot did not say a word, he just kept his hands on the wheel.

The plane was vibrating like mad. I almost passed out from the gas fumes as I left the Pilot. I pulled my self up and stuck my head out the side of the plane where there had been a window. As my senses began to return I remember seeing the piston rotating in the engine where the top of the cylinder head had broken off. In a few moments I recovered and knew I had to get out, as I turned I tried to see about the Radio Operator and got dizzy again and again I stuck my head out the window. As I came to it seemed like the prop was windmilling just inches from my face. This time I took several deep breaths and held my breath until I made the bomb bay. The bomb bay doors were still partially open and there was plenty of fresh air there.

I went back to waist and told the other men that we were going home. We finished patching up the gunner( Bill Person) who had been wounded in the hip. He had a large wound, we poured sulfa powder in it and bandaged him up, then attached his parachute and hooked its rip cord with a static cord to the plane. We knew we were going to have to jump sooner or later and we wanted to get him out first. We were afraid he might not be able to pull the rip cord with out the static line. Then we threw everything we could over board to lighten the plane.

About that time we went right over the last stronghold of the Germans, who had been by passed by Patton and his tank troops as they chased the Germans South. We received many hits on the aircraft from that fly over, but we keep going. The plane sounded like it was going through the gravel pit from flack hitting us, we could see holes all around us.. We were so low the 40 mm AA could hit us and they threw every thing they could at us. I don’t know how we got out but we did.

As we came over the coast of England at Mansion the Pilot rang the bailout bell (I still wonder why the aircraft didn’t blow up with all those gas fumes on the flight deck. But of course Casey didn’t know about the gas fumes until days later. The bell must have been inoperative on the flight deck. We hurried to slip Person out the hatch and saw his parachute open, then we followed suite. I can still remember how quiet it was as I floated down. I couldn’t see any other chutes or the airplane but I landed in a field and gathered my chute up and by that time there were people all around me. They hadn’t seen any of the others land but they knew we were in trouble. My clothes were soaked with Gasoline and I was itching all over. A man and a woman took me to their home and got me into other cloths. Person had landed through the roof of a green house and the Englishmen could not find him. He picked up a pot and when he heard them pass he threw it through a window. That brought them inside on the double. Although we corresponded I did not see Person again until 1973, when I visited him and his family in Wisconsin. He spent some time in a hospital in England and then in the US but recovered.

In a short time the army had located me and picked me up and took me to the base. The next morning George and I went out to look at the remains of the plane and we couldn’t believe the number of holes that were in it. The tail turret, where I was flying, was riddled with holes. The nose had been burned off from the fire when the plane hit the ground. The Pilot and copilot had been burned as they landed the plane and got out. We spent two days in the dispensary and then they sent us to a rest home to get us over the trauma of the flight. One crew member (ball guner) crumbled and went to the hospital from there. He asked me to help him upstairs to his bed and about half way up he collapsed and I had to call for help. The doctor took him away that night and he spent quite some time in Army and VA hospital here in the states from the memories of that flight. He had taken the engineer out of the turret and saw him with no head then he threw the body out of thru the bomb bay. (that was over France) That kind of a shock will do things to a person. After Vet Nam they gave it a name and thought it was new.

The Pilot picked up new crew members when we returned from the rest home. He and I were the only ones of the original crew to return to flying until the Copilot joined us again some time later on. Shortly after this they removed the heavy ball turrets from the B-24s and eliminated the Ball Turret gunner (not really he was placed into another gunnery position)

There were some rough missions after that but we never lost another crewman. That doesn’t mean they got easier, they got rougher but we lived.