Columnists

Personal Stories Of WWII… Our Buddies

Issue 16.14

We have lost many buddies in this work. For the first months of my Ariel combat tour every tine our squadron was scheduled to fly, we knew that we would have our assignment in the formation. My favorite place in the squadron was number two position in the high element of the low squadron. This position, I figured gave us the most protection from enemy fighter attacks. However on most missions my crew was assigned to number two position of the low, low element of the low squadron in the group of three squadrons. That position was known as Purple Heart corner. One day we were assigned to the number three spot in that low, low element of the low squadron. Our former place was given to a brand new crew flying their first mission. On their first mission, every new crew had two experienced crew members to fly with them. The experienced gunner that flew with them that day was my friend from Tremonton, Utah. That day, we were still gaining altitude and were not yet in heavy FLAK when a six gun battery opened up on us and scored a hit on this ship. From my vantage point in the lower ball turret, I watched them go straight down. I did not see anyone get out. There were some missions when our squadron stood down, which was one in four missions that our crew flew with another squadron because they were short of crews. It seemed that we were always short of crews, but after the number of missions flown was upped from twenty-five to thirty-five, we were no longer short. At this time, once in a while, a crew got an unexpected welcomed day off. I have seen many of our bombers shot down and they do not go down in the same way. I have watched some explode in a huge ball of fire. I saw one break up a piece at a time and then go down. The sight of the plane flying the closest to me that went down was the one that stayed in my mind the longest.

Actually they took my crew’s place in that spot. I have seen bombers streaming burning gasoline that burned off their tail and then plunged down. I have also seen bombers so damaged that we couldn’t understand why the front was still connected to the back and yet they came home and landed. I have seen it when one bullet or one piece of FLAK came into a bomber and killed or wounded a crew man. I have also seen bombers come home with so many holes that they couldn’t be counted and yet no one was hit and wounded.

If anyone completed thirty-five or twenty-five missions in heavy bombers over Germany and claimed to come home without psychological “baggage”, then there is something wrong. I can’t imagine them flying thirty-five “milk runs”. I flew a few missions where my group did not experience any loses or encounter much opposition. There was one mission that we did not even get one shot fired at us either from the ground or from enemy fighters so they did not count that as a mission. I volunteered for this job. In order for me to stay with the crew, I agreed to take this job. I hated it for the first mission but I got used to it. If there was one combat job in the military during world war two that added up as being the total worst, the most uncomfortable, the most cold, the most confining and claustrophobic and dangerous I do not know of any more so than that isolated lower ball turret positing on bombers over Germany.

Sam Wyrouck can be contacted at 801-707-2666.

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