Issue 40.12
Glen Oliver saw action during World War 2 in a medium two engine bomber. Glen successfully flew through the different phases of Army Air Force training including the multi engine phase. Glen was rushed to Europe as a replacement pilot and was placed in the 584th Squadron of the 586thGroup which was part of the 9th Air Force. Glen had never flown in a B-26 before but he was soon checked out.
The B-26 was a very hot medium bomber. It was famous for the sleek look with wings so short that it was known by all as the “Flying Prostitute” because it had no visible means of support. This plane’s landing speed was a fast 130 mph. Glen was first stationed at a field in England but was moved to France then Belgium and then Western Germany. The field in Germany had a runway just barely long enough. There was water at one end of the runway and a drop off cliff at the other end so on take offs and landing they had better not make a mistake. The B-26 had a crew of six and carried a bomb load of 4,000 pounds. That’s a pretty big bomb load considering that a B-17 normally carried 6,000 pounds. However where the B-17 was able to stay aloft for thirteen hours, the B-26 was limited to three hours. She was powered by two Pratt & Whitney radial 450 engines. Because of the limited range, their targets were railroad bridges, troop movements, trains fuel dumps and working with advancing Allied troops. Their missions were usually escorted by P-51’s or P-38’s.
The B-26 itself was protected by eight heavy machine guns. Navigation was obtained by visual markers such as railroad tracks, rivers and towns or cities. Radio towers were placed at strategic places to guide bombers. There was also sending towers to send out a signal that can be triangulated upon and used by all types of allied aircraft.
After Glen had flown a number of missions, he was given his own crew and bomber. Glen had a good crew and they all survived except for one crew member who had been loaned to another crew which did not return from that mission. All surviving bomber crew men remember one mission above all the rest because that is the one that they almost met their end.
Glen’s bomber was in the number two position in an element of three. This mission to a target on the Rhine River turned out to be their toughest mission. They were flying at 14,000 and were on oxygen but they had to drop down to a more dangerous altitude to bomb their target. The
FLAK was intense that day and the group was somewhat disbursed. Of 65 medium bombers sent out that day, only Glen’s plane got back to their home base as the rest got down at any place they could find. Glen’s plane luckily let down lined up with the runway and got down safely. He didn’t have enough gasoline to get him off the runway so things worked out perfectly. When the ground crew went over the plane, they counted three hundred holes. Two of the holes were as big as basketballs.
When the war in Europe had ended, Glen was told that he would have go on a troop ship, the Isle De France, and got back to the continental U S.
Glen was given a 30 day leave and then traveled to Santa Anna, California to wait for his turn to go to the Pacific. One day he and all of the rest of us got the news that the atomic bomb was dropped and then another. Glen was happy that the war was ended.
Sam Wyrouck can be contacted at 801-707-2666.