Issue 7.13
Our crew (Lt. Harrison’s) was able to complete all 30 required missions. I feel the reason for this was that we had a very proficient crew especially our pilot and co-pilot. Also we couldn’t have survived without the dedication of the ground crew who often times worked throughout the night so that we could have our B-17 bomber ready to go for the next mission. Gas and oil tanks had to be filled, bombs loaded, machine gun ammunition installed and of course the sheet metal guys had to patch the battle damage holes in the airplane. They realized that something left undone could cause an abort or worse, the loss of a bomber and a crew. Besides all the chores to do that sometimes worked them around the clock, the “Ground Pounders” supplied the whole blood to patch up the wounded crewmen. When over enemy territory it gave us combat guys a great deal of solace to see those four engines spinning their propellers. Other things we had to contend with were the minus 65 degree temperatures and the very uncomfortable oxygen masks we had to wear to survive. Mission flown on Jan.5, 1944 we had super charger control problems that started as we entered the enemy coast of Denmark and we aborted the mission. The pilot and navigator found and followed the signal on the radio compass that was supposed to bring us back to
England. We let down to 4,000 feet and after a short time someone spotted land off to our port side but we should see land on our starboard side. It was my belief that England was further away than this land. No sooner had we come over the land than a twelve gun battery of flak guns opened up on us. Our pilot turned and dove down to just skim the waves while the enemy guns tracked us as we departed. We received some damage and the tail gunner was wounded but it would have been much worse if he didn’t have on his steel helmet. The Pilot then asked me, the radio operator, if I could use my radio to get us back and I said I could. I turned my radio on to the direction finding station to get a compass heading and the voice came in loud and clear and a heading was given to me. That heading was not realistic to what it should have been and it was too strong a signal to what it should have been. I was suspicious and I called again and this time he gave me a heading that I did not even ask for. The person on the radio tried to get us to go on a course 90 degrees wrong. After a few more attempts to get the correct information, our pilot started on a heading of 270 degrees and stayed on that till we got far enough that we could hear the right person at the right radio station giving the right directions. We finally got home to our home base but not without a great amount of sweating. On approaching to land, we shot the red flares and an ambulance was waiting for us to stop. He took our tail gunner to the hospital where they patched him up. Some days later he was back to take his place with the crew. Normally if a crew has to abort and they do not drop their bombs, they don’t get credit for a mission but we did get credit for this one. Our direction experience was relayed to the de-briefing officer so this information was given out at later mission briefings.