Issue 13.13
When our crew was about half way through our tour of 35 missions, we as a crew got a one week stay at a “FLAK” house; that is all of us except Luin Lewis, our top turret gunner/engineer who spent his week in Scotland to look up relatives. This place was “Spetchly Park” which was the ancestral home of the Barkley family.
It was a beautiful mansion about two hundred years old. We could sleep as much as desired. The butler woke us up each morning to bring us tea and crumpets and fruit while we were yet in bed. We ate about five meals per day. We took excursion rides to the city of Worcester. They told us that the Barkley family at one time owned nearly the whole city except one pub that was named “Barkley Not”.
We walked in the 200 or 300 hundred year old shops. While not flying, we often had time to have gunnery practice, which was shotgun skeet shooting at lofted clay pigeons. We also had time to play cards and take in an evening movie or to the Church Army Canteen which was similar to the American Salvation Army. We could buy tea and crumpets or a spam Sandwich for a three-penny bit (5 cents) which was better than mess hall food. I ate at the Church Army Canteen more than I ate at the mess hall. Often times when there were empty bunks in our barracks, one was taken by a private who was on permanent KP who stayed with us any time he could. He talked with us, played cards with us and seemed more like one of us crew men than a kitchen helper. I didn’t understand, so one day I asked Nick what his situation was. Nick told me “He and his crew had flown eight missions and the next mission was to Big “B” (Berlin) and his group was the lead group in the bomber train. (There is always a primary target and a secondary target and if the secondary was to be hit, then a pre arranged signal such as the letter “k” was sent by radio). “The signal was sent out but my group of thirty six bombers and another group did not get the signal so we went to Big “B” alone with no friendly fighter escorts”. The Jerrys had a good day and they shot down thirty three out of the thirty six bombers of my group that went in”. “I was in one of the three that got back but we had some on the crew killed and I was wounded”. “We fired our red flares and got down at our base and I was taken to the base hospital where I stayed till I was able to return to combat status”. I had a few days of not flying but then I was assigned to fly another mission with another crew”. “I flew that one but I had a terrible time with it”. “I went to the flight surgeon and told him I couldn’t do any more”. I missed the next two missions but he said I had to go again”. “With misgivings I went on another mission but when I came home from that one, I was a basket case”. “I then told them flat out that I wouldn’t fly again”. Nick knew what the consequence would be. He was busted from Staff Sgt. back to private and he was to be on permanent KP for the rest of the war. There is an old Army truism that says “The Army can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do but they can make you wish you had done it. In this case Nick did what he wanted to do and still he did not wish he hadn’t.