B-17 Gunner

Hello everyone!  Praise the Lord!

I had a very nice visit with an elderly man on a Saturday afternoon.  We spent an hour and a half talking about his upbringing on a farm in the Spring Branch area. That was very interesting to me because that whole area is now part of the city of Houston.  Thousands of people drive those roads every day have no idea what had been there in the past!

After I asked him, he then mentioned that he served in World War Two.  He was very modest about his service and didn’t make a big deal about it.  I always think that military service during war years is always a big deal!

This mild-mannered gentleman before me was a B-17 tail gunner!  He was stationed with a bomber group in Italy.  They flew mission into the Balkans, which was under German control at the time.  They also were able to fly bomber missions into Southern Germany, and German occupied Eastern Europe.

He said that he flew in twenty-five missions over Germany proper of German controlled Europe.  That was the number of missions that bomber crews had to fly to be discharged and sent home.  Many crews never made it home!

I asked him what he remembers most about his service as a bomber tail gunner.  He said something that I didn’t expect, He said, “the cold!”  He admitted that the extreme cold is what he most remembers.

When the bombed targets in Germany, they had to fly high over the Alps!  The Alps are very high and they had to fly even higher to get over them.  The temperature at those heights could get to fifty degrees below zero!

            They had to just bundle up and endure it as they were also on oxygen.  There is no oxygen at those heights!  So, survival over the elements was the first goal even before they could get to Germany!

            Once they crossed the Alps, the German fighters would be waiting on them.  The temperature would still be very cold, but with their oxygen masks on, they had to fight them off!  After the fighters had their chance then the anti-aircraft guns would start shooting at them!

            The surviving bombers would then attack the target.  Once that was done, they had to endure everything all over again to get back to their base in Italy!  They all had to do that twenty-five times before they could go back home!

            Seventy-five percent would not make that twenty-five-mission number!  They would die in the air, die on the ground after getting shot down, or captured behind enemy lines!

            The man laying in his bed in front of me did survive!  He did make his twenty-five-missions!  When the call for duty rang out, he stood up and showed up!  Then he returned home and made a good life for himself.

Do you know a B-17 airman?  Can you tell me about him?

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Brother Roop
May 7, 2010