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Had to Go to War - (Part 2) By Thomas L. Yates Another time when we were coming off a target the Pilot called out for the whereabouts of our fighter escort and the reply was "Here we are, boss, just six little blue birds". There were some squadrons of black pilots flying both P51s and P38s out of Foggia. We always liked this escort for if we got into trouble and had to start home alone one of them usually peeled off and came back with us. I heard later that this group of pilots received many citations for their actions and accomplishments. I have to tell this "Believe it or not" story that I kept the whole Fifteenth Air Force down while I had breakfast. As it happened I was not scheduled to fly one morning and all of the sudden I was awakened by the operations officer. He said I was needed to fly as an engineer with the lead ship as their regular engineer had suddenly taken ill. Now I'm a breakfast person and there is no way I can function without it. I also didn't want to get shot down with no food in my stomach. I told the officer I had to have my breakfast so he told me to get my gear ready and he would go to the mess hall and get some food. He brought it back and I sat on my cot and had my breakfast. I really don't remember the menu but it must have been sufficient. After eating I got in the Jeep and we went to where the lead ship was parked. I had not flown lead before and had to be checked out on the auxiliary power plant. The lead plane has a radar unit for navigation. This unit was called a Mickey. Lt. Wilson was there flying as a nose turret navigator so I asked him where we were going and he said Munich. I knew why the lead engineer suddenly got sick. This is the one place I had no desire to go but we had cloud cover and the run was fairly easy. I was present at a rather strange situation quite by accident. I had not realized that many guys did not know how to drive for they were city boys and had no need to drive. In Texas we all drove at an early age. Anyway, an officer wanted to go to the flight line and there was no one to drive him so I offered. In fact, I was delighted to drive anything again. As we were nearing the field we saw a plane coming in with no rudder or stabilizer on the left side. As we pulled up to where others were viewing the landing, they remarked what a great job the pilot was doing. When the plane touched down it hurried to a parking place and shut down the engines. The pilot hurried out of the plane for he too wanted to see the plane that had only one stabilizer. Little did he know that it was he that the tower was talking about. It seemed that his plane had mechanical problems and was late taking off. He tried to take a shortcut and went through a dark cloud. The turbulent cloud put the plane in a spin causing the bombs to be thrown through the side of the plane and shear off the rudder and stabilizer. You can't pull a B-24 out of a spin, but this pilot did. After they got control, one of the officers went back to the waist position and all he found was a spilled chute. We all carried an extra chute so this was not alarming. At the time the pilot landed he really didn't know what happened to the members of the crew. Later we learned they parachuted behind enemy lines but made it back safely. When I think of Ploesti, I think of my last mission, or supposedly my last mission. I was flying just as an engineer with a Major and it was the last mission for the both of us and we were scheduled to fly in the "Tail-end Charlie" position. I questioned the Major's position for with his rank surely he could have had a better position, so I thought. He said, "Sergeant, I flew this position on the Ploesti raids, they went over the target and I went around." I'm sure this was not true, but he made me feel better. We were to hit a target near Florence and it was coordinated with other flights and when it was our time to drop our bombs there was a flight just beneath us so we went to the Adriatic, got rid of our bombs and came home. It wasn't our fault we didn't drop but operations had a problem deciding if we should get credit for the mission. They scheduled me to fly the next day with an officer I knew pretty well. H e had been a co-pilot and, was trying out as a first pilot. Maybe they picked me because someone thought he needed an experienced engineer. This was a low altitude mission and the Leaning Tower of Pisa was an identifying marker. We lost an engine so we feathered the prop, shut off the gas to that engine and came on home. It was a short run so the loss of the engine was not a problem. When I got back I was notified that the previous mission counted and this was just an extra mission. While in Italy our Squadron base was a farm house and the barns and the buildings that go with a farm. I don't know where the farmer lived, but he brought his oxen to the watering trough at the barn. The barn had a brick floor and we built a heating stove from a 55 gallon drum and used 5 gallon cans stacked to form a chimney. The chimney was about 30 or 40 feet high to reach the top of the roof. One morning, Bill and I decided to light the fire. It was kind of dark and we couldn't see how much gas we were releasing in the barrel. We threw in a match and it sent fire way above the roof. It was like a rocket taking off for outer space. Later on we got a tent of our own and our crew really enjoyed the privacy. We also heated our tent the same way and sparks often burned little holes in the canvas. The Provost Marshall came in almost daily, when we weren't flying, and told us that we needed to repair the holes. He had a saying that sticks with me, it was, "I'm Sheriff Mitten and I ain't shitten". We saluted him once a month for he was the payroll officer and it was regulations to salute the person who pays you. The other night some of us were talking about WW II American Generals and General Patton's name was mentioned. I told about the time we flew oil, ammunitions, and gas to Lyon, France. You may have read or seen in the movies that Patton's troops pushed further than their supply lines reached. During this emergency we stripped some of our planes drastically, including the guns, and loaded our bomb bay to the hilt with gas, oil, and ammo. With only a pilot, co-pilot and Engineer we made the deliveries to Lyon. We didn't need a navigator for all we had to do was miss Marseille to the west and follow the Rhone River to Lyon. We were told that the front lines were only 14 miles to the east. We didn't need much money. Cigarettes were a nickel a pack and six was the limit for the week; candy bars were a nickel, but there was a limit of three. I don't remember the price of a beer, but the limit was three. Occasionally we could buy soap, tooth paste and a tooth brush. Once in a while we could buy razor blades. We were not required to shave but when the whiskers interfered with the oxygen mask we didn't have to be told. Most of us were too young to shave anyway. Sometimes when we had been flying all day and had finished talking to the G2 officers about the mission, got our shot of whisky and had finished cleaning our guns, we could get on a truck and head for camp. Once in a while we would see black smoke coming from our camp and this meant hot showers. Drums of water were heated with 100 octane and there was great excitement with the anticipation of this luxury. Toward the end of the war we finally got smart and had some sandwiches prepared by the mess hall. They froze while in flight but they sure did taste good when we were at lower altitude and safely on the way back to our base. Catholic mass was held every Sunday just three or four miles from us. We caught a truck most of the time, but sometimes we just walked. I was sitting in church and in walked Michael K. LaRock. I had flown with him all this time and never knew he was a Catholic. I asked him about his presence there and he said that the next day was his last mission and he wanted all the help he could get. Most of the time our missions were to Munich, Linz, and Vienna. One night we were assigned to a night harassment mission to Innsbruck. Our crews didn't want to go, and especially me. One plane at night with no night experience and no radar in a plane that could barely fly 180 miles an hour seemed awful foolish to me. We just knew we would get hit so we planned our escape route to Switzerland. While we were on the runway ready for takeoff, the tower sent up a yellow flare, meaning to wait, and a few minutes later the red flare was fired and this meant to stand down or cancel. I think my prayers were immediately answered. I don't think John Glenn felt any better when he finished orbiting the earth than I did knowing I wouldn't have to ever fly another mission. It was always a great feeling to land from a mission, open the top hatch, and sit on top of the plane. Engineers were required to look out the hatch or ride on top to alert the pilot of things not visible from the cockpit. When sitting up there it was as if we were saying to everyone, "We did it again world." I was sent to Naples on 1 May 1945 and boarded the Mariposa on the 11th. While in Naples on the 7th, we heard a lot of shouting in the streets and we later learned that the European war was officially over. Of course, my war was already over, but I felt better about the trip across the Atlantic. We arrived at the New York harbor on 20 May and it was as if we had won the war by ourselves. We received a greeting from ships with bands playing and other ships had water spouting everywhere. We were impressed with the people of New York and never had any idea that such a reception was in the offing. On 22 July 1945 I was given an honorable discharge and it certified "Thomas L. Yates, 38460982, Technical Sergeant, 766 Bomb Squadron, is hereby awarded this certificate as a testimonial of Honest and Faithful service to this country" . The participation in combat was one of the greatest times of my life. I know I did things that thousands of others had done, but to me it was my experience, my contribution, my memories, and my special corner of my life. THE END |
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