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"If the Nazis Don't Get You..." By Clair Alexander -- 764th Bomb Squadron Dear George, I regard the following mission as being a bit out of the ordinary but after half a century I had remembered what happened that day as incidents in separate events. Then in 1992 our crew's ball gunner, Don Askertnan, wrote a fine book "My Forties" which chronicled his reminiscences of WWII. It is based on his letters home plus a diary in which, amongst many other things, he detailed our sorties. It is from his book that I have pulled together this narrative. I call the mission we flew on 2 December 1944 "The Trials and Tribulations of a Bomber Crew," or "If the Nazis don't get you the Gremlins will." Early that morning when the Squadron wake-up man entered our tent I was wide awake. I had been laying in bed listening to the aircraft engines as the crew chiefs made their preflight inspections and the rattle of the pots and pans in the nearby kitchen as breakfast was being prepared. For me, an up-coming mission was not conducive to slumber so I had been awakened by the activities of our organization as it began to prepare for the launching of its aircraft. I and my three tent-mates got up, dressed by the light of our kerosene lamp, stepped out into the pitch black night and checked the sky to discover that the stars were completely obscured. Returning outside after breakfast we could see that the dawn's faint light was revealing a solid overcast above our heads. So when we got off our truck and entered the Group briefing room we felt certain that we would not be going. Nevertheless, the briefing began and when the wall map was uncovered it showed that we were to attack the well defended oil refinery at Blechhammer, Germany. Its name alone was enough to send shivers up and down my spine and it was a long ways from Torretta. Because of the distance we would be carrying only six 500 lb. bombs plus a full load of gas. First, the weather officer gave his spiel by telling us that the ceiling above us was at 3,500 ft. These clouds were about 500 ft. thick. It was perfectly clear above the deck and all of it would dissipate by the time we returned. Our leader then said that we would be climbing up through the clouds and forming on top as would be the other Groups. Finally, I was informed that our Ship had been designated the Squadron Camera Plane so again Don Askerman would be taking the pictures. Later, while waiting beside our B-24, co-pilot Chuck Prophett and I noted that the clouds were as solid as ever so we were surprised when the green flare was fired above our heads giving us the go-ahead. We entered our ship wondering how several hundred bombers were going to make it through that overcast without some of them running into each other. We waited and waited for the Liberator which we were to follow to the runways. As we were the camera ship we would be the last plane in line for take off so due to the delay I kept my eye on the other bombers. When the last one started down the runway I figured that I had better get going but just then the ship we were waiting for taxied by so I fell in behind. Thus there were only two of us in formation when we climbed to the cloud base and as I didn't relish penetrating the clouds with a plane right next to me I pulled away. I entered the overcast on instruments and found the air to be calm but as we climbed through I felt a slight shudder. I immediately pegged it as the wake of another aircraft and thought to myself "Ah, someone else has been here." In my training I had learned the feel of flying through a plane' s turbulence for in acrobatics a loop was a good one if we flew through our own wake at the bottom. The same was true when practicing a 360" turn on instruments. A bright sun greeted us as we rose above the cloud layer and the other plane was close by, only now it was on the opposite side. Our paths had crossed while in the mist and there was no way of knowing how close we had come. We were surrounded by Groups assembling their formations but none of the ships were near enough to make out their markings. The plane I had been following didn't seem to know which was our Group, plus we couldn't see the ground to spot the site over which our bombers were to form, thus I took off for the closest bunch. That was not our formation so I went to another, and then another plus another one after that. By the time I got to an unfamiliar Group at the very rear, it and all of the other formations had started North to their targets. There was no way I could catch the ones in front so I slipped in as the last plane of this strange Group. Now our only question was, "Where were we going?" We traveled up the Adriatic Sea, traversed the Isterian Peninsula, crossed the Alps, flew across Austria and then entered Germany. Finally our navigator, Bob Rathfon, said it looked as if we were going to bomb Blechhammer after all and he was proved right when a thick field of bursting flak greeted us over the target. Upon sighting the first bombs falling from the lead ship, Bombardier Frank Gaudio toggled ours and when all had been released our unknown Commander put the formation into a turn. He included many ziggs and zaggs which made for a successful rally that kept us out of the flak. In the mean time Don took a number of photos of our missiles exploding on the target. Our flight out of enemy territory was uneventful so over Yugoslavia I left the formation, set a course to Torretta and throttled back our engines to minimize gas consumption. After a bit engineer Bill Kassay came up and said that he was going to transfer fuel to even up the four tank systems. He returned to the rear of the flight deck and had just begun his task when all of a sudden we were startled by all four engines quitting. The resulting silence was deafening. The only sound that could be heard was the wind swishing by. I lowered the nose and put the ship into a glide but I must admit that I was dumbfounded. In training we had practiced flying with one and two engines out, discussed what to do with three out, but we never even considered all of them going out at once. Lee Emanuel had often complained that in his top turret he couldn't see the interior of the plane so he would never know if we were in trouble and he might remain there after everyone else had bailed out. This time upon hearing the engines quit he exited his turret, snapped on his parachute, hit the bomb bay catwalk and was opening the bomb bay doors before the rest of us could grasp what was happening. At the same time, Frank Gaudio and gunner Jack Holcombe abandoned the nose and came scrambling through the tunnel. In the meantime, Bill Kassay was feverishly checking the settings of the gas valves and finding nothing wrong came forward to the cockpit. He quickly scanned the instruments and seeing that all of the fuel pressure gages were at "O" he reached over and flipped on the switches to the electric gas pumps on each of the four primary systems. There was instant relief as the four engines responded to the resumption of the flow of fuel and roared back to life. I sat there mulling over what had happened, and as I didn't relish crossing the Adriatic Sea with a ship that had malfunctioned, I elected to land at the Island of Vis. On this small island Tito had located his headquarters and the British maintained a small emergency field. The single runway was very short and was located in a deep closed-end valley so there would be no missed approach and go around. Upon contacting the tower they warned us of the field's shortcomings and that we had to complete our landing once committed. After a stressful but uneventful landing we ate dinner following which most of us spent the night next to the field and in the tents of the small contingent of Americans stationed there. Don and radio man Ray Eitel volunteered to sleep on the ship and upon entering the plane they started the gasoline Auxiliary Power Unit so that the interior lights could be used without running down the batteries. Since they had electricity the two of them decided to listen to the liaison radio receiver thus they pulled out the ship's retractable trailing antenna and strung the wire on the surrounding bushes. It was Saturday night on Vis but back in the States it was Saturday afternoon and they were able to pick up the Army/Navy football game on short wave. In the era; B.H.F.M. (before helmet face masks) it was one of the premier sports events in the U.S. However, the A.P.U. soon ran out of gas so they went looking for fuel and immediately ran into a group of tough looking and suspicious Communist guards who spoke no English. Finally, a British Officer came to their rescue and they were able to obtain the gasoline and finish listening to the game. I don't recall who won that year even though the next morning the two of them bragged enough about listening to the game. Bill and I met with Vis' Engineering Officer and went over our bomber's gasoline system. We took off the gas caps to make sure that there was adequate fuel, checked the selector valves for leaks and ran the engines at full power for a few minutes. The officer assured us that everything was O.K. At the same time armorer/tail gunner Hank Davies was supervising the unloading of the belts of 50 caliber ammunition to reduce our takeoff weight, and, unknown to me, the two machine guns in the waist joined the belts. Even though we were a bit apprehensive, we took off and flew back to our Squadron without incident. The B-24 fuel system was versatile but it sure had its drawbacks. One of them was the poor efficiency of the tank venting system. This presented no problem on a long climb as the slow venting left the pressure in the tanks higher than the atmosphere and helped feed gas to the engines. However, coming down from altitude was a different matter as the venting would not let the air in fast enough and would keep the tanks at a slight vacuum. That was probably the cause of our problem as the engine fuel pumps alone couldn't suck enough gas with the negative pressure in the tanks. 40 years later I was able to experience this same condition in my motor home. We arrived over Torretta about 1:30 in the afternoon and after the tower gave us landing instructions they told us that they would call for a truck and that I was to report to Operations as soon as I got to the Squadron. I landed, parked our ship on its stand and after completing our chores we all climbed on the truck. We turned in our flight gear, delivered the camera to the photo shack, and finally returned to our tents. Upon entering Squadron Headquarters Capt. Veiluva, our Operations Officer, immediately pounced on me and demanded to know where we had been. He said that since our two ships were the last ones to get off the ground they had watched us climb until we flew into the cloud base but when the Group returned that afternoon we weren't with them and the leader said that we never made the formation. A check with the Fifteenth Air Force revealed that no other Group had reported our flying with them, we had not landed at another airport, and they were not aware of any crashes. So as far as Operations knew, following our entering the overcast we had simply disappeared. Thus when the time had passed in which we would have exhausted our fuel they had listed us as Missing In Action. Then some time after midnight they got word that we were OK and had posted a big sign on the Squadron mission board "Lt. Alexander and crew landed safely on the Isle of Vis." Again he asked me where in the hell we had been. I went through my story, told them that we had bombed Blechhammer and described the tail markings on the ships we had flown with. I told him of losing all of our engines and as a result decided to land at Vis. They seemed to regard my report as somewhat incredulous so with nothing further to say I returned to my tent. Soon afterwards I was called back and really given the third degree for they had contacted the Group with the tail markings I had portrayed and those people stated I that no other ship had flown with them. However, they did say that they had bombed Blechhammer. To this I replied that rather than ask the leader who couldn't see the ships behind him to ask the tailgunner of their tail-end B-24 as I had been eye to eye with him for over six hours. It looked as if I might be losing the critique and I began to get a bit hot around the collar but about that time Don's photos were delivered to Group and they called to say that we had indeed hit the target at Blechhammer. Thus we were saved by the pictures and were given credit for our mission. I subsequently learned that the 461st had missed the target completely and we were one of only three planes of the Group which had hit the place, all by flying with other formations. With the exception of Prophett, for the past half century our crew has stayed in touch with each other. Unfortunately Eitel, Gaudio and Prophett are no longer with us and this year Lee Emanuel lost his wife. Along with our wives, several of us have attended three reunions: in 1986 Askerman, Davies, Kassay and I in San Antonio; in 1987 Davies and I in Tarrytown; and in 1993 Askerman, Holcombe and I in Fresno where we ran into Herb Frank who flew half a dozen missions as our Co-pilot. Hope to see you in Hampton. Clair Alexander 764th Bomb Squadron October 1944 thru May 1945 |
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