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Rescued By Partisans by Ben Haller -- 767th Bomb Squadron 15 January 1992 Editor's note: This was contributed by Ben Haller who was transferred into the 767th Squadron from the 376th Bomb Group, 514th Squadron. The first section describes his experiences in being shot down and crash landing in Yugoslavia prior to being transferred to the 461st. The second section describes his missions with the 461st and is linked from this page if you want to continue on from here. I, too, was one who was transferred with our crew from the 376th Bomb Group into the 461st Bomb Group on or about 16 April 1945. I flew only three missions with the 461st until the top German brass signed the unconditional surrender effective 0001 9 May 1945. Because I was a trained journalist, I kept a diary of my 16 missions with the 376th and my three with the 461st, although I recall some directive stating that was a "no - no". Our crew (Joe Ballinger, Pilot) was shot down 7 February 1945 on a mission to Moosbierbaum Oil Refinery along the Danube just West of Vienna. We bombed from 26,500 feet. Because we disappeared in flames and smoke beneath cloud cover at 7,000 feet and no one had bailed out, we were reported on Squadron records temporarily as KIA. However, we had gotten the fires out and were just limping along on one good engine and a damaged one (#1 was a runaway with the governor shot off). We were finally ready to bail out at 2,000 feet when we lost #1 completely and started down fast. Before we could regain control, #3 quit so we braced for a crash landing, although we had seen nothing but mountains, valleys, trees and rocks. Just then we looked out and God had put a snow-covered field out there in front of us on a mountain mesa, about a mile or two away. With all four engines out, Joe nursed that sucker in a world-record-setting glide. I was soaked in gas and hung up in the bomb bay on a bomb shackle due to the violent shifting of the plane. We hit the tops of trees lining the edge of the field, bounced in with the gear down (which we had cranked down by hand) and landed on what turned out to be about 15 inches of snow with mud underneath. The shock tore off our left landing gear to the root of the wing, but Joe held that wing off the ground miraculously. When we had rolled a few hundred feet, we were about to hit a row of poplar trees at the far end with a small, brick farm house behind them. At the right moment, after losing our speed in that heavy snow, Joe flipped the controls left and we spun away from the trees, snapped the nose wheel off and came to a jolting stop. We evacuated that plane in world record time! Believe it or not, there was no explosion, no fire and all 11 men got out safely. Two had been hit by flak but were ok. God really took care of us, for we we had landed 400 yards South of the Drava River and the Ustachi guerrillas, who took no prisoners and had killed the B-24 men who went down in that area just 48 hours earlier, were hiding in the woods across the frozen river. That's where we were ready to go hide until we were stopped by an old man and two older women from the farm house. We stayed with them until Ivan Antoncic, an interpreter and partisan, came to take care of us. He was from McKeesport, PA, not far from where our Tail Gunner, Byron Brought, lived in Harrisburgh. He and his people took care of us. We moved up and down mountains, hiding in several different small villages until we were able to escape about March 4th and return to Italy. I have a lengthy diary about our days in Cazma, St. Stefanje and Grabonica. It was frightening, but it was an experience none of us will forget and will treasure. Incidentally, this area is where heavy fighting has been taking place in recent months with Serbs against Croats. When we were there, they also fought each other but declared amnesty at the same time we were hiding there as MIAs. Didn't mean to write all this when I started, but it's hard stopping an old journalist and an old WWII guy when memories start flowing. Ivan came to the U.S. in the mid-1930s, worked in mines and steel mills to earn enough money, then returned to Yugoslavia to marry his childhood girlfriend. Before they could leave after the wedding, the Germans invaded Yugoslavia, and he was trapped. Ivan (John to us) and his wife, worked undercover as Partisan and Allied spies the rest of the war. He rescued dozens of American and British Airmen. Ben Haller |
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