I was the flight engineer on Lt

I was the flight engineer on Lt. Wanamaker's first crew. We picked up a new B-24 Liberator at Topeka, Kansas (USA) and flew the Southern route to Italy. The crew did not get off the base at Stornora except one town in Africa.

The day that Wanamaker went down (July 17, 1944) I was on leave, visiting my brother in the hospital. He had been wounded while serving with the infantry in the Northern part of Italy. Wanamaker and the crew had a mission in my absence and had a rough one. There were only 4 survivors. I was off flying duty for a short time after that plane was lost. My duties were the same after that but I was a substitute engineer on different crews.

I made every remaining mission safely except Dec. 2, 1944. That mission was to Odertal Oil Refinery located on or close to the border of Germany and Czechoslovakia. We made an uneventful flight until we arrived at the start of our bombing run. I had performed my flight duties. I had transferred the fuel from cargo reserve tank to the main tanks. I also had armed the bombs. The fuse had small propellers that had a key that was removed to arm the bombs. The fuse spun off in falling and the bomb exploded on contact.

A photo of the crew (Dec. 2, 1944).

We were flying at 27,000 feet when the antiaircraft shells started to explode. There were small pieces of flak hitting the plane. Then, wham, we received a direct hit on the wing between the first and second engines. Fortunately for us the shell didn't explode but it did make a large hole in the wing. We were losing gas. I made a fuel transfer but we lost an engine. We had to salvo our bomb load early. We had to fly the plane with a lot of drag caused by the flak damage and gradually fell behind the flight group formation. We were on a close watch for German fighter planes. Their favorite target was crippled Liberators like us and our fighter escorts had to leave us so we were on our own.

We were losing power on an engine and had to feather the propeller to keep it from rotating. We were approaching the Adriatic Sea. The navigator and I told the pilot that we were running low on fuel and not to attempt to ditch the plane in the sea as it was too far. The pilot and navigator then started to hunt an area to land where we might find help from General Tito's Partisans. We soon found the area as another engine quit. The crew made preparations to parachute out. Soon the alarm sounded for bail out. I counted to five and pulled the ripcord to open the chute. I received quite a jolt when the chute opened. I hit the ground with another jolt.

I looked up after removing the harness and there was a guy with a machine gun waving at me and motioning to follow. Fortunate for me he was a Partisan. They soon had seven of my crew together. We were placed on some two-wheel horse carts and covered with hay. We traveled at a large farm house where the Partisans prepared a meal for us. We had been on the go since 4 AM. We finally told the Partisans that we needed to sleep. We climbed some concealed stairs to a room and were told to sleep on the floor. Some cover was provided. We were awakened by people coming up the stairway. Then we were afraid that the Germans had found us. However it was our remaining crew members with the exception of the pilot. Now we were concerned that he did not bail out in time before the plane crashed into the side of the mountain.

The next morning after a meal of brown bread and bully beef we were loaded on to an old Ford truck. The driver could speak English and was able to tell us that we were headed for the coast of Yugoslavia. The ride was made safely and when we reached the port town the Partisans had just liberated it from the Germans. There was dancing in the streets. Here we met some British sailors that were members of minesweeper crews. They had just cleared the harbor of mines. We spent the night aboard their ships and started for Italy early the next morning. We were fed bully beef along with tea spiked with rum.

We arrived at the Port of Anacona, Italy. The base there picked us up at the harbor. We spent the night. We had an evening meal and breakfast there. The 15th Air Corps sent a B-17 to pick us up for the trip to the 15th Air Force Headquarters at Bari, Italy. We went through a medical checkup which included being dusted with DDT powder. We were questioned by intelligence officers about our journey. The best news of all, our pilot met us as we entered the base. He had returned to Italy with another crew that was forced down the same day.

The 456th Bomb Group sent a B-24 to pick us up. We arrived at our base as the group was returning from a mission. We were in a holding pattern before we landed. The maintenance crew for our plane met us. They were concerned that we might have been captured, or perhaps killed in a crash. We had been separated from our flight group, so no one knew what had happened to us. We were assigned flight duty the next day. So our crew started more missions. However we had a week's leave and spent the Christmas Holidays on the Isle of Capri. This was a well known resort. We really enjoyed that.

After I finished my tour of duty I went to Naples, Italy and returned to the United States aboard a troop ship. I got sea sick and felt so bad I didn't spend much time on deck. We were at sea when President Roosevelt died.

I still have contact with Wanamaker and Walter Zurney. I had reason to believe that they both had been killed in action. However Christmas in 2002 with my daughter-in-law's help we found them on the Internet. We had quite a lot of talking to do.

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