The mission of the 13 june 1944
It might be of some interest to you to know how I got to be on that plane that crashed landed on July 17,44. The crew that I originally went to Italy on was piloted by Walter Zurney, a friend of mine from our service days in the Panama,C.Z..After taking part in a few bombing missions ,Walter had the opportunity to transfer into a fighter squadron to fly P-38s. Our crew then was assigned a new pilot by the name of John Dengler.
Things got rather interesting on June 13 1944 on our 10th mission when we were shot up rather badly while bombing an airplane engine factory north of Munich, Ger. The navigator and I thought that we should try flying to Switzerland and bail out. Dengler figured that he could get us back to our base if he could get the plane over the Alps.He did succeed with this task and decided to lower our altitude to 10,000 feet,which turned out to be a bad mistake since the plane was leaking fuel from a large hole in the right wing and he discovered that he couldn't maintain altitude. When we got down to approximately 2000ft. he ordered us to prepare to bail out.At around 1000ft.he gave the order to jump.Six of us were able to get out before the plane crashed. At this time we were over the Adriatic Sea ,off of Ancona Pt. Italy
Following are the crew members that didn't make it out of the plane.
2nd Lt John Dengler Pilot
F/O Robert Lust Co-Pilot
S/Sgt Billy Devine Radio Operator
Sgt Benjamin Ripley Turret Gunner
I am not sure what happened to Sgt William Corkill a turret gunner,he was a good swimmer and should have survived the jump.My thoughts were that he was hit by the plane either while in the air or in the water,as the plane had made a 180 degree turn and was heading back north when it crashed.
The crew of this mission with Harold Wanamaker,
L
to R, back row: Harold F. Wanamaker, bombardier/Navigator; George W Adams, Navigator (KIA); Robert E. Lust, co-pilot (KIA); Walter E Zurney ( no participated to the mission. John dengler was the pilot on the mission and was killed in action)), pilot. Front row: Benjamin R. Ripley, turret gunner (KIA); Roderick O. Carlson, tail turret gunner; Robert W. Seaman, turret gunner; Williamn R. Corkill, turret gunner (KIA); Laverne Mills, Engineer/waist gunner (didn't fly on this mission). Billy M. Devine, radio operator/waist gunner (KIA).
(the pilot of the 13 june mission), #6, 744th Squadron, with "Big Stud":An other crew with John Dengler
L to R, back row: Bill Neale, bombardier; John Dengler, co-pilot; Robert Miller, pilot; Martin Bernstein, navigator. Front row: Robert Baskin, nose gunner; Joe Turner, flight engineer; Sam Thomas, top turret; Larry Jones, tail turret; Charley Van Buskirk, radio operator. Jeffrey Teacher, ball turret, not pictured (KIA).
As I was floating down and near the water two of the fellows were calling for help .After landing and getting out of my chute I swam over to where a parachute was still floating with no one in it. At this time my life vest was not inflated,so I tried to dive to see if I could find this person ,how ever my flight suit was still not wet and kept me afloat.On my second try I was successful in going under but didn't see anyone even though the water was quite clear.When I attempted to inflate my life vest I fought hard to keep from panicking,as my vest wouldn't inflate,After realizing that the lanyard was hooked over the bottle ,the vest inflated and I reached the surface to the best gulp of air I ever had. I later learned that the person I tried to reach was 2nd Lt George Adams Navigator.He refused to wear his life vest ,stating that his St. Christopher medal was all he needed to save him. How sad. I never gave any thought to something until just recently,and that was what would we have done with him if I had been successful in finding him?.We couldn't possibly have resuscitated him with the methods known then.
After coming to the surface Sgt Robert Seaman a turret gunner was still calling for help, an oxygen bottle was fairly close to him so I called to him to try and reach it so he could hang on to it long enough for me to swim to him .He did get to it and it did the job. When I finally got to him he let me know that he couldn't inflate his life vest, he had the same problem as I did but he had pulled the buttons off of both lanyards. When I inflated the vest he then realized what he didn't do and swore that he would never fly again,and I was told later that he never did.
I don't remember the fellows name that was a replacement for Sgt Laverne Mills our Engineer and waist gunner.He was the first person to reach a 2 man dingy that popped out of the plane when it hit the water,we don't know what happened to the paddles ,they weren't in the dingy. I don't know why he did not try to pick up Seaman or the other crew member by the name of S/Sgt Roderick Carlson another turret gunner. Carlson ,I believe was in a state of shock as he was shivering even though the water was warm.
I made the decision that we would hand paddle the dingy to Yugoslavia ,which we figured was approximately 20 miles and we actually thought we could make it during the night time .Fortunely,after about 3 hours in the water a PBY Air Sea Rescue plane found us and picked us up then flew us into Fogia. We didn't want to stay over night in a hospital there , so we loaded into a truck and arrived back at our squadron at about 6:30 that evening .All we had in the way of clothing ,were blankets. We had to take off those heavy wet flight suits ,and boots etc. and throw them overboard, so that there was no extra weight in the plane
After some time off and a trip to the Isle of Capri,I continued flying as Bombardier on the Benjamin Hill crew. My 1st mission after returning to duty was on the 3rd of July 1944,then on our 4th mission as a crew on ,July 17 1944 we had two engines shot out while bombing a bridge over the Rhone River at Avignon France. I will continue this later.
I do keep in touch with both Zurney and Mills.