It was a casual Sunday drive through towns like Santa Paula and Fillmore, California, probably 20 years ago. The kind of easygoing ramble that included visits to a few antique shops.
At one store, among aging postcards and photos of somebody’s distant ancestors posing stoically, my eye caught sight of deckle-edged snapshots of B-24 Liberator nose art. And a B-17. And GI tourist views of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
The pictures had captions on the backs, written in a black ink cursive that gave some illumination to the collection.
But not enough — who took these photos? Who handed his camera to a buddy and had him take a snapshot long before the days of selfies? And how did this personal history, some of it obviously peeled from the pages of a photo album, come to rest in a stack of pictures for sale in the back of an antique store in a small town nestled among California orange groves?
I was compelled to buy the photos. They have resided quietly in my collection. I thumbed through them recently, and decided these pictures and captions stand as their own historical project, a marker to an unknown veteran.
Chronologically first, one snapshot, presumably recording the veteran who wrote the captions, says “R.T.U. at Walla Walla…”
Beginning in the spring of 1944, Walla Walla Army Air Base in southeastern Washington was a Replacement Training Unit (RTU) airfield, coalescing new B-24 Liberator bomber crews to fill slots in existing combat groups overseas. In the picture we see an enlisted man standing in front of the air base gate sign.
A couple of photos show what looks to be our veteran with the waist gun of a B-24, probably signifying his crew position. Looks like he sent one shot home and signed it “Love, Mel,” perhaps giving us a clue to his identity.
Then, photos recognizable as 15th Air Force B-24s in Italy depict nose art. The snapshots range from the caveman comic strip character Alley Oop to pin-up paintings named Guardian Angel and Jolly Molly.
A slightly out-of-focus candid shot has a black puppy putting one white paw forward toward the photographer. Its detailed caption says the dog is Tilly, and credits her with flying 10 missions with the photographer’s crew aboard their B-24.
According to the caption on the back of the photo, Tilly “had her own oxygen system and heated suit” to protect her against the rigors of high-altitude flight, as did the human crewmen. As fantastic as that sounds, there are several documented cases of bomber crews rigging oxygen masks and heated flight gear for dogs who went aloft.
Tilly’s caption takes a sad twist with the notation: “Died of a flak hit over Moosbierbaum, Austria” during a mission targeting a German ball bearing plant.
Our anonymous hero was in Italy on V-E Day, and made plans to fly home across the Atlantic with a bunch of other servicemen shoehorned into a returning B-17 in the summer of 1945.
Three snapshots show their homeward-bound Fortress, serial 44-6681, parked on turf in Italy. Destination: Florida. The caption for that flight tells quite a tale: “B-17 we flew from Chergnola [Cerignola], Italy, to U.S. across Atlantic. Lost 2 engines beyond point of ‘No Return’…we all had to throw out our personal gear (including German Mauser sniper rifle). Made it to coast of Florida at 25’ above water.”
So, within ground effect, the loaded B-17G on two engines brought the men home…with at least one roll of film surviving the ordeal.
A records check of that B-17’s serial number shows it at Morrison Field near Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 19, 1945. Three months later this combat-tested bomber was unceremoniously sold for scrap at the huge aircraft boneyard in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.
I like to think of our anonymous veteran as B-24 waist gunner Mel. His trip to Italy with the 15th Air Force was likely his biggest life adventure up to that time, when most Americans did not travel far unless Uncle Sam sent them off to war. When he came home, did he settle in that rich California orange-grove country? Did the GI Bill give him a deserved nudge toward a good life?
More than 16 million Americans served in World War II. Perhaps fewer than 119,000 still live, based on extrapolated figures from the National World War II Museum.
I look at these snapshots from that war and I wonder how their owner’s life went in peacetime. Did he pass me on the street, unseen, unrecognized? Did he ever get thanks for his efforts in the war?
I’d like to thank him now, as I look at his nearly 80 years old snapshots.
The Guardian Angel B-24 H was my father’s plane. He was the pilot. He flew for the 15th AF 465 BG 781 BS out of Pantanella ,Italy . He has passed on but I’m sure he would have been thrilled to see this photo. He flew 59 missions
Michael,
Yesterday I met Arthur Shak at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum. He was the navigator on Guardian Angel, and is now 102 years old. He attended a panel discussion on the bombing of Japan, and I was a member of the panel.
I flew the Guardian Angel on combat missions out of Aviano, AB, Italy…55 years later. My Guardian Angel was an F-16CJ. The nose art was added for the NATO air war against Serbia. I was the commander of the 31st Fighter Wing at the time.
Please send me an email at [email protected]. I’d like to connect crew members and/or their families with the team at Aviano to commemorate the connection.
Thanks,
Dan Leaf
My Dad built these at the Ford plant at Willow Run then was drafted in the Army Air Force and and worked on the B-24 bombers he once rode with a pilot that actually did a double lop my Dad was scared to death,he thought the plane was going to shake itself apart but they were fine!
My father was a crew member on a B-24 radio operator and Gunner, my dad told me they traded positions. He went on 36 missions there were 10 trained Crews that flew as AZON equipped to aircraft. The bombers had radio control bombs 8th Air Force 458th is aircraft the Howling Banshee
Reading the ‘bomb count’… Guardian Angel =>60 and Alley OPP =>63… imply a staggering number of survived-missions for bombers/crews in the ETO.
Early in the war, 25-missions from Britain over Europe was considered astounding survival and worthy of rotation of the aircraft and crew back to the USA. Most aircraft were simply ‘lost’ or too badly damage to be flown back… and parts were salvaged and the aircraft scrapped… and surviving crewmembers were ‘re-assigned to ‘fill-in’ other crews [casualties]… or reassigned as crews [when possible] to new/serviceable aircraft.
I asked this question: ‘What was the first B-17 to complete 25 missions??’…
BG B-17F Hell’s Angels
On May 13, 1943, the 303rd BG B-17F Hell’s Angels became the first heavy bomber to complete 25 combat missions over Europe, four days before the Memphis Belle’s crew.
— Personal note —
My dad flew P-40s in the CBI ~early in the war. Due to CBI pilot shortages they were required to fly 75 combat sorties before rotating home. An early photo of my dad in his P-40 cockpit [graduation, Luke AB class 42G] contrasted to photos ~2-years later in-theater… he went from a young eager wide-eyed grinning pilot… to a tired stressed-out, haunted ‘old man’… at +26-YO.
Dad said that… of the 22 pilots he flew with to the CBI over the ‘southern route’ [S America, across Africa to India]… 12 of them made it home alive.
What a great and beautiful write up. I hope some day you discover the name of the photographer. WWII history is close to my heart.
Thank you very much. Yes, personal snapshots from the ware can be evocative.
Very interesting story. My dad Arthur B. Robertson, Jr,
also survived 50 mission credits with the 15th Airforce, as the pilot of ‘Three Cornered Kid’, out of Pantanella, Ity. My book on him is at amazon.com under my name, Arthur B. Robertson III.
Thanx Fred J. Had a great time reading this account. Would love to read more like it. Thanx again.
You are very welcome! Thanks for reading and commenting.
Thank you for this testimony. My Uncle Charles Hollingsworth (lived with us several years before the WW and six years after the WW, like my brother really) enlisted the day he turned 17. He spent from April 1941 to September 1946 in the Navy.
He has a letter from General Doolittle thanking him from pulling the chocks on his Bomber on the day he took off the CV8, USS HORNET for Japan. Charlie was picked up out of the ocean when the HORNET was sunk in Oct 1942.
He went back on the new Lexington.
He was a real hero and yet as sweet as they came.
I slept with him in the veteran facility the day he died in 2018.
That’s a great bit of family World War II history. I enjoy hearing from the families of those who served.