Table of Contents

Click for full Table of Contents

• PROLOGUE - 1
• CHAPTER 1: A SAMPLE OF WHAT’S TO COME - 4
  
• CHAPTER 2: MISSION STORIES - 34
• CHAPTER 3: ABOUT ME - 84
• CHAPTER 4: MISSION STORIES - 118
• CHAPTER 5: PEOPLE - 154
• CHAPTER 6: MISSION STORIES - 218
• CHAPTER 7: ALMOST EVERYTHING - 281
• CHAPTER 8: OTHER STORIES - 299
• CHAPTER 9: ARIS A. MALLAS - 342
• CHAPTER 10: FLYING STORIES (MOSTLY) - 368
• CHAPTER 11: NON-FLYING STORIES - 387
• CHAPTER 12: ME AGAIN - 418
• EPILOGUE - 439

About the Author

Experienced great depression, WWII pilot/commander 33 European bombing missions.

College, stockbroker, manager, finder/intermediary sale of 11 companies to H.J. Heinz, Labatt, etc.

Founder, owner of graphic arts mail order company 27 years, retired age 87.

Married to Ann 52 years, 3 fine boys, one great girl...

Sample Stories

• "Pilot dead, 2 others injured, nose battered, B-24 returns."
• "Taps—Do You Know the Whole Story?"
• "Rommel: Leader of the Afrika Korps; Master of Mobile Warfare"

 

Pilot dead, 2 others injured, nose battered, B-24 returns.

Reprinted from Stars and Stripes, 27 Nov. 1944— 445th BG

With the pilot dead, two other crew members injured, and its flight instruments useless, a Liberator returned safely from a mission over Misburg on November 26, 1944—quick thinking and teamwork doing the trick. Several minutes before bombs away, the formation was attacked by enemy fighters. Lt. Vincent Mazza, copilot from Naperville, Illinois, fought to keep the bomber from swerving into other bombers after the pilot, killed by a 20mm shell which penetrated his flak suit, slumped over the controls. A second wave of German fighters lobbed shells into the Lib’s nose, shrapnel wounding Lt. John C. Christiansen, of Plymouth, Michigan, who was manning the nose guns. Lt. Leo J. Lewis, bombardier from Clayton, Missouri, also was hit. The bombs were salvoed by the navigator, Lt. Frank W. Federici of Chicago, who remained at his post in the nose.

When the enemy fighters departed, S/Sgt. Eddie W. Goodgion, right waist gunner from Lubbock, Texas, and T/Sgt. Carl E. Bally, radio operator from Ashland, Ohio, came to the aid of the dazed bombardier, whose helmet and oxygen mask had been torn off.

T/Sgt. Herbert A. Krieg, engineer from Atlantic City, NJ went to the cockpit and pulled the dead pilot clear of the controls. Christiansen made his way back from the nose turret to the waist, where his wounded leg was treated by S/Sgt. Kenneth J. Brass, left waist gunner.

At the channel, Mazza left the formation and headed for England alone. His maps blown away by the terrific wind which swept through the gaping hole in he nose, Federici directed the copilot back to base by recalling landmarks along the way. The radio and interphone went dead, making communication with the ground and other planes impossible. The tail gunner, S/Sgt. Charles lW. Bickett of New Richmond, Ohio, had been cut off from communication with other crew members. Neither altimeter nor air-speed indicator were functioning. Massa circled the field behind another B-24 to get his proper landing speed, Krieg behind him to handle the throttles. The landing was fast, but smooth..,. Some of the most dramatic reminiscences were about brushes with death. Bob recalled having been assigned a plane on one particular mission that had just had bulletproof glass installed in it. The planes they normally flew did not have this feature. As they were flying, a fragment from flak hit the windows directly beside the pilot’s position. On returning to base, they found it lacked a fraction of an inch from coming all the way through the glass. Both Bob and Marty agreed that had there been regular glass on the plane that day, Bob would not be here to tell the story.

Author Comments: WHEN I read this I said, hey, this is pretty close to my experience with the thick glass that was only installed when the plane went to the repair depot with damage not fixable at the base. In my case, recounted elsewhere, the flak did get through the glass, plus the metal frame of the glass, and hit me at an angle which would have had my heart in the way. All I received was a sore black and blue mark. Of course, my body was not as resilient as two panes of the thick glass plus the frame, so it was literally a life- saver. I still have the piece of flak with glass embedded, and elsewhere include my picture with the two shattered panes of glass.

Taps—Do You Know the Whole Story?

Reprinted from The Santa Ana Cadet, Costa Mesa Historical Society

It all began in 1862 during the Civil War, when Union Army Captain Robert Ellicombe was with his men near Harrison’s Landing in Virginia. The Confederate Army was on the other side of the narrow strip of land. During the night, Captain Ellicombe heard the moans of a soldier who lay mortally wounded on the field. Not knowing if it was a Union or Confederate soldier, the Captain decided to risk his life and bring the stricken man back for medical attention.

Crawling on his stomach through the gunfire, the Captain reached the stricken soldier and began pulling him toward his encampment. When the Captain finally reached his own lines, he discovered it was actually a Confederate soldier but the soldier was dead.
The Captain lit a lantern and suddenly caught his breath and went numb with shock. In the dim light, he saw the face of the soldier. It was his own son. The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out. Without telling his father, he enlisted in the Confederate Army.

The following morning, heartbroken, the father asked permission of his superiors to give his son a full military burial despite his enemy status. His request was only partially granted. The Captain had asked if he could have a group of Army band members play a funeral dirge for his son at the funeral. The request was turned down since the soldier was a Confederate but out of respect for the father, they did say they could give him one musician.

The Captain chose a bugler. He asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of the dead youth’s uniform. This wish was granted. The haunting melody we now know as “Taps” used at military funerals was born.

Rommel: Leader of the Afrika Korps; Master of Mobile Warfare

Reprinted from Lincolnshire Military Preservation Society Magazine, Lincolnshire, England

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (1891-1944) was one of the great generals of World War II, and his inspired leadership of his armored and mobile formations made him a legend in his lifetime, even among his enemies.

After serving in the First World War, he taught at the new infantry schools and in these inter-war years he caught the attention of Adolf Hitler. When war came in 1939, Rommel was commander of Hitler’s personal headquarters. After the defeat of Poland, Hitler granted his request to be given command of a Panzer division.

After the defeat of France, Rommel was recognized as an outstanding exponent of “Blitzkrieg,” but his orders when he took up his next command were to be on the defensive. This command was of the German forces that had been sent to North Africa to shore up the tottering armies of their Italian ally, which were headed for Suez and beyond before being badly mauled and defeated by the British.

In spite of his orders, Rommel decided to take the offensive. This was the first of a long series of attacks, launched on 31 March 1941.

The first six months of 1942 saw Rommel recover from the setback of Crusader and take the offensive again. The initial German victories in this new offensive were stunning. Rommel decided to push on again to Alexandria, hoping to defeat the British totally in North Africa. He managed to reach El Alamein, but there, stiffening British forces forced him to a halt.

Under its new commander, Lieutenant-General Bernard Law Montgomery, the 8th Army stood firm.

The Allies had landed an Anglo-American Army in French North Africa and were soon advancing on Tunisia. The Axis forces in North Africa were soon inevitably squeezed to death. Rommel fought an inspired retreat as he pulled back, eluding Montgomery’s attempts to trap him and his much depleted army and at the same time giving the U.S. forces a bloody nose in Tunisia at the Kassarine pass. Rommel left Africa before the final Axis defeat in May of 1943.

In January of 1944, Rommel was handed the command of Army Group B, in France, preparing to meet the expected Allied landings in northwest Europe. After the successful Normandy D-Day beach landings, however, he clearly realized that the German Army would eventually have to retreat in the face of the invading forces. He advised Hitler of this. Hitler refused and Rommel gave some support to the plotters who were planning to assassinate the Fuhrer. When the plot failed and Rommel’s name was linked with the plotters, he was given the option of standing trial or taking his own life. He chose the latter. What marks Rommel above most high ranking German officers was his insistence that moral standards must be observed at all times, on and off the battlefield—towards prisoners and civilians especially. This combination is rare in any epoch.

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