A Wing and a Prayer by Harry H. Crosby

Author:Harry H. Crosby [Crosby, Harry H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, World War II
ISBN: 9781861051738
Google: RpaHAAAACAAJ
Publisher: Anova Books
Published: 1999-07-15T22:12:58+00:00

Chapter 15

Learning About Americans from the British

In October, when we got shot up over Bremen, our crew was scheduled to go to the flak shack. Our gunners went, but when Blake became Squadron Commander of the 418th and Doug and I moved up to headquarters, we were too busy with our new jobs to leave the base.

When I got my feet more or less under me, I applied again for R&R. Instead, the Group Adjutant, Major Karl Standish, came into my office.

“The Allied Command has scheduled a high-level conference to see what can be done about the problems we are having with fraternization on the one hand and squabbling among the Allies on the other. I think you might find it interesting. It’s at Oxford University.”

For two weeks beginning February 21, 1944, I “studied” and “conferred” at Oxford University, one of the high points, intellectually, of my life.

It was all very official. In the usual cryptic fashion, my orders read, “The foll named personnel will proceed on TD for app fourteen (14) days o/a 21 Feb 44 fr Sta 139 to Balliol College, Oxford University to carry out instructions of the Commanding General, Eighth Air Force, and upon completion of this temp dy, return to proper station.” Then, on one line, my name, tank, and serial number. The next two paragraphs described the finances: While on “TD,” I was to get four dollars a day for “qrs” and $1.25 for “rats,” an elegant way of abbreviating “quarters” and “rations.” I was provided an additional two dollars a day for “subsistence.”

I became a member of Balliol College and had a place to stay in the “court.” Billeting was mixed. Americans were not quartered with each other, but with other nationalities. When I arrived I learned that my flat mate, Subaltern A. M. Wingate, would arrive two days later. I didn’t even know whether a “sub-all-turn” was a private or a general.

The conferees were from all the Allied countries, British, Canadian, French, Dutch, Polish, the Low Countries, the other occupied nations, the U.S., the works. They were all ranks, from private to general and admiral, more high rank than lower. I was honored to be among them.

I had never seen as erudite a group of men as the Oxford faculty who worked with us. A. D. Lindsay, Master of Balliol. When I heard him lay out our schedule, I knew I wasn’t in for R&R. I knew there would be precious little “rest.” A. L. Goodhart, of University College. When he contrasted American character to British personality, I felt he helped me understand my strict Calvinist background and, because of it, my near obsession with responsibility and the work ethic. John Lowe, Dean of Christ Church. In a serious but funny way he told us what Oxford stood for. “Let us now praise famous men,” he said, and I was humbled to learn who had studied in the very seats where we sat. F. A. Burchardt. He had something to do with statistics, which he used to make sense of international trade and cooperation.

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