The wild blue: the men and boys who flew the B-24s over Germany by Stephen E. Ambrose

The wild blue: the men and boys who flew the B-24s over Germany by Stephen E. Ambrose

Author:Stephen E. Ambrose
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: 20th Century, Political, Fiction, Aerial operations, War & Military, Transportation, B-24 bomber, Commercial, Aviation, 1939-1945, Bomber pilots, United States, American, Military, World War, Regimental histories, History, Flight crews, Aerial, Modern, B-52 bomber, General, Biography & Autobiography, World War II, Bombing
ISBN: 9780743203395
Publisher: New York : Simon & Schuster, c2001.
Published: 2001-08-13T23:00:00+00:00


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likely it was that they would have a fatal accident. Death or the possibility of captivity was all around

these young men.

Whether in the officers club or the airmen’s club for enlisted men, the newcomers would sit quietly and

listen to the talk of the veterans who had just returned from a mission. McGovern listened hard and

thereby picked up tips on flying a B-24 in combat. The talk was about what had happened, how the

plane performed, what the German flak was like, and other details. Always they discussed how many

parachutes they had counted coming from a plane going down, but not about who had made it out of the

doomed craft and who had not. They assumed that a parachute meant the man had landed safely, but

they had no idea whether he had escaped and was on his way back to Italy or had been made a POW

or had been killed on the ground. Shostack’s name never came up. Sgt. Mel TenHaken, a radio operator

in the 455th Bomb Group, remembered the talk as both enlightening and frightening. It was unlike the talk

one usually heard from young men after an examination or a football or basketball game. “There was no

pride of individual accomplishment here, or boasting about comparative achievements.” Further, “There

was no jesting about those [like TenHaken, McGovern, and the other recent arrivals] who hadn’t been

up yet because everyone knew that would happen tomorrow or a day after.” Ten-Haken also noted that

“there was no overt elation by those who had completed thirty-four missions,” because everyone

remembered “the one who got his on his thirty-fifth.” No one talked to impress. Experiences were shared

only because better understanding of techniques and tactics would improve the odds for survival.36

Sergeant TenHaken had arrived at Cerignola with two other crews. One of those crews was the first to

go on a mission. It was a long one. Their plane returned safely, but with holes caused by flak in its wings

and fuselage. That evening, after they had finished their postmission interrogation, they were withdrawn

and did not want to talk. “They felt it might be better if we discussed feelings later, maybe after we had all

completed some combat missions.” As for TenHaken and his crew, “We wondered if they’d ever again

have the optimistic, cheerful, normal personalities we had known.”

A day later the second crew flew its initial mission. The plane was two hours late getting back to base.

Suddenly, in the darkness along the row of tents, one of the gunners appeared, panting, with some of his

parachute gathered over his arm and the rest of it dragging behind. He was frightened. He demanded to

know where the rest of his crew was. Told that no one knew, he explained that his B-24 had been hit

over the target. He could not assess the effect of the damage but related that his pilot had gotten the

plane to the airfield, where he circled to test the controls and to burn the remaining fuel - crash-landing a

B-24 was always hazardous, but especially so when there was fuel in the wings.



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