Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer by Brian O'Neill

Author:Brian O'Neill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
Published: 1999-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

303rd Bomb Group Mission Route(s): Bremen, December 13, 1943, and December 16, 1943. (Map courtesy Waters Design Associates, Inc.)

“I first met Bob Hullar when I’d been in the 427th Squadron a couple of weeks. I got up early in the morning and went over to the mess hall to get some coffee. I had some project—going out to the airplane to sit in the cockpit blindfolded and memorize where everything was once again, something like that. I was sitting there drinking my coffee and the famous Lt. Bob Hullar came over and sat down at the table with me.

“I knew him by reputation already. After we had been there a few days, some of the older crews started to accept us and talk to us a little bit, and it seemed to me that Hullar was esteemed by them just below Lew Lyle for his abilities as a pilot, for the way he ran his crew, for his maturity and courage, and for everything, really, that was important about a person in a combat situation.

“I didn’t know what to say. It was like sitting there next to God. But I got up my courage and introduced myself.

“‘I’m Lt. Rawlings,’ I said. ‘I’ve been here about two weeks, and they haven’t let us fly yet. We’re anxious to go.’ I told him I knew he had about 17 missions in, and I said, ‘I suppose after you’ve flown a few missions, it gets easier.’

“He gave me a look of despair, almost, like he wasn’t even going to try to explain the facts of life to this dumb kid who had just joined the Group. But he was kind about it. He didn’t say, ‘You dummy,’ or anything of that sort. He was a very controlled and yet warm individual, quiet but competent. I was really impressed. He was the guy I wanted to be.

“It wasn’t too long after this that I was scheduled to fly a mission with his crew. I had been devastated when I found out I couldn’t go on the Emden mission. I had come over here to win the war, and they wouldn’t let me fly! Then a verbal request went out to the pilots in my Squadron that if anybody wanted to volunteer to fly tail gunner the next day, he could get credit for a mission. Instantaneously I signed up for that. It would give me a start towards winning the war and being a hero and all. I found myself in the lead ship with Bob Hullar in the left pilot seat and Major Snyder in the right.”

The ship was Vicious Virgin and off to her right was Lt. Rawlings’s crew in B-17G 42-31233. Lt. Fowler’s Instructor Pilot was Lt. Grover Henderson, Woddrop’s regular copilot. To the Virgin’s left, Bud Klint was serving as Instructor Pilot to another new crew, Lt. D.L. Barnes’s in Flak Wolf.

The 303rd got more than 40 B-17s in the air by 0848. Once aloft, Rawlings began to get a first-class education in how an experienced lead crew operated.

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