June 23, 1944 Hendricks Field, Sebring, FL.

I will be leaving Hendricks tomorrow. Just got my orders to report to Plant Park in Tampa and am quite excited about what is going to happen there. I will get to meet my "crew" for the first time. It's been tough but satisfying here at Hendricks. I've put in over 100 hours of intensive training in B-17's and I'm really looking forward to getting on to crew training.

 June 25, 1944 Plant Park, Tampa, FL

Just arrived here and was really surprised by the accommodations. Plant Park is a tent city set up on the football field in a stadium of a local college. Anyway it's only temporary. Tomorrow they will be posting the list of crews and I will find out for the first time the names of those who will make up our crew.

 

June 26, 1944 - Plant Park

Today I met our officer crew members. I feel real good about them and expect we will be getting along fine together. We are all about the same age within two years at age 20. Jim Stoner seems just right to share the cockpit with me and Joel Lester and Don Scheuch are both outgoing and friendly. In a couple days the officers will be gathering with the enlisted crew members for the first time. Let's hope things go as well as they did today.

 

June 29, 1944 - Plant Park

The other six members of the "crew" were introduced to the officers today. What a gang! If I could have hand picked them I don't think I would have done as well. Again, they are all my age (approx) and I suppose it will take some time getting to know them, and how they will work out will be determined only by time. It was kind of formal with each individual not knowing exactly what to say - sorta awkward, but, I'm sure that will work off. We have been informed that we will ship out to Gulfport, Miss. on July 7th so we have some time to get acquainted and to see the city of Tampa.

 July 7th, 1944 - Gulfport Army Air Field

We arrived here today after a one day train ride from Tampa. The enlisted men seem to be getting along fine and the four of us officers are having a ball together. We all play bridge and that fills in a lot of time. We spent the evenings and time off in Tampa and visited most of the bars there - ha! All members of the crew will be familiarizing themselves with the B-17 for the next week. None of the others in the crew has had more than a few hours in a four engine bomber so it's up to me to acquaint them with the procedures and equipment. We will all be taking some ground courses in the next week before our first flight together.

 

July 12, 1944 - Gulfport

Our first flight together. We took up a B-17G for 2:35 hours for a general familiarization with crew duties in the air. We had a few goofs but things went pretty well. Everyone seems anxious to make this crew the best.

 

Sept 25, 1944 - Gulfport

We flew a long distance flight to Dallas, Texas and return today and this finishes our training here at Gulfport. It's been a thorough education for each of us and the teamwork has convinced me that we are ready to go.

During the past 10 weeks we have: flown high and low altitude formation, instrument flight checks, high altitude gunnery, cross country navigation, high altitude practice bombing, air to ground gunnery, more practice bombing and more and more of everything. We have flown both B-17E's and B17G's. The crew has experienced being on oxygen for hours on end. We have practiced abandoning ship, fighting on-board fires, ditching at sea, and every possible emergency procedure. We are ready. The teamwork is exceptional and everyone is anxious to go.
That's good because I got the order, after our flight today, that we will leave by train tomorrow for Savannah, GA and Hunter Air Base. It looks for sure like we will be going to the 8th Air Force. (We're all happy about that)

 Sept. 26, 1944 - Hunter Field - Savannah, GA

We arrived the same day after one of those dismal army train trips from Gulfport. We were immediately assigned a new Boeing B17G which we will be flying tomorrow. The plane has no air time on it except the ferry time from the Boeing plant. All of us have been outfitted with equipment meant for our overseas flight, like; hack watches, flying glasses, knives, and I have been issued a 45 caliber pistol with 20 cartridges. Things are getting serious. Tomorrow we make a local flight to calibrate the speed indicator, radio altimeter and other instruments before the start of our long trip overseas.

 

Sept. 27, 1944 - Hunter Field

We took off at 8:00 AM and flew the instrument calibration mission over Georgia and the area surrounding Hunter Field. We returned to the field after 2:55 hours. What a plane. It seems to have more power and lift than others we have flown and handles like a charm. I'm sure everyone is as excited as I about the start of this new adventure.

After landing, I was required to sign a receipt for one Boeing B-17G, serial number 43-38650 and all equipment on board. Can you imagine me, having just turned 21, signing a receipt for a B-17? It's a bit overwhelming.

I have since discovered that this plane eventually ended up with the 351st Bomb Group at Polebrook, a group in our Wing, and was badly shot up on a mission to Dresden on Oct 7, 1944. She crash landed in France. She had been named "Merry Christie".

We have received word that we are to report early tomorrow to begin our flight to Dow Field, Maine on our way, via the northern air route, to England.

 Sept. 28, 1944 - In flight from Hunter Field.

We are on our way. We took off early this morning and are heading north mostly via radio control routing. We will be passing over Charleston, Raleigh, Richmond, Washington, Philadelphia, and New York City. What a cooks tour of the great Eastern cities! The sky is clear and the weather great here in Georgia.

I am thinking now about what this means. I'm thinking that here I am, a kid just turned 21, only three years out of high school, in command of a B-17 and it's 10 man crew with the responsibility of getting this ship and it's crew safely to the other side of the Atlantic. I'm a bit overwhelmed. I am also cognizant of the fact that we are now on our way to join the air war in Europe with the prospect of never returning. I'm confident but a little scared about both of these future events.

The trip to Dow field is going to be slightly more than 1000 miles and will be the longest cross country flight that we have made -- and that's only the start. We still have to cross the Atlantic.

 Sept. 29, 1944 Grenier Field, Manchester, NH

Well, we had a surprise. We spent last night at Fort Dix Army Airfield. As we approached Philadelphia, we were instructed via ground control radio that the weather over New England was very bad and that we should land at Fort Dix. We were there over night and were off this morning for Grenier Field in New Hampshire instead of Dow field in Maine. That's a change too. As they say, "That's the Army".

Our flight up from Savannah was spectacular to say the least. None of us had ever flown over this part of the country and it was something. We were within sight of the Atlantic coastline most of the way, and with the weather so clear, we had a great view of the big cities. Washington, DC shown in all it's glory. We could see the White House, the Capital building, the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial -- it was a rare treat for all aboard. Then there was the New York City skyline, the Statue of Liberty, and all. The intercom was buzzing as members of the crew were constantly pointing out sights which they could spot from their vantage point.

We are now at Grenier Field near Manchester, NH.

Sept 30, 1944 Goose Bay, Labrador

We took off this AM from Grenier Field on our way to Goose Bay, Labrador. Things are certainly getting serious now. At Grenier we were outfitted with cold weather gear -- 10 sleeping bags, 10 sets of mountain ski's and ski goggles, 10 electric flying suits, and 8 cases of 'K' rations in case we were forced to land in Greenland. They also installed an auxiliary gas tank in the bomb bay to give us the extra cruising range for the long trip. They also loaded part of the bombay with about 20 bags of U.S. mail bound for England. The flight here to Goose Bay was uneventful except that we were surprised by all the crashed planes we saw as we flew over this much traveled route.

It's cold here. There is snow and ice all around and this base is much like the early settlers forts that I imagined were built in the west. It's all wood log construction with nothing, absolutely nothing, within 100 miles or more. Everything that this base needs must be brought in by plane in the winter months. Tomorrow we will be off on the longest leg of our trip - the flight to Meeks Field in Iceland.

 

Oct. 1, 1944 Meeks Field, Iceland

We are now at Meeks Field in Iceland. It was a flight of almost 8 hours -- our longest by far. We got airborne at Goose Bay without incident and had clear flying weather most of the way. We were within sight of Greenland and could see nothing but white snow and ice. I expected to be able to see some land there but this land is totally covered with ice. We could see Bluie West, an emergency landing strip in a small bay on the Southwest corner of Greenland. No one wanted to have to land there because a four engine plane could land OK (with some difficulty) but could not take off. The plane would have to be dismantled and taken back by boat.

Shortly after passing Greenland the weather turned bad. We flew on instruments for almost 2 hours and as we neared Meeks Field we let down below the overcast. To maintain visual contact with the water, we had to fly at about 200 feet for the last hour. This was further complicated by a freezing rain which caused ice to build up on the wings and other surfaces.

Don's navigation, so far, has been great. We were right on course at Greenland. We were able to pick up the marker beacon at Meeks Field just when we expected and came the last 100 miles on the radio beacon. We landed visually at what appeared to be the worst looking place in the world. We left the plane in a cold freezing rain, the ground was icy and frozen hard and the sleeping accommodations were Quonset huts half buried in sod to help protect them from the weather, wind and cold. Burying them did not help. To make matters worse the weather has forced us to stay here another day and we cannot get off to England till Oct. 3rd.

 Oct. 3, 1944 - Valley, Wales

The last leg of our flight to England had some changes too. The extra day in Iceland was spent mostly sleeping -- we needed to catch up after the long flights we had put in the previous few days. The weather was not good but we got airborne early today and as we flew East the visibility was much improved. After about 4 hours we spotted the northern tip of Ireland and knew we were right on course for Glasgow, Scotland which was to be our destination in Great Britain.

As we passed Ireland, we received a radio message that the airport at Glasgow was fogged in and that we were to proceed to Valley, Wales. We were not prepared for this but again Don's navigation was right on target. We flew South down the Irish Sea with Britain on the port wing tip and Ireland off the starboard wing.

We landed safely at Valley Airfield and I turned over our B17G to the air base there (I did get a receipt for it).

Soon we will be leaving here by rail to go to our new home in the East Anglia section of Britain to become part of the of the 1st Division of the 8th Air Force. We have been assigned to the 457th Bomb Group at Glatton Air base which will become our home for the remainder of our tour in England.

The flight over here this past week was an experience I will never forget. Nor will any of the crew, I'm sure. We have surely bonded as a crew because of this experience. We are grateful that we have arrived safely and that our prayers have been answered.

Now we must prepare ourselves mentally to take on the tasks we have been training for these past few months. Only God know what's in store for us.

 

END OF FLIGHT

Author's note: The above diary is a reconstruction of some of the memorable events in my life and in the life of our crew from the time we first met in Tampa on Jun. 26, 1944 to the time we arrived in England on Oct. 3, 1944.

It is accurate in time and detail and was compiled from personal notes, memoranda, official documents, army records, log books, etc, and -- from my memory.

 A. Willard Reese, 1st Lt. Air Corp, Serial No 0825283