One Airman’S Story

By George W. Goodrow

One Airmans Story

This is the true and poignant story of one young man lost in one of World War IIs air epic battles, Operation Argument. The story traces a young farm boy from Virginia through his early days to his enlistment and training in the US Army Air Corps. He was married to his boyhood sweetheart three days before deploying overseas. The story documents his tragic loss while on his first combat mission.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 29, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984516022

George W. Goodrow

I am retied after 22 years of active duty with the US Army. I hold a Master's degree in Public Administration for the University of LaVerne. The subject of the work is the uncle of my wife. All of the initial research for the book was started to answer the concerns of the Shultz family. They were unaware as to the particulars of their brother's death.

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…to do what we have come over here to do.

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One Airman’s Story

George W. Goodrow

Copyright © 2018 by George W. Goodrow.

ISBN:                   Softcover                             978-1-9845-1603-9

                            eBook                                    978-1-9845-1602-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 03/28/2018

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CONTENTS

PART 1

Generalized Time Line

Introduction

Middlebrook & Home

PART 2

The Journey Begins

Enlistment

Miami

PART 3

Advanced Training & Aerial Gunnery

Crew Selection

Crew Training

PART 4

The North Atlantic in November

Shipdham

PART 5

The Mission

Recovery

Retrieval

Laid to Rest

The aftermath for the rest of the crew

Dedication

To my mother-in-law, Lois Shultz Sensabuagh, the last surviving sibling of SGT. Robert E. Shultz. And to my beautiful wife, Sharon.

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Sergeant Robert Eugene Gene Shultz (Author’s collection)

This story is based upon true events. The author has had to create the dialog but, the places and events are fact. It is unfortunate that the vast majority of SGT. Shultz’s records were destroyed in a fire suffered by the Records Retention Offices in St. Louis. Thankfully, some records pertaining to his death, identification, and subsequent return of his remains were available.

PART 1

Generalized Time Line

Introduction

The week of 20-26 February 1944 may well be classed by future historians as marking a decisive battle of history, one as decisive and of greater world importance than Gettysburg. Gen. H. Hap Arnold

Operation Argument, more familiarly called, Big Week, ran from February 20 – 26, 1944. This operation was the brainchild of the famous Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, famed for the raid on Tokyo in 1942. General Doolittle had just become Commander of the 8th Air Force having been appointed to the position beginning in January of 1944. Upon his assumption of command, General Doolittle was determined to make strategic bombing of Germany count. In fact, Doolittle only got the job as 8th Air Force Commander on the promise he would get the aircraft loss rate down and the bombing results up. Public opinion at home was running against the Mighty 8th. The losses of men and planes in the daily papers had folks at home, and our Allies, questioning the American strategy.

Doolittle and the higher brass knew that an invasion of Fortress Europe was in the offing. They did not know when, nor where, but they did know that the Allies had to have control of the air to make the invasion possible. Big Week then would be an all-out effort by the Mighty 8th Air Force to destroy the German Luftwaffe and take control of the skies over Europe. The up-coming invasion of Europe, D-Day, could not take place without Allied control of the skies. The 8th would devote an entire week of bombing to strike deep into Germany to destroy the factories producing aircraft for the German war machine. They would strike the Luftwaffe on the ground, at his bases, and battle him in the air. By hitting Germany right at the production facilities, the 8th Air Force would hopefully cripple, and then destroy the Luftwaffe.

Doolittle also made one other monumental decision. Previous commanders of the Mighty 8th had required the escort fighters to stay with the bombers. Doolittle changed that policy. He immediately gave the fighter commanders free rein to escort the bombers up to the point of bomb release. After that, the fighters were free to roam the skies at will to chase down and destroy the Germans. Doolittle had the advantage of having the newest weapon in the American arsenal at his disposal. The P-51 Mustang had arrived in Europe in sufficient numbers to now have a real impact on the war. The P-51 Mustang with it’s Rolls Royce Merlin engine was the right plane, at the right time for the Allies. No other previous Allied aircraft had the range of the Mustang. Here was an aircraft capable of staying with the bombers all the way to Berlin and back. Nothing the Luftwaffe had could compare to the Mustang. The only airplane faster was the German ME-262 jet. But these came in far too small a number to really influence the outcome of the war. Besides, Mustang pilots had the number of the jet. Mustangs trailed the short duration jets catching them at landing or take-off. They were easy pickings for the Mustangs at these times. There are those that will say the Mustang made Big Week the success it was.

This is the story of one participant,…..and casualty of that week. Robert Eugene Gene Shultz, Sergeant, U.S. Army Air Corps and member of the 506th Bomb Squadron, 44th Bomb Group, the Flying Eightballs of the 8th Army Air Force. The story of a true all-American young man, killed in the prime of his life. Of all the combat jobs in the American services during WWII, no job was more dangerous than that of a man in a bomber over Germany. Over 26,000 men were lost in this fight. That is more than the U.S. Marines took in the entire Pacific campaign. The Eighth in Europe and Fifteenth Air Forces in Italy took a higher percentage of losses than any other branch of service. More losses than any other American fighting force. Nothing was more dangerous than being in the sky over Nazi Germany. Whether it be a foxhole, a destroyer deck, or a submarine conning tower, an airman had a greater chance of dying for his Country. The air war was not clean or safe,… it was murderous.

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Emblem of the 506th Bomb Squadron, the Flying Eightballs

Middlebrook & Home

Home for Gene was an eighteenth century log and frame house called Rosemont Farm. The original part of the house was constructed early in the 1800’s of log construction and probably consisted originally of a single floor with just two rooms. Just prior to the Civil War, the house had been added to, and greatly expanded. A second floor now graced the dwelling and on each side, a two-story, white-washed brick addition had been added. Thus, by the time of the Civil War the house was over three times the original size. The original portion of the home was now sided in white clapboard, covering the original logs while the brick additions on each side were whitewashed. It was situated on the crest of a rolling hill with stream-fed valleys on either side. The house dominated the landscape for almost a mile in any direction. The home had once been one of the premier homes in the Augusta County, Virginia area. In earlier days, it had been the site of fancy parties, with Confederate officers resplendent in their uniforms while local ladies dressed in their Sunday finest toasted the new Confederate nation. But those were different days. Now, the house was drafty and cold in the winter, hot and stagnant in the summer, and starting to show its considerable age. Surrounding the house were tall oaks and one lonely chestnut tree. Behind the house in what was considered a small back yard, stood a smokehouse and small tool shed. In earlier days, there had also been the family privy, but now the convenience to indoor plumbing made that structure obsolete. About a hundred yards off the west side was a barn, an equipment shed, and a large chicken coop. Between the house and barn, a small field where sheep grazed contentedly. Behind and in front of the house, in the creek-fed bottoms, corn grew as fodder for the cattle and to feed the family. To the east side of the house, a small well-tended garden grew vegetables and herbs needed for the dinner table. All of the children took turns tending, watering, and weeding this important crop.

Water in the house came from a single hand-pump located in the kitchen. There all of the water needed in the house was dispensed. The bathroom had a bucket. Before you went into the bathroom, you pumped enough water into the bucket to flush. Bath water was pumped into a tub, and heated water from the stove poured in until the water was tepid, at best. Each of the adults and children took turns, especially on Saturdays, to segregate themselves off in the kitchen, and take their turn at bathing. Summers were a bit better in that with some homemade soap and a few minutes away from chores, bathing could be accomplished in the creek behind the house. Boys and girls stripped down to their underwear and scrubbed clothing and themselves in the cool, spring-fed stream. Many a summer afternoon was spent in such activity sharing the water and stream with the farm cattle. The house did have electricity with one bare bulb lighting the kitchen / dining room area and one in the living room. Otherwise, light came from numerous oil lamps spread throughout the house. Electricity was not cheap, and J. Leonard was not one to waste. Coal oil or kerosene was cheaper and the lamps in winter helped supplement the stoves. The roof was covered in tin, without any sort of insulation. The children enjoyed many a thunderstorm listening to the rain beat down upon that roof, they could hear every drop as it hit the metal. The floors were bare wood, with an occasional throw rug for warmth. There was a piece of linoleum nailed to the floor under the large farm table in the kitchen for spills.

The land was poor and quite rocky. There were numerous outcroppings of limestone throughout the fields, and only the bottom lands by the streams were of sufficient quality and fertile enough for crops. This little farmstead was situated approximately 6 road miles from the hamlet of Middlebrook, and about 12 miles south west of the City of Staunton, in the heart of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Middlebrook was a small farm community consisting of two stores, a garage, a small number of dwellings, a church and the combined elementary / high school. The children for miles around walked, rode horses, and some rode to school on buses driven by the high school’s more senior students deemed trustworthy enough for that responsibility. Robert Eugene Shultz, Gene to friends and family, was one such student. Gene drove a small 10-passenger school bus route throughout that portion of the county picking up and delivering children at the beginning and end of the school day.

Gene was the second son of J. Leonard and Nell Shultz. Brother Fred was the eldest child, born in 1919. Fred was followed in 1921 by Gene. Shortly afterward came sister Martha, another brother Wayne, and finally the baby of the family, Lois in 1928. The seven all lived at Rosemont, spread out over the two floors of the house. The two girls, Martha and Lois shared one bedroom upstairs and three boys, Fred, Gene, and Wayne the other. J. Leonard and Nell’s bedroom was downstairs, along with a sitting room, a large kitchen / dining area and the small bathroom. Large front and rear porches graced the house and made the summer heat a bit more bearable in the evenings. In the winter, there were two wood-fired stoves to try to supply the entire house with warmth. Original fireplaces, were now bricked over and the stoves vented out through the old chimneys. The stove in the east side kitchen supplied both cooking and warmth in the winter. This stove also provided ample heat for the dining and small bathroom areas as long as the winds outside were not too bad. The stove in the living area provided ample heat to the remainder of the downstairs area, but the second floor, where all of the children slept, was icy cold. Feather quilts made sleep a little more comfortable.

A typical day began at 5:30AM. Gene and the others were expected to get up and dressed and downstairs before 6:00AM. While the girls helped Nell with preparing breakfast, the boys did assigned chores. The boys took weekly turns in cutting, stacking, and bringing in fire wood, feeding the sheep and pigs, and taking care of the chickens. There were also cattle to feed and check, lamps to fill, and any other task J. Leonard assigned. By 6:30 all chores were to be done and everyone gathered around the large farm table for a hearty breakfast. By 6:40, J. Leonard was out the door headed to Staunton. He worked in a wholesale food warehouse in Staunton and had to be at work no later than 7:30AM. Meanwhile, and at the same time, Gene, Wayne, Martha, and Lois were gone to begin the school day. Gene piled the others into the small bus and proceeded on his assigned bus route. The children and those that Gene picked up, then proceeded to the school houses located side by side, in Middlebrook. The elementary school being just down the small hill from the high school. There were a total of seven students in Gene’s high school graduation class.

School generally let out by 3:30 and it was back on the small bus for the Schultz clan and the others. Gene then retraced his route dropping off the other students, then they all returned home. They arrived at Rosemont at around 4:30. At that time, the daily routine began with evening chores being the norm. While Fred had worked all day in the fields, he would gather a list of chores either Gene or Wayne were to help him with when they came home. The three boys then accomplished what tasks they could to keep the farm running, whether it be manual labor or some repair job Gene needed to do on a piece of equipment or furniture. Summers, when school was not in session, was hardly different. Chores on the farm, the equipment and keeping up with the animals and crops occupied most of the days. But, there was a little more time in the summer for fun activities. Gene especially enjoyed fishing in a neighbor’s pond and hunting. He was particularly adept at shooting squirrels and loved the challenge of keeping the groundhog population in check. He was quite a crack-shot. Too, the nearby pond or stream offered the children a chance to swim or just cool off.

By around 6:00PM, J. Leonard would come home. Martha and Lois spent most of their afternoons helping Nell in the kitchen preparing the evening meal or working in the garden, cleaning, or whatever tasks Nell assigned them. By 6:30 the family again gathered at the table and after grace, ate and conversed about the days events. Evenings were devoted to homework, and perhaps a brief family gathering in the living room to hear Lois practice her piano and all to sing some songs together. There was a radio, but no television.

Weekends were hardly different. Saturdays, J. Leonard worked at the produce warehouse in Staunton until at least noon. Every Saturday, he took Gene with him into town so that Gene could reach his own job. Gene held a part-time job working in Worthington Hardware store in downtown Staunton. Gene was a clerk in the store and did other odd jobs as was needed to assist customers. J. Leonard stayed in Staunton when he got off to conduct his own business while he waited on Gene. Depending on the customer demand, Gene generally finished on Saturday’s at around 4:00 PM. Then Gene and his father would return to Rosemont a bit earlier on Saturdays, generally getting back to the farm around 5:00PM. Chores, took up the rest of the evening until dinner. About the only real variation came on Sunday when everyone was expected to be ready for church by 9:30 AM. The family would gather up in the old Dodge and if the rationing permitted, drive the three miles to St. John’s Reformed Church. If gasoline were in short supply, it was Gene and Fred’s job to hitch up the two horses, throw some hay bales on the wagon for seats, and the family ride to church. Occasionally, Nell would put together a picnic for after church and the family would gather under the huge sycamore trees on the church grounds for a Sunday picnic. These were happy times for all. They were a typical American family trying to survive the greatest economic collapse in the history of the country, the Great Depression. They did what they could with what they had, and perhaps did a bit better than some. J Leonard had a job and something of a steady income, there was always food on the table, and clothes on their backs. They were not rich, but there were a lot of others who were not as well off, they certainly felt blessed.

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The present main street through Middlebrook. Little has changed since the days Gene drove his school bus up and down this street. The school buildings are behind and to the right of this photograph. (Author’s photo)

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The Shultz clan in 1937. Left to right: J. Leonard, Gene, Nell, Lois, Fred, Martha, Wayne. This photo was taken at St. John’s Church, barely visible in the background. (Author’s collection)

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Present day photo of the Rosemont site. Only the two sheds, chicken coop, and barn remain. The house itself was struck by lightning in 2005. The house, dating back to the early 1800’s was completely destroyed by the resulting fire. The house stood in the left portion of this photo, directly behind the tool shed and smoke house. The old barn dating to the time of the Civil War and chicken coop remain in the right portion of the photo. (Photo by the author)

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Rosemont farm as it appeared