Ww Ii- We Were There: Combat Diaries

By T/Sgt. James Lee Hutchinson EdS

WW II books of 50 or more stories of boys on B-17 Flying Fortress crews, flying deadly missions with the Eighth Air Force in World War II. His writing is based on his teenage combat experiences as a B-17 radio/gunner on twenty combat missions with the 490th Bomb group, diaries and interviews of veterans of various bomb groups. Teenagers who volunteered to fly were trained and went into combat before they could legally vote or buy a drink. They signed up for the Army’s Air Cadet Program and became a part of the greatest air armada in the world. Any of the gunners on a bomber crew were teenagers and twenty-four was the average age of pilots, bombardiers and navigators. Veterans’ diaries give amazing reports of fighter attacks, flak damage and being shot down to become Prisoners of War. They were the youngsters who flew daylight bombing missions in the Mighty Eighth and destroyed Germany’s military and war industry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665577601

T/Sgt. James Lee Hutchinson EdS

The author holds three Indiana University degrees and is retired from 37 years as an elementary teacher, Principal and Assistant to the Superintendent. Fifty year Mason, Rotary Paul Harris Award, Presbyterian Elder. Hutch uses the short story format and self-drawn sketches to encourage readers from twelve to ninety-six. His goal is to honor those who served to save our Country’s freedom and to educate the present generations. T/Sgt. James Lee Hutchinson is a WW II Eighth Air Corps veteran of twenty missions as a teenage B-17 Radio Operator/ gunner. The ninety- seven year-old educator has published six WW II short story books to record and preserve 300 stories of WW II history of B-17 and B-24 air crews, fighter pilots and POWs. Stories gathered in the past twenty years from TV interviews, memoirs and diaries of veterans. The majority of WW II vets are gone, but their WW II memories are saved. He also wrote “On Leatherwood Creek” which describes his boyhood prior to WW II and “Hutch’s Rainbow Bridge, Ninety-three Years of Pets” continues with family stories of all the pets in his life and escapades after retirement to his dream home on a farm.

Book preview

© 2023 T/Sgt. James Lee Hutchinson, EdS. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 12/08/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7759-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7760-1 (e)

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.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Section 1

The Greatest Generation Begins

Liberty Belle Flies Again

Liberty Belles’ Combat Story

The Holocaust = Genocide

The Auschwitz Album

Pact of Steel = Axis

Battle of Britain

Flying Tigers

Canadian Royal Air Force

Pearl Harbor – the War at Home

Rosie the Riveter

Section 2

Eighth Air Corps History

B-17 Specs

Mighty Eighth Mission

Ambush

The Wiley Witch Ball Turret

Combat Zone Dangers

Diary of Thorpe Abbotts -

Alconbury Bomb Accident

The O2 Incident

B-24 Crash Landing

The Kiel Mission

Brig. Gen. Bedford Forrest III

Kiel Mission, June 13, 1943 - Version 2

Rough Missions

The Bomb-run

Anti - aircraft Shells = Flak

Bail Out?

The Jinxed Ground Crew

Section 3

Fighter War

German Fighters – The Luftwaffe

Lt. Colonel Danny M. Crist

96th Bomb Group 13 Apr 1944

Fighter Escorts to Target

Lt. Alden Rigby’s Winter War

Capt. James R. Stout’s Combat Log

"Swampfire 100 Missions

The D-Day Highway

Section 4

D-Day June 6, 1944

S/Sgt. Merrill St John

T/ Sgt. Tom "Dody’ Newkirk

General Theodore Roosevelt

PFC. Mario Berto - St. Lo Friendly Fire

St. Lo — Operation Cobra

95th Bomb Group

Lt. William Ed Charles

First Shuttle Mission

Poltava

T/Sgt. Doyle Leslie Byers, RO/Gunner

B-17 ‘Our Fortune’ Lucky Crew

Corporal Ralph Alexander

Mechanic Story

Section 5

Princess of York - B-17 for Princess Elizabeth

¹st Lt. Phil Arbogast

Black Bread March of Stalag Luft IV

Bomb Run on Target

Tex Taylor’s Diary - 1943

Dirtyfoot Jones

Section 6

Uncle Sam’s Greetings

Fort Benjamin Harrison

Fast Forward 77 Years

Troop Trains

Basic Training, Amarillo, Texas

Sioux Falls Radio School

Gunner’s Silver Wings –Yuma AZ

The Lt. Templeton Crew

Town Pump Bar

First Furlough

Queen Mary — New York Harbor

Camp Kilmer N J

Section 7

490th Bomb Group Eye England

Our Eye 490th Base

Mission Alert - Dec. 5, 1944

B-17 Combat

The Mess Hall – Briefing

Into The Overcast

Take-off – Formation Assembly

Thirty-six Plane Box Formation

Berlin –First Mission

Combat Action

Aborting – A Big Decision

#2 Lutzkendorf Dec 6

First London Pass – Dec 10

Doodlebugs -Vl and V2 Missles

2nd Lt. Corbin Willis –POW

Hutch # 3 Hannover — Dec. 15

Stuttgart Dec. 16

Flak Guns

Flak Happy!

My Christmas Eve - 1944

Fighter Pilot Claim Report

Section 8

General Frederik W. Castle Citation

Sgt. Arlie Propes

Lead Crew

Radio Room

PFF Radar (Mickey)

Lead Crew Changes

Bad Kreuznach

Gunner Notes

Sgt. Joe Cosmo

Section 9

Battle of the Bulge Dec. 16

Malmedy Massacre Dec.17, 1944

Sgt. John Hill

Aschaffenburg, Jan. 3

The B-24 Pilot’s Ring

Oxygen Mask Troubles

T/Sgt. James S. Peters Sr.

Rough Missions

Bail Out?

T/Sgt. Howard Tuchin’s Thirteenth Mission

Hutch # 8 Augsburg

Ball Turret Trap

Hutch # 9 Sterkade-Rheine

Templeton Crew Flak Casualty

# 11 - Frankfort Feb. 17

Snow Days

# 12 - Ansbach Air Medal #Two

# 12-B Ulm

#15 - Plauen    March 21

Deadly Plauen Mission

#16 – Hannover

Parchim - ME-109 Fighter Attack

Roudnice, Czechoslovakia #19

490th Black Thursday

German SS Atrocity

# 18 Nauen (Berlin)

Mercy Missions

Stars and Stripes - Chowhound Missions

Bibliography

Dedicated to

Dr. Susan Elizabeth Hutchinson - Typing

Mike Alexander - Technical support

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The author holds three Indiana University degrees and is retired from 37 years as an elementary teacher, Principal and Assistant to the Superintendent. Fifty year Mason, Rotary Paul Harris Award, Presbyterian Elder. Hutch uses the short story format and self-drawn sketches to encourage readers from twelve to ninety-six. His goal is to honor those who served to save our Country’s freedom and to educate the present generations.

T/Sgt. James Lee Hutchinson is a WW II Eighth Air Corps veteran of twenty missions as a teenage B-17 Radio Operator/ gunner. The ninety- seven year-old educator has published six WW II short story books to record and preserve 300 stories of WW II history of B-17 and B-24 air crews, fighter pilots and POWs. Stories gathered in the past twenty years from TV interviews, memoirs and diaries of veterans. The majority of WW II vets are gone, but their WW II memories are saved.

He also wrote On Leatherwood Creek which describes his boyhood prior to WW II and Hutch’s Rainbow Bridge, Ninety-three Years of Pets continues with family stories of all the pets in his life and escapades after retirement to his dream home on a farm.

WW II books of 50 or more stories of boys on B-17 Flying Fortress crews, flying deadly missions with the Eighth Air Force in World War II. His writing is based on his teenage combat experiences as a B-17 radio/gunner on twenty combat missions with the 490th Bomb group, diaries and interviews of veterans of various bomb groups. Teenagers who volunteered to fly were trained and went into combat before they could legally vote or buy a drink. They signed up for the Army’s Air Cadet Program and became a part of the greatest air armada in the world. Any of the gunners on a bomber crew were teenagers and twenty-four was the average age of pilots, bombardiers and navigators. Veterans’ diaries give amazing reports of fighter attacks, flak damage and being shot down to become Prisoners of War. They were the youngsters who flew daylight bombing missions in the Mighty Eighth and destroyed Germany’s military and war industry.

Read my books –see my FREE videos to know what we did!

T/Sgt. James Lee Hutchinson – Air Medal – with two clusters – 20 missions teenage radio operator/gunner – 490th Bomb Group (H) Sqd 848 – Eye, England

Six WW II books- 250 true combat stories based interviews and diaries!

Autographed copies at <[e-mail]> or 812-508-0062 $22 — free shipping 50 to 60 stories in each also online

Through These Eyes- author’s diary of 20 Eighth Air Force missions

Bombs Away! 40 combat stories and 25 Great Depression boyhood stories

Boys in the B-17 – Teenagers, too young to vote, but not to fight

B- 17 Memories from Memphis Belle to Victory – stories from 8th and 15 th airmen– 9th Infantry – POWs — Holocaust

Latest - B-17s, Fighters and Flak – includes ace P-51 pilot’s journal

New — WW II – We Were There some of best combat diaries

Also 2 fun books On Leatherwood Creek - Indiana Bicentennial project - veteran’s boyhood in the poverty of the Great Depression Hutch’s Rainbow Bridge, 93 years of pets — 20 sketches by author

Free videos – Search my full name or "T/Sgt. James Lee Hutchinson = more

1. Tales from the Greatest Generation with James Lee Hutchinson by Smithville Media2.

2. Flying Fortress: Wings Over Europe

3. Hutch-B-17 Flak and Fighters

4. Arming the B-17 Bombers

There will never be another air war like World War II. Computer guided missiles have replaced the Boys in the B-17. However, within living memory, men left the earth in 1,000 plane formations and fought major battles five miles high, leaving a legacy that should never be forgotten! Today, at age ninety-seven, I hope my short stories give readers a glimpse of history as I lived it in World War II.

AUTHOR HONORED

BY LOCAL, STATE AND

NATIONAL LEADERS

2006 Thank-you letter from Queen Elizabeth’s Lady in Waiting

2008 Indiana General Assembly Concurrent Resolution 50 by Sen. Brent Steele, Rep. Eric Koch, Lt. Governor Becky Skillman

2008 - My Resolution, which not only honored his valuable service to the United States during World War II, but also honored him as a unique Hoosier author. It was my privilege to have the State of Indiana honor Lee Hutchinson by Special Resolution. Through his down-home insight about life in Indiana, interspersed with his candor and sense of humor, Lee has done something I have always wanted to do – write books about how our generation grew up. Respectfully, Brent Steele Indiana State Senator

2015 Grand Marshal Bedford July 4 Parade — by Bedford Mayor Shawna Girgis and Governor Mike Pence, keynote speaker and sharing my Grand Marshal convertible ride.

2018 - Astronaut Charlie Walker, former student, particpated in Old Lincoln School Memorial Project

2015 Congressman (Now Senator) Todd Young of Indiana presents Congressional Veterans Commendation which he read into the Congressional Record December 8, 2015. It was an unexpected honor

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2018 Sagamore of the Wabash by Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb

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                        So near is grandeur to our dust

                        So near to God is man

                        When Duty whispers low, Thou must

                        The youth replies I can.

SECTION 1

The Greatest Generation Begins

We teenagers grew up in the poverty of the Great Depression – just in time to save Freedom for future generations!. Our lives were not complicated by bathrooms, air conditioning, television, computer games or cell phones. We were out in the fresh air, organized our own games and free to roam the streets, fields or woodlands of the neighborhood. We had strict discipline in school, chores at home and every family member contributed to the family operation. Most families were striving to survive and rear their children to be law abiding citizens. Mothers stayed home to cook and take of the children while fathers worked to support the family. There were many homes without electricity or water and few houses had telephones or central heat. Life was hard, jobs were scarce as hen’s teeth and consisted mostly of short term chores for farmers or local businesses. Men were willing to work for a dollar a day to pay for food and fuel. Neighbors traded labor or services with no money involved. There were stretches of time in the winter when jobs were not available and family funds were low. Mom’s canned food supply was a blessing when other supplies were scarce. Those were times Dad would swallow his pride and go ask the Township Trustee for a five dollar ‘bean order’ to tide us over until the weather improved. Government food surplus aided familiesand school lunch programs provided valuable nutrition and kept our family intact. Help from the Trustee and the Federal Surplus food distribution program was ‘iffy’ and those sources of help sometimes dried up when they were most needed! Tax funds were limited and it was best to imitate the ants and squirrels and stock up for winter. The majority of Southern Indiana families were in the same situation in the Great Depression prior to World War II. Such conditions were not unusual for the time, rather they were the norm.

Time softens memories of those desperate early days and I mainly remember them as happy times when the five of us shared life as a family of two young parents and three scrawny kids. I remember my Mother as a woman who enjoyed life as she scraped, saved and sacrificed to rear three children in the poverty of the Depression. Dad’s challenge was to earn enough to ‘bring home the bacon’ and keep a roof over our heads. Our house was little more than a shack, but my parents met life head-on and lived to enjoy a better life the days after World War II. Time has erased that little family, but they live in my memories of Depression days on South H street in Dutchtown.

I completed the 1943 school year at Bedford High, one semester (six credits) short of the requirements needed to graduate. That failure in grade two had caught up with me and the draft board was breathing down my neck. I had gambled that they would let me come back to school for the Fall semester, but I lost that bet!

I was eighteen on June 12, 1943 and my draft papers came in the mail the next day! I applied for an exemption for one semester, because I thought that diploma was important. I was going to be the first of my family to earn a High School diploma. The draft board did not see it that way and I was sworn into the Army on August 4, 1943. Bedford High started without me Three weeks later. Enlistments were up but Uncle Sam lowered the draft age from twenty-one to eighteen in 1943, we were losing the war and needed more cannon fodder. Teenagers made great warriors — they were well- disciplined, hard workers and needed jobs! We could not vote, drive a car or buy a beer, but were ready to fight.

Teenagers who volunteered to fly were trained and went into combat before they could legally vote or buy a drink. They signed up for the Army’s Air Cadet Program and became a part of the greatest air armada in the world. A majority of the gunners on a bomber crew were teenagers and the average age of pilots, bombardiers and navigators was twenty-four. Veterans’ diaries give amazing reports of fighter attacks, flak damage and being shot down to become Prisoners of War. They were the youngsters who flew daylight bombing missions in the Mighty Eighth and destroyed Germany’s military and war industry. The price of victory was high, with extreme losses of crews and planes. Eighth Air Force losses were among the highest of any military unit. I have published eight books that save the history of teenage and very young airmen flying on oxygen as high as 25,000 feet and 40 below zero to face enemy fighters and fly into flak over the target! The black smoke of exploding 88 mm shells looked harmless, but filled the sky with chunks of iron like a giant shotgun shell. A direct hit knocked bombers out of the sky; a lost engine or fire meant dropping out of formation to face enemy fighters alone or bailing out to become German prisoners of war (POW.) Violent death was common for those in the Infantry divisions on the ground.

I have made dozens of television interviews of local veterans and collected many diaries of combat veterans for true stories of their military service. The result is eight WW II era books saving 300 stories from interviews and two fun books in the past twenty years. Stories from the Greatest Generation report a time -frame of events in local, state and national history that will never happen again. I report WW II history as a man who was there as a teenager. I do not consider the task finished and continue to speak and write as a ‘Living Antique’ to tell stories of the Greatest Generation and honor fellow WW II veterans.

I began my expensive hobby of publishing my diary and WW II stories to tell this generation of the cost and sacrifices made to save our nation’s Freedom.

My voyage from the Greatest Generation into a new century has been a fantastic experience. God has opened many doors for me; family, pets and friends enriched my life. I am very pleased to share my stories with you as I edge closer to the exit door.

Liberty Belle Flies Again

Saturday, July1, 2006 was a red letter day for me as an author and Air Force veteran. That was the day the famous B-17G Flying Fortress, the Liberty Belle, flew into the Mt Comfort airport east of Indianapolis. I contacted the Liberty Belle Foundation when I learned of their scheduled visit to provide flights on the famous bomber. My request to sell my book, Through These Eyes A World War II Combat Diary, was answered by tour manager, Scott Maher.

His response was: It would be an honor to have you here to sell your books. Please sign me up for the first copy.

Once again, I was headed for a rendevous with a B-17G, but this time I was 81 years old instead of 19 and there were no bombs, machine guns flak bursts or enemy fighters involved. My wife and proofreader, June, agreed to come along to see a B-17 Flying Fortress up close and personal. My intention was to meet people interested in the Eighth Air Force and the war that saved our nation. An event almost lost to the present generation who enjoy the freedoms earned by those who made so many sacrifices to protect our country in World War II. The Eighth Air Force had the highest losses of any Amy unit, 26,000 dead and 28,000 missing in action. The air war over Europe was truly a high risk operation for the men and boys who flew through flak and fighters to destroy Hitler’s Third Reich!

Liberty Belles’ Combat Story

September 9, 1944 the 390th Bomb Group attacked a target in Dusseldorph, Germany and suffered its second largest single mission loss of the war. On the bomb run over the target, just prior to bomb release, one the low squadron B-17’s was hit by an anti-aircraft shell. The direct hit in the open bomb-bay exploded the 5000 pound bomb-load. That explosion blew six bombers out of the sky and badly damaged three others. Nine of the twelve planes in the low squadron were lost to the bomb group while over the target. P-51 escort fighters escorted the three damaged bombers to safety. One of the planes flew two hours on one engine and landed safely in Paris. A second cripple landed in Belgium and the third struggled back to its home base in Framingham, England. It landed much later than the other bombers returning from the mission. But, it landed! That Flying Fortress was the Liberty Belle! The severely damaged B-17 had managed to make it safely back to England and after much repair, flew another 64 combat missions! The war-weary plane was unable to make the return trip to the USA after the war. The 390th Bomb Group flew 300 missions and lost 144 bombers. There were heavy loses of men and planes in all forty-three of the heavy bomber bases in England. The 390th had one of the best bombing accuracy records in the Eighth Air Force.

The Liberty Belle that flew across America today was a replica of that famous bomber; the B-17G Flying Fortress, restored, at great cost, as a flying museum of history to honor the men and planes that filled the skies over England in WW II. More than 12,000 of the sturdy bombers were manufactured to serve; the Belle was one of five or six restored B-17 bombers flying at that time.

It was a thrill to see the aircraft soaring above the Mt. Comfort, Indiana countryside, carrying passengers who wanted to experience a flight in a Flying Fortress. The Liberty Belle brought back a ton of memories my days in the 490th Bomb Group and those twenty bombing missions over Germany so many years ago in World War II.

My wife, June and I set up the card-table, book display and lawn chairs and joined the crowd of on-lookers on the sunny June day. The historic bomber was visited by many WW II veterans and their families. We exchanged stories of our wartime experiences and enjoyed watching the bomber take off, land and load more passengers.

One Liberty Belle visitor, had been a pilot in the 390th Bomb Group on that deadly mission in 1944. He was flying in the low squadron on the day of that deadly mission and was one of three B-17’s to escape damage from the explosion! Those three planes stayed on the bomb run to the target and dropped their bombs. The old pilot said he will never forget that day when six planes in his squadron went down instantly and sixty men lost their lives in that one fatal blast.

Another Eighth Air Corps veteran had served as an Eighth Air Corps armorer, one of the guys who loaded our planes with bombs and ammunition before each mission. They also had to unload them when bad weather cancelled a mission. The ex-sergeant had interesting stories from a ground pounder’s experiences on a bomber base. He was one of those very important guys who prepared our bombers for missions and sweated out our safe return.

Atrocity — I got a different view of the war from a veteran who had served with Airborne Troops during the D-Day invasion. He was a member of a bomb squad, a sapper, his job was to locate and dis-arm land mines and bombs. His most riveting story concerned a B-17 that was shot down near St Lo on D-Day. His men witnessed two crew members parachute to the ground in the midst of the fighting. He said his infantry squad fought their way across a field to save the airmen, but were too late. German troops had already captured the two survivors, tied them to fence posts, doused them with gasoline and burned them alive! He earned his own Purple Heart medal a few days later when he and a buddy were disarming a land mine which exploded. He said the last thing he saw before passing out, was the blood-stained snow surrounding his dead buddy lying a few feet away. He didn’t wake up until he was in a hospital bed in England.

Descendants of Flying Fortress veterans attending this visit of the Liberty Belle were eager to talk with Eighth Air Corps veterans. Several bought an autographed copiy of my book, Through These Eyes and cameras bugs got a lot of good pictures of the historic Liberty Belle and the men who had served and survived World War II in the Eighth Air Force. The trip to Mt Comfort and flying in a B-17 again was truly one of my most enjoyable missions. I have flown on three more restored memories of the past since the Liberty Belle.

The Holocaust = Genocide

Hitler’s goal was genocide – to enslave or kill all people of the Jewish race. He ordered the construction off Concentration Camps for that purpose. The Allies plan to use air power to defeat the Axis worked, but the cost was very high. Hitler’s Nazi (National l Socialist German Workers) party needed a scapegoat, someone to blame for the Depression that followed the first World War. Jews, Gypsies and Slavic people were considered sub-human and undesirable citizens The Nazi government decided to blame the Jewish race and by 1931 they began the persecution that ended in a drive to eliminate the entire race and create a pure Aryan master race. The Nazi government used genocide to eliminate the un-desirables" and confiscate the property and assets of the people they condemned to death. Entire neighborhoods of Jewish families, men women and children, were rounded up in the middle of the night and loaded onto cattle cars bound for the death and slave-labor camps. It has been estimated that six million Jews, political prisoners Gypsies and homosexuals were killed in Germany and conquered territories during Hitler’s reign Victims brought to the death camp, often in in cattle cars wearing the big ‘yellow stars’ all Jews were required to wear. No men, women or children were spared in Hitler’s murderous genocide project to kill all Jews his total is estimated at six million!

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Out of the cattle cars – Into the camp

Healthy prisoners were tattooed with an identification number on the left arm and became slave-laborers to work in the industries and military installations of the country that had condemned them. They were destined to work until they died of exhaustion or starvation. There were eventually thirty-nine such camps or sub-camps in Germany and conquered countries.

The killing and disposal of human bodies became a problem by 1942, but SS chief, Heinrich Himmler, developed a new plan. The Final Solution which used Zyklon B a quicker acting poison gas, showers and gas furnaces to speed the killing and disposal. It was put into operation at the extermination camps of Auschwitz, Birkenau, Belsen, Treblinka, Buchenwald and Dachua. Jewish, men, women and children in Hungary, Romania and surrounding countries were rounded-up and loaded into cattle cars. The railroad tracks lead directly into Concentration Camps to speed up the process. Victims were unloaded and sorted, the young and strong became slaves — the weak and old unsuspecting victims were told they could take showers after their long trip in cattle cars. Zyklon B, was used to quickly suffocate those in chambers designed to resemble showers. The bodies were then removed by Jews doing slave labor and stacked near the large gas furnaces until they could be cremated. German officials bragged they could kill and destroy 2,000 bodies a day.

The Auschwitz Album, a series of Photos taken by German officials, depicts long lines of naked prisoners waiting to enter the poison gas showers. Nazis often took detailed photos of all their torture and death work for evaluation by their superiors. This was the Holocaust (destruction by fire) a diabolical system of killing human beings. An evil project that astounded civilized people when it was discovered! Allied troops who liberated these extermination camps were awed by the condition of the prisoners who were walking skeletons weak from starvation and malnutrition. Today, hundreds of photographs document the horrible conditions of the camps and the mass graves. American G.I. s unveiled the true horror of the Nazi Final Solution near the end of the war. They liberated all those camps designed specifically to murder men, women and children as efficiently as possible. Allied troops witnessed wagons and box cars stacked with human bodies that had not yet been incinerated in gas furnaces containing the bones of earlier victims.

At the end of the war, Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower saw the conditions at the Ohrdruf Extermination work camp in Austria and issued orders that the German people from surrounding villages be marched through the camps to view the mass graves, bodies and starving slave laborers who had survived. It was fitting that they should witness the atrocities committed against innocent victims whose only crime was being a Jew!

General Eisenhower also ordered his troops to get statements from witnesses and preserve all captured photographs, films and records. He knew these horrible crimes had to be documented for the War Crimes trials to be held after the war. Gen Eisenhower ordered photographs of the few camp survivors and more than 3,000 corpses stacked like cord wood near the burning pits. He wanted to show the world Germany’s inhumanity and genocide. He said that years in the future, there would be idiots to say that the Holocaust never happened! The concentration camps of Auschwitz, Birkenau, Treblinka, Belsen, Buchenwald and Dachau were the most infamous.

Today, the Auschwitz extermination camp, in Poland and many other camps have been preserved as museums and are visited by thousands of tourists each year. These Death Camps serve as memorials to the horrible deaths of six million victims of the Nazi genocide in WW II. They are maintained in order that the world may never forget the Holocaust.

The Auschwitz Album

One surviving photo album of Auschwitz exists because a young Hungarian woman who survived as a prisoner was cold when the Auschwitz camp was liberated by Russian troops January 27, 1945. She found a camp guard’s coat which she put on to keep warm as she fled the camp. In the coat pocket she found a photo album which contained photos of torture, starvation and death in the extermination camp. Imagine her reaction when she saw a photo of herself coming off the train as well her family who had been murdered. German officials took these photos to prove they carrying out orders as quickly as possible. It was high speed genocide with poison gas showers and gas furnaces.

Today, the Auschwitz extermination camp, in Poland and many other camps have been preserved as museums and are visited by thousands of tourists each year. These Death Camps serve as memorials to the horrible deaths of six million victims of the Nazi genocide in WW II. They are maintained in order that the world may never forget the Holocaust

Again, I recommend that readers check the internet; google WW II Auschwitz or Mauthausen Concentration Camp or one of the other Death Camps in this story to see horrible photos of unbelievable treatment of humans by supposedly civilized people. Auschwitz, Birkenau, Treblinka, Belsen, Buchenwald and Dachau were the most infamous. The horror stories of survivors, photographs and eyewitness accounts of soldiers who liberated the camps eliminated any regrets the Allies might have had about the destruction of Hitler’s Third Reich. In today’s world, there are those unaware of the Holocaust and others who claim it never happened. I recommend that readers check the internet: google WW II Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Auschwitz or one of the other Death Camps in this story to see horrible photos of unbelievable treatment of humans by supposedly civilized people.

Pact of Steel = Axis

Germany had annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia and was planning to invade Poland. Italy was invading his Balkan neighbors. Italy and Germany agreed to a military and political alliance and their Pact of Steel was signed in May 1939. This treaty actually formed the Axis powers, which later included Japan. Italy’s Dictator, Benito Mussolini, convinced Germany’s dictator, Adolph Hitler, to join him conquering Europe, England and North Africa. They coined the nickname Pact of Steel (he had also come up with the metaphor of an axis binding Rome and Berlin) after reconsidering his first choice, Pact of Blood, to describe this historic agreement with Germany. They had already captured many neighboring countries and killed or enslaved thousands. Both saw this partnership as not only a defensive alliance, protection from the Western democracies, with whom they anticipated war, but also a source of backing for his Balkan victories. Each Dictator was fearful and distrustful of the other, and only sketchily shared their prospective plans of the next country to attack. The result was both Italy and Germany, rather than acting together, often "reacted’ to the military actions of the other. Neither trusted the other very far. Japan began invading China in 1939, so they joined they joined up to help conquer the world in September 1940 and the ‘Pact of Steel’ became the ‘Tripartite Pact’ and the Axis powers were ready to roll on the road of slavery, death and destruction.

Battle of Britain

Today, few Americans realize that World War II began September 1939 when German troops invaded and devastated Poland in five weeks. May 10th they invaded Holland, Belgium and France. All countries surrendered in five weeks or less. Hitler was determined to conquer The British Isles. July 1, 1940 the German Luftwaffe received orders to wipe out the England’s Royal Air Force (RAF) by bombing British airfields. The Royal Air Force battled for the skies over England until the end of October and won. However, Hitler attacked again in December 1940 with ‘Blitzkrieg’ (lightning war) terror bombing of Britain’s residential areas of cities and factories involved in aircraft production and munitions. Night - bombing raids by the RAF and RCAF helped turn back the Luftwaffe’s air attacks

Germany’s failure to destroy the Royal Air Force made Hitler cancel his invasion plans and attack Russia and World War II continued raging in Europe.

Flying Tigers

Japan invaded China In the late 1930s, and China’s leader, Chiang Kai -Shek, had a very weak Air Corps so he decided to beef-up his Chinese Air corps by buying planes and equipment from the United States and hiring fighter pilots from other countries. Faced with too much Japanese air power bombing cities, the Chiang government hired American Claire Chennault, a retired US Army captain, to coordinate China’s air defense. Chennnalt put together an air raid warning network, built airbases across China, and went to the United States – still a neutral party in World War II to find pilots and planes to defend China against the Japanese air force. He was able to buy 100 Curtiss P-40B and hire pilots and mechanics for his new airports.

Pay ranged from $13,700 a month with 30 days off a year. Housing included and an extra $550 a month for food. All contracts were for one year, to live and work in China, flying, repairing and making airplanes. Fighter pilot contracts included a bounty of $ 9,000 for every Japanese airplane shot down – no limit. Ninety-nine fliers, along with support personnel, made the trip to China in the fall of 1941, according to the US Defense Department history. American pilots, mechanics and support personnel became members of the American Volunteer Group (AVG), later known as the Flying Tigers. The group’s American-made warplanes featured the gaping, tooth-filled mouth of a shark on their nose May 28, 1942.

The volunteers — some were fresh out of flight school, others were former Army Air Corps members or ferry pilots for large bombers. They signed up for the Far East adventure to make a lot of money, to get into the war (we had lots of eager patriots in those days) or because they were simply bored. That deal – in inflation-adjusted 2020 dollars, convinced a few hundred Americans to volunteer in 1941 and to become the heroes, and some would even say the saviors, of China.

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Flying Tigers P-40 - American Volunteers

The nose’s symbolic fierceness was backed up by its pilots in combat and the Flying Tiger pilots are credited with destroying as many as 497 Japanese planes at a cost of only 73 of their own. Perhaps the best known of the Flying Tigers, US Marine aviator Greg Boyington – around whom the 1970’s TV show Black Sheep Squadron was based. Greg Pappy Boyington. In his memoir, Chennault notes what his group – never fielding more than 25 P-40s – accomplished.

This tiny force met a total of a thousand-odd Japanese aircraft over Southern Burma and Thailand. In 31 encounters they destroyed 217 enemy planes and probably destroyed 43. Our losses in combat were four pilots killed in the air, one killed while strafing and one taken prisoner. Sixteen P- 40’s were destroyed, he wrote.

"The US military notes the heroics performed on the ground:

The crew chiefs and support technicians performed miracles of improvisation in getting the fighters ready to fly, but if any (aircraft) ... had been on US military bases, they would have been deemed un-flyable, it said.

Despite the Flying Tigers’ heroics in the air, allied ground forces in Burma could not hold off the Japanese. Rangoon fell at the end of February 1942 and the AVG retreated north into Burma’s interior. But they’d bought vital time for the allied war effort, tying down Japanese planes that could have been used in India or elsewhere in China and the Pacific. According to Chennault, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made this comparison:

The victories of these Americans over the rice paddies of Burma are comparable in character, if not in scope, with those won by the RAF (Royal Air Force) over the hop fields of Kent in the Battle of Britain.

Boyington, like many flyers who flew in early service, transferred to US Forces, the Marines. The experienced Native American (Sioux) fighter pilot had phenomenal success in the Pacific war and won our nation’s highest awards, the Navy Cross and the Medal of Honor!

MEDAL OF HONOR CITATION   medal.jpg

BOYINGTON, GREGORY — FLYING TIGER

Rank and organization: Major, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Marine Squadron 214. Place and date: Central Solomons area, from 12 September 1943 to 3 January 1944. Entered service at: Washington. Born: 4 December 1912, Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. Other Navy award: Navy Cross. Citation: For extraordinary heroism and valiant devotion to duty as commanding officer of Marine Fighting Squadron 214 in action against enemy Japanese forces in the Central Solomons area from 12 September 1943 to 3 January 1944. Consistently outnumbered throughout successive hazardous flights over heavily defended hostile territory, Maj. Boyington struck at the enemy with daring and courageous persistence, leading his squadron into combat with devastating results to Japanese shipping, shore installations, and aerial forces. Resolute in his efforts to inflict crippling damage on the enemy, Maj. Boyington led a formation of 24 fighters over Kahili on 17 October and, persistently circling the airdrome where 60 hostile aircraft were grounded, boldly challenged the Japanese to send up planes. Under his brilliant command, our fighters shot down 20 enemy craft in the ensuing action without the loss of a single ship. A superb airman and determined fighter against overwhelming odds, Maj. Boyington personally destroyed 26 of the many Japanese planes shot down by his squadron and, by his forceful leadership, developed