B-17 Pilot Stories

[Adam Makin]

Retired1st Lt. John A. Clark, 98, 100th Bomb Group veteran and World War II survivor, shares stories of his life before he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during an interview at the 100th Bomb Group reunion in Dallas, Texas, Oct. 28, 2021. The reunion, held every other year in a different location around the U.S., brings together the few remaining survivors, their families, and Airmen from the 100th Air Refueling Wing at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England. The 100th ARW takes its heritage and the infamous "Square D" from the 100th BG. (U.S. Air Force photo by Karen Abeyasekere)

During an interview at the 100th Bomb Group reunion in Dallas, Texas, Oct. 28, 2021, Clark described how from a very young age he was fascinated by the airplanes that would occasionally fly over his neighborhood in south east Michigan.

The World War II survivor explained that he was one of several people who volunteered as Air Force pilots. Their training was delayed, so in the meantime they were transferred to college for a few weeks.

The trainer aircraft was a twin-wing Stearman. After a couple of months or so, Clark and the other trainee pilots moved on to Merced, California, for BT-13 Valiant aircraft basic training before heading to Stockton, California for twin-engine advanced flying.

The B-17 has seen its fair share of stories during its illustrious history. At The Museum of Flight, we are blessed to have the only flyable B-17F model in the world, and we're proud to showcase it to our visitors. People often have questions about the specifications of the bomber, and what distinguishes it from other aircraft. Or sometimes they wonder about the stories and experiences pilots had on missions. Here is the history of the B-17 and the World War II experiences of an esteemed pilot.

This F model was manufactured in Seattle, just a mile north of the Museum, on February 13, 1943. From here, the Air Force accepted our aircraft as 42-29782, and it went on to train many pilots in California and Washington state. In 1944, 42-29782 went to Britain and stayed there for three months. Upon returning to the United States, our F model stayed in Florida for the remainder of WWII. Finally, on November 5, 1945, 42-29782 was removed from service and shipped to Oklahoma.

After being sold by the United States government and doing a variety of commercial aviation tasks such as aerial spraying to combat forest fires, the 42-29782 received a new serial number and became known as the N17W.

Visitors can take tours of the B-17F in the Aviation Pavilion where trained and knowledgeable docents discuss the aircraft and its history during wartime. To complement the tour, there are many artifacts on display beside the B-17F, such as gloves, models, and mechanisms to illustrate the plane's colorful story.

In addition to the tours, Dick Nelms recalls his experiences during WWII every Saturday in front of the B-17. Stop by to listen to his stories and admire the aircraft at the center of his WWII experiences.

As America entered WWII, Dick was living on the upper west side of New York City with his first wife, Beatrice, in a sixteen story brick apartment building at 201 W. 77th Street at the corner of 77th and Amsterdam Avenue.

In August of 1943, about the time cadet McMurray was finishing his twin-engine advanced training, my father and his crew boarded a troopship at Hampton Rhodes, Virginia, and crossed the North Atlantic in a very slow moving convoy. They were at sea for two weeks.

Combat crews flew from Presque Isle, Maine to Goose Bay, Newfoundland. There, they loaded their bomber with as many spare parts as it could safely carry and took off for a cold, uncomfortable, 2200 mile, ten-hour flight to Prestwick, Scotland.

Some bomber crews flew direct but, because unpredictable weather conditions along the route often made non-stop flights impossible, there were airbases in Greenland and Iceland for refueling stops or mechanical emergencies.

The 401st Bomb Group was the biggest foreign horde to descend on the local citizenry since the year 865 when a Viking raiding party lead by brothers, Bjorn Ironside and Ivar the Boneless, arrived in the area and decided it look like a good spot for a winter camp.

By the time F/O McMurray (F/O is Flight Officer, a rank just below 2nd Lieutenant) began flying missions the following May, my father and the nine men under his command had been prisoners of war for almost six months.

During WWII, the 8th Air Force flew over 900 combat missions. During those missions, 47000 airmen were wounded and 26000 were killed. Of the over 93000 American prisoners held in German POW camps, a significant percentage were from bomber crews of the 8th Air Force.

At 6:30 in the morning, the residents of Deenethorpe were shaken from their beds by the soul-shattering sound of eighty four 1000 horsepower radial engines roaring to life. Fifteen minutes later, the group began taxing.

I imagine Whiteman was thinking, his co-pilot might have more experience flying missions but when it came to getting shot down, their experience was exactly equal. And, as long as he was responsible for the crew, he would be making the decision to bail out.

Before they reached the target, sixty enemy fighters jumped the formation. For forty minutes the fighters came at the bombers from all directions. The gunners in the surviving B-17s expended 67,000 fifty caliber rounds fighting them off.

Moments later an enemy fighter sprayed the cockpit with machine gun and 20mm canon fire. Both pilots were hit. Co-pilot, 2nd Lt. Charles Eckert from Kansas was less than a month away from his twenty-third birthday. He was killed outright.

Schwartz was awkwardly between the semi-conscious Scharff and the escape hatch. Seeing he had little room to maneuver, the bombardier, 1st Lt. Robert Hoover motioned for Schwartz to go ahead and jump, indicating he would push their pilot out after him.

Over the target, their bombs failed to release. The bombardier, 2nd Lt. Sam Bennet, and the radio operator, T/Sgt Wayne Wicks were on the intercom discussing the problem when their Flying Fortress took a direct flak hit in the radio room.

Blown out of his bomber by the explosion. Protz was unconscious when his chute opened and did not come to until he was in German custody. His captors took him to the Dessau City Hospital where he spent a month recovering from his injuries. He was then taken to a POW camp where he spent the rest of the war.

During the attack over Dessau, fighters had knocked out their internal communications but the Keith crew fought on for another 30 minutes. Ultimately, an enemy round found their oxygen equipment. There was an explosion and a huge fire.

Keith ordered his crew to bail out and signaled for his twenty-one-year-old co-pilot, 2nd. Lt. John James Maloney to leave. As Maloney crawled forward toward the escape hatch, enemy fire raked the nose of the plane, killing him instantly.

The crash landing was by the book. Everyone evacuated the rapidly sinking B-17 in an orderly fashion, and after almost three hours and a half hours in rubber dinghies, they were picked up by a British launch.

When they left England, they were flying in the soon-to-be hard-hit lead element just off the left wing of the squadron leader. Somewhere, on the way to the target, a cracked cylinder in the #4 engine began pouring oil onto the exhaust where it promptly burst into flame.

Shortly after dropping their bombs, his B-17 was hit hard by enemy fighters. 20mm shells tore through the aircraft, almost completely severed the tail section, and killed the tail gunner, Sgt. Angelo Manisi.

Ball turret gunner, S/Sgt. Edward Gormley was trapped in his position. The two waist gunners reported that, just before they bailed out, they heard Angelo calling for help but felt there was no time to go to his aid. One of the gunners reported seeing Radio Operator, T/Sgt. Robert Brooks clipping on his parachute and starting towards them just before they jumped.

That night, the twenty empty bunks belonging to the Kilmer and Wilson crews offered another stark reminder that, until they were back on the ground from their thirtieth mission, none of them were going to be safe.

The McCord crew was assigned to fly as a spare. They would only participate in the mission if something happened to another plane before the squadron reached the halfway point over the English Channel.

When asked his thoughts on the mission, another pilot, twenty-three-year-old, Lt. George E. Bingham from New Hampshire took an entirely different tack when he stated, unequivocally, that the combat mess had shown wonderful improvement.

The room erupted as the crews jumped to their feet and joyously began pounding each other on the back. It took a few minutes for the Colonel to get his men settled down and back to the business at hand.

When the group got to the French coast, the cloud cover was almost 100%. The bombers had to judge where their target was by flying a specific distance from a specific point on a specific heading at a specific speed for a specific period of time. A stopwatch would tell them when they were over the target. Out of an abundance of caution, the bombardiers then delayed their release by an additional 30 seconds just to make sure they were over land.

Later that day, 675 miles northeast of Normandy, up on the Baltic, a homemade, clandestine, and very, very verboten radio receiver delivered the news of the invasion to the captives at the German POW camp, Stalag I.

In an effort to disrupt enemy transportation, the 401st flies thirty miles inland from the invasion beaches to bomb the railroad center at Falaise. Clouds forced the group to make a second bomb run over the target.

The third line of the document indicates the inventory was sent to the Evaluating Center West at Oberursel. This was where most allied airmen spent a week or two being interrogated before being sent to a POW camp.

The Germans were launching V-1 rockets at England from the Pas de Calais area of France. Ten days earlier they had launched ten of the notoriously inaccurate missals at England. Only one had any serious impact. It landed in London killing six people.

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