The Saga of B-24 '117'
by Herman (Red) Moldenhauer (779)
Page 2
|
One mission we had "Anti Personnel Cluster Bombs."
When the "dog" landed, upon opening the bomb bay doors prior to starting
the APU, out rolled 3 or 4 of the bombs. The Armament men were always parked at the
end of the runway for such things. They ran out to recover them before the next airplane
landed. They said later, it was by the grace of God, at least one of the bombs didn't explode.
One had hit right on the nose fuse. When we parked the airplane, armament men were
there checking the bomb shackle releases and arming wires, everything was normal.
Sgt. Freddie Riggs, my assistant was leaning on right
main gear tire talking to the gunners.He said he thought he felt the tire move, but thought
that wasn't possible. The tire moved his hand, so he looked and saw a large bulge and
getting bigger. He tried to yell at us in the bomb bay, but couldn't, he just ran. When the
tire blew it scared the hell out of us and the airplane settled about a foot.
This is a change of pace story. One day our First Sergeant,
Earl Gaston received authorization to fly with Lt. Jones and crew on a mission. He wanted
to see just what the flight crews went through. He was in the waist with the gunners. Earl
really got "baptized", there was lots of flak and fighters. He said, "My
hat is off to all flight crews." Those Germans tried to shoot us down, but we showed
them. I believe Earl was the only non-combat man to fly a mission.
One morning, early, about 0300 hrs., Freddie and me were
replacing the pilots window where a 4" piece of Flak entered and landed in Lt. Jones
lap. I still have the Flak.
We were using the spot light on the Cletrac. All of a
sudden there was an awful noise, the right life raft door blew out on the wing, then fell
on the steel matting. Now, if you don't think that is enough to scare the devil out of you!
We inspected the pull cable, safety wire not broken, couldn't find a thing wrong. After
finishing the window, we slid the life raft down the wing, cannibalized a life raft and door
from an airplane that was not flying this day. We finished just as the flight crew arrived
for their inspection.
On the way over, while in South America, Lt, Jones and
crew had a picture of a Black Widow spider painted on left front fuselage. It was flying
with guns blazing and dropping a bomb. Some organization said this was hostile, so they
had to paint it out. The title, "Widow Maker."
Lt. Jones had been lead crew for some time, but just
couldn't fly a good formation with such a "LEMON." Still had flight control
problems and fluctuating manifold pressure, no steady power. He was assigned to a good
airplane for lead crew.
On 29 May 1944, Lt. Jones and crew was shot down
over Atzgersdorf, Austria. What a sad day for them, and for me too. (Still is when, like
now I am writing) .This was quite a bad blow for me. You do get close to your crew, maybe
we were closer than most because of the problems old "117" had, and trying
to solve them together. It seemed forever before the Red Cross finally notified us they
were P.O.W.s. They spent over a year in this "Hell Hole." What a terrible
experience.
< < Back Next > >
From the Nov. '99 issue of the 464th Bomb Group Newsletter.
Published with the permission of Tony Schneider, Sec./NL Ed. (464th, 776)
|
|
![[Graphic] Snapshots from the 464th Bombardment Group.](../images/flagd.jpg)