by Howard R. Brown
Published in 1984
I was a 19-year-old engineer and top turret gunner on a B-17, flying with the 833rd Bomb Squadron in 1944. The name of our plane was “The Last Round-up.” Here are the exact words that I wrote in my diary about our 11th mission:
“September 12, 1944. Mission for today—Bomb oil refineries at Madgeburg, Germany. It’s a long ride and at last, we near the target. About this time flak and rockets are shot at us and the sky is full of it. I spin around in my top turret and just in front of us a B-17 gets a direct hit by a rocket and the plane explodes. It is a solid mass of fire and I watched it go down and didn’t see a chute open, so the whole crew must have died!
“We then dropped our bombs with the flak and rockets all around us. I looked ahead and saw enemy fighters hit a formation of B-17’s just ahead of us. I immediately called out over the interphone for the gunners to get ready for action! It was an awful sight to see those German fighters dive in on those B-17’s and see six of them on fire and going down. Some of the men were able to jump out and start down in their parachutes. But some of the enemy planes dove at these men and it looked like they shot some of them.
“By now the fighters saw us just behind and they started for us. We were slinging so much lead at them that they didn’t knock any of us down. I shot at one FW 190 and two Me 109’s. I don’t know if I hit them or not, but they didn’t hit us, thank goodness! A good many German planes were shot down and then our P-51’s came in and finished the job. Our ball turret gunner, Lyle Grant, got credit for a Me 109.
“We then headed for home base, satisfied at having knocked out some oil refineries. This has been the most exciting mission so far, and I don’t want any more as exciting.”
That night in my prayers I thanked the Lord for getting us back safely.
I was assigned to a B-17 crew in Lincoln, Nebraska, and took final training in Dyersbury, Tennessee. My crew and I were given a new B-17 in Kearney, Nebraska, 30 June 1944. We flew to Bangor, Maine; left there and flew to Newfoundland. We spent a week there and enjoyed the vacation. Next, we flew to Ireland and had to leave our new plane there. We were put on boats and zig-zagged all over the Irish Sea, missing mines. Finally, we landed in Liverpool. We were put on trains and rode to Stone and to Duncan Hall (awful). We spent three days here and then rode trains to Sudbury Air Base. We were put in school and flying practice missions each day.
Finally, on 11 August 1944, we were awakened at 3 a.m. and told to get ready to fly our first mission! We were all excited as we ate our chow. We then went to the briefing room and were told that our target would be an airfield in Paris.
We took off and joined a formation of planes and I had never seen so many B-17’s at one time. We finally got over the target and then we saw plenty of flak for the first time and a few rockets. We dropped our bombs and headed for Sudbury. We landed safely and our first mission was over with only 34 more to go!
On 5 October, we flew our 18th mission over Muenster, Germany, bombing a tank factory. The flak was very heavy and we had three engines knocked out and were losing gasoline out of the fourth engine. When the fourth engine began to sputter, the pilot told us to bail out! The whole crew was captured, either that day or within a week. Two got into Holland and I was traveling alone for six days before I was captured. The officers were sent to Stalag Luft I and the enlisted men to Stalag Luft IV, to spend the rest of the war.
My worst experience in the POW camp was lack of food, heat, and no mail from home. Also, we didn’t know from day to day if Hitler would order us all shot. He did put out such an order just before the war was over, but thank the good Lord, the German officers did not carry it out! Along with this worst experience, I would have to mention the winter in which we were evacuated because the Russians were coming. Half of the men in the camp were put on the POW Hunger March and the rest of us were put into boxcars like cattle. We had 50 men in each tiny boxcar and it was miserable. We had to trade cigarettes to the guards for snow for drinking water, since they gave us no water the whole trip. We spent one night in the railroad yards in Berlin and thank goodness the English bombers missed their target that night! The men started to get sick in my boxcar and we had a bucket that we passed around until it was full. Then it was hung up in the top of the car. One night the train stopped suddenly and the full bucket fell down all over us—what a smelly mess!
I promised the Lord if I ever got home, I would give my life to serving Him and my fellow man. I have been teaching school for over 30 years and pastored a little church in Agate, Colorado, for 25 years. I am now very active in my home church, presently serving on the Deacon Board. My wonderful wife and I have three children who are in a serving profession. My son is a doctor doing cancer and genetic research at Yale University, and my two daughters are teachers.
Last summer my wife and I were fortunate to get to go to Sudbury with some members of the 486th [Bomb Group]. What an exciting trip and the people were wonderful that we were with on the tour. We are still grateful to Bob Nolan for planning such an outstanding experience and letting us relive history!
I would like to name my crew members because they were dedicated and brave men: Pilot, Lt. Dean F. Coy (deceased 1973); Co-pilot, Lt. Robert Hall (he stayed home on the mission where we were shot down, because our pilot was checking out pilot Lt. Martin A. Haemmerle); Navigator, Lt. Burton Collan; Bombardier, Lt. Robert J. Coyle; Engineer, S/Sgt. Howard R. Brown; Radio Operator, S/Sgt. Merril R. McDonald; Ball Turret, S/Sgt. Howard L. Grant; Waist Gunner, S/Sgt. Adam T. Klosowski.
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