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Contributions in this first issue from Vic Walzel and James S. Peters. Thanks to Lisa Niehoff for her suggestions and help.

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You can copy this freely and share it. You are allowed to remix, tweak, and build upon this work non-commercially, as long as you credit me and license your new creations under the identical terms. Credit as www.happywarriors.co.uk and twitter.com/happywarriors

I bumped into Simon Dunham at this years Seething Air Show. He was dressed as an American Airman and looked the part. He agreed to be filmed and started to tell me about other USAAF projects he had been involved with namely a number of archaeological digs in Norfolk and Suffolk. So, this weekend, with the help of Laura Hacking, a graduate of Salford Uni’s Film MA programme we made our way over to Simon’s latest dig site, not too far from the village of Bungay in Suffolk (home of the 446th BG).

After a group safety briefing the group began removing the top soil with spades and soon enough a large digger moved in to start the heavy lifting. There was a real buzz about the place. The guys had camped the previous night and were making a real weekend of it, sipping a few beers whilst swapping serial numbers of aircraft parts and stories of digs gone by.

The excavation continued and the earth began to reveal its secrets. Gasps of excitement went up from the diggers as yellow oxygen bottles that would have sustained crews flying missions in B-17′s and B-24′s were carried from the hole and stacked wide and high. A steel panel was found and quickly identified as a piece from the last ever B-17F to role out of Boeing’s plant in Seattle.  Something quite special. Next to the oxygen bottles sat an earth-encrusted GI’s helmet and plenty of Hughes flexible ammo tracking was found (pictured).

It’s easy to see why these guys attend digs year after year (since the 70s even). There’s a shared understanding of the value of all this stuff. One man’s rusty metal is another man’s treasure.

I will add a few of the other photos I took to the stills gallery.

Today was characterised by howling wind and rain. It’s easy to see why, for some 8th Air Force veterans, their lingering memory of East Anglia involves lots of mud, rain, fog or drizzle (or all of the above). Apparently the idea that Eskimos have a hundred different words for snow is an urban legend so subsequently I’m unable to draw a witty comparison here between their language and ours but needless to say it rains here quite a bit and in the winter it can be pretty horrible. The region is not known for it’s hills so the wind and rain just cuts right into you. If you were sleeping in a nissen hut with only a small coke burner for heat and you had to grope through the blackout to a 3AM mission briefing in driving rain and penetrating cold and then had to spend the next 7 plus hours in temperatures of 20 below trapped in a flying sardine can hoping you didn’t get killed any second…Puts things in perspective.

I’m still obsessively listening to Josh Winiberg’s music which I hope to use on the film soundtrack.

A new follower of note on Twitter is airfix models (would they help fund my projects?)

Tara Connolly has made another trip to the U.S National Archives and posted yet more 448th mission reports. Tara also pulled a whole load of photographs of various aircraft from the 8th and 15th Air Forces. Mostly crash photos here, both tragic and fascinating, thanks Tara.

More soon.

I’m aiming to get 30 people to sign up to the tributes side of Happy Warriors. I’m close to the halfway point now and have a nice little collection which will include tributes to:

Robert Saffir 448th BG
John Yatsko 448th BG
Richard Walsh 448th BG
Eugene Pulcipher 448th BG
Joseph Marganski 448th BG
Edward Torossian 446th BG
Harold Dahlberg 494th BG
Leland Walzel 93rd BG
Warren Irvin Knox 452nd BG
Robert Rakos 313th Ftr Sqdn
Richard L. Lapham 55th Ftr Grp
Leroy Borden 449th BG

There are some amazing stories in the list above and I’m learning new stuff all the time. It’s been great to make contact with everyone that has expressed an interest in taking part, from Manhattan to Alaska would you believe. Twitter has definitely helped.

I’m on the lookout for any information or contacts for a B-29 veteran as I am yet to pay tribute to any crew of the Superfortress.

This Sunday is the 10th Seething Air Show and Family Day and I have my camera borrowed and ready to go. I’ll be trying to capture the spirit of the day i suppose; plenty of actuality to show how the control tower and its surrounds still have a lot to give so many years after the end of hostilities.

England is in full bloom.

You may or may not be aware that the Happy Warriors project is now split into two parts. Part I is the documentary film and Part II is a collection of wartime biographies or ‘tributes’.

The plan is to put thirty of these tributes together for inclusion on a DVD release as extra material to read through in your own time. I have about ten people taking part or that have shown interest. Thirty seemed like a nice round number and I didn’t want to give myself too much to do. Also, at one time thirty missions was the length of a tour in the ETO so there’s a nice symmetry there.

The idea is to provide the film’s (future) audience with a way to contribute to the project. It should also give the DVD a unique selling point. So, if you’re reading this and you’d like to contribute or know somebody that might then please, get in touch. I will also be contributing a few tributes of my own so If you have an idea for a tribute but not the inclination then send me some details by all means.

The guidelines for submissions are:

200 words (approx) and a photograph on any man or woman who served in the United States Army Air Forces in any theatre of the war.

My first contribution will be about Leland Walzel. I’ve had some correspondence with his brother Vic. Below is the first email Vic sent me. I had asked a question about fate and chance during wartime on a WWII forum and Vic made contact:

My brother was KIA on his 25th mission on 6 March 1944 over Berlin. According to the navigator, who survived along with the two waist gunners, my brother was not hurt when they took a direct hit from flak. The hit on the inboard engine on the pilot’s side caused the prop to spin back through the cockpit and evidently killed the pilot. The co-pilot said “I’ve got it” and must have given the bail-out call. The navigator, up in the nose with my brother and a nose gunner, bailed out and said when he left the ship, my brother was trying to help the gunner out of the turret.

The fate part now comes into the picture. There had never been a nose gunner on any of my brother’s previous 24 missions. He manned the guns there himself when necessary. This was an 11th man on the crew that day. The loading list for the mission doesn’t include this man nor do any of the other crews on the list show to have 11 men. He was not even included on the MACR until later. In all likelihood, they had never known each other prior to the day of the mission. I have 17 of the loading lists for my brother’s missions and never saw this man’s name on any of the crews. My brother was flying that day with a crew that he had flown one mission with a couple of days earlier. This was a very experienced crew with 5 or 6 of them on their 25th mission and the rest with more than 20. My brother had missed several missions due to being hospitalized with tonsilitis or he would have already finished his required 25 with his regular crew so he shouldn’t have even been involved that day. The navigator’s testimony, on the MACR, to my sister-in-law in a letter and to me personally on the telephone, was that, in his opinion, my brother would have been able to get out had he not chosen to attempt to save this gunner by helping him out of the turret.

I have always wondered why the man was even on the plane. Eleven man crews were highly unusual unless it was for photographic purposes or some other specific reason, but not as a nose gunner. You can call it fate, circumstances or bad luck, the result was that my brother died that day doing something that makes me very proud, trying to save another man’s life at the cost of his own. Many things could have happened had he been able to get out of the plane and any of them could have ended in his death, but it has always nagged at me that this man was in a place he normally would not have been and it put my brother in the position of making a choice to help him or save his own life. All of these men are heroes in my eyes and I thank God that they did what they did to preserve our freedom. I can only think that it would have turned out differently if that one extra man had not been in the nose that day.

My tribute site is lelandwalzel.150m.com. If you visit it, please sign the guestbook.

Regards,

Vic Walzel

Victory in Europe Day (yesterday) was a good opportunity to post something to the blog but it didn’t happen. We went to a wedding celebration last night and so this morning I woke up feeling worse for wear, not the worst ever but I was vulnerable for most of the morning. With that in mind perhaps today is more appropriate since 65 years ago many people must have endured the mother of all hangovers. The country breathed a collective sigh of relief, people partied in the streets, I wonder what it felt like to be connected to each other like that? Huge crowds flooded the streets of London and gathered around the capitals famous squares and monuments. Seething Airfield celebrated. Here 448th veteran Ed Paretti describes how he heard the news:

…when we came back from the rest home the same guy that towed that aeroplane out of the mud was like a Philadelphia lawyer and it was rumoured the war was going to end. So he said I’m going down to the flight surgeon and I’m gonna fill his head with some stories that you guys are a nervous wreck, you need more time off. His name was Breedy from Spokane, Washington and sure enough he came back with 4 passes. He said “let’s get the hell out of here because i think the wars gonna end!” So we couldn’t wait to get our bag and run for Norwich to get the train. And we were on the train to London when we got word that the war was over. And when we got to London, man, you’ve seen those pictures of London on VE day climbing all over those double-decker buses and screaming and yelling? And my buddy and i went into a bar. We were sitting at a bar drinking and a couple of fellas down to the right of us drinking and i looked down and…ah it can’t be them…so they went out and i said to my friend “they’re are a couple of guys from my home town in Hastings” i was born in Hastings on Hudson and “they’re a couple of guys i know from Hastings” i said and he said “well go get them!” So i ran out quick, i ran down the street and got them, two friends of mine Billy Newell and Harold Omer and they were in the ground forces. We met and the four of us went in we had a big dinner a nice fancy restaurant i forget where it was but we all had a big dinner got half drunk again.

This is one of two photos I have of Seething airfield celebrating with improvised fireworks, courtesy of Patricia Everson. I’ll find out what it was that they used as fireworks and post in the comments section.

On 4th April 1945 Liberators of the 2nd Air Division took off from their bases in East Anglia to bomb airfields in Germany. At 0539 that morning aircraft serial number 44-50838 nickname Red Bow was airborne and headed in the direction of the jet airfields near the German town of Parchim. Piloted by Lt. Robert Mains it’s ten-strong crew were like any other, taking one day at a time until they completed their allotted number of missions and could get back home. I wonder what went through their minds that morning? Most likely nothing grandiose, the real eggs they had for breakfast? The hangover from hitting the pubs the night before? An upcoming pass and the opportunity for a few days in London? They would have to hope for an uneventful mission and that seven or eight hours later, god willing, they could return to Seething unscathed.

But these were the days of the German jet fighter, the Me262 that terrorised allied bomber formations as long as the Luftwaffe could find the pilots and the fuel to fly. Armed with 30mm cannons and R4M rockets the Schwalbe could attack at speeds upwards of 500 miles per hour…

Ed Paretti, a gunner on the Torrance crew witnessed the events of April 4th first hand:

We was very, very scared and when the gunnery office said to me you know you’re supposed to start firing at 600 yards. He said “when did you start firing?” “it must have been 3 miles out” I said “I started firing when I assumed he was gonna come towards me and I never let up” he said “Good boy!” that’s all he said. I never let up and as I’m sitting here he came right over and you can see him and he was smoking like hell. Now whether that was smoke from the jet engine I don’t know

Kills claimed by bomb crew gunners could be notoriously difficult to corroborate. At around 20,000 feet in a physically demanding environment and under extreme pressure with several gunners firing at the same targets it was often impossible to be accurate about who hit what.

I don’t remember when I first became aware of this incident and the infamous photo that was taken on that mission but it has gradually taken hold in my imagination and the hope is that it will become an important part of the documentary.

More sad news last week at the passing of 448th veteran Leroy Engdahl on 8th Feb. He was 90 years old.

I interviewed Leroy on camera at a group reunion in Orlando, Florida in May 2007. He was frail but in good spirits and was able to regale us with his stories. At one point Leroy was visibly upset during the interview as he described seeing the Statue of Liberty on his return to the States by ship into New York harbour. I think this is one of the enduring images I took from those interviews and definitely something I want to put up on screen.

The amazing thing about Leroy’s story (apart from his military service) is his efforts post-war to help get the old airfield control tower at Seething up and running as a memorial and a museum. I suppose if it weren’t for him I might never have become interested in the subject or started this project because the museum was the starting point for me.

Read an obituary here (with a few typos unfortunately)

And a little more info on Leroy here from The Liberator Legend: the plane and the people By Turner Publishing, Philip A. St. John

This is one of my favourite photos of Leroy, talking to local children from Seething Primary School (I think), taken in 1984.

Courtesy of Patricia Everson.

I am stalked by the memory of a school teacher who declared that I had some wonderful ideas but rarely followed them through. So here are a few of them and in time you can be the judge.

• Create your own history page

I’ve had some interest from people willing to write a few lines, perhaps include a photo of a relative or friend that served in the AAF. This ‘page’ is submitted to me and included on a DVD release of the film. Thought it would be a good way for people to contribute to the DVD in some way.

• Interactive map

Create an interactive map detailing the significant places in England of the 448th BG. To include photos, icons, sound clips etc. Could be expanded to include all groups of the 2nd Air Division or 8th Air Force.

• Become an exhibitor

Make the film available as a free download and provide instructions and resources to enable audiences to put on their own screenings for veterans groups, schools etc

Yesterday I ran out of space on the new drive i bought. Gutted. I was about to start digitising all the interviews I’d recorded with 448th veterans at one of their last reunions. This is something I should have done a long, long time ago and too late did I understand that these talking heads are the backbone of the film, they drive the story. I’m also finding it difficult to seperate the act of producing this short film with my love of the subject.

I’ve gathered some decent material for the project and thought it was high time I shared some of it, these stories really deserve to see the light of day so below is an excerpt from an interview with Edward Paretti a B-24 tail gunner of the 448th BG.

The subject of German jet fighters in combat with prop-driven American bombers really catches the imagination. The disparity in technology is fascinating. The 262 reportedly had a top speed of around 500 mph against the B-24s 300 mph. This made encounters with one of these wonder weapons an uncomfortable experience for B-24 and B-17 crews alike. Usually, mention of the 262 includes a nod to the late implementation of the aircraft as an attack fighter and as a missed opportunity for the Luftwaffe. A quick glance at the figures for numbers of aircraft produced ( 18,482 Liberators Vs. 1,430 Me262s) tells it own story.

(Figures taken from Wikipedia)

Click to watch

On that mission did you see any jet fighters?

Well this is – I’m gonna tell you this story and I just can’t remember the mission although I do have an air medal that’s dated April 5th and that aeroplane that’s cut in half we were flying a group ahead of that. Now that flight back there was Ed Chu’s flight and I always tried the best I could to get around some of the facts on this. And I watched those jets come down to my right, circle that group and shoot the hell out of them. And one jet came right at us and we were flying in the low right what they call the coffin corner and that jet came at me. And as far as everybody in my flight knows I was the only one shooting at him. And to make a long story short it was posted on the squadron bulletin board that that was confirmed kill. Now I got a call to go into CQs office the next day to go in there. And this guy said he was a gunnery officer whoever the hell he was. Wanted to know if I would appear at the post theatre the next night to give a talk. And at that time I was reluctant to talk because I wasn’t a public speaker and I said I don’t go over there so took off and took a walk around the base I never did go there. Now that’s a true story. And the only ones that now this story – my co-pilot when I talked to him in Texas he said “Oh jeez, I tell everybody about how you shot down a jet!” Now the crew that was up on top of that flight, second on the left, the top gunner he said he couldn’t get a shot at him and he says that that aeroplane went down. Now I didn’t see him go down I’m not gonna say he went down all I know is what was on the bulletin board and that they wanted me to appear.

Can you describe what that was like when that was coming at you?

We was very, very scared and when the gunnery office said to me you know you’re supposed to start firing at 600 yards. He said “when did you start firing?” “it must have been 3 miles out” I said “I started firing when I assumed he was gonna come towards me and I never let up” he said “Good boy!” that’s all he said. I never let up and as I’m sitting here he came right over and you can see him and he was smoking like hell. Now whether that was smoke from the jet engine I don’t know.

Could you see him in the cockpit? Could you see the pilot?

Pardon? Oh yeah! Yeah he was that close! And Ed Chu tells the same story he could see the pilot. Ed Chu opened up, he emptied his machine gun on the guy. Now whether that’s the same one that came towards us or even whether it’s the same flight? It has to be the same flight because Charlie Cup was  the one that got – did you talk to Charlie Cups daughter? He’s the one that got out. It’s the same flight that they claim I shot down a jet.