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.

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.

By using a telephone call recording service I have been able to interview 448th and USAAF veterans from the comfort of my living room. Ideally I would have liked to travel the States filming on-camera interviews in their living rooms but since we’re on a small (micro) budget telephone interviews it is.

As a positive I like the poor sound quality on the telephone, it adds character and this way I can afford to do several follow up interviews when new questions or areas of interest come to mind. I wonder too whether the telephone puts the interviewee at ease and leads to better material, it’s definitely more intimate than turning up at someone’s house with lights, cameras and cables trailing everywhere.

Here is an extract from an interview with 448th veteran Larry Taylor.

Horrors of the Air War