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Show WILLI URE J R 22 200 Kansas. From Winfield, Kansas, I went to someplace in Texas. I ve forgotten where. Then, I went to St. Louis, Missouri, to radio school. From St. Louis I went to Fort Myers, Florida. There, I went to gunnery school. From Fort Myers, I went to Shreveport, Louisiana. That was a training base for air crews going over to Europe. After I completed my training there, we had to ferry a plane, a B-26, from West Palm Beach, Florida, to England. Because of the short range of the plane, we had several stops and we had to go the southern route, because it was pretty close to winter. We went from West Palm Beach, to Puerto Rico and from Puerto Rico, down to British Guyana and from British Guyana, to Bel em, Brazil and from Belem, Brazil, to Natal, Brazil and then to Ascension Island and then to French West Africa. They had a base there. Then from there, to Marrakech, North Africa (Morocco), then from North Africa up to Manchester, England, I think it was. I was put in a replacement depot there. We just waited until we replaced air crews that were in Europe. I was put in the 9th Air Force. BEC: They were based out of where? WIL: When I got there, they were based in San Quentin, France. That's about seventyfive miles northeast of Paris. Our base had to be transferred to Maastricht, Holland (Belgium). Then from Holland, we came back to Amiens, France. But by then, the war was over. But, in the meantime, I had to fly thirty-one missions. My first fifteen missions, I flew as a radio gunner. My last sixteen missions, I flew in the nose as a "togglier". That's not a full-fledged bombardier. It's someone that-we flew in flights of six planes and five planes would drop off of the first plane, drop their bombs off the first plane, when the first plane did. That's what was my job, to drop at the same time. 6 |
