Shot down 30 November 1944 in B-17 #4238133 'Reluctant Dragon. ' POW. at Barth Stalag Luft 1.



This was my 18th mission. We had supplied 38 aircraft for the mission and lost 29 to flak. The target was Mersberg. Nine of our bombs failed to release and had to be pried loose with a screw driver. This was done as we flew West hoping to reach France before losing too much altitude and without crash landing or bailing out. We reached the area of the Rhine River but being at a low altitude we were sitting ducks for the German Flak there. Direct hits knocked out another engine and blew off our right wing tip.



Struggling to keep control of the plane I gave the order to bail out. Six of the nine man crew survived and became Prisoners of War (POW)'s but the co pilot, top turret gunner and waist gunner were Killed in Action (KIA).



One interesting aspect of this mission was the plane, it was the last of the B-17s with green paint on them. It had been discovered that the paint caused drag and the bar silver planes got better 'miles per gallon'. The Reluctant Dragon was a favorite of the 96th Bomb Group and it made several miraculous returns during the year of 1944 before it was lost on the 30th of Nov. A reconstituted B-17 has been painted green and the nose art work of 'The Reluctant Dragon' painted on it. This was done in 1992 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the formation of the 96th BG in Savannah Ga in 1942. This plane now stands at the front of the Dyers Museum of Air Force Aircraft at the entrrance to Dyers Air For Base in Abilene, Texas.



POW, Air Medal w 2/olc; Purple Heart, AMAE ribbon, ETO ribbon, WWII victory medal