Wade S Beyeler

Military
media-29000.jpeg UPL 29000 2nd LT Wade S. Beyeler - Doepham Green 1944 or 1945

Collection of Matthew S. Beyeler

Object Number - UPL 29000 - 2nd LT Wade S. Beyeler - Doepham Green 1944 or 1945

This is my Dad, Wade S. Beyeler... He served in the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in WW II... He was stationed at Deopham Green, near Attleborough, East Anglia, England, and flew 35 bombing missions over Nazi Germany as a Navigator in the B-17s named "Swing Shift Baby" and "Swing Shift Baby II"... The original Swing Shift Baby was shot down on its' 13th mission by flak as they were coming out of Germany... The crew had to bail out at 11,000 feet when 3 out of 4 engines quit running... The tail gunner landed in Germany and was captured... The rest of the crew landed in Luxembourg, and managed to link up with US infantry heading for Germany... They were trucked to Paris, where my Dad said he and the copilot "went AWOL" for three days... This was in late September 1944, about a month or so after Paris was liberated, and they apparently had a swell time... Ooh, la la...! Cherchez les femmes...!



Upon returning to his air base, my Dad said he had to go around to all the quonset huts looking for his GI issue field gear that the lads had already divied up... Dad then went on to fly 22 more missions over Germany, some of which involved flying to Russia and back... These were the missions to a USAAF base established in Poltava, Ukraine... By the way, on the 13th mission, 5 out of 9 crew members received Purple Hearts for being wounded... Miraculously, my Dad was never wounded on any of his missions... By the time my Dad was assigned to the 8th USAAF, the 25-mission rule had been dropped... He was "in it" for the duration... The chances of surviving 25 missions were about 15 percent... The chances of surviving 35, according to my uncle Ted, a B-24 navigator in the Pacific, were in his estimation "2 or 3 percent"... Whew...! My Dad was a very lucky man... The P-47 and P-51 fighter escorts probably had a lot to do with this luck, I am sure...



After VE Day, my Dad ended up in Grand Island, Nebraska, where he was training to fly on the new B-29, when the atomic bombs were dropped over Japan and the war ended... Had Truman not used the atomic bombs, the war with Japan was expected to last until 1946 or 1947, with almost a million more US casualties expected in the ground invasion of Japan... My Dad had probably used up 8 of his 9 lives over Germany, and his chances over Japan would not have been good... As it was, he stayed in Nebraska until being demobilized, where he met my Mom... They ended up settling in California, raised 4 great kids (I am a bit prejudiced here, I admit), where my Dad retired from Newport Beach as the Director of General Services (beaches, parks, sewers and trash, kind of like an S-4) and from the National Guard as an LTC... Mom and Dad were the number one fans of the UCI mens' and womens' tennis teams... Dad passed away in '98 and Mom in '06... They are both greatly missed by their 4 children and 6 grandchildren...!

Connections

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Units served with

The insignia of the 452nd Bomb Group.
  • Unit Hierarchy: Group
  • Air Force: Eighth Air Force
  • Type Category: Bombardment

People

Swing Shift Baby Final Mission Report
  • Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
  • Nationality: American
  • Unit: 731st Bomb Squadron 452nd Bomb Group
  • Highest Rank: Second Lieutenant
  • Role/Job: Pilot

Aircraft

  • Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
  • Nicknames: Swing Shift Baby
  • Unit: 452nd Bomb Group 731st Bomb Squadron

Missions

  • Date: 25 September 1944

Places

Revisions

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Sources

From this site...

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From Matthew S. Beyeler, son of Wade S. Beyeler

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From family of Alfred McGowan

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Courtesy of family of Alfred McGowan

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452nd BG Unit History / Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia

Wade S Beyeler: Gallery (11 items)