Donald W O'Reilly
MilitaryPhoto taken in the Red Cross club at Rainbow Corner, near Piccadilly Circus.
Don told me himself where the photo was taken.
Don was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and enlisted after Pearl Harbour. Based at Chelveston, Shipdham and then at Metfield with 491st BG he served from 1942-45 with the Military Police. “I feel blessed that they allowed me to join,” he says. “I think I am the only PFC in the 8th Air Force that flew on a B-17 and B-24!”
On D-Day Don's duty was to secure the briefing for the bomb raids behind enemy lines. Of Curtis LeMay’s visit he remembers, “My memory of Curtis LeMay is that he had a two finger cigar butt salute!”
In November 1944 Don was watching a movie on the Base the night of Britain’s largest explosion at Medfield bomb dump. The accident cost seventy lives and was “utter destruction, remarkable and scary.”
Connections
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
Places
- Site type: USAAF heritage site
- Known as: AAM
- Site type: Airfield
- Site type: Airfield
Revisions
491st BG Roster / Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia