Percy Paget
MilitaryOne mission as tail gunner; wounded. Twenty-eight missions as Bombardier. Shot down on 29th mission over Kassel, Germany. Prisoner of War for 60 days. Lost 35 pounds. B-17 42-97810.
Paget was to spend 30 months in the Air Corps, a period which 'impacted' his life for many years. He began his service at Miami Beach in March 1943, progressing to engineering and gunnery courses, before crewing up in Nebraska and moving on to Louisiana for combat training. The crew then shipped to England joining the 602nd Sqdn of the 398th BG at Nuthampstead. For the mission to Mannheim on 9th September 1944 he was assigned the tail gunner's position where - at 25,000 ft and well into Germany - he was wounded. He managed to crawl through to the radio and the flight engineer carried out preliminary first aid, applying bandages etc. On returning to base an ambulance took him to a hospital - already overwhelmed with casualties from France - where he stayed for three weeks. He re-joined his crew as togglier/ nose gunner on 5th November flying more missions, rarely returning to base without some damage and often having to divert because of poor weather conditions. His original crew completed their 30 missions but Paget, being behind in numbers, was then assigned to Bill Jacobs' crew. The mission to Kassel on 9th March 1945 proved to be his last. The plane lost an engine to heavy flak and the pilot was forced to land on a German farm, killing the navigator in the nose of the plane in the process. The rest of the crew managed to evacuate and were collected by a German army truck which deposited them at the local jail. Later as they were on a train heading for an interrogation centre the train was bombed by P-51's and the prisoners taken off and force-marched for two weeks to camp Stalag 7A. The camp -at this stage of the war - was massively overcrowded and poorly supplied; food was short and the situation chaotic. Fortunately not for long as Patton's tanks came through the gates one day and 'brought cheers from thousands of men who thought they would never see home again'.
PH/ WM w/ 3 Oak Leaf Cluster/ WW II VM/ ETO w/ 3 battle stars/ POW
Connections
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Unit: 398th Bomb Group 602nd Bomb Squadron
Places
- Site type: Airfield
Events
Event | Location | Date | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Other Prisoner of War (POW) |
9 March 1945 | ||
Born |
Revisions
Added " / " in the "Role/job" field as a separator to aid readability.
Biography completed by historian Helen Millgate. Information sourced from correspondence files and articles related to the service of Percy Paget.
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / MACR 12962 / Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database / self/ MACR 12962