Harold W Fritzler
MilitaryThis cartoon was originally painted by David Redfern the waist gunner assigned to the Eugene Scamhorn Crew of the 491st BG, when they were given the aircraft in San Francisco.
The Scamhorn Crew ferried #44-10558 over from the United States, and like most crews who ferried a bomber over, thought it would be the aircraft they took into combat, so they named it and painted only to have it taken away when they got to Northern Ireland.
Amends to caption as per Redfern's diary at 2nd Air Division Digital Archive
On September 18th 1944 Fritzler's B-24 was unusually used to re-supply airborne forces in Holland. They flew in at 200 ft and were sitting ducks for the Germans who 'threw everything they had at us'. The hydraulic lines were cut by gunfire and they were diverted to Woodbridge the plane catching fire as it landed. Everybody got out but the plane was a write-off.
He recalled his time at gunnery school in Nevada, the temperature was often 100 degrees and one of the other cadets never took a bath and stank. They grabbed him one night - mattress and all - took him to the showers and scrubbed him. He got the message!
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
People
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 491st Bomb Group
- Service Numbers: 35393626
- Highest Rank: Staff Sergeant
- Role/Job: waist gunner
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-24 Liberator
- Nicknames: Ma's Lil Angel
- Unit: 466th Bomb Group 491st Bomb Group 785th Bomb Squadron
Revisions
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / Mighty Eighth Air Force Heritage Museum Membership List, July 2000 & Page 270 in the book SECOND AIR DIVISION by Turner Publishing Co, 1998 edition