Bio

Harper Zoller and the Crew of the "Lady Luck" Harper Filer Zoller Jr. (my uncle, nicknamed "Buster") grew up in Detroit and graduated from MacKenzie High School in 1936. In late 1942, with the outbreak of WWII, Harper joined the Army Air Corp. to serve his country like so many others. 1His first training assignment was the Harlingen Army Gunnery School in Harlingen, Texas in December 1942. At this school he was trained in shooting 50 cal. aircraft guns and was subjected to pressure chamber tests equaling an attitude of 38,000 feet to simulate high altitude flying. He graduated with a good record on Dec. 19 and was promoted to Sergeant. He was then shipped off to Lowry Field in Denver, Colo. to attend the Army's course on gun, bomb, bombrack and turret maintenance. In March, he attended crew and flight training at Davis-Monthan Field in Tucson, Arizona and was assigned to the 60th Bombardment Sqd., 39th Bombardment Grp. His unit did a lot of flying, once in the early morning and again in the afternoon, 4 hour hops each. In one of his letters home, he described one of his days where they lost an engine in flight, and were nearly hit by another plane on the runway! S/Sgt. Harper F. Zoller Harper F. Zoller N. Africa - Aug. 1943 In April 1943, Harper was then transferred to Biggs Field in El Paso, Texas for flight/crew phase training with the Crowder Prov. Grp., 459th Bomb Sqd. It was here in early May that he was assigned his B-24 crew under Lt. Curelli. His crew flew many cross country hops. One hop was to Gulfport, Miss., then on to Kelly Field and returning to Biggs Field. Sometimes these hops were not without incident; in May, two planes collided at night during a severe storm killing 17 men. That same night, he described that Lt. Curelli had them all looking out their windows for other planes during the storm. After completing this phase of training near the end of June, the Army Air Corp. sent the crew off to Lincoln, Nebraska to pick up a new B-24D. It was here that they filled out power of attorney papers and personal wills before going overseas. 2Harper and his crew left Lincoln with the Crowder Provisional Group of 40 planes headed for England. They made stops in Bangor, Me. and Newfoundland. They left Bangor after a squadron of B17's and arrived in England before they did. It was raining and there was a good wind when they arrived. They had a very good navigator who led them right to their correct English base which was not easy since bases were just a couple of miles apart in that area. They may have had 2 more weeks of gunnery training in Scotland and then were sent to Libya via Morocco, Algiers, and with a stayover possibly in Tunis, then to Tripoli, before arriving in Benghazi, Libya. This was where the 44th Bomb Group and others were temporarily based to attack German oil production in Romania. During his last two months, my uncle Harper probably didn't receive any letters from home since the mail couldn't keep up with his unit. In his last letters home he wasn't able to say at all what was going on or even hint of where they were, since all their mail was censored. Therefore he found it difficult to write since he couldn't say anything. But all of this didn't stop him from writing home to his family. Without getting any mail in return, he still continued to write. This is a good indication of the wonderful and thoughtful he was in caring for his family back home. Harper and his crew arrived at Benina Main in Bengazi, Libya just before Aug. 1, 1943 with the 44th Bomb Group, 506th Bomb Squadron. He described weather as very hot and the water bad. They were at Benina Main on August 1, 1943 at the time of the great Ploesti, Romania Oil Field Mission but were apparently without a plane and proper training to take part. After the Ploesti mission they helped to search for missing crews from the mission. On August 4th they were reassigned to the 66th Sqd. due to the heavy losses suffered by the 66th during the Ploesti mission, the 506th didn’t lose any aircraft. 3During the morning of August 1, 1943, day of the Ploesti mission, there was another crew piloted by Thomas E. Scrivner, who were preparing to take their ship, "Lady Luck" #41-23778 F in the air. They encountered a leaking fuel tank on "Lady Luck", so they had to switch over to another plane, "Scrappy II". Unfortunately, "Scrappy II" was lost and all were killed at the target over Ploesti most likely from a deadly German “Q” Train. This left "Lady Luck" without a crew and this is how Lt. Curelli and his crew (Harper's crew) were assigned to the "Lady Luck". This plane, #41-23778 F, once named "Jenny", was first piloted by another crew and had quite a history. Walter Patrick and Harold Samuelian were one time crew members of this B-24 and told me it’s story. They had already completed over 25 missions before the Ploesti mission and therefore did not take part in that mission. The aircraft #41-23778 F was one of the 1st B-24's sent over to England by the 44th Bomb Group in Sept. 1942. The plane's first mission was to Abbeyville, France on Dec. 12, 1942. It was also in the very first bombing mission into Germany in WWII over Wilhelmshaven, the German U Boat base, on Jan 27, 1943. On this mission, the plane barely made it home after being badly shot up (approx. 200 holes in it!) and having hydraulic problems. The pilot, Jim Kahl was transferred and co-pilot Tom Scrivner became pilot. The crew then renamed the aircraft "Lady Luck", a name which came from a London restaurant napkin given to Walter Hazelton, (a crew member) by his girlfriend. 4It was later learned that “Lady Luck” was repaired and was then flown on the Ploesti mission by the Robert Felber’s crew on August 1, 1943 and returned safely. Here is an account of “Lady Luck”: 15The Felber crew was still on the ground because of trouble with Lady Luck. They had trouble getting one engine started, the 'put-put' caught fire. (This auxiliary generator supplied initial power for the hydraulic pump and engine start.) After much effort, they finally took off, late and far behind the group. They finally caught up and filled a spot in the formation. 5Harper’s 1st mission was planned for August 7th to the Wiener Neustadt, Austria which was called "Operation Juggler". Harper was the rear hatch (or well) gunner on this 1st mission. This was to be a coordinated effort by the 8th and 9th Air Forces on Messerschmitt production at Schweinfurt, Regensburg and Wiener-Neustadt. Wiener-Neustadt is where the Messerschmitt Air Frame works was located, known as Wiener Neustädter Flugzeugwerke (WNF) aircraft factory (effectively an extension of Messerschmitt) which was located approximately 30 miles southwest of Vienna. The mission was delayed from August 7 until August 13, 1943. It was a round trip from North Africa of a distance equaling nearly 2,400 miles! This was a target beyond the normal range of the B24D, thus the extra tanks were essential. Two additional fuel tanks were added in the front of the bomb bays. They planned to land in Tunis on the return to shortened up the total distance. 6”In the briefing for this mission to Wiener-Neustadt the intelligence people told them in the briefing, that they should not expect any great fighter opposition. There were no combat fighter units close by. However, there were German fighter training activities in the area, and that might attract some pilot training officers to oppose our attack. As it turned out, the opposition on that mission was very light, both from fighters and from flak.” Twenty six B-24’s of the 44th left Benina for the 12 hour flight, but only 20 planes were able to reach it due to mechanical problems. They dropped 159 x 500 lb. bombs, and the target was well covered. rear flight observers reported flames and smoke in the target area. Anti-aircraft fire was slight, a few FW 190s attacked at the target, and on the way home, 10-15 Me 109s attacked with little success. Gunners on the B-24s were able to bring down 2 enemy A/C. Twenty one planes from the formation landed in Tunis. This mission took the German's by surprise, inflicting heavy damage. On the return flight back to North Africa, Harper's aircraft was low on fuel so they had to land at a fighter plane base to refuel and spend the night. Crew of the “Lady Luck” Lady Luck (#41-23778-F) in training, Biggs Field, TX 44th Bomb Group May/June 1943 about April 1943 5Their second mission was to bomb the Airdrome at Foggia, Italy on August 16, 1943. The 376th and the 389th Bomb Group was to join them on this attack but from a different direction. This was the very day the German forces were retreating from Sicily to the toe of Italy. Previous flights were "milk runs" but on this day, the Germans had been moving forces around and they met the American bombers with everything they could put up in the air. According to the MACR report, Harper was again Hatch Gunner (but according to the 44th Bomb Group Database, he was Tail Gunner). Most of the bombers were attacked from the rear. A total of 25 bombers left Benina Main at 0430, reaching the target at 1033. 6They were attacked by 40 to 50 Me 109's, Ju88's and Fock Wolf 190's. A total of 7 from the 44th BG and one more from another group (or about a third of the planes) were shot down in this mission. Some of the most famous planes from the Ploesti Oil Field mission just two weeks before, were lost in this mission. Harper's plane, Lady Luck, was one of the oldest aircraft in the entire formation. They had dropped their bombs and had made their turn to come back before losing an engine and altitude, then going down near Ruoti, Italy about 50 miles south of Foggia. Early reports as documented by the Formation Diagram of mission to Foggia had Lady Luck down by 1st attack of fighters over target with 3- 5 chutes. But this was not at all correct. It must have been after numerous attacks by fighters, there were only two chutes, and it when down about 50 miles south of Foggia. 8The following account was made by Wesley Zimmerman, the only survivor. "Contrary to the MACR report, I do not recall our ship being hit by flak. After passing over the target and dropping our bombs, one of the engines went out due to an extreme oil leak. When this #3 engine failed and we fell out of formation, that is when we were hit by enemy fighters. After several direct hits from the fighters, we tried to get out of the plane, but could not. The main hydraulic system would not operate, and we couldn't get the bomb bay doors open in order to jump. At this point, Sgt. Grinde, engineer, went out the sliding door to the bomb bay without a parachute on, to try to open the bomb bay doors manually. This was the time that the ship went into a dive or spin and the sliding door came down and we could not get out. Since I was on the flight deck I don't know if any of the crew in the rear got out before the plane exploded. But when it did explode - which I think it was caused by the fire in that burning engine reaching the gas tanks - I was somehow blown clear, and opened my chute and came down safely. I had several small cuts on my head and arms, and was black and blue over most of my body for two or three weeks. I was taken prisoner by the Italians and was in several camps before escaping and returning to Africa - and later back to England, and then the States. Also contrary to the reports, I saw only one other chute and that landed several hundred yards from where I did. I went to it and it was Lt. Curelli but he was dead." 9The following came from the Military’s Missing Air Crew Report #3150. “Two men in the town of Ruoti, Italy, stated that the plane seemed to partly explode in mid-air and several crew members were seen to parachute from the plane. When these men arrived at the scene of the crash and landing parachutists, they saw several civilians taking many articles, such as watches, rings and even identification papers from the bodies. Only five of the nine bodies could be identified due to these thefts. They were Lts. Curelli and Papadopulos, Sgts. Hughes, Grinde and Shafer.” The crew were first buried in Ruoti, Italy then were later moved in 1944 to a military cemetery in Bari, Italy. Finally, my grandparents had my uncle moved to his final resting place at White Chapel Cemetery in Troy, Michigan. 10On January 18-19, 1944 2/Lt. Edward A. Turrou (brother of Vic Turrou) flew to Potenza and Ruoti and did an investigation of the crash of “Lady Luck” #41-23778 since his brother was a member of the crew. He found several eye witnesses who even spoke English. They were able to give a complete story of the crash. They stated that the plane seemed partly to explode in mid-air at which time a couple of the crew members parachuted. The plane evidently fell to pieces before crashing, for the motors and other parts of the plane were scattered over a considerable distance in the valley between Ruoti and Avigliano. They stated that several other civilians from the neighboring towns of Ruoti and Avigliano came upon the scene, which resulted in many articles being taken from these bodies, such as watches, rings, and even identification papers. It is for this reason that all bodies were not identified including my uncle. At this time about 20 German parachutists who were stationed in the town of Ruoti came to the scene chasing all civilians away. It was learned that the bodies were scattered over a 300 yard area, evidently due to the force of the crash, and the plane falling to pieces on its way to the ground. Epilogue My father, James Zoller knew very little of what happened his younger brother at first. In the past few years we were very fortunate to receive letters from Walter Patrick and Harold Samuelian who were previous crew members. They were kind enough to give me the previous and interesting history of #41-23778 F known as "Jenny" then "Lady Luck". Also I was able to contact Mrs. Wesley Zimmerman (wife of the only survivor). Then in 1998 I received a letter from Bob Blakeney from whom I was able to learn a great deal. 10He was flying as waist gunner in "Black Sheep" flying alongside and even facing "Lady Luck" on August 16, 1943 as she went down. His B-24 was heavily damaged and crash landed on a beach at Reggio de Calabria. Five were killed in the landing and Bob was taken prisoner by the Italians. Bob was in prison in the Sulmona, Italy camp PG-78 and then was able to escape with another crew member, John Hess. They spent about 6 weeks crossing the Italian frontier before coming onto the safety of the Canadian lines. 12In July 2011, I learned that Uffz. Friedrich Scheer was the pilot who took credit for shooting down “23778”, “Lady Luck” in a Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6. Although we cannot be certain whether Scheer did take down “Lady Luck” because his unit Jagdgeschwader 53 claimed 10- victories and Jagdgeschwader 3 claimed 6 victories when only 8 aircraft were lost. Scheer reported shooting it down at 12:44 at an altitude of 5,500m (18,000 ft), 25 Km (15 miles) S Melfi which is the approximate location of Ruoti . This was supposed to be his 5th kill while a member of 8/Jagdgeschwader 53 known as "Pik As" (Ace of Spades). He had a total of 16 kills and survived the war. He passed away peacefully on June 15, 2011 in Bremen, Germany. I have always been taught to try and forgive, as hard as it may be. I regret not ever being able to meet or contact Mr. Scheer to tell him that I did forgive him since they were both doing their jobs to fight for and defend their countries. 13I am very grateful to three Italian men through historical WWII author Jerry Whiting who are interested in researching WWII aircraft in southern Italy. In October 2011, these men, Pasquale Libutti, Antonio Sedile and Carmine Sileo visited the Ruoti, Italy in hopes of finding witnesses and locating the exact crash site of “Lady Luck”. The crash site was located by local inhabitants northeast of Ruoti on a hillside vineyard. These men tried to located pieces of the wreckage without success due to the heavy brush in the area and the fact the aircraft remains are spread over the area due to it exploding and breaking apart in air. They plan to visit the site again at a later in 2012. The same researchers in 2009 – 2012 located other crash sites of the 44th Bomb Group aircraft lost in the same mission. Crash site of “Lady Luck” (#41-23778-F) near Ruoti, Italy (courtesy of Pasquale Libutti, Antonio Sedile, Venosa Airfield Association) Crew of the "Lady Luck" #41-23778 F Rocco A. Curelli, Pilot Biddeford, Maine KIA John G. Papadopulos, Copilot Salt Lake City, Utah KIA Walter Rossi, Navigator Bronx, N.Y. KIA Victor T. Torrou, Bombardier Falls Church, Va. KIA John H. Grinde, Engr/Top G. Morrisonville, Wisc. KIA Wesley L. Zimmerman, Radio Opr Winston Salem, N.C. POW Deforest L. Ela, Radio Waist/Gunner Quincy, Mass. KIA Raymond C. Shafer, Waist/Gunner Anderson, Ind. KIA Harper F. Zoller, Hatch Gunner Detroit, Mich. KIA John R. Hughes, Tail Gunner Bogota, N.J. KIA 13List 44th BG aircraft lost on August 16, 1943 and approximate crash sites along the route from Foggia to North Africa: 67th Sq., #41-23817 L, Bateman SUZY-Q (MACR #2445 & #02361) crash site now located with the help of Simon Pockock -WWII historian and writer living in Naples - Lacedonia, Campania Region, Italy 67th Sq., #41-24229 P-Bar, Smith BUZZIN’ BEAR crash site now located near San Giorgio di Melfi, 6 Km SW of Melfi, Basilicata Region 68th Sq., #42-40373 Z, Shannon NATCHEZ-BELLE (MACR #3558) crash site now located near Filiano, Basilicata Region, Italy 506th Sq., #42-40606 X, Whitlock TIMBA A-AH (MACR #3559) crash site now located near Sant'Ilario di Atella near San Fele, Basilicata Region, Italy 66th Sq., #41-23778 F, Curelli LADY LUCK (MACR #3150) Shot down northwest of Ruoti, Italy (as reported), North of Potenza, Basilicata Region on a hillside in an old vineyard. Crash site located following the information in the report of Ed Turrou, between Ruoti and Avigliano. 506th Sq., #42-40778 T, Austin SOUTHERN COMFORT crash site area to locate southwest of Pignola, Basilicata Region, Italy 67th Sq., #42-41021 T, Hager BLACK SHEEP crash landed on a beach somewhere in the Reggio Calabria area (toe of Italy). Map of Basilicata Region, Italy (courtesy of Pasquale Libutti, Antonio Sedile, Venosa Airfield Association) 44th Bomb Group "The Flying Eightballs" Written and dedicated to those of the 44th Bomb Group who gave their lives in honor and protection of our country Bob Zoller (nephew) 4060 Hawthorne Cir. Longmont, Colo. 80503 I am very grateful to my good friends, Walter Hazelton, Walter Patrick, Harold Samuelian who gave information on the previous life of Aircraft #41-23778, Mrs Zimmerman, Will Lundy, Art hand and Edward Turrou and to my recent friends Pasquale Libutti, Antonio Sedile and Carmine Sileo and the Venosa Airfield Association along with author Jerry Whiting all who supplied information to this article. Sources: 1Letters from my Uncle Buster to my Grandmother from December 1942 to August 1943 2Art Hand, 44th Bomb Group on the accounts of the “Crowder Prov. Group” 3Walter Patrick and Harold Samuelian, 44th Bomb Group on the history of “Lady Luck” http://user.xmission.com/~44thbgva/fightinglady.html 4http://www.footnote.com/image/#32145750 – concerning Robert Felber’s crew 5Will Lundy, 44th Bomb Group Historian 68 Ball Tails – newsletter of the 44th Bomb Group - Winter 2006 issue 6Will Lundy, 44th Bomb Group Historian 7Account of Bob Blakeney on “Black Sheep” 8Account of Wesley Zimmerman, only survivor of Lady Luck 9MACR Missing Air Crew Report # 3150 10Edward A. Turrou investigation and report dated 23 January 1944 11Account of Bob Blakeney on “Black Sheep” 12Several websites of American aircraft and German Luftwaffe records, “Film C. 2031/II Anerk: Nr.-“ 13Research on location by Pasquale Libutti, Antonio Sedile and Carmine Sileo 1444th Bomb Group Roll of Honor and Casualties, Compiled by Will Lundy, Originally published in 1987. This book was the very helpful and used in other investigations by the Venosa Airfield Association to locate other crash sites. 15To North Africa and Hell by Luc Dewez