NOTE:  Don't miss the photos farther down on this page!

As I reviewed the following summary, I thought about the "risky" weather conditions that we endured during takeoffs and landings at Grafton-Underwood, where the 384th Bomb Group was stationed. Some takeoffs were under "full instrument" conditions. Also, many landings were made when the cloud ceiling was very low, and the outward visibility was below "minimums". To help us see the runway the ground personnel fired flares near the approach end. It wasn't advisable to go around, as there also were as many as 38 other B-17's in this traffic pattern.

When Hitler's Germany invaded Poland, in August 1939, I was about to enter into my second year of high school in Omaha, Nebraska, when I was 15 years old.  Shortly thereafter much of Europe was engulfed in war.  While the United States wasn't a direct participant, it did support Great Britain, France, and Russia.  The U.S.A.'s direct participation was triggered by Japan's attack on the Pearl Harbor Naval Facilities near Honolulu, on the Sunday morning of Dec. 7, 1941.

One year after Japan's "dastardly attacks", I enlisted in the U. S. Army's Air Corp as an Aviation Cadet.  Actual date of my enlistment was December 12, 1942, wherein I was placed on a "reserve status".  I was called to active duty during February 1943.  While I had enlisted in Omaha, I was living in Sacramento, California when called to active duty.  First, I reported to Lincoln, Nebraska and about three weeks later I was assigned to a training detachment at the University of Montana, in Missoula, for about five months.  There I had my first flying experiences in a J-3 Piper Cub aircraft. Along with many others in my general age group, I attended various college level classes, and got a lot of basic military training, including lots of physical training plus a lot of marching.

From Missoula, I was assigned to the Santa Ana, California Classification Center for about ten weeks.  After much testing, I was assigned to pilot training.  A primary pilot training school known as Thunderbird Field was located outside of Phoenix, Arizona.  There, I learned to fly the PT-17, known as the Stearman.

From Thunderbird, after I completed the primary pilot training, I was assigned to War Eagle Field at Lancaster, California.  There I learned to fly a low wing BT-13.  It was affectionately called the "Vultee Vibrator", as it vibrated during spins.  I learned aerobatics, basic instruments, night flying and humility. Ground schooling, over ten weeks, included aerodynamics, radio and meteorology.

After successfully completing basic training at War Eagle Field I was assigned to Marfa Air Force Base at Marfa, Texas.  At both Thunderbird and War Eagle, the pilot training instructors were civilians.  At Marfa, only military instructors were used.  This training was called Advanced.  I learned to pilot a twin-engine low wing Beachcraft airplane, with side-by-side pilot and instructor seating.  After ten weeks of intense training, I graduated as pilot and second lieutenant. The date was May 23, 1944. Thus I was a successful graduate of Class of 44-F.

After WWI, the U. S. Army Air Corp, which became the US Air Force in 1946, had located pilot training fields in several States, including Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California, etc.  From Marfa, I was assigned to the first pilot school at Roswell, New Mexico. This was my first introduction to a B-17 Flying Fortress, the well-known 4-engine bomber that saw combat in the European and Pacific Theaters of War.  Some of the flying instructors were combat veterans and their experiences were most valuable to those of us who were destined to pilot the B-17 under combat and bad weather conditions.  Again, I successfully completed the ten weeks of first B-17 pilot training.  Like all of my fellow pilots, I was eager to be assigned a crew, and to then be assigned to a theater of combat.

In September 1944, I was assigned to a staging facility at Tampa, Florida.  Our crew was then designated.  However, we did not assemble there.  After a so-called "delay in route” for about ten days, I arrived at a U. S. Army Air Force Base located at Gulfport, Mississippi.  There our crew trained together day and night.  In our preparation, this training as a combat crew proved to be most valuable.

After about ten weeks, our crew was assigned to Savannah, Georgia, for the purpose of flying a brand new B-17 to the European Theater.  We flew "our B-17" to England, via Manchester (New Hampshire), Goose Bay Labrador, Keflik (Iceland), Wales and then on to Stone, England.  We stayed in Iceland for about ten days due to weather conditions.  While there, on January 30, 1945, I turned twenty-one.

After a few hours at Stone, we were assigned to the 547th Squadron, 384th Bomb Group, at Grafton-Underwood.  Within a few days, we were flying combat missions.  Thus for me it was nearly two years of military and pilot training before flying combat duty.  Our crew flew on the Eighth Air Force's last bombing missions over Pilzen (Pizen), Czechoslovakia, on April 25, 1945 --   Target: Skoda Ironworks.

Puzen, our twenty-fifth combat mission, may have been the most dangerous one.

Within the combat timeframe, our crew was a somewhat typical B-17 combat crew, as we were all rather young, & ranged from some 19 years to some 26 years old.

Allyn Lewis Crew Photo

Dick Schmansky, the co-pilot, was from the Detroit, Michigan area. Dewey Young. the navigator, was from Louisville, Kentucky.  Q. A. Quigley was the engineer turret gunner. He was from Des Moines, Iowa. Wayne Summers was our radioman & he was from the Chicago, Illinois area, as was waist gunner Ted Ulrich. Gerald Cooper, tail gunner, was also from the Detroit area. Frank Adams, the ball turret gunner, was from the Dallas, Texas area. Ed Nestor, the waist gunner/toggler, was from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area.

Ernie Click, our initial bombardier, was from Southern California.  Ernie was assigned to another crew when we arri­ved in England. Ted UIrich flew his first 18 missions with our crew. As there was a need for a replacement, he was reassigned to another crew thereafter. Accordingly. he was not on our B-17, with the nose art name RECALL, on our 20th mission when we collided over St. Vith, Belgium with another B-17 returning from lngolstadt, Germany. It was in a snowstorm & visibility was nearly zero. All survived and returned to combat duty in about ten days. Three in our crew, Dewey, Quigley & Ed, then located in the plane's nose, destroyed by the mid-air collision, were able to parachute and land safely. All of the crew on the other B-17 parachuted safely too. After 45 minutes I then landed our plane at Charleroi, Belgium. There was a P-51 (Mustang) Fighter strip there, & the date was April 05, 1945. The next day, an RAF plane took the non-parachuters back to Grafton-Underwood.

RECALL after Mid-Air Collision

All of us had friends that perished during and returning from combat missions.  Flak, fighters, mid-air collisions and weather all took tolls on combat crews.  And there were those that found themselves prisoners of war &/or as victims of German civilian attack when forced to land in enemy occupied and held territory.

While I was at Grafton-Underwood, my brother Elton was at Great Ash Field that was near Norwich. I visited him at Norwich. Elton was then a Radar Specialist.  Ellis Langley, who'd trained as a pilot with me, was at Great Ash at that time.  Ellis was from Salinas, California. After WW II, I visited Ellis and his wife.

While training as a crew and during combat, which was extended training in itself, full cooperation & recognition of interdependence was of primary import.  It could mean mutual survival. Thus, mutual respect & concern prevailed.  To coin a phrase that applies everyday: To command respect, commute respect!

As I'd gone on active duty from California, none of my former school classmates were at the various bases that I was assigned to during training & combat, except a fellow named Estell Pragne, who I knew in Omaha. He was at Estres but I didn't know he'd been at Estres until we re returning by boat from Le Havre.

Don Ware, one of my friends, since about 1952, was at Lincoln, Nebraska when I was stationed there, at the start of the training. We never did cross paths.

Bob Lagerstrom, one of my long time friends, was assigned to the Army Infantry.  In December 1944, he was shelled & severely injured in the Battle of the Bulge.  Before I got to England, he had been returned Stateside. He was injured near a town in Belgium that was very near to St. Vith where we had the air collision.  Fortunately, after 18 months hospitalization, Bob regained the use of his leg.

For the most part, our crew did not stay in contact with one another after re­turning to the States. In 1947, Dick Schmansky did visit me in Sacramento, and in 1977 1 visited him In Detroit, which was several years before he passed on. Fortunately, I do have some contacts with Ted Ulrich, which I value. From Ted, I learned that Wayne Sommers is now deceased. He died of cancer in about 1982. During the 1970's, 1980's & early l990's, while traveling on business, I tried in various cities to look up several of the crewmembers, but I didn't succeed.

As when our President John Kennedy was assassinated, on November 22, 1963, the date of December 7, 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor is vividly recalled. I was working that Sunday's morning shift, at a wholesale/retail dairy fa­cility in Omaha, Nebraska. Already, I'd delivered the Sunday World Herald newspaper before sunrise. I lived a few blocks from work. I had gone home at lunchtime & heard on the radio about Pearl Harbor. I wasn't sure if I'd ever heard of Pearl Harbor before. In any case, the event was about to engage the United States in a full time war, not only in the Pacific arena but in Europe as well.

Shortly afterward Congress & President Franklin Roosevelt declared war against Japan plus its already declared Allies, including Germany & Italy. Nearing age 18, 1 knew it was a matter of time before I’d be "drafted", or have to enlist.

While in high school & working I was named to the National Honor Roll Society.

Frank D, a friend of mine in Omaha, enlisted in the Marine Corp in Decem­ber 1942. Frank was more interested in flying than I was. He had hoped to fly. Although accepted by the M.C., he suffered from asthma and he did not qualify.

I’d made arrangements to meet Frank at San Francisco's Ferry Building in 1944, but he never showed up. He had gotten into some trouble by telling false tales of combat air missions, as a SBD Fighter gunner, at a US Bond rally, in Omaha.  Frank's tales were published in the World Herald. A Marine read about it after his family had sent a copy of that article. The Marine refuted Frank's story & the truth came out. I was certainly shocked, and much saddened at his conduct.

Dick Schmansky & I visited the Dachau Concentration Camp, near Munich, shortly after its prisoners had been released. I've a copy of the U.S. Army's publication on Dachau.  The Red Cross handed them out. Also, it provided these tours.  The experience was very profound. Several former longtime prisoners remained. They spoke English & related to us some of their stories. All of the buildings & facilities were still in place. One could sense anguish. However, only those who bad been the victims, whether Gentile or Jew, could have known their hell.

In Munich, the Excelsior Hotel was extensively damaged, but Dick Schmansky & I stayed there as did other B-17 crewmembers. Part of the exterior walls weren't in place. From the lobby, we saw people walking to the nearby train station to ride out to the countryside to gather wood for heating their homes. Then, late in the afternoon they would return with bundles of branches on their backs. It was so cold during the winter of 1945/46 in Munich, it was a 'mixed blessing'.  I was told there were an estimated 80,000 bodies in the ruins there and needed manpower for removals was not then available. Cold weather was a preservative.

It was unwise for Allied military personal to walk any street in Munich alone. In a reported case, a U.S. officer was killed by stones thrown from buildings.

While in Munich we visited Cafe Sale, reportedly Hitler's favorite restaurant.  In its basement was a one lane bowling alley, which it was said Hitler played.   For our entertainment in the evenings there was an orchestra and entertainers.

Several times in the later '70's my wife Doty and I visited Munich. The Hotel Excelsior was then fully restored. Dining was excellent. The department store across the street was fully restored too, but was mostly in ruins back in '45.  Of course, now most of the western part of Germany is restored, & it's viable.

After the European war was over, a portion of the 384th Bomb Group was relocated to Istres la Tube, Prance. We flew passenger and courier missions to French Morocco (Casablanca, etc.), Germany (Munich/Wiesbaden, etc.), Rome, Italy, and Athens, Greece. Also, we made trips back to England and within France. Flights to and from Morocco included taking some U.S. troops there to be transferred back to the States and to return French displaced persons who'd fled during Germany's occupation. The French government authorized the Croix de Guerre to those flying these people back into France but the 384^th’s then C.O. refused to accept.

This refusal prompted some to ask the Inspector General's Office to hear complaints as to living conditions and then lack of purposeful duty. We suspected he wanted to hold on to his command, as the CdG would have increased our points & make us eligible to go home. While we didn’t get the CdG, we did get another C.0. in 24 hours, and in 72 hours we did get our orders to be sent back home.

Trips to Greece, from Munich, were to return Greeks who sympathized with Nazis. The passengers were facing Greek imprisonment so they were under armed guard.

After atomic bombs were dropped in August of 1945, Japan surrendered to Allied Forces. At that time I was on R&R and I was staying at Cannes' Martinez Hotel.

For the most part, the preceding reflects a timing of major events in my life from the start of WWII, in August 1939, and its termination, in August 1945.

Most of our crew stayed in France until the end of February 1946. After flying many ground troops to Casablanca, we returned, by ship, from Le Havre, France. The ocean voyage took about nine days & arrived in New York on March 16, 1946.

I returned to Sacramento and became a resident of California. Then my brothers Elbert and Gerald lived there. My parents were living in Omaha, Nebraska. Also my brothers Elton & Richard, & my sister Louise, lived in Omaha. My first trip back to Omaha was when I flew a j-S Piper Cub from the factory at Lockhaven in Pennsylvania in June of 1946. For me there was more opportunity in California.

I will now sign off with the hope this mission was accomplished ^“AS BRIEFED"!

This story written by C. Allyn Lewis, and he holds the copyright.