Before Iwo Jima was won, subs generally cruised along tracks that the bombers flew , they were always on the lookout for airmen that bailed out or ditched.

One of the main reasons for invading Iwo was for it’s airstrip

My tentmate who finished his combat tour before me, came back to the states and went into B29’s. He kept a diary of which I have a copy, he also wrote quite well.
He trained with a crew and went to the Pacific in mid 1944 as plane commander. His account of his missions was an eye opener, they sustained heavy losses from fighters,mechanical problems and long over water flights. He flew 18 missions and was shot down over Japan, he and his crew were all KIA.

Jules,
By the way, my dad was a B-17 pilot with the 463rd BG of the 15th AF. From looking at his records it looks like he got in on the very end of the war.
He died while I was fairly young, but towards the end of his life we had a few talks about the war, and he answered my many questions about flying the B-17. It’s too bad I didn’t know enough then to ask better questions.

Thanks for answering the questions posted here. Passing on your memories to “us” is a great service to history and will help us keep the sacrifices made by men like my father and yourself alive for future generations.

John Boyle

John,
The reason that I monitor these several websites is to talk to people like you, second and third generations who are interested in the WW2 period

For the last 15 years I have gone to 3 local airports when the Collings planes
spend a few days here. I act as a docent and answer any queations that people have. Quite frequently someone will say ” I want to shake your hand and thank you for what you did” That is payment enough for me.

Another fellow who was a waist gunner and was shot down,the last 2 years we have gone to 12 high schools, and spoke to ROTC classes about the Air War in Europe, it was vey well received.

John,
If I remember correctly, one man can manage the throttles, mixture and props

I saw most of the films mentioned, most of them were very good in my humble opinion. I think the best film about Americas part in the air war over Europe was 12 o’clock high. Not mentioned was the War Lover with Steve McQueen, also I think the name was Strategic Air Command with Clark Gable

Grounded,
Thanks Moggy for your help.
I flew most of my missions from Tunis, N.Africa. The bomb line was between Rome and Naples (BL- is where is where the opposing armies faced each other).When we bombed southern Europe and nothern Italy the fighters couldn’t escort us going and coming. Most of the time we only had one wing of B17s (4 groups) and a few groups of B24s, I believe that we had one group of P47s and one group of P38s. We had a different war then the 8th.
There was a period during the fall and early winter of 1943 when morale was very poor in our theater because we were short of equipment and crews. everything was going to the 8th

With one exception, early Nov 1943 from Tunis we went to Weiner Neustsadt, 30 miles from Vienna, we were airbourne for 13 1/2 hours 1000/900 miles, we were staged to land in Sicily, on our return. We did see our fighters at the target only, we lost 16 planes. the fighters were probably based in N.Sicily.

When the 15th AfF moved to Foggia, Italy there were 6 groups of 17s and
12to 16 groups of B24s. Then the 15th were more on a par with the 8th AF.My group flew to Berlin, shuttle raid to Russia, 10 times to Ploesti. Not long after I finished my tour the P51s arrived and did the escorting all the way to the target and return

Rambo

B17 or B 24