Learning to Fly in Combat(3)
Once in the fall of 1944 McGovern went up in a practice run, with only
his co-pilot, Bill Rounds and his navigator, Sam Adams, along. McGovern
was upset with Rounds because while McGovern was flying co-pilot with Surbeck,
Rounds used his free time to go into Cerignola to find a girl. He contracted
VD and had to be treated with sulfa powder. McGovern was about ready to
kick him off the plane. But on this practice mission, which was done primarily
to give the co-pilots who had not yet been flying some experience, Rounds
did most of the flying. "He took that plane as if he’d been doing this
all his life," McGovern said. "I think I could’ve done as well, but I couldn
’t have done any better and I had a lot of practice." Rounds just tucked
into position and held it there. That night, the pilot of the lead plane,
a captain, came to McGovern in the officer’s club to say, "You know, George,
you ’ve got one hell of a valuable co-pilot. He flies the best formation
of any co-pilot I ’ve seen. That guy is tremendous — you better hold onto
him with both hands." Right then, McGovern decided to forget about Rounds
’s VD. He figured he had better let the man do what he wanted on his off
hours.
___________________________
Lt. Donald Currier was a part of one of the first B-24 squadrons of
the Fifteenth Air Force to arrive in Italy and thus flew his first mission
in January, 1944, one of the first of his group. It was two days after his
squadron had arrived in Italy. The target was the railroad yards in Perugia,
just off the Tiber River, in support of the ground troops. But when the
bombers arrived, it was snowing. Landmarks were obscured. The lead navigator,
having no radar (which only came nine months later), was unable to see anything
but clouds. Currier was the navigator flying in the B-24 on the wing of
the lead plane. "I looked desperately for something I could see and recognize,"
he recalled, but he saw nothing.
The lead plan opened his bomb bays. The bombardier in Currier ’s plane
followed the leader. He put his finger on the toggle switch. When the leader
dropped his bombs, he and the other bombardiers did the same. Currier saw
the bombs fall in open countryside. He saw some bursts of flak on one side
and far away and thought, I don ’t know why the Germans bothered. We certainly
didn’t do them any harm. He and the pilot and crew resolved "we would go
again and again until we got it right."
Currier would go on to make a career in the Air Force. Looking back
four decades, he said that in his experience "it seems incredible that we
would be flying a combat mission with so little training or experience."
But that was how badly the Fifteenth needed pilots and crews in January
1944. It was because of that need that the AAF instituted the policy of
requiring just-arrived pilots to fly as co-pilots for five missions before
taking up their own plane and crew, since the men had gone through the speeded-up
training program in 1944. In 1945 the commanders changed policy again, putting
new pilots and their crews into action as soon as they arrived in Italy.
And it was the casualty list that forced the commanders of the bomb groups
to keep demanding more replacements.
Bombardier Lt Donald Kay arrived in Italy in May 1944 and was assigned
to the 783rd Squadron, 465th Bomb Group. Of the three classmates in bombardier
school who came over with Kay and were close friends, two were killed in
the air and the other became a POW. Overall, Kay recalled that of the seventeen
original crews that started the war with him, only six finished.
Sgt. Anthony Picardi of the 455th Bomb Group’s 742nd Squadron (who
had visited his family’s village and met his grandmother) saw a B-24 crash
on the runway while trying to take off for a mission. It blew up on impact.
Nine of the ten crew members were blown to bits. But one had "his arms blown
off from the elbow down and his legs blown off from the knees down. He was
actually crawling away from the inferno. He was digging into the dirt with
the stubs of his elbows, trying to survive. Right then and there, I realized
just how precious life is. He crawled right up to us, looked us straight
in the eyes, and then closed his eyes forever."
For McGovern, on his first five missions as Surbeck ’s co-pilot, things
were not so rough. He saw some flak, went through it, and got out of it
safely. The B-24 did not take one hit. "I felt rather secure after flying
those missions," McGovern said. I could observe all those things without
having the responsibility of handling the plane myself. I picked up a lot
of touches." This was not practice flying in Idaho. This was Europe and
the formation was much bigger — sometimes 500 or 600 planes. After completing
his five missions as Surbeck’s co-pilot, McGovern said, "I felt comfortable
to take that plane up with my own crew an He summed up what he had learned
from observing Surbeck: "I heard through the ear phones how he handled the
radio transmissions to the tower and to the lead plane. I saw how he brought
the plane into formation, how slowly or swiftly he got that done, I watched
him to see what he was looking at and listened to the way he was handling
the crew — everything he said, I could hear through my earphones. . .
I saw how he flew formation in various positions, on the left side one day
and the next he might be in the middle, the next day on the right wing.
I could observe all those things without having the responsibility of handling
the plane myself. I picked up a lot of touches." This was not practice flying
in Idaho. This was Europe and the formation was much bigger — sometimes
500 or 600 planes. After completing his five missions as Surbeck’s co-pilot,
McGovern said, " I felt comfortable to take that plane up with my own crew
and get it into formation and get off on a combat mission."
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