Folks Of Interest Great Ashfield, England WWII

This photo fell out of a box while I was looking for something two days ago, B-17 flight crews in the Snack Bar on Great Ashfield in England. Dad was there for three years as a Chief Armorer. Round Trip Ticket made it back and was later parted out to keep others airworthy. Had to post this with a Thank You this weekend to all the ones that didn't make it back home.

Bob

 

Heros one and all........

 

Hell yeah Bob ! God bless your Dad, and all those men that paid the cost of freedom ... with their lives. The entire DNA of this country forged, and and ultimately lost, when those sons and daughters, don't come home. Sad but always proud.

 

As real as it gets. The greatest generation aptly named.
We are free because of those guys.
Thanks to all who serve.

 

Great post Bob.......watched a clip on tv recently where they interviewed last surviving member who was very humble and actually corrected the interviewer who called him a hero......he replied I'm not a hero, we were just men who were asked to do a job, so we went out and did our best. I got the feeling he felt guilty that he made it back while so many of his comrades didn't.
I felt very privileged to have watched and listened.
Should add the fact that he is last surviving member of the dambusters and actually working on a more factual film of the dambusters.

 

Great story, happy Memorial Day to all !

 

My Great Uncle John was vaporized fighting at the battle of Fresnoy WWI. No known grave. His name is on the Vimy Memorial.
My Uncl Marshal was wounded and taken prisoner during the Dieppe raid.
Spent over 3 years in a German salt mine POW camp WWII.
Came home and worked at the Ford plant.
Bless them all!

 

I have been fortunate to have known and worked with a few WWII vets. Dutch Vankirk was a waist gunner in a B-17 stationed in Italy ,flew over the hump, was shot in the leg by a Me-109. He flew 38 missions. Another Earl Lewis, Tailgunner in a B-29 ,stationed on Tinian when the Enola Gay was there.
These and several other men shared their war stories with me, but they are long gone now. I have very strong emotions as I write this. I am privileged to have known these men .They are my Heroes. Bill

 

The greatest generation EVER

 

My wife and I were on the road in Ohio two days ago going to put flowers on graves and stopped at a rest area. I was wearing a 1st Infantry Division T-shirt, came out of the rest room and an elderly gentleman wearing a black hat was standing there looking at me. He turned to walk away and had "WWII Veteran embroidered across the back of his hat. I caught up to him and thanked him for his service. He asked me if I had served with the Big Red One and I told him, Iraq, 2003 - 2005. He landed in Normandy and was wounded in Germany, two days before Germany surrendered. WWII Vets are becoming far and few with most being in their 90's. I remember a time when there were WWI Vets living but now are all gone. Korean Vets are thinning also. Remember all.

 

God Bless you Bob for posting this. My Dad, and all my Uncles served WW2. Dad was a Radiomen, and
Gunner on a OS2U Kingfisher. He and his pilot "Mr. Anderson" affectionally named their plane; Anne.
She was the oldest, but fastest Kingfisher in the Squadron. Two Uncles were captured, but made it home.
We owe everything to these Guys that served our Country so well, and a long moment of silence to the fallen.

 

My uncle, Ted, didn’t make it back. He was a tail gunner in a B-17, shot down near Berlin. We stopped (1998) in a small village,near Henri Chappelle cemetery in Belgium, to buy flowers for his memorial....young woman shopkeeper refused payment, instead thanking us for his service! Still brings a lump to my throat...


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I have a friend, Del Carlino , who was a pilot in WW2, flew supplies over the hump out of China.


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hero's one and all. I bet half the flyers in that photo didn't make it home. The odds of surviving a 25 mission tour were not very good.

 

One of my big regrets is not asking Dad about life on a B-17 base. I found out the flight crews and ground crews were housed at different spots and rarely had the chance to socialize. I thought that was odd, but soon got to understand you didn't want to know too many fright crew members, every plane carried ten men. God Bless them all.

Bob

 

That's if they made it "over there" in the first place. There were 54,000 aircraft accidents and some 15,000 killed stateside just in training.

 

Hey Bob,
My Dad worked for Lockheed & was in Ireland '42-'44, servicing B 17's . He was a Prat & Whitney mechanic.

 

Dad never spoke a word of his service, it was the elephant in the room. Was discharged in 1945 in California but never made it back to New York til 1952? Mom told me he needed to get his head straight. Apparently I may have a sibling or two on the west coast or in Mexico . They met in 1953 but didn't get together til 1959 as they both were in other relationships at the time. He couldn't stand to be in the room if anything about war came on the TV. He would just quietly get up and walk out. He's been gone 32 years and I still think about him everyday. Most of the guys who are "heroes" you would never know it as they never spoke about what happened.

 

thank you for this picture my uncle has in the 15th air force he bailed out over Yugoslavia and became a pow 74 years ago tomorrow i think about him every day

 

All these Memorial Day posts are making me very emotional right now.......gotta go, someone's cuttin' onions I think.

 

Just back home from the local Memorial Day observance. Coming from a long military related ancestors in this country alone I have had relatives in every conflict from the Revolution to myself in the GWOT. Leaves for a lot of reflecting.

 

Amen, brother. It is sad to think that over the next few years this generation will be gone forever. However, their deeds will live on. They are my heroes too. They quite literally saved the world.

 

My Dad was at Great Ashfield for a little over 6 months.
He was in the back of a B-17.
We found some photo's that he had after he passed away.
It changed his life forever.

 

My dad was a crew chief on a PBY flying out of Kanaohe in Hawaii when the Japanese attacked. He had been up all night the night before installing self sealing fuel tanks on their plane and had just gotten to bed when all hell broke loose. A couple of years ago my sister found a photo on the internet of some sailors placing leis on the graves of the fallen. One of them looked exactly like my dad. When we asked if that was him, he said, "I don't know. All I remember is the attack and flying recon missions when we got new planes." At 97, he is now the last man standing from his chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.

 

Lets hope he will be with us for a few more.

 

I immediately was searching to no avail for my uncle in your picture, my fathers older brother whom I am named after.
He was a flight engineer on a 17 out of England. He passed away at 92 about 8 years ago, at his 90th Bday party I got him to open up about his war service.

The one thing he underscored was how extremely lucky he and his crew were to make it home. They ditched one shot up 17 over the channel and were fished out to fly/fight again.
He said with sparkle in his eye's and voice... "that the 17 could be made into swiss cheese and as long as no vitals were hit ...she'd fly us home."

We should all be proud of and to have known"America's Greatest Generation" They are rapidly traveling into history.

 

That is exactly how my Dad was.
I can remember several family holidays when the topic of the war came up. My Dad would get quiet and sometimes get up for some air.
He was the strongest man I have ever met and never once had to raise his voice or fist.
I wish I inherited more of his genes.
He has been gone for 30 years and I still miss him every day.

 

Great thread. Emotional.

Life would be very different without their dedication. A generation never to be duplicated.

Rest in Peace Gordon C. Forbes First Special Service Force

 

My dad served in the Army Air Corp and was a waist gunner on the B-17's

His plane went down and he was the only survivor,he never really talked much about it and always questioned why he lived and the others perished that day. HRP