A letter from the right waist gunner from the mission that day. Dad was the left waist gunner and its quite horrific to hear the tale told this way. Howard Linn Letter to Ernie Haar Howard Linn was a member of the Brantley Crew 905 lost on 19 May 1944. Two of Ernie Haars crewmen (Crew 912) filled in for some of the sick guys on Crew 905 that day and were killed. Many years later, Haar wrote to Linn asking for more details of his lost men. With permission, the following is a portion of Linns return letter written to Haar on 6 September 1994. We excluded the personal chit-chat between the two friends thus leaving the portion about Linns war experience. September 6, 1994 Dear Ernest, Now to get to the business at hand. On May 19, 1944, we had three crew members who were unable to fly because of illness or injury, so consequently three replacements on board. On that mission we carried 52 - 100 lb incindiary bombs. I changed off between the upper turret and the left waist gun, fortunately on that mission I was at the left waist gun. We had begun our bomb run so our nose turret was empty. Jack Rosey, our bombardier, was at the bomb sight. Our P-51 escort had left to go back to England and the P-38s had not arrived to pick us up. It was then we noticed a squadron of German FW 190s off to the left of our formation flying out of machine gun range. They then went around to the front of our formation and attacked from 12:00 oclock high. The only one that could get a good shot at them was our upper turret and he did not fire a burst and I dont know why. A B-24 off our left wing went down, I watched and never saw anyone jump out but later three men from that crew turned up in prison camp. I believe that was Capt. Jaques Crew. Although Im not sure. I fired one burst from the waist gun but they passed so fast a chance of hitting was slim, plus you had to be careful of the other bombers in the formation. Everyone checked in after the pass and were okay. The German figthers again went around to the front of our formation and again came through from 12:00 oclock high. This time however, we could hear we were getting hit by bullets. None of our crew was hit by bullets. Then No. 3 engine burst into flames and the flame was streaming by the right waist opposite my position. Brantley and Maggee were working trying to shut it down and get the fire out. That is when I noticed a thin stream of smoke coming out of the leading edge of the left wing and was coming back over the wing. I called Brantley and told him what was going on. He looked but said he could not see anything. Moments later the fire started coming out of the left wing just above the bombay. I again called Brantley and told him what was happening. He wanted to know if I could get at the fire with a fire extinguisher. I told him it was impossible because it was in the wing. We were flying at 21,000 feet that day. Very soon it became hot as an oven back there because fire was coming back like a blow torch. I called Brantley and said we had to get out of here and I was going because it was so hot and I felt it might explode. With that I snapped on my chest chute, pulled off my intercom, unplugged my electric flying suit, took off my oxygen mask, opened the camera hatch and dived out. When I left, Foster was still down in the ball turret! I was out first. Glasgow, the other waist gunner followed and then Williams, the tail gunner was next. He seemed to think Foster had already bailed out but I dont think so. Anyway, Williams said as soon as he bailed out our bomber exploded and the other six or seven were still in the plane. It was first Glasgow, Williams and I, that after interrogation at Frankfort, would (end) up at Luft IV in Pomerania about 100 miles northeast of Berlin. We were packed in a box car for four days with each a loaf of that sour German bread. We got in on that death march that started on Feb. 6, 1945, sleeping in barns and fields. We lost 25% of our group of 2,000 men from dysentary and other things. They got so weak they had to drop out. The Germans said they took them to a hospital, sometimes we heard shots back there, anyway we never saw them again! A man by the name of Russell Ives near our base in England at North Pickenham has been writing me. He has done much research on the 492nd and has testimonials from several German women where our bomber came down in pieces in their pasture and they talk about the dead airmen, some outside the plane and some still in part of the fuselage. This they said was on May 19, 1944 and they said it exploded up there and then came down in several pieces. The bodies of all 7 that was killed in our plane that day have been brought back to the National Cemetary at Lexington, Kentucky. Next time we are close to Lexington, I plan on stopping to see my close friends that are there. If you have any questions please write. Best Regards, Howard A. Dana Linn Bailey
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 01:15:45 +0000