Personal accounts are the most fascinating and enlightening things from which one can learn about the past. Only so much can be obtained from a textbook; personal accounts breathe life into history. This is a true story. The Life of a Radio Operator of a B-17 in the 8^th Air Force.

Homer D. Gager was born on September 10, 1922 in Bristol Connecticut. He went to Linden Institute in Vermont. From Linden he attended Northeastern University. In his first year at Northeastern, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the United States entered into World War II. Only attending college for one year, Homer enlisted in the summer of 1942, with ambitions of going into the Air Force. He went to Radio School in Scottfield, Illinois. At the conclusion of Radio School, Homer was sent to Aerial Gunnery School in Laredo, Texas. Next he was sent to the Second Air Force Headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was here were he was placed into a bomber crew and the group began training together. They underwent three months of B-17 bomber training, spending one month in Moses Lake, Washington, and two months in Wallalla, Washington. When training was completed they were sent to Topeka, Kansas, where they underwent staging to go overseas.

Homer Gager and what would soon be the crew of the "Kentucky Colonel" departed from Nova Scotia on a gigantic, England-bound convoy. Three weeks later, they arrived in England. The crew was assigned to the 384^th Bomb Group, which was stationed in Grafton Underwood, near Northampton, England. In September of 1943 the "Kentucky Colonel" flew its first mission. They went on to complete twenty-five missions. They flew their final mission together on February 24, 1944 to Schwienfurt, Germany.

"I remember one mission we had to Duren, Germany that was a real scary one. We were up against some extremely bad weather. The bomb group had climbed up to 30,000 feet to get over the weather, when one of our engines misfired. Our plane couldn’t keep up with the formation, and we were forced to dive to get away from German fighters. We dove all the way until we were just above the ground. I had to get a QDM. A QDM is a fix sent out be 3 radio stations in England that can give me the exact number of degrees the plane is from where they are in England. I then gave the pilot and navigator the reciprocal of those figures, which would tell us how we could get back to them. We flew across the German countryside right down on the deck, avoiding German cities, which were loaded with antiaircraft guns. When we reached the German coast, we dumped our bomb load on some German buildings. I remember flying over some islands off the coast of Holland when we saw some German gunneries. We strafed them with our machine guns. When we were about one hundred miles from the airbase, two British spitfires escorted us to the base in England. This is my best example of the vital use of the radio during the war.

Not the mission to Duren, but our final mission to Schwienfurt was probably one of the most fearful. On October 14, 1943 we had been part of a bomb run to Schwienfurt. On that single mission, the 8^th Air Force lost more bombers than any other mission in the entire war. And now it was February, and we had one mission to go. When we found out it was to Schwienfurt we all were speechless. With only one mission left before we could go home, we had to go to Schwienfurt. Like any other mission we were woken up at 2:30 am. We got dressed and went to have breakfast. On the days that we had missions, the bomb crews always ate a good breakfast of fried eggs and bacon. At approximately 3:45 the officers went to briefing. This consisted of the Pilot, Co-Pilot, Navigator, Bombardier, and Radio-Operator of each crew. Briefing lasted about a half an hour, we were shown a huge map of Europe that had our route in to the target, and the route home. The map also showed all of the air bases, flack emplacements, and anti-aircraft bases that we would be encountering. Also during briefing we were given the "code of the day," which gave us the transmitter code that we would be using that day to protect ourselves from German interceptions. The "code of the day" and all other confidential flight information was given to us in what they call a "flimsy." If we were going down, we were to wad up the "flimsy" and put it in our mouths, because it was made to dissolve. We were also issued an escape kit with a map of the territory we would be flying over, a route to walk home, some rations, and money in the form of Franks, Marks, and other European currency. We would turn these kits back in upon our arrival home.

After briefing we would all load up on a truck and drive out to our plane. Our guns were stored in oil because they were made of solid steel. However, at high altitudes, the oil would jam up the gun and make them inoperable. So one of the first things we would do while out at the plane would be to gut our guns and dump them in a gasoline bath, so they wouldn’t freeze up in the air.

Between 6:30 and 7:00 am we would finally take off, one by one. When in the air, you had to get into formation. This took quite awhile, and you circulated until it was complete. You would first from a bomb group, which consisted of 20 planes. This group would have 3 squadrons- a high squadron of 7, a lead squadron of 6, and a low squadron of 7. Your group of 3 squadrons would then form into a combat wing with 2 other groups (60 planes total). While in this combat wing, you would form up with 2 other wings, to form the 1^st division. This division consisted of 3 combat wings of 60 planes for a total of 180 bombers. Behind us in the 1^st division would usually be a 2^nd division of B-24s and a 3^rd division of B-17s. Once we were in final formation we would fly over the North Sea and over the Dutch coast. It was here when the Nazi fighters would arrive. At the beginning we would have Allied P-47, Spitfire, and P-37 fighter escorts that would help us battle the initial fighters. But once we were about 100 miles from our base, the escorts had to return to England because they were low on fuel. We were left on our own to battle the German fighters all the way to and from our target.

On this particular mission to Schwientfurt, I remember heavy fighter opposition. The fighters would go up high above the formation and drop a sort of aerial mine on a cable. They would then detonate this mine, causing a tremendous explosion in the middle of our formation. Another trick of theirs was the rockets they had under their wings. They would fire these rockets dead into the middle of our formation.

When we would finally get to the target, we would enter what we call the IT, which was basically the initial approach. Here is when the flack from the city below would start. They would just throw the flack up into a box, making you fly through a maze of black puff. We would then turn into the final approach, which was always into the wind. On this mission, I can remember a strong headwind, which left us flying between 20 and 30 MPH ground speed. We were nearly suspended in a trap of Nazi flak. When we finally were over the target, the entire bomb group would drop its bombs. This mission, we were taking out an entire ball-bearings factory in Schwienfurt. After this, you would turn around and head for home. But you still had to battle Nazi fighters all of the way home. In many cases, you were out of ammunition. Here is where I saw so many lost planes, so many explosions, and so many deaths.

When we reached about 100 miles from our base, we would be greeted by more escorts to take us to safety. We would land one by one, which would take awhile. When we were on the ground we went to a de-briefing. Here we were given 2 shots of whisky to relax us and calm us down, but then we had to go over the entire mission, detail by detail by detail to be recorded. By this time it was 5:00 in the afternoon. We had been up at 2:30 am, taken off at 6:30 am, and we weren’t safely on the ground until almost 5:00 pm. Several times I can remember, we had to wake up the next day and do it all over again…"