The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-1945 (32 page)

15.     McGovern to Pennington, August 25, 1944, Dakota Wesleyan Library.

16.     Shostack interview with Hugh Ambrose, Eisenhower Center.

17.     Pepin memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

18.     Kay memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

19.     Reynolds, Belle of the Brawl, 24-33.

20.     Barmore memoir, Eisenhower Center.

21.     Hammer, Small Tales, 11.

22.     Childers, Wings of Morning, 15-20.

23.     Ibid., 21-27.

24.     McGovern, Grassroots, 23.

25.     Anson, McGovern, 40.

26.     McGovern, Grassroots, 24.

27.     Lembke, “McGovern’s War Years,” Oct. 10, 1972.

28.     Ibid.

29.     McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

30.     Lembke, “McGovern’s War Years,” Oct. 10, 1972; Michael S. Sherry, The Rise of American Air Power: The Creation of Armageddon, 205.

31.     Lembke, “McGovern’s War Years,” Oct. 10, 1972; Tom Zito, “George McGovern and His Flight Crew, “The Washington Post, Nov. 23, 1970; McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center; Anson, McGovern, 40-41.

32.     Sherry, The Rise of American Air Power, 215-16.

33.     McGovern to Pennington, July 29, 1944, Dakota Wesleyan Library.

34.     McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

35.     Shostack interview, Eisenhower Center.

CHAPTER FOUR. THE FIFTEENTH AIR FORCE

1.       Both quotations are from Sherry, The Rise of American Air Power, 8-10.

2.       Ibid., 24.

3.       Ibid., 23-24.

4.       Ibid., 15.

5.       Ibid., 40-41.

6.       Ibid., 124.

7.       Ibid., 135.

8.       Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate, eds., The Army Air Forces in World War

II, Vol. 2,Europe: Torch to Pointblank, August 1942 to December 1943, ix.

9.       Ibid., xii.

10.     Sherry, The Rise of American Air Power, 206.

11.     Ibid., 207.

12.     Ibid., 212.

13.     Craven and Cate, Europe: Torch to Pointblank, 477.

14.     Ibid., 440.

15.     Ibid., 477-84; McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

16.     Craven and Cate, Europe: Torch to Pointblank, Chapters 16 and 21.

17.     Peter J. Unitt, “Fifteenth Air Force in World War II, “Friends Journal 17, No. 4 (Winter 1994), p. 4.

18.     Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate, eds., The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 3,Europe: Argument to V-E Day, January 1944 to May 1945, 280-87.

19.     Ibid., 298; Alfred Asch, Hugh Graff, and Thomas Ramey,The Story of the Four Hundred and Fifty-fifth Bombardment Group (H) World War II: Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 109-10.

20.     Craven and Cate, Europe: Argument to V-E Day, 303.

21.     Ibid., 305.

22.     Ibid., 304-5.

23.     Ibid., 303.

24.     Aronowitz, Maternity Ward, 90.

25.     Ibid., 307.

26.     Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 48.

27.     Ibid., 56.

28.     Ibid., 96-97.

29.     Currier,50 Mission Crush, xii.

CHAPTER FIVE. CERIGNOLA, ITALY

1.       McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

2.       Pepin memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

3.       Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 31.

4.       McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

5.       Capps, Flying Colt, 42.

6.       Ibid., 19-20.

7.       Horace Lanford interview with Hugh Ambrose, Eisenhower Center.

8.       Ibid.

9.       Hammer, Small Tales, 14-15.

10.     Capps, Flying Colt, 47.

11.     Daryl Lembke, “McGovern’s War Years, “The Daily Democrat, Woodland, Calif., Oct. 11, 1972.

12.     McGovern, Grassroots, 24-25.

13.     Donald Kay memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

14.     Pepin memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

15.     Eisenhower interview, Eisenhower Center; Asch et al.,Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 40.

16.     Smith, Wouldn’t Change a Thing, 86.

17.     Shostack interview, Eisenhower Center.

18.     Higgins interview, Eisenhower Center.

19.     Currier,50 Mission Crush, 84.

20.     Ibid., 82.

21.     Pepin memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

22.     Sgarro Ruggiero interview, Eisenhower Center.

23.     Ray Zinck, The Final Flight of Maggie’s Drawers, 10.

24.     Anthony Picardi memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

25.     Francesco Musto interview with Hugh and Stephen Ambrose; Michele Bancole interview with Hugh and Stephen Ambrose, Eisenhower Center.

26.     Gionanna Pistachio Colucci interview, Eisenhower Center.

27.     Bancole interview, Eisenhower Center.

28.     Mario Carpocefala interview with Hugh and Stephen Ambrose, Eisenhower Center. Mario continued to work at the air base through the war. Later he corresponded with some of the officers and made a trip to the United States to visit with them. A half century after the war he became the mayor of Cerignola.

29.     Musto interview, Eisenhower Center.

30.     McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

31.     Capps, Flying Colt, 22, 46.

32.     Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 188-89.

33.     Higgins interview, Eisenhower Center.

34.     Phillips letter, Briefing: Journal of the International B-24 Liberator Club 63, Winter 1997.

35.     Walter Shostack memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

36.     Mel TenHaken, Bail-Out! POW, 1944-1945, 29.

37.     Ibid., 30-31.

38.     Shostack memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

39.     McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

CHAPTER SIX. LEARNING TO FLY IN COMBAT

1.       This description is based on all the interviews with the men of the AAF, now in the Eisenhower Center, most of all the McGovern interview. Other sources

include Smith, Wouldn’t Change a Thing, 90-91; TenHaken, Bail-Out!, 31; Currier,50

Mission Crush, 63; Zinck, The Final Flight of Maggie’s Drawers, 50-51; Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 4.

2.       Smith, Wouldn’t Change a Thing, 91-92.

3.       John Lindquist interview, Eisenhower Center.

4.       McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center. Some pilots insisted that the members of their crew did at least some flying so that in the event of an emergency they could bring the plane home.

5.       Ibid.

6.       Vincent F. Fagan, Liberator Pilot: The Cottontails’ Battle for Oil, 33.

7.       Smith, Wouldn’t Change a Thing, 93.

8.       Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 143-44.

9.       Ibid., 94.

10.     Aronowitz, Maternity Ward, 59.

11.     McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

12.     Robert Reichard memoirs, online at the 456th Bomb Group website, http:// www.456thbombgroup.Org/reichard/flak.html.

13.     Fagan, Liberator Pilot, 95.

14.     J. I. Merritt, Goodbye, Liberty Belle: A Son’s Search for His Father’s War, 32-35; Art Johnson memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

15.     Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 129-30; McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center; Glenn Rendahl memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

16.     Pepin memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

17.     Hammer, Small Tales, 17-18.

18.     Childers, Wings of Morning, 82-91.

19.     Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 129-30.

20.     Daryl Lembke, “McGovern’s War Years, “The Daily Democrat, Woodland, Calif., Oct. 13, 1972.

21.     TenHaken, Bail-Out!, 33-37.

22.     The Eisenhower Center has different versions of this poem.

23.     Currier,50 Mission Crush, 65.

24.     Kay memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

25.     Picardi memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

26.     McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

CHAPTER SEVEN. DECEMBER 1944

1.       McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

2.       Ibid.

3.       Henry Burkle interview with Hugh Ambrose, Eisenhower Center.

4.       Fagan, Liberator Pilot, 12.

5.       McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

6.       Fagan, Liberator Pilot, 13.

7.       McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

8.       Hughes, A Bomber Pilot in World War, 65.

9.       Eddie Picardo, T ales of a Tail Gunner: A Memoir, 155.

10.     Hughes, A Bomber Pilot in World War II, 59.

11.     McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

12.     Ibid.

13.     Currier,50 Mission Crush, 69-70.

14.     William McAfee interview with Hugh Ambrose, Eisenhower Center.

15.     McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

16.     Ibid.

17.     Henry Paris memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

18.     Daryl Lembke, “McGovern’s War Years, “The Daily Democrat, Woodland, Calif., Oct. 12, 1972.

19.     McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

20.     Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 132.

21.     McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

22.     Lembke, “McGovern’s War Years,” Oct. 12, 1972.

23.     Anson, McGovern, 44.

24.     Edi Selhaus, Evasion and Repatriation: Slovine Partisans and the Rescued American Airmen in World War II, 187.

25.     Ibid.

26.     McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center; Lembke, “McGovern’s War Years,” Oct.

12, 1972.

27.     McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

28.     Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 132.

CHAPTER EIGHT. THE ISLE OF CAPRI

1.       Daryl Lembke, “McGovern War Years, “The Daily Democrat, Woodland, Calif., Oct.

1, 1972.

2.       Ashlock interview with Hugh Ambrose, Eisenhower Center.

3.       McGovern, Grassroots, 25.

4.       Anson, McGovern, 46.

5.       Victor McWilliams interview with Hugh Ambrose, Eisenhower Center.

6.       Francis G. Hosimer memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

7.       Stephen E. Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect,

267.

8.       Pepin interview, Eisenhower Center.

9.       Higgins interview, Eisenhower Center.

10.     Ted Withington, Flight to Black Hammer: The Letters of a World War II Pilot, 87.

11.     Hammer, Small Tales, 15.

12.     Daryl Lembke, “McGovern’s War Years,” Oct. 1, 1972.

13.     McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

14.     Ibid.

15.     Pepin interview, Eisenhower Center.

16.     Anson, McGovern, 43.

17.     Ibid.,47-48.

18.     Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 134.

CHAPTER NINE. THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN FLY COVER: FEBRUARY 1945

1.       Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 135.

2.       Ibid., 140-41.

3.       Craven and Cate, Europe: Argument to V-E Day, 783.

4.       Rendahl memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

5.       Ibid.

6.       Pepin memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

7.       John B. Holway, Red Tails, Black Wings: The Men of America’s Black Air Force, 186-87, 197.

8.       Lembke, “McGovern’s War Years,” Oct. 1, 1972.

9.       Higgins interview, Eisenhower Center.

10.     Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 141-42.

11.     Cooper interview, Eisenhower Center.

12.     Cooper to Prendergast, Feb. 19, 1945, Eisenhower Center.

13.     Cooper interview, Eisenhower Center.

14.     Hammer, Small Tales, 18.

15.     Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 137.

16.     Hammer, Small Tales, 18-19.

17.     Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 145-48.

18.     Reprinted in Horace Lanford,741st Bomb Sq. History, privately printed, Vol.

1, 25-26.

19.     Asch et al.,Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 138.

CHAPTER TEN. MISSIONS OVER AUSTRIA: MARCH 1945

1.       McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

2.       McAfee interview, Eisenhower Center.

3.       McGovern, Grassroots, 28.

4.       Cooper’s letter is in the Eisenhower Center.

5.       McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

6.       Edgar D. Hoagland, The Sea Hawks: With the PT Boats at War, 3-4.

7.       McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

8.       Art Applin memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

9.       McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

10.     Higgins interview, Eisenhower Center.

11.     McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

12.     Pepin memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

13.     Cooper interview, Eisenhower Center.

14.     McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

15.     Cooper interview, Eisenhower Center.

16.     Cooper’s letters are in the Eisenhower Center.

17.     Ibid.

18.     Ibid.

19.     Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 153.

CHAPTER ELEVEN. LINZ: THE LAST MISSION: APRIL 1945

1.       McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

2.       Ibid.; Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 158.

3.       Ashlock interview, Eisenhower Center.

4.       McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

5.       Cooper interview, Eisenhower Center.

6.       McGovern, Cooper, Higgins, and McAfee interviews, Eisenhower Center.

7.       Cooper’s letter is in the Eisenhower Center.

8.       Asch et al., Flight of the Vulgar Vultures, 160.

9.       Ibid., 159.

10.     Higgins interview, Eisenhower Center.

11.     Applin memoirs, Eisenhower Center.

12.     Craven and Cate, Europe: Argument to V-E Day, 792.

13.     Ibid., 796-97.

EPILOGUE

1.       McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

2.       Cooper interview, Eisenhower Center.

3.       McGovern interview, Eisenhower Center.

4.       McGovern to Pennington, May 30, 1945, Dakota Wesleyan Library.

5.       Higgins interview, Eisenhower Center.

6.       Cooper’s letters are in the Eisenhower Center.

7.       Ed Soderstrom interview with Hugh Ambrose, Eisenhower Center.