- Member since
November 2005
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Tracked down a crewman that flew B26 Marauder with my son's great-grandfather...in his own words...
Posted by Anonymous
on Thursday, July 28, 2005 5:27 AM
It's this sort of thing that really gets me excited about recreating a piece of history through the kits. Thought the aircraft forum would enjoy reading this man's recollections about his old job as a Marauder crewman... Here's some stuff pasted in as he wrote it...
Yes this is the b26 I did 67 missions in and 2lt tavener [rds1's family member] was my co pilot,
He smoked a cigar after every mission and we could smell the cigar smoke in the tail of the b26, when he light up we would call him over our intercome and tell him we smelled the smoke,
You are the only one I have heard of my crew since I last seen them in 1945, when I left england to come home.
Have you been in touch with any of the other crew members
I am 82 years old and have some difficulties, I played golf until about three months ago when my right knee gave out and I,me having a new knee put in the 23 of this month and then I hope i can play golf again.
Thank you so much for contacting me
NEXT EMAIL
I received your e-mail and was glad to receive the picture,I have been looking for this picture, I had many pictures of the crew and of the d-day invasion but in my many moves they have been displaced and left.. I had pictures of the waves of men going in to Normady beach, which happened 61 years ago this month,
2nd Lt Tavener was a fine man and co-pilot and he stayed so he could become a pilot of the b-26, I think all the rest of the crew came home, I,me sorry to hear his plane and part of his crew didnt make it home,
I was rotated home before the squadron moved to France, I was on one trip to move to France but then was sent home.
I,me on the right end of the crew, the one next to me is the tail gunner, and I cant put a name to him but we made a lot of trips into London on our R-and-R week ends, Had a lot of fun and enjoyment, and it was an enjoyment to get relife from the missions we did, I dont regret any thing I had to do over there, because it was necessary...
After I came home from England I had a couple of weeks of R and R and then I was sent to Floriday to fly in B24 ND b17 Trining Navigators and Bombiders. for abour 1yr or until the treaty was signed .
The navigator bombidier was wounded on one of our missions and he was the only one wonded a piece of shrapnel came through the plexiglas nose and hit him on the right arm. not really serious but was a lot of blood,, I dont know his name and I dont know whether he moved to France or came hom On one of our missions one of our 500 lb bombs didnt drop so on the way home there was a railroad track that he saw and wonted to drop the bomb on this railroad track, so the pilot gave him the go-ahead , he dropped the bomb and he hit the trach right in the middle, we cheered him because of his accracy an the cutting (we thought the Germane life line) of the railroad, but when we returned to the base and went to our debreefing as we had after our every mission, We were informed that was the underground s railroad and we had disrupte their life line, and thsy had a great life line as we found out,
All of our missioms were at around 12000 ft because we didnt have any oxygen and we couldnt go anyhigher as that was about the limit before you needed oxygen, Anu after the invasion they ordered us to go in on a low level bombing and straffing missions to help the ground crews. and on this raid we had one of our planes hit with anticraft and all the crew had to bail out which we wattched and counted the parashutes and knew all had gotten out safely. Four days later all the crew bit one was back at home thanks to the under groung. The other one was seperated from the other crew members, We had been told if we were shot down to head to Switcherland, So he found him self a biycle and headed for there, but 2 weeks later he was bach at home in England, The French underground was very effeciant in taking care of th troops that were shot down, and there was many the flew in the b-24 and b 17 shot down, we had stood it the parking are in England and watch these planes comming home after a bomb run over France and Germany and they would have only 2 motors flying about 500 ft have holes in the wings 5 ft long 2-3 ft wide, talk about comming home with a wing and a prayer they were doing that, There is a book out telling about the planes and the pilots and crews that is really interesting, I had a brother in law that flew one of the b-24 name Don Gamble nd he was mentioned several times.
We came in a lot of times with 35 50 holes in our plane bu t was lucky just the one casulty.
I was the waist gunner when we were over hostile country, I had 2--- 50 caliber machine guns one our of each side of the plane hehind the wings, the tail gunner was in the tail in a tourett with 2 50 calliber machinbe guns and the amunition track ran right beside my head, of cource I had a steel heklmet on and a flak suit on and you could just see my eyes from the steel helmet. but any way that day we had a lot of flack comming at us, we took evasive action, that is the pilot wouldnt fly in the same direction all fo the time he would chang
direction a few degrees, and I could look out my windows and see the bombs bursting wehere we would of been it he hadent taken evasice action, When we arrive back at our base i FOUND THAT A PIECE OF SHAPERERNAL HAD CANE THROUGH THE PLANE AND NEARLY THROUGH THE AMUNITION TRACH NEXT TO MY HEAD SO IT WAS PRETTY CLOSE.
One of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen, on our way home over the English channel and the White clifs of Dover there was a rain cloud out the side of my window and ther e was the most beautiful rainbow wirh 2 reflecions complete around.
Thank you for sendinging the picture, and I,me sorry i cant put aname to the bombidere and the tail gunner maby some day it wiil come to me
I have 4 children 14 grand vhilren and 14 great grand chidren all living
ADVICE--DONT GET OLD IT ISNT FUN AND i HAVENT FOUND THE GOLDEN YEARS AS YET BUT I ENJOY LIFE,
MY WIFE SELLS REALESTATE AND ENJOYD IT MOST OF THE TIME, SHE IS 77 AND iME 82
TALK LATER
rds1
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