Planes I Flew In

The 486th led the 3rd Division on this mission, and we were the first ones over the target. That's good -- because the flak was not very accurate... yet. We had no losses today. The end is in sight for me and I'm really sweating it out.

"The Fertile Turtle" flew a total of 61 combat missions -- from August 1 to February 27, 1945 -- the records report it as, "shot down".

A footnote: In Dick Wood's book about our Group, he brought out something I was not aware of at the time. He wrote that another "strange" B 1 7 approached our lower formation of planes and that there was an exchange of fire. Someone in the formation called to our escort of fighters and five of them quickly arrived and "herded the mysterious B17 away from the formation". His book is loaded with interesting stories.

B 17: #968 "Superstitous Aloysius"

October 25, 1944

I wasn't scheduled to fly today and for some reason, I went to the briefing with Fred and Joe this morning. We "sweated" each other out when we didn't fly on the same mission. As I said earlier, even though we were not on the same crew -- we continued to live in the same hut.

It turned out that I ended up flying as a "spare" with Belanger's crew because his bombardier didn't show up at the briefing this morning. I volunteered to fly the mission in his place (which is a "no-no"). I was afraid to say, "Yes", but I wanted to keep up with Fred -- and he's leading this one.

An oil refinery plant in Hamburg, Germany was our target today. On the way to the target they sent up a huge flak barrage, but most of it was to our left and we managed to sneak through. No enemy planes were sighted. All planes returned safely.

This mission turned out to be quite an unusual one for me. What follows is what I learned after we landed:

Just before take off, a non-crewmember boarded a plane, carrying a carbine and knapsack. The waist gunner called up to the pilot and informed him what took place - and once airborne, the pilot contacted the tower and was told to continue with the mission if he had a spare heated suit, oxygen mask, parachute, and helmet on board. Which they did. It was a wise decision to carry these items... "just in case".

After they returned to the base, the crew reported that the stowaway (Flaherty) was no trouble and acted perfectly normal. He appeared very interested in everything taking place, as he, "always wanted to go on a combat mission". While flying over the North Sea on our return home, Flaherty walked back to the rear, wearing an oxygen walk-around bottle -- but no chute. He then forced open the small door hatch and stepped out into space. To certain death.

There was a lot of speculation as to his decision. We'll never know the full story - but one of the conclusions was that he decided to commit suicide, rather than to return home for a possible court martial. Another was a story that he had earlier told someone about intending to bailout over Germany and joining the ground forces to fight the Germans. It was a topic of conversation for quite awhile.

As for "Superstitious Aloysius": it flew a total of 42 combat missions -- from August 4 to January 8, 1945. The records shows, FL, "forced landing".

A footnote to the above: We all like "Happy Endings" to our stories. Well, I can come up with one, to mine. I not only finished my combat tour in, " one piece" -- but Fred Towne, my original pilot, completed his tour a few days later. As luck would have it -- we were on the same orders sending us back to the States -- along with our old crew, with the exception of Bernie Fishel, who finished his tour a little earlier. We were one happy bunch. For us, the "shooting war" was over.

That's about it --- "over and out".

John Albanese, 833rd Bomb/Nav

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