06 Mar Liberty Lady Day 2014

Liberty Lady B-17 on March 6, 1944 as it burned in a farmer’s field on the island of Gotland, Sweden

Seventy years ago today, March 6, 1944, the B-17 Liberty Lady force-landed on the Swedish island of Gotland just hours after the first large scale daylight raid on the city of Berlin. After the plane was so damaged that the crew knew they would never make it back to the airfield at Thurleigh, the pilots flew into a heavy cloud cover and headed north. When they landed they assumed they were in a German-occupied country. All they knew for sure was that they were still alive and that their Lady would never fly again. My Dad was Herman F. Allen, the bombardier. The crew, of course, was in neutral Sweden. The airmen were interned for several months up to over a year before returning either back to the 8th Air Force and combat duty or over to the States.

As for Herman, he embarked on what would become his finest adventure.

Herman writing poetry at his computer, @2010

Up until the final few months of his life in 2011, Herman worked at his computer. He wrote letters, composed poetry, and sent out emails. Until just a couple years before that he was actually doing the newsletter for one of his military organizations.

On March 6th one year he sent out an email to the family message board:  “It’s Liberty Lady Day!”

I knew we were in trouble the day I arrived at Herman’s Assisted Living home in Columbia, SC. and saw that he had cut the electric cords to his computer and his monitor and carried them outside to the hall.  He just couldn’t figure out what keys to push.

Within a couple weeks we moved Daddy to the Memory Care Unit and without his lifeline, his computer, he was with us just a few months more.

So Herman … here’s to Liberty Lady Day!

One more time.

Related posts:
Target Berlin
B-17 over Hemse
On the Ground

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