09 Dec The Bombardier Brothers
from the wartime scrapbook of Herman F. Allen
A book published in the United States in 1943 was titled Skyways to Berlin: With the American Flyers in England. Written by two newsmen who were there practically from the beginning of the war, it was the story of the First Combat Wing of the Eighth Air Force.
My Dad, Herman Allen, had already been to bombardier training at Victorville Army Flying School and had taken advanced navigational classes in Carlsbad, New Mexico. I’m sure he didn’t have time to read this book, but I’ll bet that he and every other bombardier-in-training heard about the bombardier brothers, Jack and Mark Mathis.
The Mathis boys were from Texas. Jack, the elder, was assigned to the 303rd Bombardment Group at Molesworth, located less than twenty miles north of Thurleigh, the base where Herman’s crew would be assigned to in November. Mark, who had also been trained as a bombardier, had just arrived in England. He came for a reunion with his big brother to celebrate a bit and to see for himself what being on a combat crew was all about.
By now Jack was his squadron’s lead bombardier. That meant his job was to pinpoint the target so all the planes following his in the formation could follow suit and bomb accurately. On March 18, 1943, while his brother waited for him on base, Jack’s B-17 The Duchess took off for a mission against German submarine yards at Vegesack.
Nearing the target, Jack was over his Norden bombsight making final preparations when a piece of flak tore into the nose of the plane and knocked him backward. The young man’s right arm was shattered, and his right side was filled with shrapnel, but somehow he made it back to his bombsight and released his bombs. Moments later he was dead. The squadron scored a perfect strike.
When The Duchess returned to base, his waiting brother, of course, was distraught. He begged to be transferred to the 303rd, which he was. On May 14th, not even two months after the death of his brother, Mark Mathis’s B-17 was shot up by enemy fighters. Some crew members bailed out, but Mark stayed at his post in the nose as the bomber plunged into the North Sea.
The Medal of Honor for Jack was presented to his mother on July 13, 1943. She had lost them both.
In Skyways to Berlin were the names of the brothers but there was no mention of exactly when or where this took place. Nor were those details in the article in Life Magazine that came out on November 30th.
We can never thank our veterans enough.
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