24 Apr Russian Roulette
In 2016, I wrote about indexing names from the 306th Bomb Groups Missing Air Crew Reports (MACRs.)
Now I’ve moved on to the 306th crew photos. Each is labeled with the names and positions of each crew member. Volunteers are indexing the names into an excel spreadsheet so that future historians and family members can search.
Going through each MACR was emotional, but looking at the faces of these young men is even more so. In some, I think “How proud they are of their uniforms.” In others, they look like they’ve already experienced the terrors of flying through flak and enemy fighters.
Each crew member has a file card which records if he died while in service. Missions into enemy territory … mid-air collisions … crashes at take-off. It’s a relief if they were taken POW.
A U.S. Army Air Forces Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress flying through flak over a target.
In 2012, my son Johnny and I attended a reunion of the 306th Bomb Group Historical Association, held in Savannah that year. Johnny remembers sitting next to a veteran who described his experiences as a lead pilot in the big B-17 formations. He stressed how arbitrary it was who lived and who died … There were some decisions you could make that would give your crew a better chance of survival, but there was no decision you could make that would guarantee your survival. Particularly in terms of flak, he said once you were committed to your course, there was no way to navigate around a flak burst. If it was your time it was your time. He said it was like playing Russian roulette.
One set of pictures hit me hard. On New Year’s Day 1945, during a mission into Germany, the weather was the big problem. Coming home, 12 B-17s broke apart in cloud formations over the North Sea. When they tried to reform again, there were only 11. The plane of 1st Lt. Robert D. Stewart, a veteran of more than 25 missions, was never seen again. No one in the other crews was able to report on the condition of his plane. It went down in the North Sea and nine men drowned. 3:30 pm on 1 January 1945.
All I could think of was the scene in the movie Unbroken when the bomber ditched at sea. How terrifying it was. How easy it would have been for my father’s B-17, the Liberty Lady, to have suffered the same fate. A crap shoot. Russian roulette.
I wonder if I am the last person who might record their names.
1st Lt. Robert D. Stewart, pilot
2nd Lt. Kenneth H. Streun, copilot
2nd Lt. Lewis L. Wilson, navigator
T/Sgt. Louis J. Peterson, togglier (bombardier)
T/Sgt. Anthony R. Cecere, engineer
T/Sgt. Gilbert A. Maple, radio
S/Sgt. William J. McCue, ball turret gunner
S/Sgt. Donald F. Bohrer, waist gunner
S/Sgt. Roy L. Chancellor, tail gunner
In Stewart’s hometown of South Milwaukee, WI, the VFW post was named after him. He was one of six brothers in service during WWII. In 1991, his mother at 93 years of age was still active in the VFW post. We can never thank our veterans and their families enough.
Source: First Over Germany: A History of the 306th Bombardment Group by Russell A. Strong
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