Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty

By Wesley Carrington Greayer

493^rd Bomb Group,

Tail Gunner on Edward Glotfelty's Crew

Author: The Tornado Struck at Midnight (ISBN 1-59129-729-x)

On 22 May 1944 fifty B-24 bombers landed at the new 493rd airbase near Debach in the English countryside. The addition of the 493rd bomb group completed the buildup of the heavy bomber wing of the Eighth Air Corps in Britain. Comprised of forty-one Flying-Fortress groups (B-17s) and twelve Liberator groups (B24s), each heavy bomber group consisted of fifty aircraft. To man these aircraft there were one hundred and fifty ten-man crews. The men of other disciplines necessary to staff and administer a combat airbase brought the total personnel per Bomb Group to about three-thousand men.

The airbase had over a month of construction and checkout of facilities remaining before it would be operational. Crew training was not yet complete so they would be busy with additional training to familiarize them with the English countryside, location of emergency landing strips and myriads of other subtle details while the base was being completed. They expected to face their first mission in mid July of 1944. This was it. They were on the threshold of combat.

The 493^rd flying personnel were divided into four squadrons, the 860th, 861st, 862nd, and 863rd Heavy Bombardment Squadrons. The men were housed in Quonset huts, with Officers huts on one side of the compound and enlisted men on the other, with two crews to a hut. Officers huts housed Pilots, Co-pilots, Bombardiers, and navigators. Enlisted mens huts housed Engineers, Radio operators, Ball gunners, Nose gunners, Tail gunners, and waist gunners. (There was a tiny wood burning stove in the center of each Quonset hut which provided feeble heat, at best. Wes Greayer converted it to an oil burning stove in using waste oil from the flight line as fuel. This fuel made the stove and flue glow bright red from the base to the point where the chimney exited the ceiling. In Jig time, engineers from headquarters were down inspecting the contrivance, but even before they arrived, every Quonset hut on the base had a carbon copy installed and it was a wonderful use for waste oil.)

At three AM on the morning of 6 June, 1944, a messenger burst into our Quonset hut with a bullhorn, rudely awakening everyone from their blissful slumber. He announced that one crew in our hut was to report for a 'mission briefing'. Chaos ensued as the entire barracks erupted in a chorus of questions .

"Mission, what mission?"

" The base won't be operational for another month!"

"We just got here!"

"Crew training isn't complete!"

"Crews are supposed to be put on 'alert' the night before a mission?"

"Harry's still in Debach. He never got back from his hot date, last night."

Blah, blah, blah. The messenger simply shrugged, repeated his message, and he dashed to the next barracks. Ten minutes later a six wheeler picked the sleepy crewmen up and ferried them to the briefing room where they met their officers and members of the other 35 crews who were scheduled to fly their first mission on that day.

At the morning briefing the crews were told the Allies were invading Europe! This was D-day!

"Training is over."

"But, how will the ships assemble?"

"No bunchier-beacons have been installed!"

"In a sky full of 2000 bombers, how will we find our lead ship?"

Not to worry. Never mind there are no bunchier-beacons to help bombers assemble; the 36 bombers will simply cruise around until they find ships with the same tail markings; no prob.

"But, what about bombs?

"The ground crews haven't had time to load any bombs."

Wrong again. This isn't a bombing mission. Their B-24 heavy bombers, designed for precision bombing from high altitude would cruise around at low altitude looking for 'targets-of- opportunity' in support of the invasion troops charging ashore on the beaches of Normandy.

"Targets-of- opportunity?"

"You mean use our machine guns to strafe German ground troops?"

Uh-huh.

Easier said than done. After takeoff, the gunners, bombardiers, and radio-operators dispersed to their combat stations to provide several vantage points to search for bombers with their group's tail markings. Not an easy task. After a half-hour of useless milling around, headquarters called the mission back. All bombers returned to base with their 500 pound general-purpose bomb load still safely aboard . . . except two. With every man aboard concentrating on finding other ships in their group, these two missed the recall and headed for Normandy on their own.

While over Normandy, concentrating on finding targets of opportunity, these two B-24 bombers collided in mid-air. One ship broke in half, at the waist, dumping out the waist gunners. The gunners were not wearing their chutes. As the crippled ships spiraled down, a few other crew-members managed to jump but the aircraft were too low. Their chutes didn't have enough time to open. All twenty men plummeted to their deaths. The 493^rd had lost two aircraft and twenty men on a non-mission. Chances of other crews surviving the thirty-five mission tour looked bleak.