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| James W. Taylor's WWII Experiences |
| Donor | Original Source | PIMA ID | Donor ID | Category |
| Richard P. Ellinger | James W. Taylor | NA | RPE-44087 | OCR-DA-P |
| While I was there at Le Harve, There was a fellow there who, seeing that I sported a set of wings came over and said, " I have a picture of a wrecked airplane. " He rummaged through his gear and pulled out some photos. He handed a couple to me and I received the shock of my life. Here was our beloved Mary Ann with her nose buried in the dirt. Her props mangled and bent. the tail up in the air. After recovering from the initial shock I saidl "This was the plane that I flew on for a majority of my missions --- It was identified as KgX." He said "you can have those prints, I still have the negatives." What a coincidence. That kind of thing only happens in the movies but more than 50 years later there was even a greater surprise when the Mary Ann showed up again, that time in full color as the January selection on a calendar entitled "Vintage Aircraft Nose Art". Now there rested Mary Ann or My Jen as Barney wished to have her named. She had been a good ship, a protective friend, a survivor of more than 100 missions and we her last real friends grieve her ignoble retirement.
We were notified that surface transportation had arrived and we were to pack up for departure. We got there and saw that it was not the Queen Mary or anything of that class. We were to board a little Liberty ship built by Kaiser Aluminum .It had a royal name however, it was the "Aqua Prince". It was small and equally as crowded as the Queen Mary had been for our trip into the war zone. Out in mid Atlantic, we encountered a heavy storm and very rough seas. Again there was wholesale sea sickness. That was not too much of a surprise as first the front of the ship would come out of the water,and W87-89 P.87 |
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