IN THE BEGINNING the 21st Group 3rd Air Force, arrived at MacDill in early June of 1942, from Key Field, Meridian, Mississippi, where the B-25s were left on the field. MacDill was covered with new B-26B Marauders. Some of the senior pilots had been checked out by Martin Test Pilots, and each of the four squadrons had been blessed with a few mechanics who had just completed the Martin School in Baltimore, after having completing the air mechanics school at Keesler Field in Biloxi, Mississippi. Each became a crew chiefs, flight engineer or School Teachers. We were among the first to receive the Air Crew Badge ( "Wings"), for enlisted crew members, and most became senior NCOs in the eleven cadres that were formed in the next sixteen months.

From May 1942 until September 1943, the 21st Bomb Group activated eleven (11) Cadre Groups:

319th to North Africa and the 12th Air Force. The M T O.

320th to North Africa and the 12th Air Force. The M T O.

*321st to North Africa and the 12th Air Force. The M T O.
*Never Operational as a Group
Crews used as replacements for crews lost in transit and operational losses in 12th A F



322nd to England and the 8th Air Force, and to the 9th Air Force
in December of 1943. Andrews Field (Great Saling) E T O

323rd to England and the 8th Air Force, and to the 9th Air Force
in December 1943. Earls Colne Airfield. E T O

386th to England and the 8th Air Force, and to the 9th Air Force
in December 1943. Boxted Airfield and later moved to Great
Dunmow Airfield. E T O

387th to England and the 8th Air Force, and to the 9th Air Force
in December 1943. Chipping Onger Airfield, Chalmsford, Essex.

344 my assignment. My pilot was the squadron engineering officer. How many times did we take off with a runaway prop? I replaced many prop governors, to no avail, and until I defied regulations and cut the safety wire on the prop governor for a little shade-tree adjustment, which fixed the problem. Lt. Jewell C. Maxwell was to never know.

Being a crew chief was not a class act. I had no crew! I also was the flight engineer every time the plane was flown. That got to be rather regular too, when we began to get more qualified pilots. The days were very long at MacDill in the summer of 1942. We had morning flights. We had afternoon flights. We had evening flights.

If the status of your airplane was OK on the operations chart, reported from engineering, there would be a pilot and a training co-pilot assigned from operations. Operations sent out to the disbursal the pilot and co-pilot , but no engineer. This compelled the crew chief to either fly with this pilot or get a "hand-cuffed volunteer" from his crew, who was a qualified engineer. Since the crew chief was the engineer instructor, he was most often compelled to fly, and instruct along the way. Later in the summer of 1942 the squadron started receiving S/Sgts. from gunnery school to be trained by the ones of us who had had that training job in the first place. The irony of the program was that these new engineer gunners already outranked those of us who were maintaining the planes and were having to train these new guys as engineers. I had finally gotten a crew and we stayed busy with maintenance.

My plane was the first in the squadron to reach the logged hours required to undergo an engine change. I had been a private all of this time, but had been promoted by special order in mid August to sergeant, and to Staff/Sgt. on the first of September. I had gotten a ten day leave and returned to Texas, with my friend, S/Sgt. Bill Nevell, who was one of my first trainees.
(Bill, an engineer-gunner, was killed in the M T O in 1943.)

When I returned from my leave I was saddened to learn that my plane had crashed, killing the whole crew including my assistant crew chief , who was flying as engineer.

I was given an assignment to modify a B-26 that had been returned from Alaska.

We removed the turrets, all guns, as much armor as possible, every thing that we deemed
unnecessary for flight, installed R-2800-43 , 2000 HP engines speed props and fought off the pilots wanting to try their skills. The senior pilots got the test. It was a hell-of-a-cross-country plane. We did another from Alaska , and later, another, returned from Presque Isle, Maine. These were the hottest planes on the base. Meanwhile, I had gotten another stripe, and had been named chief inspector of the 315th Squadron. I still flew some but due to the nature of my new job, I was confined greatly to office work. I had to spend a great deal of my time coordinating test equipment records with the factory tech- reps and for the equipment suppliers, such as Martin, Pratt-Whitney, Curtis, Pure-A-Lator, Cuno and others. Every one was testing something, oils, fuels, tires, hoses, and the plane records had to be kept up to date for the hours of each test. As a result I got a secretary. He wasn’t pretty, but he was a big help, and he picked up my mail at mail call since we shared last name initials.

We never stopped forming cadres. The losses of planes and crews seemed to be declining, even though each one was a tragedy. Throughout the year, as 1943 wore on, we seemed to always be having little problems. The barracks were infested with "bed bugs", so we had our first experience with chemical warfare. The heat was intolerable in the barracks , so we modified the heating system fans to run in the summer for ventilation. This was of course contrary to regulations and we were reprimanded for it. This never made sense, still doesn’t after almost 60 years. Another complaint was from an eager C. O. of another squadron. We never knew what his motive was, other than to make himself known. He would reprimand the mechanics on the flight line for having their sleeves rolled up. Oh well, I guess it takes all kinds. Thank God, we had very few of that kind. I believe that he had just made captain. Hopefully he never made major! I had been on a flight from Ellington Field, Houston, when he was a passenger, and throughout the flight he quizzed me regarding my qualifications as flight engineer. I’m sure I had at least 1000 hours by then and had trained many flight engineers.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch!

In late July or early August, the 397th Bomb Group became a reality. We were informed that the 21st would be the next operational group after the 397th., but after the 397th was activated, the 21st was disbanded and it’s personnel were scattered to the four winds. Having being established in Tampa so long, this really cooled my social life, and having expected to go out with the 21st, my first assistant had been assigned to the 598th Squadron in the 397 Group, so I , was instead, bundled up and put on a slow boat (my first cruise) to Scotland. Snow and cold, after being acclimated to Florida. My only comfort was that the ship, just to the starboard, (a sailor term) was the Battleship Texas. Just like home! Eleven days after leaving the port of New York, we disembarked at Grenoch on the Firth of Clyde. After a week in Scotland and an all night train trip and a short truck ride I was installed in the 300 room castle, Keel Hall, near Stoke on Trent, with about one hundred other lost souls. Believe me, I drew a crowd at the local pubs with my Texas accent. It also snowed. How I wished for Florida!
After a few days, another train trip to Sawbridge-Worth, and a truck ride to Matching Green, arriving at night, and spending the balance of the night in a large metal hanger, between about ten British Army horse hair blankets, I experienced my first air raid. From there to Stansted , Essex where we were billeted in tents with no heat. (No stove either) This was the Headquarters for the 2nd Tactical Air Depot. There I was assigned to the Air Ready group. My jjob was to inspect and equip each replacement plane with all of the safety and survival equipment before it was assigned to a group. More of a tech supply job. Fortunately the planes we were disbursing were B-26s that I was familiar with. During my period, in Tech Supply, I was able to procure a flight jacket and a sleeping bag w/air mattress. One morning I was called to the engineering office. My friend, 1st Lt. Lynn Murray, also from Houston, had located me and had transferred me into his 25th M R & R Squadron at Stansted. We had control of the salvage yard and repairable inventory at the base. My job, to identify and inspect parts removed from the wrecked planes brought to the depot. While there, I was happy to meet old friends from the operational groups, 322nd, 323rd, 386th and 387th, I had known at MacDill, out scrounging parts.

As a M/Sgt, I was designated Unit Chief and inspector for the 25th M R & R Squadron.

For the next several weeks I took crews to the operational bases to either repair airplanes or to study the methods that the operational groups used to "keep ‘um flying". I took a crew to Boxted to change a nose strut, during a cold blow off the North Sea, while the fighter planes there were making sorties at attacking German planes. My next was an assault on the civilian Lockheed mechanics at Andrews Field (Great Saling) to procure their tools and to relieve them of their jobs. (Lockheed had a contract to do battle damage repairs on the planes, except the crews were almost always in London repairing damage at the Cumberland Hotel Bar.) My crew retrieved machine-shop trailers, Auto-car tractors, trucks and jeeps, which we returned to the depot. Next I took a crew to Chipping Onger where we replaced a wing on a B-26 for the 387th Group. This was the first B-26 wing change in the ETO.

Between our "small" jobs we met the 344th Group when it arrived at Stansted, helped to form a M R & R Cadre Squadron to assist them in their maintenance and did the same for the 391th at Matching Green, and for the 394th at Boreham.

We spent a week or two working out of Goss Field and then moved over to Rivenhall to meet the 397th in early April. This was like homecoming to me. The 598th Squadron was the child (had been a cadre) of the 315th of the 21st Group at MacDill and the line chief and I had been room-mates there. I was sadden to learn that another room-mate had died in a crash on the way over. He, T/Sgt. Jimmy Alexander, and I had also shared a leave back to Houston in August, 1943.

This is now April, 1944, and we, (the 25th M R & R), have been assigned to the 397th Group. We began by helping the crews make any repairs that they were not familiar with or did not yet have the tools to accomplish. We had a good crew of sheet metal men, machinists, welders and other specialist so as the 397th became operational, we began to patch, patch, ppatch.

We moved into out Nessin Huts near the front gate. We had quicker access to
the road to Silver End and neighboring villages than most of the group. We had further to go to the flight line though, and really that was where we went most. As the summer began to arrive, the days became longer and longer. Double British Summer Time with day light and sun up about 4:00 AM. We had to leave the blackout curtains closed in order to sleep a bit longer. Sun-down about 10:30 PM and not dark until after midnight. When the work was required after a bad mission we had a third work session in the evening, after evening chow. I divided the crews so that when we had a bad day, the sheet metal guys could work in the hanger at night. When we had time off in the evening, most of us who were not on duty, peddled around the area on our bicycles. Some times it would amount to as much as thirty miles. We watched the Scots do their retreat, and attended dances at Silver End Village Hall and in Kelventon. When ever we were able to get a 24 hour pass, most of us headed to London,. Would catch a train in Whitham, about a four mile bicycle ride from the base, rent a stall for the bicycle, board the train and be in Liverpool Street Station in just over an hour, get on the Underground, head for the hotel and enjoy a good hot bath. Several of my friends and I always stayed at the same small hotel on Southhampton Row. Being regulars we were able to get accommodations there even after London filled up. The manager (a lady) gave me and two of my friends letters to our commanding officer, stating that we always had a room. This was a relief, because it had become a problem with the arrival of the thousands of troops. If you did not have a place to stay, you were denied a pass.

From April, when the 397th arrived and started operations, we patched flak holes,
and helped the squadrons with any of the expertise that we had to offer. We had no air raids at Rivenhall, as we had experienced at Stansted and Onger , but we were in the middle of buzz-bomb alley. This new weapon that the Germans started shooting our way, was very destructive to the towns and villages further on toward London. The fighter planes would start their chase as soon as the buzz-bombs crossed the coast line and would try to knock them down out in the open areas before they reached the cities. This, of course, was not as successful as it would seem, and the line of towns from Colchester to London were bombed to devastation, London was so badly bombed , we were denied passes at times. Could only go as far as Romford, which was almost bombed off the map, but it was toward London.

All was in preparation for D-Day. And That Day Came! I was notified, late on the afternoon of June 5, 1944, to assemble crews to help to paint every airplane on the base with the black and white invasion stripes. We used the big hanger, set up chalk line crews, masked off the lines, used spray guns, rollers, brushes and any other employment we could muster to get the job done before mission time. I believe we finished the last plane around one a.m. Bombs and ammo were loaded, tanks topped off, preflight inspections were made and the mission was off on time.

After D-Day, the 9th Air Force began to move units to the south of England . The 397th Group moved from Rivenhall to Hurn an airfield near Christ Church the south of England, not far from Bournemoth on the English Channel. There we had heavy fog a number of times. On our move to France, I had an element of the convoy of trucks and equipment. My unit was loaded on a Liberty Ship at Southampton, different from the balance of my squadron, spent two days before being unloaded, and were finally were taken ashore about dark, with no idea how to assemble my convoy or where to assemble with the balance of the squadron. We spent the following morning retrieving trailers and locating Station A26 , near Carentan, a fighter strip grubbed out of an apple orchard by combat engineers Being good scroungers we began supplementing our equipment from the German Supply on Omaha Beach. We were able to procure a German searchlight generator, powered by a six cylinder engine including cables, on a four wheel wagon.

The rains began and the mud squirting up through the pierced planking runway had an adverse effect for take-offs and landing. With the breakout at St. Lo in August, we moved into the Luftwaffe Airbase at Dreux (A-41). We began building "Bodies-by-Fisher" on our

Jeeps from a store of German aluminum we found there. At Dreux, two of my mechanics repaired the fuel injectors on the locomotives used to pull the train the Germans used to transport bombs to the flight line from the dispersal area. We had fun running the trains in the evenings and drew a crowd until someone had a train wreck one evening, then the colonel banned playing with trains while there. We liberated a bull-dozier from an engineering group to fill bomb craters and level squadron areas. We had to give it back before we moved again. The German search light generator that we procured at Omaha Beach we were able to keep though. We used it for arc welding and with the "mile of cable" that came with it we had a source to provide light for the squadron area for the rest of the war.

While at Dreux, the Group Navigator and I went over to Chartres . He wanted to see up close what he was required not to bomb. We were shown through the cathedral by a priest who spoke quite good English , showing the beautiful windows and sculptures.
While at Dreux, the group had a plane down in a field near Meaux. Lt. Benz, one of out engineering officers, and I went to check on it. It was in a beet field, had to be salvaged, would have to go back to Dreux and send out a crew. Benz had gone to school in Paris, so we went back through Paris and looked up some of his friends for a visit. Paris had not been cleared yet, but we learned that Earnest Hemingway and some of his friends had arrived that day.

We soon moved up to Mons en Chaussee where we began building living quarters for the winter. We arrived on 1 October 1944, and began procuring materials to improve our living quarters. There were a number of German prefab barracks in Chaussee, one of the villages


between St Quentin and Perrone, in which we were assigned squadron area. We took sections of the barracks and made build-ups for our tents, as well as floors and by making "rafters" for the corners, we were able to pull the tent over the top eliminating the center pole, placing the stove in the center being fed by waste oil and gasoline from a B-26 oil tank out back. We had a bath tub from the German officer’s quarters. We also found and repaired a boiler, put a

large storage tank on a platform we built, filled the tank with the decontamination truck, fired the boiler, ran live steam into the water tank, and a miracle, hot water shower, for the whole squadron. I got a liaison radio from a wrecked plane, Signal Corps modified it, amplified it, and we would listen to the hockey games from Canada at night. We even built a wine cellar. Part of my crew built the Non-Com club in Mons. We cleared out the German hanger at Chaussee that had been blown apart, to make a hard surface work area, built an engineering office from German barracks and we were in business. There we operated throughout the winter of 1944-45.

By this time we had Mobile Crews all over France , Belgium and Holland. Some planes we could repair, if they were on an airfield, others we would salvage as best we could, by retrieving as many useful parts as possible. The M R & R units all had expert technicians and very good scroungers. Some times a unit would be out on a job two to three weeks, and had to be self sufficient, cook their own meals, provide sleeping accommodations and always provide their own security. We tried to limit a repair job to less than thirty days, and most of the time we succeeded . Part of my job was to fine downed planes, evaluate the repair or salvage time, assign a crew, and get them on the road. Some times the air crews emergency landed very near the enemy lines. A crew "bellied" into a wheat field near Dinaunt, Belgium, 16 December 1944. I went up to check on the plane and to try to locate the crew. Late afternoon I found the plane, the crew was ok and had gone to Phillipsville, I was told by the Combat Engineers guarding the plane. I went into the town to find a place to spend the night. About eleven P M I was awakened by loud noises, went down to the street, where a long column of trucks were going the "wrong" way. I stopped a Jeep, a guy told me that they were retreating. I got my gear and my Jeep and joined the trucks. Went back to the plane, salvaged the radios, and got on the Road Again. Arrived back at Chaussee late afternoon the 17th. My officers thought that I had been caught behind the lines.

The fog and snow had begun, missions were impossible. We set up an around the clock maintenance program to keep the engines operable by a "warm-up" run every four hours or so, in the event that a mission would be able to get off. I think that the first mission off was on December 23. It was not a good day. Several more bad days until the "Battle of the Bulge" was not our greatest concern.

While at Chaussee, we had discovered the French Bakery at Perrone, where we went and got jeep loads of bread. Drank champagne and conuaq in St. Quentin and gone to officer’s club dances at the hospital in Ameins, harvested the potato crop the Germans had planted on the flight line, traded soap and cigarettes for laundry, and stayed cold most of the winter. We even had a large rat killing as we removed our tents as we were preparing for our move to Venlo.

We moved up to Venlo in early April 1945, where we shared the base with the 394th Group. The 394th on the Holland side and we, the 397th on the German side of the airbase. This base had been the home base of the Abbyville Kids, the Yellow Nose Luftwaffe Fighter Group. The base was laid out as an extenuation of the city of Venlo, with hangers, configured as houses, even with driveways up to the "garage" (hanger ) door. The runways were inlayed brick and the perimeter strips were layed out in city block configuration all of which had been done with slave labor.

By this point the B-26 had been a strong tool in winning the war and had been subjected to almost 200 Tech-Order modifications. All of the planes in the 397th Group were the 71 foot wing version that began with the B-26C, and went through the G and H Models. When I arrived in England in October 1943, the 322th Group was still using a lot of B-26B4 65 foot wing models, and I am not sure there was the same in the other groups that were operational at that time, the 323rd , the 386th and the 387th.

The B-26Bs and B-26As that we started with in 1942 were completely different planes. The original B-26 had a 12V electrical system. The B26A had a 24v system, but with .30 Cal. tailgun and no package guns with 1850 HP Pratt-Whitney R2800-5 engines.
The B-26B that we began training with were the sixty-five foot wing version, with R2800-5 1800 HP Pratt-Whitney Wasp Engines. Upon the first engine change, we replaced the R2800-5 engines with R2800-43 which provided 2000 HP each.

Interesting about Lt. Dorrance' letter in the January Thumder Centerfold for 1999, about the Plane a Day in Tampa Bay, and the engine failure involving Curtis Electric Propellers. Let me correct. There were NO engine failures due to Curtis Electric props. An occasional "run-away prop" until we found that low batteries were the problem , but no engine failures. And there was not ONE a Day in Tampa Bay! Believe me , I was there the Whole Time. We lost some planes, and that was bad. We lost some friends and that was sad, but lets not blow it out of proportion. We were training for war, with a tool that was new to us all, even the *Air Corps. (Not Army Air Force, until December, 1943) I think that we did well for a bunch of young guys in our early twenties, just out of school or off the farm, or leaving home for the first time. We all helped to win the war, even though the 9th Air Force got little credit for it.
I would not discredit the Mighty Eighth. I had many friends who were in the Eighth. Some of them actually survived. Remember Hamburg , Schweinfurt, Regensburg and Ploesti.

You may use any of this that you wish , or none. I enjoy the personal notes in your publication . Keep them coming.


Eugene V. Wilson { (X) M/ Sgt.}
(X ) Chief Inspector
315th Squadron
21st Bomb Group (M)
MacDill Field, Tampa, Fla.
1942/1943 and
(X) Line Chief and Chief Inspector
25th M. R. and R Squadron
With the 397th Bomb Group (M)
England, France, Belgum, Holland
and Germany 1943/1945