Memorial Day 2013-Remember. Always!

Stars and Strips, Old Glory, These Colors don’t run!

 

B-24’s in Normandy Part 1 of 6 through 6 of 6

P47 Thunderbolts were Made in Evansville, In and in Up state New York by Republic Aircraft.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f51_1312915970

    This is the one at the Petersen AFB Museum in Colorado Springs, Co.

The photos above were taken by me when I toured the Petersen AFB Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  This aircraft (type) was vital to the war effort and was made in my adopted home town of Evansville, IN at the Republic Aircraft factory that was there.  The building is still here and represents several generations of Evansvillians who have either worked at or know someone who worked at the plant site on US41 in “Stop Light City” USA.  The factory has been several different companies.  Republic Aircraft built the plant.  Shortly after the war it sold  to International Harvester, then became Chrysler, before being converted to the Whirlpool Corporation North American Refrigerator plant.  AS economics and times change the plant was closed by Whirlpool, in 2010 and operations moved south and west to Mexico and China.  Whirlpool however had a history in the war effort as well having several patents on machine guns and munitions at the Whirlpool Ordinance Operations. The local historians advise that the plant was painted blue and decorated above to look like regular land to fool enemy planes in case they ever made it this far inland.  The building is still here today in its same blue color partially empty but being leased out as an industrial park and warehouse.  The P-47 Thunderbolt is mentioned in these media presentations made during the height of the war.  Enjoy!

Part 2 Link: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=31a_1312916055

We never know how our history shapes our future.  What comes around goes around.  Within this media presentation you will hear references to P-47 and you may also see photos of LST’s landing in Normandy on D-Day.  Evansville, IN is the home of the LST 357 that was rescued in the mid to late 1990’s from a beach head in the Mediterranean sea.  The reason Evansville was chosen as its home was because a large portion of the LST’s built were assembled here in Evansville and in a town in Illinois on the Northern Mississippi River.  The LST 357 was one of 10 prototypes that came from a shipyard in Philadelphia, but was given a Midwest home because of this towns war time heritage.

Part 3 Link: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=888_1312916058

Imagine, never getting away from home and then as a young man or woman being thrust in to the middle of the D-Day carnage that took place in June of 1944.   Talk about culture shock.  These young people were brave but scared.  The unknown has a way of doing that to us.  Many never made it off the beach.  Some drowned trying to get to the beach some were maimed as they hit the sand.  Others made it through to save the world.  All of these soldiers were fighting to save the world but fate or karma  steps in and the rest is history.  As you look through some of the videos, consider what it mus have been like to be going towards that beach with flak and shells bursting around you and the gate beginning to fall and getting the first glimpse of the beachhead and seeing the German Wall of death as your buddies and you struggle to get to a safe place so you can return fire and work your way inland.  The men (and soldiers) around you taking hit after terrible hit and in the midst of this forces you to realize that you are the one that needs to make it to the edge of the bluff so you can take out the snipers and machine gunners that keep lobbing their steel death at you.  Boom! Kapow!  Argggh!  Gurgling wounded around you taking their last gasp of air.   It goes into a short chant or poem that you repeat and pray.

As the Bombs Burst.

A poem by Doug Gempel

5/28/2013

As we float in towards shore,

We realize, this, for sure,

That our time on this beach,

Is going to teach,

Men to pray,

And for this I say,

“My father in heaven,

Please save me from harm,

As I work to save

Humanity,

For thee I sing,

Please reduce our sting,

As the enemy hails bullets around us,

Protect our resolve,

To help us solve,

The battle we are in,

To save us from sin,

And protect those men

Again and again.

Amen!”

We near our thirst,

 as huge bombs burst,

within our ranks,

please accept our thanks,

for what you have done thus far,

please heal thy scar,

as I climb the bluff ahead,

This is enough said,

Till the next time I pray,

Keep me safe today,

 as I look for a better

tomorrow.

Part 4 Link: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9c8_1312916062

Part 5 Link: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=592_1312916065

Part 6 Link: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3d7_1312916068

Thanks to www.liveleak.com for these links.  Static Photos of P-47 Thunderbolt were taken  in April 2012 at Petersen AFB Museum in Colorado Springs, Co. by Douglas Gempel, WWII Researcher.

Video of a B24 from the WWII Era

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=31f_1284995592

A look inside a B24 with 360 degree panoramas.

http://i-ota.net/B-24Witchcraft/

As the positions for each crew are visible, if you click on the box it takes you to a 360 degree view of that crewman’s visible area on the B24.

INSANITY FROM ABOVE

A collage of pain and insanity from above

Flak was always dangerous and often accurate

Hell Raining down—Insanity from Above

(Photos above Courtesy of  The National Archives of the United States)

Insanity from above

5/22/2013

A poem by Doug Gempel

When The bombers came in,

The ground shakes thin,

People are running,

From all the gunning,

With flames way high,

You hear neighbors sigh,

From all of the commotion above,

You wished this was a dove,

But as you blink,

And scared to think,

That the allies are here,

And this isn’t for a beer,

But to damage our resolve,

As they try to dissolve,

The Reich of three,

Will no longer be,

The power of evil,

Sent from the Deville,

To overthrow humanity

With all this insanity,

As they fly above,

This ain’t no dove,

But  hell from the clouds,

Bombs bursting so loud,

It scares me to think,

We are reaching the brink,

Of sheer destruction,

We need construction to rebuild our towns

And be happy as clowns,

Rather than weeping from fright,

The almighty sight of hell raining down

To the low low ground.

,

Interactive map of Europe showing bomb sites of Bentcliff crew

This is a map of European Sites related to the crew.

http://www.zeemaps.com/edit/HzJpVnZauUe9FNfgI1xqDg  

This is a map of state-side (USA) points of interest.

http://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=577611

The Link above is an interactive map showing the date of the bombing mission and the location on the map. When you get to the map please click on view and select view list to bring up all 26 marked locations on the map. Marker 26 -the last one is where the plane flew from on each mission. Many planes in the squadrons missed return flights and crashed into the English Channel or the North Sea because of damage to the aircraft. This was one of several bases the RAF had that they allowed the USAAC to fly out of. many times later in the war fighter squadrons that joined the bombing crews as escorts flew out of Italy and they would hook up over the enemies territory and escort the bombers to the target. Because the map program had limitations the markers may not all be on the map but the list allows you to get a generalized vicinity pop up for the respective mission even thought its marker may not be listed.

Awesome view of a B24 from the front.

Scary view looking at the front of the B-24 Liberator. This angle put you in range of its .50 caliber Guns on the nose. The aircraft was the ugly duckling of the fleet but it did a great job for the USAAC. Photos courtesy of http://www.afhra.af.mil/ and http://acepilots.com.

B-24 on Tarmac being prepped for flight.

Fig 2

Willow Run Assembly Plant-Courtesy Ford Motor Co. –

This is a Air Force Historical Society photo of a B-24(Fig 2) as it is being readied for its initial flight check and quality control at one of the 5 factories that were used to build these aircraft. At the height of production the Ford Assembly Plant at Willow Run in Ypsilanti, Michigan produced one aircraft every 70 minutes. This plant was not a Consolidated Aircraft Factory but it produced over half of these aircraft in 3 short years. That number was around 9000 planes from this one factory.

The factories that made this aircraft are listed below: (Fig 1)
To meet the foreseen large demand for the B-24, the government set up a consortium of aircraft manufacturers and plants to build the plane:

CO – Consolidated/San Diego plant
CF – Consolidated/Fort Worth plant
DT – Douglas/Tulsa plant
FO – Ford/Willow Run plant
NT – North American/Dallas plant

The story of Ford’s Willow Run (fig 1) plant could fill a book in itself. They broke ground in April, 1941; by September, it was complete – an 80 acre factory. Dormitories were built on the site and a commuter rail line was extended to it. Designed by Ford executives like Charles Sorenson, Willow Run got off to a slow start, as its automobile, assembly-line style of manufacturing had to be adapted to aircraft production. By mid-1943, with 42,000 employees, it began to turn out B-24s – 230 per month. By the end of 1944, 650 per month. When production ended in April, 1945, Willow Run had turned out over 8,600 Liberators. (Photo and Story provided by http://acepilots.com/planes/b24.html)

What Was a B-24?

A typical B-24 was configured like the following (The B24-D is listed -other variations existed)

Specifications for late model B-24D:

• Four Pratt & Whitney R-1830-43 fourteen-cylinder radial engines, rated at 1200 horsepower.
• Performance: Maximum speed 303 mph at 25,000 feet.
• Service ceiling: 32,000 feet.
• Range: 2300 miles with 5000 pounds of bombs. Maximum range 3500 miles.
• Fuel capacity: 3614 US gallons.
• Dimensions: Wingspan 110 feet 0 inches, length 66 feet 4 inches, height 17 feet 11 inches, wing area 1048 square feet.
• Weights: 32,605 pounds empty, 55,000 pounds gross, Maximum take-off weight 64,000 pounds.
• Armament: Bomb bay could accommodate up to eight 1600-pound bombs.
• The late model “D”s included eleven .50 caliber machine guns: three in the nose, two in the belly turret, two in a tail turret, two in a dorsal turret (just aft of the cockpit), and two in the waist.

1st LT. and Mrs Charles L (Glenna Green) Gempel

This was in the mid 40’s before Uncle Charles was shipped overseas. Photo Courtesy of Cassandra Lake Collection–Her Mother is pictured her and was married to Charles before he passed away.  Her father Robert Lake was Uncle Charles Best Friend and he survived the war to find out the devastating news about uncle Charles—Because of the fellowship between the three of them Glenna (Green) Gempel and Robert Lake fell in love and married in the late 1940’s. Cassandra was the oldest of her 4 children. Glenna lived till 2000 and passed away —when I received the photo in 2010 Mr Lake was still living.

We Never Know what may

 come our way

a poem by Douglas Gempel

5-20-2013

AS summer approaches,

And a stray thought encroaches,

I view a photo of days gone by,

When friends ride side by side,

And heroes die,

I know the story of these folks,

And one that is difficult in all its spokes,

For in the days gone by,

I lost my uncle in unfriendly skies,

For as I think of his life,

I also remember his widows strife,

For in the center of a war,

He died in valor with the core (corp),

He once flew a mighty b24,

And attempted to settle a score,

On that fateful October day,

He lost the battle and could not stay,

When the war was won,

It was settled without his gun,

He flew his heart out this I know,

I wished it wasn’t so,

I see his story as its told,

And wish for victory as it unfolds,

But in the end I know the story,

He flew his plane to God’s glory,

Now I am just bitter sweet,

And wish I could meet and bow at his feet,

For in my mind,

As I unwind,

I see an American hero.

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