Personnel

CREW

 

     Crew #31           418th Sqdn. M.A.C.R. #1028



Mission:Munster Aircraft #42-30725

Date: 10 Oct.1943

Time: 1500/1530 "AW-R-GO"

A/C last seen: Munster

Cause:EAC



Crew aboard: 

Charles B.Cruikshank Capt.     P POW

 Glenn E.Graham 1st Lt.   CP POW

 Frank D.Murphy Capt.     NAV POW

 August H.Gaspar 1st Lt BOM POW

 Orlando E.Vincenti T/Sgt ROG KIA

 Leonard R.Weeks T/Sgt.    TTE POW

 Robert L.Bixler S/Sgt.    BTG POW

 James M.Johnson S/Sgt  .  WG POW

 Donald B.Garrison S/Sgt.    WG POW

 Charles A.Clark Sgt.  TG KIA



Crew on 21st mission. Weeks said that Vincenti bailed out of bomb-bay with chute afire. Had been fighting fire in radio room.



Garrison saw both James Johnson & Robert Bixler wounded and in waist of plane. Plane blew up and Garrison blown out. Ship had dropped bombs on target.



Weeks said; "Germans said Vincenti's chute had burned in the descent and that he was dead before hitting the ground. Bixler said Germans had shown him Vincenti's dog tags and told him that he was dead."



Johnson said he was blown out of ship and his chute opened at about 5,000 ft.



Clark couldn't seem to get his escape hatch open and was probably killed when plane blow up.



Fighter attack caused fire in ship.



German Records show :Sgt. Charles A. Clark interred on 11 )ct 1943 at Lienen Cemetary/Wesph. Northwestern

third of cemetary, southern grave.



   O.E.Vincenti northern grave



(probably entirely burnt since Id tsg was found burnt,too.) Mrs.Agnes Clark 603 Laurel Ave. Highland Park,Ill.

A USAAF BOMBER STATION, England: 



"Everything that could possibly happen to a Flying Fortress in an air battle with Nazi fighters happened to "Bastard's Bungalow" on the return from an Eighth Air Force bombing mission over Germany, but battered but unbeaten, the Fort staggered back to her base. 

 

An unexploded bomb jammed in the Fortress' bomb shackles, and her bombardier hung out head-first over the North Sea to pry it loose with a tiny screw-driver. While he was hanging there, lead-spitting Nazi fighters streamed out of the clouds to attack the ship. A fragment of flak wedged itself into the hinge of one of "Bungalow's" ailerons, locking the controls. Two gunner were wounded by machine gun bullets, but never left their guns for an instant. Holes were torn in the cockpit, the floor under the pilot's seat, and the wing, by screaming shells from Nazi cannons. Gasoline from a wing tank flooded the ship, filling it with fumes, and creating the hazard of a roaring fire at any moment. JU-88s in the Nazi fighter formations zoomed above to drop aerial bombs on the Fortress. 

 

The aerial bombs missed, but knowing they were coming down didn't make life any more enjoyable at the moment for the "Bungalow's" crew. "Can you imagine," declared S/SGT Charles A. Clark, of 602 Laurel Avenue, Highland Park, Ill., "dropping bombs on us at a time like that!" 

 

The Fort was crossing the North sea en route to a vital industrial target, when the Bombardier, 2/LT August H. Gaspar, of 1600 Eighteenth Ave., Oakland, Cal., discovered that one of the heavy bombs had jammed against the shackles in the bomb bay. The "live" bomb was ready to explode at any second and blow the Fort up into thousands of pieces, and all its crew with it. 

 

Lt. Gaspar quickly called to T/SGT Leonard R. Weeks, of 908 South Henry Avenue, Elkins, W. Va., the Fort's engineer and top turret gunner, and the two men breathlessly rummaged for a screw driver. Anchoring his feet in the crack of the bomb bay door, Gaspar swung himself out head first over 22,000 feet of empty North Sea air, and started prying at the bomb fastening with the small instrument. At the other end, inside the plane, Weeks held onto the bombardiers ankles and heled to toggle the bomb from above. 

 

"I jabbed and jabbed at the shackle," said Lt. Gaspar, "but for a long while it was nothing doing. I began to get weak from lack of oxygen. Finally I managed somehow to get the point of the screw driver in between the bomb and the shackle and felt her give a little. I grabbed the little prop while Weeks tugged on the other end. Suddenly we felt her let go. The second bomb followed right behind and hit me on the shoulder as it went by. It might have knocked me down into the sea – I could see those waves lapping thousands of feet below. But I was holding on for dear life." 

 

Just as the second bomb went cascading out, menace came out of the overcast in the form of a flight of Nazi fighter planes, kill-bent. Lt Caspar crawled back into the ship and the crew started to "get cracking" on its guns. Just then a flak fragment shot up into the hinge of one of the Fort's ailerons, and jammed the controls. 

 

The "Bungalow's" pilot, 1/Lt Charles B.. Cruikshank, of 36-A Thorndike Street, Everett, Mass., and the co-pilot, 2/Lt. Glenn E. Graham, of Freedom, PA stubbornly fought the controls. In spite of their efforts, the big bomber swerved out of formation, and there it was, alone in the sky, a wide-open target to the blazing guns of the Focke-Wulfs. 

 

"I felt the ship lag," said Cruikshank. "She fell behind and I could see those devils closing in. Our gunners were on the ball, though, and I could hear the whole ship blasting away at them. About this time the aileron unjammed itself, and Lt. Graham and I had her under control." 

 

By the time the "Bungalow" had been in and out of a second formation and annexed herself finally to a third, in the unenviable tail position. The Focke-Wulfs closed in again. S/Sgt. R.L. Bixler, of Bisbee, Ariz., the ball turret gunner, suddenly discovered blood streaming from his slashed scalp down to his eye was obstructing his shooting vision. He quickly tied a handkerchief over his forehead, and went on shooting. T/Sgt O.E. Vincenti, 171 Gordon Avenue, Carbondale, Pa., the radio operator, was hit by a bullet that ripped through the back of a chair, glanced to the side, and splintered into his leg, but he, too, stuck to his gun. 

 

In spite of the constant hail of heavy fire that came from the Fort's guns, the Jerry fighters came lunging in desperately close. 

 

"I remember that saying about not firing till you see the whites of their eyes." Said a waist gunner, S/Sgt James M. Johnson of Hanford, Cal. "Whites. Hell, we saw their pupils today." 

 

While the big four-engined ship was warding off the FWs, JU-88s appeared from above, and began dropping aerial bombs. They missed, but fighter cannons shot big holes into the Fort. There was one in the cockpit and a hole in one wing big enough, according to Lt. Cruikshank, "for a man to crawl into." A shell coming up from below tore a big gash in the floor under the pilot's seat. One wing tank was punctured and gasoline from it poured in, flooding the ship. 

 

"Gasoline fumes filled the whole ship," reported the navigator, 2/Lt F.D. Murphy, of Atlanta, CA., "the slightest spark could have set off the biggest display of fireworks ever seen. But with that on our mind, and with something popping every minute – wham, a hole! Band, another ! -- with holes even in the props – you never saw such coolness. Fighters were everywhere, but nobody seemed the least bit excited. It was wonderful." 

 

"Bastard's Bungalow" is back at her home base now, looking like a piece of old Irish lace. "She'll be patched up soon," said S/SGT D.B. Garrison, "and we'll be ready to take her out again. And one of these days we'll take her back to the States to show her off." 

-end- 



*******************

August H. "Augie" Gaspar



Birth: 	Mar. 30, 1917

Oakland

Alameda County

California, USA

Death: 	Sep. 25, 2007

Walnut Creek

Contra Costa County

California, USA



August H. "Augie" Gaspar Was born in Oakland, CA on March 30, 1917. He passed away September 25, 2007 in Walnut Creek, CA at the age of 90. He attended St. Anthony's Grammar School, Oakland; St. Mary's College High School, Berkeley, and St. Mary's College, Moraga. He served in the US Army Air Corps as a B-17 Bombadier in Europe during WWII. He was a P.O.W. for 19 months as a result of the raid on Munster. After the war, he remained as an Officer in the Air Force reserves, retiring as a Lt. Col. He also worked as a baker for 35 years at the Langendorf Bakery in Oakland, retiring in 1977. He was a long time resident of San Lorenzo, most recently residing in Bethel Island and Danville. Augie is preceeded in death by Mary, his wife of 49 years. He is survived by his nephews Dale (Sharon) Perry, Tony (Bobbie) Lizarraga, Steve (Dian) Lizarraga, Glen (Tina) Lipanovich, Scott (Jenny) Lipanovich, Jay (Lois) Lipanovich, Ron Hirschman, and a niece Nanci (Ron) Cearnal. Additionally, he is survived by countless grandnieces, grandnephews and loving, lifelong friends. Visitation will be Thursday, September 27th from 4:00 - 8:30 p.m., HOLY ANGELS FUNERAL & CREMATION CENTER, with a rosary at 7:00 p.m. A funeral mass will be celebrated Friday, September 28th, 2007 at St. Isidore Catholic Church, 440 LaGonda Way, Danville. Entombment will follow at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Hayward. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in his memory to St. Mary's College High School, Memorial Scholarship Fund, 1294 Albina Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94706 or to The American Red Cross at www.bayarea-redcross.org. 





Burial:

Holy Sepulchre Cemetery 

Hayward

Alameda County

California, USA

 

Created by: Travelingal

Record added: Oct 01, 2007 

Find A Grave Memorial# 21867157