Personnel

CREW



2ND LT  STANTON T. LAWRENCE, JR                P CPT 17 MAR 45 PLAUEN

2ND LT JAY L. POWELL                                 CP CPT 17 MAR 45 PLAUEN

2ND LT ALFRED L. DENKEWALTER                NAV CPT 17 MAR 45 PLAUEN

F/O  MARVIN BERG                                    BOM WIA  24 DEC 44   BILBIS (wounded in action) (CPT 17 MAR 45 PLAUEN)

T/SGT ROBERT L. WOLF                             ROG CPT 17 MAR 45 PLAUEN

T/SGT JOSEPH BODEN                                TTE XFR TO SPARE GUNNERS POOL JAN  45  (COMPLETED 26 MISSIONS AS A FILL IN GUNNER) 

S/SGT RAYMOND L. WILSON (stool pidgeon for pilot)   BTG CPT 17 MAR 45 PLAUEN

S/SGT ALEXANDER NAZEMETZ                     WG CPT 14 MAR 45 HANOVER

S/SGT ADOLPH W. CARUSO                         WG XFR  TO 15TH A.F. -  ITALY

S/SGT RICHARD M. KORPALSKI                      TG CPT 17 MAR 45 PLAUEN



350th Sqdn… Joined the 100th on 21 Oct 1944. Flew A/C 43-37994 "My Blue Heaven" LN-O



Crew Changes:

S/Sgt Ray Wilson became the TTE in Mid January when T/Sgt Joe Boden transferred off the crew after a bad disagreement with Lt Lawrence.  Joe Boden flew 9 missions with the Lawrence Crew before going into the Spare Gunners pool.  Joe went to his Squadron CO Major John Gibbons every nite of a mission, volunteering to be assigned to a Crew as a spare gunner.  Joe would fly either as a substitute Gunner or as a Spot Jammer.  He would fly a total of 26 missions.   



S/Sgt Wilsons postion at BTG was filled by Ray Austin.



On Nov 30, 1944 this crew landed (42-102958) at LeCulot airfield in Belgium with battle damage.  The crew was  returned to Thopre Abbots and the aircraft was repaired and returned to service.



Remembrances of T/Sgt Joe Boden-July 2012



On Dec 31, 1944-Hamburg mission: T/Sgt Joe Boden was credited with shooting down 1.5 Enemy A/C on Dec 31, 1944 although he should be credited with 2 a/c shot down. According to Joe (July 2012) just after he shot down the two german aircraft, he looked around, all nine of my squadron went down. I didn't see it, German fighter attack was a fly through from six o'clock level, and they went underneath us and got three bombers out of the squadron ahead of us. We lost 12 bombers that day.    At debriefing, our wingman commented that they had not shot at the two fighters I shot down. T/Sgt Joe Boden feels that if he had not shot down those two fighters, both his plane (Lt Raiford) and his wingman (Lt Lawrence) which was badly shot up, would have been shot down too.  Interesting to note that Lt Stanton Lawrence Crew was Joe's original crew he flew overseas with 



Feb 1945 a ME262 flew through through our squadron, was about 100 feet above me and I could still see it was aluminum, not painted, could see the black swastika and I raised my guns and I had him in my sights for seconds. Doing 28 rounds a second, I figured I put more than 150 rounds into him and he went down.  But my rounds found the cockpit and did not hit oil or the wings and I neve got credit for the 262.    







List of Missions flown by T/Sgt Joe Boden with Stanton Lawrence Crew:



09/11/44 Saarbrucken  6hrs, 8 1,000pound bombs, Metz PT-bad weather, diverted to ST

10/11/44 Weisbaden    6hrs, 36 100lb Gereral purpose bombs

20/11/44 Merseberg/Osnabruck   7hrs, 12 500lb delayed action general purpose bombs

26/11/44 Hamm   6hrs, 6 1000lb Gereral purpose

30/11/44 Merseberg  8hrs, 20 250lb General purpose bombs 

11/12/44 Koblenz   7hrs, 12 500lb General purpose

24/12/44 Biblis   7:30 hrs, 38 100lb General purpose  (Marvin Berg, Bombardier was wounded slightly on this trip)

25/12/44 Kaiserlauten  8hrs, 10- 500lb General purpose, 2 incendiary Clusters

27/12/44 Fulda   8hrs, 12-500lb General purpose





At the tour's end, our crew looked like this:



S.T. Lawrence          Pilot

Jay L. Powell            Co-pilot

A.L. Denkwalter        Navigator

Marvin Berg              Bombardier

Raymond Wilson       Top turret/ Engineer

Robert Wolf             Radio Operator

Ray Austin                Ball Turret Gunner

Alexander Nazemetz   Left Waist Gunner

Richard Korpalski        Tail Gunner



A. Caruso and I were Left and Right Waist Gunners when we arrived at the 100th. We drew straws when it was determined one waist position could be manned by the Radio Operator during flight. I won that contest and Caruso was shipped elsewhere. I never knew where until I received your note.



I have recorded two names who flew with us as subs,  One is Levin (LEVIN, R.J. S/SGT 351ST TTE) -- he is recorded  as having been credited with an enemy plane shot down on 12/31/44 (Hamburg).  The other is Wenzel (This could be Cpl Alfred L.Wenzelk WG  from the L.D. Ross crew), who I remember as undergoing an appendectomy at the 65th General in mid-March. '45. Ray Wilson is credited with one fighter also.



Marvin Berg was wounded in the hand on Christmas Eve, on our mission to Biblis.



I was wounded over Hanover, March 14, 1945, and did not fly any missions after that. When the crew visited with me in the hospital, I was told I was "excused" from the other two. The wound was a laceration right across the throat -- on the only day I wore the old fashioned throat mike because the mike in my O2 mask was functioning poorly. I still have the mike, which without a doubt saved my life.

    Provided by S/Sgt Alex Nazemetz





REPLY TO: KGAsurlaw@aol.com



SUBMITTER: Anne Lawrence



EMAIL: KGAsurlaw@aol.com



PURPOSE: Report a death (TAPS)



INTEREST: I am the veteran's relative



  



VETERAN: Stanton T. Lawrence



DATE OF DEATH: 01/10/07 



FAMILY CONTACT: P O Box 258 



White Stone  VA  22578



804-435-1059



MESSAGE: There are a couple of photos on page 14 that identify my father but they are not of him.  Are any of my father's crew members still alive?  Is there a way that I can find out?



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Remembrances of Joe Boden:

We were Crew 30 and so Me, Wolf and Korpalski decided to look up the history of all the "Crew 30's" that had flown with the 100tgh BG.  I wish we hadn't!  Not a one of them had completed a tour!!!! We all looked at each other and said "we are either going to be a POW in Stalag 17B or DEAD by Christmas!!!!  



Crew Observations: 

Stanton Lawrence:Met him at Rapid City, SD.  He was a big guy, 6'3" and 165, 

Jay Powell was an Alchoholic, many a time the enlisted men had to pick him off the street.  Saved his life once, while doing an oxygen check, he passed out, I had to get an oxygen bottle on him quickly. 

Marvin Berg was Jewish, a wonderful man, can't say enough good things about him,

Robert Wolf was my best friend, my buddy

Alfred Denkewalter- Quiet guy, was in his 30's, the "old man" of the crew. For a navigator, he never knew where we were!  Nickname Dingy.



Mission 1, Saarabrucken- a plane crashed on take off and we had to fly over it and I was feeling awefully bad about my chances of Surviving, we were all young, and not thinking about death.





Dec 27, 1944 Fulda, 



On Dec 31, 1944-Hamburg mission: It was a bright sunny day, but at Wilhemshaven, we lost our fighte escort. You could see the subs below and counted 26 of them.  T/Sgt Joe Boden was credited with shooting down 1.5 Enemy A/C on Dec 31, 1944 although he should be credited with 2 a/c shot down. According to Joe (July 2012) just after he shot down the two german aircraft, he looked around, all nine of my squadron went down. I didn't see it, German fighter attack was a fly through from six o'clock level, and they went underneath us and got three bombers out of the squadron ahead of us. We lost 12 bombers that day. At debriefing, our wingman commented that they had not shot at the two fighters I shot down.  The first one was an FW190 which was in flames when through and the second was a ME109, I held the trigger down and saw smoke and flames come off the left wing. T/Sgt Joe Boden feels that if he had not shot down those two fighters, both his plane (Lt Raiford) and his wingman (Lt Lawrence) which was badly shot up, would have been shot down too.  Interesting to note that Lt Stanton Lawrence Crew was Joe's original crew he flew overseas with.  What I could not understand was that nobody was shooting at the fighters coming through.  Now Joe's feeling was that many on the crews were protecting themselves from Flak. Fighters rarely flew through their own flak to get to the Bombers, they got em on the way in and on the way out. But on this mission they did. He felt that the gunners were "making themselves small" in their flak vests and trying their best to protect themselves from Flak which was at this time, the number one enemy of Bomber Crews.  At interogation, I was screaming why wasn't anyone firing but was told to quiet down by Lt Raiford, guess nobody wanted to fess up to not being at their positions during the bomb run/flak.  Just one persons viewpoint of what I saw and felt, I know I caught members of my crew doing this during flak/bomb run so I am sure it happened on other planes too.  I believe this is why we lost so many planes that day because we had no fighter escort and crews were dodging flak vs manning their guns during the bombing run.   



Feb 1945 a ME262 flew through through our squadron, was about 100 feet above me and I could still see it was aluminum, not painted, could see the black swastika and I raised my guns and I had him in my sights for seconds. Doing 28 rounds a second, I figured I put more than 150 rounds into him and he went down.  But my rounds found the cockpit and did not hit oil or the wings and I neve got credit for the 262.