Personnel

CREW



2ND LT LLOYD G. DELANEY              P CPT 6 OCT 44 BERLIN

F/O WILLIAM D. SAJONC                 CP CPT 6 OCT 44 BERLIN

2ND LT GEORGE W. TOLBERT       NAV CPT 6 OCT 44 BERLIN

2ND LT OWEN W. MOORE            BOM CPT 6 OCT 44 BERLIN

SGT JAMES W. FINNEGAN             TTE CPT 6 OCT 44 BERLIN

SGT WALTER KEIJONEN               ROG CPT 6 OCT 44 BERLIN

SGT CLARENCE E. CALVERT            BTG CPT 6 OCT 44 BERLIN

SGT RALPH RALL                        WG CPT 6 OCT 44 BERLIN

SGT JOHN TOMASZEWSKI              WG CPT 6 OCT 44 BERLIN (takes over as TG on 25 JUL 1944-ST LO)

SGT ROBERT BROWN, JR                 TG CPT 22 OCT 44 MUNSTER



349TH SQDN.. CREW JOINED 100TH 26 MAY 1944. MOVED TO 351ST SQDN.  BEFORE START OF MISSIONS 



GEORGE W. TOLBERT WRITES:  (mpf 2001)

"AFER A FEW INDOCTRINATION FLIGHTS, THE CREW WAS TRANSFERRED TO THE 351ST SQUADRON WHERE WE FLEW ALL OF OUR MISSIONS, MOST OF THEM IN "ALL AMERICAN GIRL".   WE GOT HER SHOT UP SO BADLY AT MERSEBURG ON SEPT 28, 1944 THAT WE RETURNED ALONE HALF AN HOUR LATE AND WE HAD TO FINISH OUR LAST FEW FLIGHTS IN THE NEXT WEEK IN UNASSIGNED PLANES WITH THE ALUMINUM FINISH."



"ON OUR LAST MISSION, OCT 6, 1944 (TARGET WAS BERLIN), WE FOUND OUTSELVES IN THE TAIL END POSITION AND THE SQUADRON COMMANDER, WHO I THINK WAS MAJ. EMERSON AT THE TIME BUT MAY HAVE BEEN MAJ CRUVER, ASKED THE OPS OFFICER NEIL SCOTT, IF HE COULDN'T DO BETTER FOR US ON A RAID TO BERLIN ON OUR LAST MISSION.

HE MOVED US INTO THE UPPER SQUADRON AND THE ONE PLANE THAT WAS LOST THAT DAY WAS THE POOR CREW THAT MOVED INTO OUR OLD SPOT. FATE PLAYS STRANGE GAMES." 



S/Sgt Brown flew 15 missions before catching pneumonia. S/Sgt Tomaszewski moved from WG to TG.  Crews were also reduced to 9 men around this time so S/Sgt Brown was put into the Spare gunners pool when he recovered.  He was also trained to be a Toggelier and flew 5 missions at this postion. (flew total of 20 missions)



Subj:  Mission List

Date: 3/31/01 7:22:20 PM Pacific Standard Time

From: gtolbert@nycap.rr.com (George  Tolbert)

To: MPFaley@aol.com (Michael P. Faley)

CC: gtolbert@nycap.rr.com



I do happen to have a list of the missions we flew as a crew.  It is from "The Story of the Century" which has a listing of the 306 missions the Group flew and I made it by checking my Personal Flight Record (Form V?) about 50 years ago while still on flying status and ticking off those days on which I was shown to have flown.  Unfortunately, it doesn't tell which plane we flew on that date, but most of our first thirty missions were in The All American Girl.  All were in 1944.



Lt Delaney flew one mission as Copilot with Lt Massol on June 5, 1944 to Boulogne, France to gain combat experience before flying his first mission with his own crew.  



Jun 6    Falaise, town       (A)     Our first.  We were in the second wave that day.

                                                Just a big traffic pattern and came home with 

                                                our load.  My thought, "This is easy."

Jun 7    Nantes, bridge     ©      The list shows no aircraft lost that day but I 

                                                distinctly remember the plane in the echelon 

                                                ahead of us blowing up and our flying through the 

                                                pieces of debris.  My thought, "Hey, you can get

                                                hurt here."

Jun 20   Fallersleben         ©     Motor transport

Jun 21   Basdorf (Berlin)    ©    Aero engines

Jun 22   Paris                   ©    River docks

Jun 24   Grand Couronne   ©    Rouen-Grand Couronne, oil depot

Jul 6     Fleury-Crepeuil      ©    noball

Jul 7     Merseburg            ©    oil refs

Jul 11   Munich                 ©    aero engines

Jul 12   Munich                 ©    industrial area

Jul 17   Auxerre                ©    railway bridge

Jul 18   Unknown             ©    Kiel, docks or Hemmingstedt, oil ref

Jul 20   Merseburg            ©    oil ref

Jul 21   Regensburg          ©    Aircraft factory, don't know if complete or abort

Jul 24    St. Lo                (A)    ground support (last mission of S/Sgt Brown-caught pneumonia)

Jul 25    St. Lo                 ©    ground support

Jul 31    Munich                ©    aero engines

Aug 2    Tergnier, La Fere  ©    railway bridges

Aug 3    Troyes                ©     rail junction

Aug 4    Hamburg             ©    oil refy

Aug 5    Magdeburg          ©    tanks and aircrft factory

Aug 8    St. Sylvain                  ground def, don't know if complete or abort

Aug 13   Nantes-Gassicourt ©    roads

Aug 14   Ludwigshafen       ©    oil plant

Aug 18   Pacy sur Armancon ©  oil dump

Sep 3     Brest                    ©    ground def

Sep 5     Stuttgart              ©    aero engines

Sep 9     Dusseldorf             ©    arms factory

Sep 25    Ludwigshafen       ©     marshalling yard

Sep 28    Merseburg           ©    oil refy.  (See note)

Sep 30    Bielefeld              ©    ordnance dump

Oct 2      Kassel                 ©    aero engines

Oct 3      unknown             ©    could have been Illesheim, Ludwigsburg or Nurnburg

Oct 5      Handorf              (A)   Air field

Oct 6      Berlin                  ©    factory



Note:  Sep 28 was our last mission in The All American Girl.  We were hit over the target and lost our No. 2 engine.  A fire started but Lloyd managed to put it out.  Due to loss of oil, we couldn't feather the engine so it was windmilling and the vibration was alarming.  Then the prop shaft burned through so the engine stopped turning but the prop still was.  Lloyd tried to shake it off by some violent maneuvers but to no avail.  Due to the vibration and wind resistance we could fly at barely over stalling speed and by now the group was long out of sight and we were alone over Germany.  More by good luck than by management we avoided any flak areas and did not attract the attention of some Jerry fighter.  We were losing altitude all the while and debated whether we should try to make it to a field in the American area of northern France or keep on toward home.  The majority voted to go on as long as we could as we wanted to get back for the 200th mission party soon to be held.  Fortunately, things held together and we were able to land at Thorpe Abbots almost out of fuel and with the engine catching fire again as we landed almost half an hour after the rest of the group had landed.  Needless to say, we were out of it as soon as it came to a stop and the fire was soon extinguished.  When we finally got back to our hut we found our hut mates had already been through our things and sorted out some things they thought they could use, such as bottles of Scotch, cigarettes, chewing gum, chocolate, etc.  That was our last trip in the Girl as it had to go in for major rework and we flew the rest of our sorties in borrowed aircraft.

    

Have a nice day.

George Tolbert: gtolbert@nycap.rr.com 



George Tolbert writes:

"I really can't account for the gaps between missions.  I remember we flew quite a few weather observation flights and radio relay missions, which, of course, didn't count towards our 25, which grew to 30 and then 35.  I know they wanted us to train for lead crew status but Lloyd would have nothing of it; he wanted to get back home the quickest way.  The closest we came was flying in 2nd element of lead flight as alternate bomb run lead.  I am quite sure it was the latter part of August that we had our R&R leave and were supposed to go near Blackpool, as I remember, but we never got past London.  There was always something to do there.  I don't know what happened between Sep 9 and Sep 25, 1944.



Conversely, on Jul 12, after a mission to Munich the day before, we were supposed to get a stand-down so we celebrated at the club.  It was quite a shock when they roused us out on the 12th to go to Munich again.  I'm afraid we broke into our escape kits and took a pep pill to try to overcome a serious hangover.  It worked as expected on me, but apparently Spud is one of those on whom it has an opposite effect.  I can remember writing in my log, looking out both sides for fighters, and kicking Spud to try to keep him awake on the bomb run until we could get rid of our bombs. I often wish I had taken the trouble to keep a diary of those days, but I was only living life one day at a time and didn't really expect to be around to read it. As you can see, I was proven wrong and now regret it."

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



Hello,

I was checking out your web page .  My father, Lloyd G. Delaney, was one of the pilots of 'The All American Girl'.  He is listed as deceased on your page but with no date attached.  He died March 6th,1975.

 

I appreciate what you are doing with the web page.  Keep it up.

 

Bruce Delaney

4808 NW 38th St.

Gainesville, FL, 32605

 352-214-0844

Delaneybl@AOL.COM

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



by Ken Samuelson 



Robert Brown Reidsville, NC – Air combat with the Bloody 100th Bomb Group 

Born: Eden NC 

Branch of Service: Army Air Force

Highest Rank: Master Sergeant

Theater of Service: Europe

Dates of Service: Feb/1943 to April/1945

 

The first time Bob Brown saw his father cry was when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Brown’s father had fought in WWI and had been gassed as well as seriously wounded. His two sons were of draft age and he knew they would be involved in war as he had been some 23 years earlier. 



Bob Brown however, was excited and ready to go to war. Brown turned 19 shortly after Pearl Harbor occurred and had a good job at Fieldcrest Mills but wanted to get into the defense industry. After registering for the draft in Leaksville, he went to Baltimore to work for the Glenn L. Martin company building airplanes. Feeling he was about to be drafted, Brown came back to Leaksville in early 1943 and enlisted in the Army. While in basic training at Camp Croft, South Carolina, Brown decided he would rather be in the Air Corps and a corporal friend in the personnel office changed the records so Brown would be assigned to the Air Corps. It was not questioned and Brown quickly found himself in the Air Corps just as he desired. 



After further training in gunnery and aircraft maintenance in various locations, Salt Lake City was the next stop where the ten member crews for B-17s were made up for assignment overseas. The crews were sent to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey to be assigned to a troop ship for the voyage to England. By this time, Brown had been promoted to sergeant and was earning $46 per month; a far cry from the $21 per month a private earned. 



In England, Brown’s crew was part of a replacement pool, which meant they would be assigned to a squadron that had lost a crew for some reason and needed replacements for combat duty. His crew was eventually assigned to the Bomb Group known as the Bloody Hundredth (100th Bomb Group). It was called the Bloody Hundredth because the German fighter pilots were determined to decimate the Bomb Group due to a German pilot having been shot down by a 100th Bomb Group B-17 bomber after he had lowered his wheels indicating surrender. As it happened, during a period of 2 years the Bloody Hundredth lost 177 aircraft to enemy fire and another 53 due to mechanical problems on combat missions.  



Brown’s first combat mission was on June 6, 1944, which was D-Day. He learned about his mission at 10 p.m. on June 5. He did not sleep well and was wakened at 2:30 a.m. for the mission with a briefing at 4 a.m. and takeoff shortly thereafter. After takeoff, part of his duty, from his tail gunner position, was to use a flashing light to signal other bombers to form up behind his plane. There were hundreds of aircraft in the air and it was very confusing, especially in dawn’s early light. 



His war weary B-17 bomber, “All American Girl” was assigned with other bombers to a tactical bombing mission in support of the troops that landed on the beaches. Brown’s view was magnificent from his tail gunner position as he flew over the English Channel. Brown says “it will live in my memory forever. There were a thousand vessels from battleships on down.”  



While on bombing missions at high altitudes, Brown wore a heavy knit cap, long underwear, electrically heated boots, and suit with a fatigue uniform over that and lastly a sheepskin jacket. Electrically heated gloves were also issued and if these were lost or fell off for some reason, fingers could be lost due to frostbite. An oxygen mask was used at altitudes over 12,000 feet, tethered to an oxygen valve at the tail gunner position. Brown also carried a Colt 45 and a combat knife. 



With all this equipment Brown had to crawl to the tail gunner position and sit on a seat much like a bicycle seat. Once in combat Brown also had a flak jacket to wear and a steel helmet. There was nothing to lean back on so all missions were very fatiguing in very tight quarters. Protecting him were a 2-inch thick Plexiglas windshield to the rear of the bomber and 1 inch Plexiglas on both sides of the tail gunner position, near his head. Facing out the back of the airplane were two 50 caliber machine guns, with ammunition cases holding 1000 rounds of ammunition next to Brown. During the maximum effort missions, sometimes ammunition was in short supply and Brown only had about 200 rounds of ammunition for the guns. 



Brown flew 16 missions as a tail gunner over Europe (got sick with pneumonia) and five more as a toggelier (similar to bombardier). His job was to drop bombs on signal from the lead aircraft. Fighters were not seen very often due to shortages of planes, pilots, and fuel in Germany. However, flak was very heavy and took a terrible toll on the bombers. Brown says, “It was very unnerving to know someone was shooting to kill me. We did not shoot at many fighters but did dodge a lot of flak.”  



On one occasion, while on the way back to England after a bombing mission, a B-24 heavy bomber named Cabin in the Sky slid in formation behind Brown’s plane. When flak came up, the plane flew away but came back when the flak stopped. The next day, crews were informed that Cabin in the Sky was flown by a German crew and should be shot down. Typically, such an aircraft would shoot down planes from the rear knowing it would not be chased due to low fuel on the returning bombers. 



All American Girl flew 99 missions, one of the longest service records during the war. She was finally shot down on her 99th mission with a new crew aboard and with loss of all lives. 



Due to illness in the family, Brown was allowed to come back to the United States in December of 1944 to further duty in aircraft maintenance in Illinois and Virginia. 



Brown had enough points to get out of the Air Corps in November 1945 and returned to Leaksville. He began work as an aircraft mechanic on the following Monday after returning home. Brown’s career was primarily in machine shop management until retirement in 1986. He remained with the Air Force reserve for 18 1/2 years retiring as Master Sergeant. He is married to Edna and continues to live in Reidsville, NC 



In 1982, Brown was reading an aircraft magazine and he noticed an ad for a print showing planes from the 100th bomb group on a mission, painted by well-known aircraft artist Keith Ferris. Brown ordered the print and when he received it, to his surprise, Brown saw the print featured All American Girl, the plane that he had flown in for 20 missions. That print is proudly displayed in Brown's home and is shown in the picture included with this article. 



Concluding his thoughts about World War II, Brown says if he had to do it over again he would. He was proud to be part of the effort to save our world from tyranny. 



Brown is one of the founding members of Combat Airmen of WWII and serves as Sergeant at Arms and Educational coordinator for presentations to students and various groups. 



Robert Brown 



1200 Woodleigh Circle, Reidsville NC27288



Born: December 21, 1922



Theater of Combat: Europe



Unit: 100th Bomb Group 351 bomb Squadron



Primary Duty: Aircraft maintenance and tail gunner on B-17 bomber 



Date of Service: March 1943—November 1945 



IN HIS OWN WORDS 



On bombing missions: I do not know how I survived. The 100th bomb group was a very specific target of the Germans. The first four or five missions were exciting but then the fear set in. It was very unnerving knowing someone was shooting to kill me.



On getting in the Air Corps: My friend, only a corporal, kept me from being a foot soldier and got me into the Air Corps.



On his early interest in airplanes: A friend in Leaksville rebuilt an old WWI Jenny and I was one of the few allowed to see and touch it.



On the B-17 “All American Girl”: She was weary but just felt good in the air. Solid and safe like a good automobile. She had a lot of patched holes but brought me back safely every time.



On being a tail gunner: I had a great view but it was very tight and I was very exposed back there.



On the Bloody Hundredth:  It was well named. We spilled too much blood due to loss of crews in combat.



On P-51 fighters: When the P-51s got drop tanks for extra fuel and could accompany us, we felt a lot safer.



On D-Day: We knew it would happen but did not know when. Before we left, our colonel said, “Good luck and God bless you”. The view I had that day will live in my memory forever. A thousand ships spread as far as I could see.



On his service: If I had to do it all over again, I would.