Photo Gallery

418th Bomb Squadron

Albert Elton

Rosenthal and Putnam

When reading through some files recently, I found this story related to a July 4 1943 mission to La Pallice mentioning John Egan and TTE John Shay (although John Shay appears listed as part of Ernest Kiessling Crew.) We don’t appear to have this story on either of their pages. There is a photo on John Egan’s 100th BG webpage that is labeled: General Anderson; John Egan is in the background (from the collection of Norman Miller). The date is noted as 4-7-43. The person standing next to Egan kind of looks like John Shay but hard to tell…. Laura Shivers Today was a double anniversary – the anniversary of American independence (the 157th) and the anniversary of USAAF bombing operations against Axis-held Europe (the 1st). Our Fortresses celebrated by providing Adolf Hitler with a not very safe or sane Fourth of July. Continuing the Eighth Air Force's part in the campaign against the U-boat menace, they made the longest B 17 operational flight to date, hammering at the vital submarine base of La Pallice, on the West coast of Nazi-gripped France. There was a heavy concentration of well-placed bombs on the target. Port installations and shipping were hit. Considerable damage was done to one of the prime objectives – a U-boat lock just recently reconstructed by the Nazis after previous devastation by Eighth Air Force and RAF bombardments. As on their last two precious exercises in precision bombing in the skies over the France that is temporarily Hitler's, very sparse fighter opposition was encountered by the Forts. Most crewmen report seeing mostly just two or three Nazi fighters at one time, and these were described as "timid" and "battle shy". One Hun plane was probably destroyed. The Fortresses had to fight their way through barrages of intense flak to get to the target. They dropped their explosive cargoes, and returned home with the loss of just one ship. In the 100th Group Fortress that carried Brigadier General O. A. Anderson on a bombing mission over Europe for the first time, a Major and a Sergeant participated in a sub-strato saga. The pilot of "Muggs" Major John C. Eagan, looking over his shoulder, saw a pair of feet dangling limply many inches above the floor of the top turret gun's platform. The feet belonged to Technical Sergeant John Shay, whose oxygen hose had become disconnected. He had collapsed, and his head had caught between the turret and the gunsight, his hands still grasping the turret controls. Despite the fact that he was risking unconsciousness himself, Major Eagan climbed into the narrow turret, replaced the gunner's oxygen supply, and narrowly missed death when the reviving man touched off the turret controls, setting the mechanism revolving. Both Major and Sergeant were sent spinning around, banging against the sides of the narrow passageway. By the time the pilot had stopped the whirling turret, the gunner had suffered a chip fracture of the hip bone, and Major Eagan was minus a sleeve. "I had visions of being ground up into one great meat ball," he reflected after return to base, "but I'm going to miss that shirt – it was my Sunday best.”