1:54 | While serving as a combat artist on Peleliu, Omer Dawson recalls a near miss from a Japanese sniper.
Omer Dawson talks about how much friendly fire occured on the island of Peleliu.
B-24 radio operator Burt Vardeman fondly remembers the Italian locals who lived in the village near his air base. They were kind and helpful and, after the war, his squadron returned the favor.
Ed Harrell describes in detail the sinking of the USS Indianapolis from Japanese torpedoes, which left nearly 900 Sailors and Marines in shark-infested Pacific waters. Part 1 of 4.
The first operation for the 4th Division was the landing on Roi-Namur. Lawrence Snowden remembers that, though it was an easy victory, valuable combat experience and important lessons were imparted on the Marines.
After several missions, the crew began to settle down and get used to the routine. On mission days it was a series of preparations and briefings, and then into the B-24's. Radio operator Burt Vardeman recalls the progression right through to the end with the shot of whiskey.
Two engines were out, a third smoking, and they were were losing airspeed and altitude, but they were flying level and pointed home. Then time ran out for the B-17 and Don Scott had to slip down the hatch into the slipstream. Part 2 of 3.
It was their third mission over Berlin and they were heading home. Four German fighters pounced on the B-24 and it was engulfed in flame and going down. Clyde Burnette fought for consciousness as the other crew in the back of the plane bailed out. He woke in free fall with no idea how he had made it out, and soon he was in German custody. Everyone made it out of the plane except George "Danny" Daneau, the nose turret gunner, who went down with the aircraft.
Everyone hated it, especially the pilot. Sometimes, when a mission was scrubbed, the planes had to return to base with a full bomb load. Burt Vardeman remembers one of these missions which nearly ended in disaster despite an almost perfect landing.
After a nerve-wracking mission to bomb Tokyo and a typhoon, B.E. Vaughan and the destroyer O'Brien suffered a second kamikaze attack which killed all three of his hometown pals who served with him on board. Then, began the grim task of collecting the personal belongings of the dead and preparing them for burial at sea.
Harper Brame had some cousins who served during the second World War, but the rest of his family was involved in the war effort back home. He describes his family’s military history that goes all the way back to the Revolutionary War.
Drafted out of high school in 1943, Burt Vardeman went to basic with the Army Air Corps. He scored high on radio aptitude and trained as a radio operator on a B-24 crew. Flying out of Italy, he had a close call when one engine after another failed on the return flight. The order came from the pilot, prepare to bail out!
Growing up in rural Virginia, Harper Brame was a member of a hardworking family. He recalls some of the people he grew up with and a doctor who treated his broken femur.
After VE Day, Burt Vardeman returned stateside and was told he would be training for the Pacific after some leave. He got his leave, as well as a stay at a plush Miami hotel to recuperate. When it finally was all over, he and the entire nation returned to their own private lives. They had done it and they had done it all together.
The men were packed in like sardines on the troop ship and Jack Wall was glad when it got to New Caledonia. He was a Navy Corpsman and Pharmacist's Mate and served in the hospital there before he went aboard ship to participate in the upcoming invasions.
The pilots hated it and so did all the crews. If a mission was scrubbed, they were supposed to land with their bomb load intact. The policy was sometimes different but Burt Vardeman went through a nerve wracking experience when his plane came in with a full load and the nose wheel gave way.
The USS Pinkney was an evacuation transport. It was designed to deliver troops to an invasion site and then evacuate the wounded. The ship participated in three memorable landings, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Pharmacist's Mate Jack Wall recalls an episode that unfolded in the psych ward regarding a suicidal sailor.
Where was this Pearl Harbor? Burt Vardeman was still in high school when the sneak attack occurred and when he graduated in 1943, he became one of the many draftees called up for the fight.
The USS Pinkney had a dual role. The ship delivered troops to an invasion and then waited to evacuate wounded. At Okinawa, the troops were already ashore when a kamikaze plane struck it amidships. Pharmacist's Mate Jack Wall describes the incident and how he was almost a victim of it.
There was no defense against the flak. When you're on the bomb run, you have to maintain altitude and bearing to have an accurate drop. There can be no evasion until the bombs are away. Burt Vardeman recalls the gastric distress that went on in the latrine before every mission because of the impending danger.
His ship was in dry dock in New Zealand when Jack Wall missed the last boat that would get him back in time from his liberty. Would he be able to sneak on board? Several guys were already busted that night.
On his first mission, B-24 radio operator Burt Vardeman saw a plane explode after a direct hit from a flak shell. No parachutes. It was a real quick lesson in how deadly this game was.
The Marines didn't want him but Jack Wall found a place in the Navy. In 1942 he joined and began his training as a Corpsman and Pharmacist's Mate. He had a brief setback from an illness which required some painful treatments.
An aptitude for radio put draftee Burt Vardeman on a track to become a crewman in the Army Air Corps. Once he learned radio he had to learn gunnery and then he became part of a B-24 crew. He was the only Southerner but he learned to get along with the Yankees.
Would it be Europe or the Pacific? When Burt Vardeman's crew was sent to Virginia, they knew it would be Europe. They crossed the Atlantic on a Liberty ship and went ashore in Italy. They would be flying their bombing missions from there.
It happened right in front of him. On his very first mission, B-24 radio operator Burt Vardeman saw a plane up ahead in the formation explode from a direct hit by a flak shell. I'm never going to get home, he thought.
Burt Vardeman was a B-24 crewman who had a great deal of respect for the soldiers and sailors he felt had a rougher time than he did. He expected to go to the Pacific after VE Day but he got some good news while recuperating in Miami.
The B-24 air base was near Foggia in Italy but the base for their fighter escorts was much closer to the front. Radio operator Burt Vardeman describes how they would rendezvous and proceed to the target. It was late in the war and the threat from German fighters was diminishing.
They were nearly all high altitude missions but, occasionally, there would be a low level target. Burt Vardeman recalls a mission targeting the Brenner Pass during which the plane was actually the target of flak fired from above.
Burt Vardeman was at his waist gun when one of the fighter escorts flew close enough to see the pilot's face. Was that a black pilot? He really got an eye opening experience when his plane developed engine trouble and had to crash land at what turned out to be the base of the Tuskegee Airmen.
Burt Vardeman describes the flak faced by the B-24 crew on nearly every mission. Even without a direct hit the shrapnel could kill a man or bring down a plane, as it did to his bomber.
What was it like in a B-24 on a bombing mission? Burt Vardeman discusses the practical aspects of flying such as dealing with the cold and what you have to do to relieve yourself. What about the bad weather and what do you do when you get back to the base?