Written by Ralph Dee Ackley, July 2, 1989
I don’t know how you got onto the subject of my few missions
in WWII, but here is what happened on the 2nd.
We went to Trieste, Italy and it was overcast, so we went
back to Fiume and it was overcast. Then back to Trieste and while there we lost
our #3 engine. So we started to drop back from the formation and when we got
back to Fiume we were about 20 miles behind the formation. So we dropped to
2,000 feet and the Navigator did the bombing. He hit one ship 3 times. Stern,
amidships and the Bow. Really remarkable. Then we flew down to our base on the
Italian side of the Adriatic. Didn’t even see an enemy aircraft, and the
formation went back by way of Yugoslavia and they had a fight all the way back.
Trip #3 we went to Linz Austria. We were flying along at
about 18,000 and I saw these formations going into a dense black cloud of
flack. I said “I’m glad we’re not going there.” Then we hit the IP and made a
90 degree turn right into it. On the way we had lost power so I had pulled up
the ball turret and I was sitting on the half deck. I pulled all the flack
suits around me I could find and when we went over the target, just closed my
eyes. Every time I opened them, the chaff was flying around in the plane and
new holes had appeared in the bottom and top. It sounded like driving on a
gravel road, except the flack was on all 4 sides and the plane’s skin was
rippling. We got through the flack, but had to bomb through the bomb bay doors
as they wouldn’t open. Shortly after we came off target I went into the bomb
bay and kicked out one bomb that had hung up. I was the armorer and that was my
job, but I sure didn’t like standing in the bomb bay trying to kick out a hung
up bomb. Anyway our tanks had been hit and the engineer was on the half deck.
When one engine would falter, he would transfer fuel to that engine. Suddenly
all 4 quit at once. We fell to 5, 000 and were ready to bail out when he got
them going again. Back up to 13,000 and then it happened again and down to 4.
Got them going and then we stayed at about 10,000 and headed for the island of
VIS. It was just recaptured by the British and the Partisans and had a little
fighter strip on it. When we got there, we had a 50 mile tail wind, so everyone
decided not to try to jump. I could just see me landing in the Adriatic and no
one to fish me out. So, we all got into crash landing position, and we could
see the end of the runway between two hills and just then all 4 went out again.
The left wing dipped and when it hit, the plane tore in half. The front turned
around and the back slid forward right beside it. There wasn’t even a smell of
gas, so no fire. An American was there and took pictures of the wreckage. I
lost those some time years later. No one was killed. Two crewmembers were
shipped back to the States for medical treatment and the rest of us stayed
there. While I was still in the hospital, the Pilot, Navigator and Engineer
were shot down over Vienna. Later we found out all had jumped and were taken
prisoner of war.
My next trip was to Vienna with a motley bunch of guys made
up of crews like ours with half gone and the pilot was straight from the US.
This time we got hit pretty badly, had to drop the bombs through the bomb bay
doors again and the left flap was just flapping in the breeze. But we made it
to SPLIT Yugoslavia. Tore off the bomb bay doors and the flap, put in 200
gallons of fuel and leaped out for Italy. Boy did it whine and scream on the
flight back. It wasn’t too far though, just to Spinazzola Italy. About 30
kilometers inland from Bari. And so after 6 months, I had a lousy 4 missions.
Ha!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you to Leo Murphy for asking Dad for this, and sharing the letter with me.
I looked up the US Army Air Force on Wikipedia, and believe Dad flew B-17s and/or B-24s in 1945, based on his locations. The Allies' final offensive commenced with massive aerial and artillery bombardments on 9 April 1945. That was Dad's 20th birthday! This map is dated 1 May 1945. Trieste and Fiume are at the top of the Adriatic. Split and Vis are just to the right of the word "Sea". Linz is actually in the Axis controlled area. Dad didn't mention it, but he earned a Purple Heart.
| Description | Neutral nations (Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, etc.) Under Allied control Allied forces Axis forces |
| Date | 1945 |
| Source | Document "Atlas of the World Battle Fronts in Semimonthly Phases to August 15th 1945: Supplement to The Biennial report of the Chief of Staff of the United States Army July 1, 1943 to June 30 1945 To the Secretary of War" |
| Author | Army Map Service |
| Permission (Reusing this file) | Public Domain: Work of US army |
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