WWII vet briefs student pilots on bombing raid By Paula J. Owen TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF World War II veteran Bill Purple spoke to students at Gardner high School Monday about a bombing raid on Germany during the war. GARDNER — Youre on a B-17 bomber in the Army Air Corps getting ready to go on a raid in Berlin on Feb. 3, 1945, with 1,000 other planes to drop 10,000 bombs on the IG Farben chemical complex. You want to put the plant in Germany out of business and you know you probably wont make it back to England. Gardner High School students had a chance Monday to put themselves in the shoes of young World War II pilots, co-pilots, navigators and bombardiers as 79-year-old David P. Bramhall (actually a U.S. Navy Korean War veteran) and Vincent Bill Purple, a WWII pilot, recreated the mission. Mr. Bramhall briefed the students, assembled in the auditorium, about the largest single strategic bombing raid in the war. Mr. Purple was on that raid — his 23rd raid out of 35 in WWII — in the 13th plane in the 125-mile train. He was only 19, assigned to the 8th Air Force, 379th Bomb Group, based in Kimbolton, England, and had already seen many of his comrades shot down on lesser missions. Mr. Purple, 90, told the students they woke up around 2 or 3 that morning and were alerted a raid was starting. You had breakfast and you ended up in the headquarters of the briefing area, he said. Youre in charge of the safety of six other people in a four-engine bomber. The students were on Operation Thunderclap, Mr. Bramhall told them, and it would be their 10th raid over Berlin. Anything that could fly that had a pilot was leaving at 7 a.m. on the mission, he said. Each of the 1,000 planes was carrying 10 500-pound high-explosive bombs, he said. Arent you glad youre not on the ground? Mr. Bramhall asked them. He told them their command frequency; their commanders call sign — Jehovah; their group bombing sign — cowboy able; and the word to abort — whippoorwill (because the w sound was difficult for the Germans to pronounce). They were to fly tight at a speed of 150 mph, he said. The Germans are not stupid. Theyll probably guess our altitude, he said. They were to travel to the initial point, where the commander would fire two green flares, follow the commander at 20,000 feet and when he said cowboy able, drop the bombs. They would know when they were approaching the initial point because a railroad and river intersected in a T shape. If the mission is scrubbed, you have a secondary target — Hannover, Germany, he said. Dont carry anything personal in your pockets — if youre shot down, it will help interrogators, he said. He told them they were known to the Germans as scheisser fliegers, for emptying their chemical toilets as they flew over Germany. After the briefing, Mr. Purple, a Petersham resident, told the students each squadron would take off in 32-second intervals. There were 12 planes in each squadron, four squadrons at each base, he said. There would be 1,000 planes in the sky in an area the size of Massachusetts, he said, circling around to get into formation. There would be substantial risk of midair collisions, he said. He said it was predictable that more airmen would die in the raid than the 500 students in the auditorium, based on the numbers shot down in previous raids. It was the most drastic a mission Id ever seen, he said. Im blessed to be here and I still have a relationship with the navigator who led that raid. Some students got up on stage to stretch out a scroll with a 12-plane squadron depicted on it every 10-or-so inches. It spread across most of the stage. Thats how huge the raid was, Mr. Purple said. After the presentation, 17-year-old senior Vincent K. Goo said his grandfather is a WWII veteran, too, and he felt honored to have the men speak at the school. I cannot believe the responsibilities they had as 17-year-olds, Vincent said. I dont really have to worry about a lot, but they would wake up and have to worry about a world war. It really is an honor to have them. Stefanie L. Munoz, an 18-year-old senior, said the presentation was inspiring. It was a real eye-opener when he said most of us in the auditorium likely would not have made it back, she said. It was an eye-opener how many men gave their lives and the magnitude of how many men pushed to secure our safety so far away. Principal Mark J. Pellegrino said the presentation gave students a realistic picture of what men and women went through in WWII and how tough it was. French teacher Gary R. Warder said hearing directly from veterans brings history to life for students. They study history in class, but we want to take advantage of people like Mr. Purple who are true heroes so they can hear their story firsthand rather than just in a textbook, Mr. Warder said. Robet B. Mayer, director of veteran services at Mount Wachusett Community College, was in the audience for the event. What our servicemen did in that time made an incredible difference to everyone on the planet, he said. Do you know how different our planet would be if Hitler had won? Mr. Purple is an excellent example of the courage it took, knowing he might get shot down and not come back. I think it is really important never to forget that. Contact Paula Owen at powen@telegram. Follow her on Twitter@PaulaOwenTG
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 00:34:17 +0000
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