With the Possum and the Eagle: The Memoir of a Navigator's War over Germany and Japan

Note on Sources

Note on Sources This book is a memoir of my personal experiences during World War II in both Europe and the Pacific as a navigator for Gen. Haywood Hansell and Gen. Curtis LeMay. In the fall of 1942, then Colonel LeMay made me Group Navigator for the 305th Bomb Group. General Hansell was then our Wing Commander. As Group Navigator I attended regular operational meetings with LeMay at Hansell's headquarters at Brampton, England. I flew as lead navigator in combat missions for both Hansell and LeMay. Combat is a unique personal experience. Itinvolved a comradeship among ten crew members which can never be forgotten. As Group Navigator I participated in planning sessions with both generals. As Bomber Command Navigator I worked with General Hansell on Saipan and on Guam with General LeMay. I spent many hours with both generals in planning and briefing meetings. When I did not fly I also spent many anxious hours with them waiting for the return of the crews on the missions and then the debriefing of our crews after the missions. I became Division Navigator for Gen. Robert Williams on October 14, 1943. I was the navigator for Ira Eaker, Commanding General of the 8th Air Force, on a flight to a conference in Gibraltar shortly before he was relieved of his command of the 8th Air Force. Gen. Fred Anderson, Deputy Commander of the Air Forces in Europe, flew with our crew on a mission to Bremen in 1943. Beyond my personal experiences and observations that inform the majority of this book, I relied on personal interviews and primary and secondary sources as listed in the bibliography. I interviewed General LeMay's daughter, Mrs. Jane Lodge. Mter the war I had several telephone conversations with LeMay when he was employed as chairman of the board of a company in Los Angeles. Col. Bernard Leigh, a copilot of the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission of August 1943, was a personal client after the war. We discussed many of the problems of bombing Germany without fighter support. Colonel Leigh was the author of Twelve O'clock High and other books about the 8th Air Force. I was a personal friend of Thomas Coffey, a biographer of General LeMay and the author of Iron Eagle: The Turbulent Lift if 317 318 WITH THE POSSUM AND THE EAGLE General Curtis LeMay, and a book about the Schweinfurt mission. We discussed my experiences with LeMay. I read the books written by LeMay and by Hansell, the latter one of the most objective authors about the air wars against Germany andJapan. The most comprehensive book about the air war in Europe is the book by Richard G. Davis, Carl A. Spaat:;; and the Air War in Europe. I have been most fortunate to discuss the B-29 experiences of Gen. Henry Huglin and Col.Jim Patillo. Huglin was Group Commander of the B-29 mining operations of Japan from Tinian; Patillo was a B-29 pilot flying from China and Tinian. I talked with General Sweeney, the pilot of "Bocks Car," the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. One of my most valuable sources of information about the 305th Bomb Group was Maj. Gen. Del Wilson, our copilot on the Kassell mission, the first deep inland mission into Germany. He succeeded LeMay as Group Commander. I worked with him at Guam when he was a member of LeMay's operations staff. During the Vietnam War we discussed LeMay's experience as a member of theJoint Chiefs of Staff. My wife Dale assisted me in research at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, at the Smithsonian Institute, and at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The first four chapters of my book involved personal experiences in the 305th Bomb Group, when it was commanded by then Colonel LeMay. For chapter 5, Colonel LeMay and Major Preston told me what they knew about Hansell's prior air force history. Hansell's three books demonstrate that he was both a scholar and a gentleman. In chapter 6, I supported my observations with material from the books by Spaatz and Hansell. Chapter 7, the first mission over Germany, was a most personal experience in which we surprised the Nazis and had no serious opposition. For chapter 8, I relied on personal experiences and material from the books by Arnold, LeMay, Hansell, and the Davis biography of General Spaatz. In chapter 9 I continued using the same sources as in chapter...