Description:
Tape Number WCWW2-070
00:00:58;12 00:01:00;27 [00:00:02:13] WCWW2-070
:keywords:
Ernest Tresch - interview
Interview conducted on September 26, 2002
Born and raised in Ohio
Always wanted to fly
Pearl Harbor
North Africa
Submarine patrol
Flying B-26's
Bombing Africa, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia
89 holes in plane after Palermo mission
Plane crew and armament
Loved the plane-did not name it
"Old" cadet
Time between missions
Typical mission
Groups of 6 or 36
Tight formation flying
Back to US for reassignment
4 engine certification
Overseas transport
00:01:13;13 00:02:01;05 [00:00:47:20] WCWW2-070
:Born and raised in Ohio:
Q - Were you from Wisconsin?
E - No I was born and raised in Ohio. Down in southeastern part down in Marietta. And, uh, I went to college at Ohio State. And then from Ohio state I went into aviation cadet training down in Texas. And I went all the way through cadet training in Texas and then after I got my commision I was stationed over at Macdill Field in Tampa, Florida. And joined a new outfit of B-26's that was being formed for overseas combat.
00:02:01;05 00:03:00;10 [00:00:59:03] WCWW2-070
:choose USAF because always loved planes:
Q - How, how did you choose the air force?
E - Uh, well ever since I was a kid, I was born and raised on a farm, and ever since I was a kid seeing an airplane fly over and that was what I wanted to do. And so, when I was at Ohio State they had the civilian pilot training program going on and so I went through primary and basic civilian pilot training before going into aviation cadets. And, um, it was strictly something that I always wanted to do was to fly.
Q - And when was that you went into the aviation cadets?
E - November 7, 1941. Thirty days before Pearl Harbor.
00:03:00;10 00:04:40;14 [00:01:40:02] WCWW2-070
:Pearl Harbor:
Q - So Pearl Harbor must have goosed things up a little bit?
E - Just a little bit. Just a little bit.
Q - How did you hear about that?
E - Well, the lieutenant that was, uh, uh, in the training group there, it was on Sunday naturally. And so he took some of us down on Kelly field to just look at some of the airplanes. When we were leaving there to go back up to the barracks, came out through the gate, and uh the guard on the gate told us about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. And the lieutenant says well boys you can send those civilian clothes home cause you won't be needing them for a while. And, uh, so that's where I found out about Pearl Harbor.
Q - What did, how did you feel about that?
E - Oh, I don't know. We more or less expected something from the build up we had been having in the armed forces and so on. But it was a shocker though. Very definitely.
Q - Was there much, I wasn't sure, was there much awareness before that of Japan being a potential enemy?
E - Not a whole lot. Not a whole lot. Basically Germany.
00:04:40;14 00:04:58;13 [00:00:17:29] WCWW2-070
:has Ernest fix hair:
00:04:58;13 00:06:35;22 [00:01:37:05] WCWW2-070
:trained in Texas, Florida, sent to N. Africa:
Q - So, so then you continued with your training.
E - Right.
Q - You went, were you at Texas then?
E - Right.
Q - Yeah, okay, then you went to Florida.
E - Right.
Q - Okay, so just pick it up there.
E - Then, then uh during transition work there in Florida, we were originally scheduled to go into England on low altitude bombing. But after we went through our transition there and checked out on the B-26s we came up to Fort Wayne, Indiana to pick up new airplanes to go overseas with, and while we were up there the orders were changed for us to go into South Africa, I mean North Africa, North Africa. And so we went back down to Florida and flew across the south Atlantic and into, Acraw, South Africa and then up around the coast into Oran. Oran was their first base there in, uh, North Africa. And we were [cough] flew some submarine patrol out of there.
Q - When, what is that?
E - That was in forty........, that would be January of 1943.
00:06:35;22 00:07:22;21 [00:00:46:27] WCWW2-070
:submarine patrol:
Q - What, what is submarine patrol?
E - Out flying over the Medterranean looking for subs in the Med. Then after we, oh, along in March we went out to, Despamana(?)- or correction, Lutsinia (sp?) airbase then from there to Montesquieu. And that, Montesquieu is where we actually started flying our combat missions out of there.
00:07:22;21 00:09:07;24 [00:01:44:29] WCWW2-070
:difference between B-26 and B-24:
Q - What, what's the difference between B-26 and B-24?
E - Um, well the B-26 was a medium bomber which is a twin engine and a little bit faster than what the 24 was. But, uh, carried about half of the bomb load of a B-24.
Q - Could it go further?
E - Uh, no the 24s had longer range than what we did.
Q - So because you were in Africa just going up into Italy, you didn't need?
E - Well while we were in Africa, we started out, uh, with the, when they the British were chasing the General Romel up the coast of Africa, uh [cough] we were bombing ahead of them to knock out gun positions and so on, air fields. And then followed on through and then the whole time that we were in Africa was, we were bombing Africa, Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia. And uh, we ran into quite a bit of enemy aircraft and uh, a lot of flak.
00:09:07;24 00:10:30;13 [00:01:22:19] WCWW2-070
:Mother's Day bombing Palermo:
E - As a matter of fact, [laugh] one I will never forget was on Mother's Day of 1943. We bombed Palermo, Sicily and the town itself had never been bombed before but the docks had been hit once. And [cough] during that time, the Germans and the Italians had a little headquarters set up, just in little patches, all the way through town. And so before the invasion of Sicily they decided that they best neutralize some of that. And so they pulled a coordinated mission of all of the bombers in North Africa to bomb Palermo that day. There was three groups of B-17s, three groups of B-24s, two groups of B-25s and three groups of B-26s. All 36 ships to a group. We were loaded with half demolition bombs and half anti personnel bombs.
00:10:30;13 00:10:53;23 [00:00:23:10] WCWW2-070
:fixing sound problem:
00:10:53;23 00:12:44;04 [00:01:50:07] WCWW2-070
:89 holes in plane after Palermo:
Q - So that's a lot of planes heading out there.
E - Oh, it was. And it was a coordinated mission, would come in over.... well Palermo's in the northeast corner of Sicily. And we came in over the Mediterranean, made a big wide turn over, beyond Palermo, and then came right across town and immediately broke back out over the water and headed back for Africa. And the flak, or anti-aircrafts on that mission, it was terrific. I....on that mission I flew left wing on the lead plane of the last group of B-26s to go across. And [cough] when we were in that big wide turn out there, we could see all of the flak going up to the, uh, heavies, the B-17s, the B-24s, and when we came across, we were about, oh, half, three-quarters of a mile behind the group ahead of us, and the flak was so heavy and the smoke was so heavy that we couldn't see a third of the airplanes in that group ahead of us. And I came off that mission back to Africa, went up to get a bite to eat, and went back down to check the airplane over, had 89 holes in the airplane. So I remember that one.
00:12:44;04 00:13:36;19 [00:00:52:13] WCWW2-070
:never lost anyone on his crew:
Q - Did, did uh, did you lose many bombers in that mission?
E - Very, very fortunately, every bomber out of all of that group, they all made it back to Africa. Some of them had to beach before they got back in the base or anything. There were several of them that cracked up. But directly over the targets there wasn't. And I was very, very fortunate while I was in North Africa. Flew 40 combat missions, and out of all of that never had a man on my crew scratched. So I thought it pretty fortunate.
Q - That didn't happen to many.
E - Not too many, not too many.
00:13:36;19 00:14:51;29 [00:01:15:08] WCWW2-070
:make-up of crew and weapons on plane:
Q - Tell me about your crew. How many were in the crew on a B-26
E - Well we had the pilot, co-pilot, bombardier, uh, engineer, which serves as a waist gunner, and the tail gunner and a top turret gunner. And so that was the make-up of the crew. And they all had twin, well, no the waist gunner didn't, but the turret gunner, tail gunner, had twin .50's, .50 caliber. Then we had two .50 calibers, mounted on each side of the nose of the airplane, that was pilot control, they were fixed, they weren't flexible guns at all. But that was the make-up of the armament there.
00:14:51;29 00:16:37;09 [00:01:45:06] WCWW2-070
:didn't like plane in training, but did in combat:
Q - Was it a good plane to fly?
E - Actually, before we got into combat I didn't like the airplane. Uh, it was, it had extremely high wing loading, which made it more difficult for single engine flying. And well, while we were in training there in Macdill Field in Florida, they had a saying going then, one a day in Tampa Bay. And it wasn't quite that bad but they, we did lose quite a few planes during training and the ol' airplane had, oh some nicknames, the flying prostitute, no visible means of support, I mean the heavy wing loading, and widow-maker and things as that. But uh, [coughs] uh after it got into combat, I fell in love with the airplane. And, I mean, we'd go out, everyday we'd get shot up and it'd bring us back in. And, uh, after, you were experienced on the airplane and knew what to expect, why, it was a good airplane.
00:16:37;09 00:17:04;15 [00:00:27:04] WCWW2-070
:didn't name plane:
Q - What was the name of your plane?
E - Actually I didn't name it. Didn't have a name on it.
Q - Was that common?
E - Uh, well, both ways. There's a lot of them that weren't, and there's a lot of them that were.
Q - So then you didn't have to worry about any of that nose art.
E - No, no, no.
00:17:04;15 00:18:10;15 [00:01:05:28] WCWW2-070
:joined service at 24:
Q - How old were you when you were piloting this?
E - I was 24 years old when I went in the service. And, uh, well at that time, 24 was the maximum age to go into cadet training. And, I was right in the middle of that and then the height requirement was a minimum of 5'4" and I was 5'4" and a half. So I just barely got in.
Q - So did they call you the old man?
E - Not much.
Q - No? We had some guys who were 17 and they said they referred to their pilot who was 24 as the old man. A lot of young kids in that war weren't there?
E - Oh yes, yes there were.
00:18:10;15 00:19:45;08 [00:01:34:21] WCWW2-070
:time between missions:
Q - What did you do between missions? What was that like?
E - Well, it, most of it was just around camp there. Well we were living in tents all the time. And we were just around, laying around and they..... oh we had a so-called officers club, which was a tent with a board across corner of it there was a bar, and but there wasn't a lot of other activity, though.
Q - How long was it usually between missions?
E - Oh it depended. I mean, well I have pulled two missions a day and then there have been oh a week or so between missions.
Q - How did you feel about that? Did you prefer to fly more often or did you....?
E - Oh, actually we didn't think too much about it. I mean if we were scheduled out, we had a job to do and we did it. And if we weren't scheduled out, why, oh there's card games and so on. That was about it.
00:19:45;08 00:21:56;28 [00:02:11:18] WCWW2-070
:daily schedule:
Q - What, when you were scheduled out, tell me about the course of the day.
E - Well, we never knew what our target for the day was until we went to briefing. And we'd go in the briefing, normally we went out fairly early in the morning [cough]. We'd go down to the briefing and the colonel would tell us what the target was and they'd have the maps on the... there to show us our routes in and over the target and back out and so on. And then after briefing, why we'd go to, out to the airplanes and check it over and then the group would take off and we took off at 30 second intervals. And then after we formed up in formation, headed out, why we'd spread the formation and test fire all the machine guns and then tighten up the formation again and go on out to the target. And [long pause] well then after that, why we, after we went, bombed the target, we'd be on our way back into Africa and then land, check-in the airplane and go get something to eat. But it was, that was pretty much it.
00:21:56;28 00:22:45;22 [00:00:48:22] WCWW2-070
:normally one group of 36:
Q - Were, were you always in, was there always more than one group? Or were sometimes there just a single group?
E - Uh, most of the time it was a single group. Normally we went our in a 36 ship group. But there's some targets, like, oh a bridge or a tunnel, railroad tunnel or so on, we might go out with a 6 ship group. But normally it was a 36 ship group and occasionally there'd be more than one group going out together but, normally it was just the one group.
00:22:45;22 00:24:16;09 [00:01:30:13] WCWW2-070
:how group organized:
Q - And what is the group composed of six, is that how it was organized? Were you divided into groups of six that made up the 36?
E - Uh, well we had the lead plane and then there's on each wing, and then behind them was the same thing over again, kind of strung out.
Q - So it was groups of threes that would.....?
E - Right. But uh, or groups of sixes too, but uh, we flew tight formation, much tighter than what the heavies did. We would be flying with oh, the wing tips overlapped about three feet and the wing tip between the wing and the horizontal stabilizer there so it was a fairly tight formation. And the reason why we did it was to concentrate the firepower and keep the enemy fighters from coming through the formation and trying to brake up the formation. And it worked.
00:24:16;09 00:24:48;05 [00:00:31:26] WCWW2-070
:liked flying formation:
Q - So is that comfortable flying that close together?
E - Uh
Q - When you first started doing that was it.....?
E - It was uh, well it was a string, there wasn't any question about that, because I mean you really had to stay on top of what was going on. But no I didn't mind it, as a matter of fact I enjoyed flying formation. [cough]
00:24:48;05 00:25:38;11 [00:00:50:04] WCWW2-070
:started learning in advanced training:
Q - How did you learn to do that? Did you start further out and they would bring you in closer and closer?
E - Yeah, well that all started back when we were in advanced training before we got our commissions and then gradually from there on.
Q - Did you always fly on the wing? Did you, were you
E - No
Q - Would you rotate?
E - Well [cough] I flew lead pilot some too, and, but [pause] but it was, it was interesting.
00:25:38;11 00:27:08;17 [00:01:30:02] WCWW2-070
:went back to US for reassignment:
Q - So, were all 40 of your missions out of, were they all out of Africa?
E - Mmmm.
Q - And then what happened?
E - Well after we finished the 40 missons, then I came back to the states for reassignment, and [cough] I got in the air transport command. And when I reported in, the New Castle Army Air Base there at Wilmington, Delaware, the operations officer, we were talking, he wanted to know about what experience I'd had and what I wanted to do and so on. And to start with, I was preparing some airplanes within the states, I mean they'd be moving a plane from one field to another and so on like that, and I told him I wanted to get into heavy equipment as soon as I could and he says alright. And he said he had some B-26s up at Rome, New York that they were flying down to Bermuda and turning over to the British, he says you help me take some of them down there and I'll send you down, get a four-engine check out, and go on from that.
00:27:08;17 00:29:24;16 [00:02:15:25] WCWW2-070
:overseas transport:
E - And that's what happened. And after I got my, well the [cough] when I went down there I was transferred to what they called Crescent Airlines, which was a C-54 outfit that was flying from the states, it would go to New York, pickup a load, and then go to either Bermuda or Stephenville, Newfoundland depending upon the weather. Then from there into the Azores and then from the Azores into Paris. We were flying supplies over and wounded back. And after I got the 4-engine checkout, made three trips as co-pilot on an overseas run. And then came back and went back down to Homestead Florida for a checkout as first pilot or captain on the overseas run, and that was a six week, very, very extensive training. And, uh, then finished that and then I was back to Wilmington on the overseas run again. And I don't know how many trips I made on that, but after, there after awhile, I was living in an apartment downtown, there were three of us that were living in an apartment. And one day, early one morning I got a phone call that asked for Lieutenant Tresch, I was first lieutenant at the time. |
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