FERRYING BOMBERS TO AFRICA:
Editor’s
Note: While relaxing over some vintage
Scotch, I had a conversation with my father-in-law, Wm. “Bill” Ross, about his
WW2 experience with the B-17. He did not
elaborate on combat, but related his experience of ferrying his plane to Africa. I wish that I could have recorded the
conversation. However, he deployed along the same route as described by Charles
Arnette:
http://www.cgc.maricopa.edu/learning/service/arnett.html
Charles
Arnett
Charles and his crew members were then issued a brand new
B-24 Liberator bomber. Arnett personally signed for the $250,000 plane and took
great pride in it by naming it the Boomerang. * There is a bit of significance
to the name he had chosen. A boomerang is a specific weapon it is designed to
hit a target and if it is thrown properly, and encounters nothing in its
flight, it circulates back into the hands of the thrower. *
As the area engineer was refueling the Boomerang in Florida, a stick of gum fell out of his
shirt pocket and landed in the fuel tank. The incident was reported to Charles
Arnett and in return he informed the maintenance crew. Unfortunately, the
maintenance crew at that base was unable to fix the tank. Therefore, instructed
them to go to the next base in Puerto Rico where it would be properly examined. Because of the gum
incident, the crew was forced to fly off all four engines with merely three
tanks!
In Puerto
Rico they
were given the same story of how they were unable to fix the fuel tank. This
meant that they had to fly the planes clear to the next base which was located
in Brazil. Once they landed in Brazil, Arnett knew without a doubt in his
mind that they needed all four tanks to make it across the ocean and in to Africa. Because of the situation at hand
he and his crew members were forced to stay in Brazil for three days while the fuel tank
was drained and replaced.
The next two stops were in Africa at Dakar and Marrakech.
….Wm. “Bill” Ross next stops were Algeria and Tunisia (97th Bomb
Group Bases) where he entered combat on 50 missions against Axis shipping and
targets in Tunis, Sicily, Sardinia, Naples, Bologna, and Rome.
Dakar, Senegal (from Col. Hank Tillman): These native men would help to guard
their tents and camp while they were out. Some things still disappeared
at times as the security was difficult to maintain with the temporary nature of
the bases.
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