The Pre-Atomic Age

About the Book

The author believes that his teacher, Mrs. White, laid the foundation for everything he has learned since. She gave her students a taste of the world outside.

When he graduated from high school, he joined the Air Corps and became a B17 pilot flying over Hitler occupied Europe in August and September of 1944.

The author and his co-pilots were given a plane nicknamed "Holy Joe." It had 90 holes in it (they were patched with aluminum) when they were expected to take it up in the air. The ground commander stated he would not allow any plane to return early to base on their mission the next day. In the pre-flight check, one of the engines would not start. Eventually an engineer got it going and they joined a formation of 100 B17s that flew to 20 000 feet loaded with bombs. The engine failed again and "Holy Joe" was not able to keep up. They were left behind.

Fearing the ground commander would throw them into Ft. Leavenworth, they did not turn around and go back. They flew over a small town and were sprayed with bullets from the ground which knocked out 2 more engines, the electricity and oxygen forcing them to descend to 12 000 feet in order to breathe. They all became praying men at that instant. Two German gunmen fighters came at them at 2 o'clock high and, to escape, they flew into some clouds above the snow-covered Alps. Unsure whether they were Swiss, German or French Alps the men did not want to leave the cloud cover for fear the Germans would be waiting for them. After flying for 6 or 7 hours, they eventually came down in a blinding rainstorm that had them land on a grass runway within 10 yards of a hangar.

They ended up in Davos Switzerland under guard of about 400 Swiss. Some prisoners were put in slave labour camps, some were shot trying to escape. The author and Frank Hoch escaped 2 months later. It took them 6 days to get out of Switzerland and eventually they got to Italy. Because of the Geneva Conventions they were not allowed to fly anymore and were sent back home to the United States.

About the Author

The author was raised in a family of 12 on a rented farm. He attended a one room school and dealt with dust storms that ran them from the valley. He travelled US Highway 66 in a 1935 Model-T. He graduated in 1940 and joined the Army Air Corps and applied for flying cadets. The author married Dorothy Hendrix in 1943. He graduated with wings and commission in February 1944. He flew a B17 in combat over Europe and was shot down. he escaped a prison camp two months later and returned to the United States on December 23, 1944.