My Uncle Joe was a member of the Heroic Crew of B17F "Rikki Tikki Tavi" (1 Viewer)

[bromhead]

My best friend, Billy McGrath's dad was a Sergeant in Patton's third, and he was highly decorated, having been awarded a Silver Star and two Bronze Stars. There is a famous photo of Patton taking a piss off a German bridge. In the photo there is a soldier looking a bit bemused. That is my buddy's dad (he has an original copy of the photo in his dad's WWII photo album).

Do you have any photos of your grandfather from the war? If so, you should start a thread about him and post them. Every one of these brave veterans' stories should be preserved and appreciated.

I have posted photos of my father,,48 Missions B17,in my albums

 

[Louis Badolato]

I have posted photos of my father,,48 Missions B17,in my albums

I looked at the photos of your dad and his crewmates from the Passionate Witch 2nd. I especially liked the shot taken of the plane in flight as she dropped her bombload. 48 Missions is an amazing accomplishment! By counting the bombs painted on the nose of Rikki Tikki Tavi, my Uncle flew at least 19 missions, and I thought that was impressive. You must be extremely proud.

 

[bromhead]

I looked at the photos of your dad and his crewmates from the Passionate Witch 2nd. I especially liked the shot taken of the plane in flight as she dropped her bombload. 48 Missions is an amazing accomplishment! By counting the bombs painted on the nose of Rikki Tikki Tavi, my Uncle flew at least 19 missions, and I thought that was impressive. You must be extremely proud.

Very much so,,his missions included a water ditching,,Flak wound ,actions by jets,severe damage to the A/C ,KIAs in the crew and bombing many major ETO targets ,Ploesti included,Also a mention in the history of the 2nd Bmb Group.As an RO he monitored Luft.Fighter and Flak nets While flying in Grp lead A/C.A chance meeting with a former Luft.fighter pilot from the theater,was a highlight of my kidhood,An oral history I wish was taped..Not a huge amount of stories as with many of that generation except to me,but my honor to compare ours when I returned from viet.him being on this side of things with me which he never imagined would happen,thank you for the kind words,incredible men to face flying then.

 

[wwiibuff]

My best friend, Billy McGrath's dad was a Sergeant in Patton's third, and he was highly decorated, having been awarded a Silver Star and two Bronze Stars. There is a famous photo of Patton taking a piss off a German bridge. In the photo there is a soldier looking a bit bemused. That is my buddy's dad (he has an original copy of the photo in his dad's WWII photo album).

Do you have any photos of your grandfather from the war? If so, you should start a thread about him and post them. Every one of these brave veterans' stories should be preserved and appreciated.

Louis, just wanted to thank you for getting me interested in researching my grandfather. I saw my mother this weekend and was able to find some old photos and records of his service that she had. I should have done this years before now, but just haven't. From a previous post I had mentioned that he told me stories when I was a small boy about being in France and taking this town or that, but he never spoke in specifics probably because I was so young. When I mentioned earlier about him feeling such remorse about killing so many Germans and telling this to my mother for years up until his death (but he finally made peace about it), I had always just assumed that it would have been in some close up street fighting or something since he talked about all the towns they took. But he was actually a Captain in a XII Corps FA battalion so I'm not sure. He was awarded the Bronze Star as well and my mother showed that to me. I also remember him talking about how a German MG sounded. He would make a Brrrrrp! sound with his mouth real fast. That has stuck with me for some reason. Up until now, all I ever knew about him was that he was a Captain in Patton's 3rd Army. His mind left him for the last couple years of his life so I wasn't able to really talk to him about the war when I was of age to appreciate and ask questions. Anyway, thanks again for getting me interested in trying to find out more about him as I should have already done. I still have more to research, but here are a couple of photos of him. One is a shot probably before he went to Europe, and one when he came home standing next to my mother.

 

[Louis Badolato]

Great photos, Duke! ^&cool^&cool He and you mom both look really happy he's home.:smile2:

 

[Louis Badolato]

I just found this cool website about Snetterton Heath Airfield with both period photos from WWII and photos of how it looks today:

http://mighty8thaf.preller.us/gallery/Snetterton-Heath?page=1

 

[Iron Brigade]

Dear Louis:

I just read your initial post#1 and found it most interesting. I had a 1st cousin who was a First Lt. pilot of a C-47 who was killled in action in September 1944 some 2+ months before I was born on the shores of the English Channel in Holland. I assume he was part of Operation Market Garden. Again, Thanks for posting your remarks as those who fought in WW2 and survived are now all in thier late 80's or into their 90's & are passing on fast.

"Iron Brigade" / Gary

 

[bromhead]

I met a 332nd Ftr Grp pilot yesterday,,great gentleman who most likely escorted my Fathers 2nd Bm Grp B17 as they flew in the same time period,As I would be happy to meet pilots of the other 14 Ftr groups of the 15th AF,His photo hangs near mine in the Vet wall hosted by the restaurant.Quite the honor.