A sobering story for the weekend
There’s a little park we pass occasionally on our travels. The sign says Johnson’s Corner and there’s an American flag. I asked Uncle B to stop there the other day so I could read the memorial, and here’s what it said:
This memorial was erected to honour the memory of 23 year old 1st Lt William H Johnson of the U.S.A.A.F. who sacrificed his life on Thursday the 13th April 1944. William (Bill) was the pilot of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, serial number42-31719 of the 711th Bombardment Squadron, 447th Bombardment Group, United States Army Air Force. At the time of his death William’s squadron was based at station number 125, Rattlesden, Bury St Edmunds Suffolk.
Following the crew briefing which had been at 0800hrs, Bill’s aircraft was one of 243 B-17’s which were taking part in a raid to bomb the Messerschmitt Aircraft plant at Augsburg, Bavaria, southern Germany. The bombing altitude of 22 thousand feet was reached as the group crossed the French coast. About one hundred miles later the bombers came under heavy accurate flak fire which caused a number of planes to abort and head home. This included William’s aircraft, having suffered heavy damage. Once the Flying Fortress was over the Kent coast at Hythe, William ordered his crew to bale out from their stricken aircraft. As he crossed the Romney Marsh and approaching the village of Ham Street, William realised that his B 17 was going to crash into the village. In order to avoid the inevitable loss of life amongst the local population, he sacrificed his life by crashing the huge bomber to the south of the village.
FRANK J HAZZARD SUBMITTED THE FOLLOWING
For about twenty minutes after we hit the French coast and were well on our way to Augsburg every thing went along smoothly but then suddenly all hell broke loose. A terrific explosion sounded directly beneath my turret, I knew we had been hit pretty badly because I heard the co pilot saying that he was going to feather number four engine, and that number three was out also. The power line in my top turret was also hit, rendering my guns useless. All four officers had been wounded by the flak, so I proceeded to the cockpit to see if there was anything I could do.The co pilot had been hit in the arm rather badly. I cut his sleeve open and bandaged his wrist and arm. The pilot had been hit in the back of his neck, but he told me to take care of the Navigator first. I went to the nose of the ship and saw that the navigator had been hit in the leg. I slit open his trouser leg, the wound was bleeding very badly, and I knew he must have been in great pain, but he remained navigating the ship. The Bombardier had also been hit in the arm but the cut was not bleeding so I figured he would be OK. The co pilot called me and asked me to transfer the fuel from number four to number one engine. This done I started to throw all my ammunition and ammunition boxes, flak helmet, and other removable equipment out of the plane in order to lighten the load. I went to the nose and did the same there.
About this time we were hit again and number one engine went out. We were flying on one engine and losing altitude and flying speed all the time. I guess we were in a pretty bad spot but I was too busy running from my turret to the nose to the cockpit and back again to think to much about it. Down in the nose I put another bandage on the navigator’s leg. When we hit the channel we were flying at 8,000 feet, when we hit the English coast we were at 1,500 feet. Just as I was thinking we were going to make it back to base in one piece, I felt he ship vibrating something awful, looking out of my window I saw that she was on fire. I was in the nose at the time, tapping the navigator on the shoulder I showed him the fire he nodded. I then went back to the pilot’s compartment, I saw the Bombardier on the catwalk of the bomb bay looking for his chute. I remembered seeing it in my turret so I went and got it for him. Because of his wounds he could not put his chute on, so I snapped it on for him. And led him to the bomb bay doors where he jumped out. I thought every one but me and the pilot had left the ship. I looked towards his seat and saw him getting up preparing to jump. I later found out he never made it, and he was killed when the plane crashed about half a mile away from where I jumped. When I landed I saw the co pilot a few feet away. The first thing he said to me was, ‘Combat’s rough. You can get hurt at this sort of thing’. It struck me very funny at the time but I guess there is nothing funny about what we had just been through. It was only for the skill of our pilot that we got back.
Think on that, folks, and have a good weekend.
February 21, 2025 — 7:46 pm
Comments: 5
Flight of the Daks
To commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, a flight of 75 Dakotas (that’s C-47’s to us ‘Merkins) flew to Normandy today and dropped a cargo of paratroopers. It seems likely they won’t be able to do that for the 100th, so it’s a big deal.
Just to the West of us, sadly. We didn’t see nothink in the sky. But for all the plane footage you can stand, check out this excellent TwitchTV channel. They have hours and hours of behind the scenes (and in front of the scenes) footage of the prep and the flight. Badger House has resonated with the sound of aircraft engines all day.
Poor old Uncle B is an aviation nut and would love to have seen it go over. The picture is one of his from a couple of years ago. We crawled into this one and were astonished at how primitive the controls were. Not to mention the seats.
Those poor bastards, 75 years ago.
June 5, 2019 — 9:09 pm
Comments: 11
Fog of war
I don’t have any local insights on this one. We are, fortunately, nowhere near Westminster.
The map is making the rounds of Twitter. It supposedly shows people on Al-Jazeera’s Facebook(?) page reacting to the news, but why would it put the laughing faces and thumbs ups dotted around the map like that? That’s not how likes work.
Twitter also was first to report that the shooter was hate preacher Abu Izzadeen (born Trevor Richard Brooks of Jamaican descent in East London) and the first to report that Izzadeen’s lawyer says it can’t be him, he’s in jail. (Sure looks like the guy, though).
So basically all we know is four dead (including the, or a, attacker and a policeman), twenty injured and Twitter is an unreliable narrator.
March 22, 2017 — 8:15 pm
Comments: 13
Where are you, Winston Churchill?
Went to an airshow Saturday. There were several in the South of England this weekend. They do this so the Red Arrows (for example) can fly down the coast and do one show after another in one big go.
The picture is (part of) the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. The RAF has one Lancaster bomber, one Hurricane and one Spitfire they’re keeping in the air and they fly them together to the various shows. People love them.
I hit up Wikipedia to find out when the Battle of Britain officially started and ended (answer: depends if you ask the Brits or the Krauts). I learned that it has the distinction of being (the only?) battle to be named before it was fought. Winnie named it in his “finest hour” speech:
What General Weygand has called The Battle of France is over. The battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of a perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour”.
Makes you nostalgic for a time when our leaders not only acknowledged a war for the survival of Christian civilization, but actually were on our side in it.
Anyway. Highlight of the day: watching a soldier teach a little boy to cock and fire a Glock, with his mother helping out. I could’ve wished for them all to show a little more barrel discipline, though — even if it was a dummy training weapon.
Low point: the little boy who ran up to his mother shouting, “Mummy, look! It’s one of those things cowboys wear to keep their guns in!” To his credit, he was super excited about it, but it was sad to see a ten-year-old boy who didn’t know the word holster.
Apologies to Uncle B for mangling his nice picture down to weasel blog size.
August 15, 2016 — 6:38 pm
Comments: 16
No. More. TEDDYBEARS.
Within 24 hours, the people of Paris had jammed the blood donation centers and within 48, Hollande launched massive bombing attacks on IS targets. Give them their due; that was just right.
But, holy shit, when I saw the soft toys and the candlelight vigils roll out (especially across the US) before the bodies were even cold, I wanted to punch something. And don’t get me started on social media.
I understand people want to do something, and there ain’t much you can do from thousands of miles away. But that display of mawkishness, the déjà vu of useless gestures…honest to god, if the first thing you felt after the attack on Paris was sadness and not blazing anger, we’ve got a problem.
November 16, 2015 — 11:26 pm
Comments: 28
Triggered!
My parents divorced when I was about nine. My father had traveled a lot for years, so the difference in my daily life wasn’t great, but it did mean the occasional formal Day of Visitation with my dad.
This is one of the first movies he took me to. If you haven’t seen it, Tora! Tora! Tora! is a two and a half hour WWII epic largely in Japanese with subtitles. It’s possible a major film was released that year that would be more horrible and boring to a nine year old girl, but I kinda doubt it.
Anytime the damn thing is on TV here — and it seems to be once a month or so — Uncle B sings out, “Weaselllll! Your movie is onnnnn!”
Anyhoo, mojo recommended it as one of his favorite Memorial Day flicks in the thread below, so I figured I’d share. I can’t say as I’d recommend it to the little girl in your life.
Hope you’re all having a decent long weekend; we sure have.
May 25, 2015 — 8:03 pm
Comments: 21
Oh, *those* WMD. Sure, there were some of *those*
Okay, that NY Times article about chemical weapons today. Help me out here. They put this together from a bunch of Wikileaks stuff and some FOIA requests. It shows that US soldiers were finding chemical weapons regularly from 2004 and 2011 and some were hurt by them.
And the Times is scolding the government for downplaying the danger and significance of chemical weapons? WTF happened to “Bush lied, people died”? Yeah, they’re describing them as a bunch of old crappy weapons (and of American design, woooo!) but isn’t that entirely in line with what we expected to find and were told we hadn’t? Tens of thousands, by the sound of it.
And why did the military downplay this? Why did the government?
And why is the Times doing a bunch of original reportage on this now? Could it be that ISIS is closing in on this stuff and they want an alibi when the bad guys start lobbing chemical weapons around…?
October 15, 2014 — 9:21 pm
Comments: 18
Can he do that?
Tonight was the second and final night of my first aid course. I gave CPR to the dummy. I passed the exam. Still, god help you if you have a heart attack in front of me.
So, a quickie. I know we’ve subjected soldiers to dangerous experiments in the past. MK Ultra comes to mind. Standing close to nuclear testing, as above. I always thought these acts were mitigated because the military really didn’t know how dangerous they were when they went on. Probably.
I also assumed there’d since been…I dunno. Legislation or a regulation or something to allow soldiers to opt out of dangerous experiments not centrally important military service. I mean, those things have generated so much controversy.
So, how the fuck can we knowingly send thousands of soldiers into the middle of an epidemic hot zone for reasons not obviously vital to American security? I mean, that’s not what they signed up for. That’s not what the military is for, is it? Is there a mechanism to opt out? Also, by the way, it’s a really, really bad idea.
I haven’t seen anyone else asking this question, so I have to assume it’s an incredibly dumb question. But it’s mine and I’m asking it.
September 17, 2014 — 10:13 pm
Comments: 22
spectators
You know that itching, burning, apocalyptic feeling? Yeah, me too.
Not our leaders, though. It’s not just Obama — Call Me Dave is on vacation, too. And it’s just grand to see snaps of him on the beach in the middle of this unholy shitstorm.
I get the feeling these guys think if they act like this is no big deal, it won’t be. Because if they act like it’s a big deal, it will be obvious how badly they’ve misjudged the ‘Arab Spring’ from the beginning. And that would be too, too embarrassing.
As part of a radio feature about WWI the other day, the BBC reeled off all world’s current war zones. With the exception of Ukraine and the Koreas, every single one of them was a case of Islamists versus the world.
They got around having to admit this explicitly by blaming ISIS in one place, Israel and Hamas in another, unnamed Islamists in another, Boko Haram in another, “separatists” in another, “militants” in another. Without ever acknowledging what all those fights have in common.
Odin help us all.
August 11, 2014 — 9:39 pm
Comments: 27
Ugh. This day.
I don’t post an essay on September 11 any more. I’m as heartsick and angry as I was on this day twelve years ago, but I’ve already said everything I have to say about it.
This is just a bad topic for my silly blog, but I can’t ignore it, either. So, a non-post post.
Talk about whatever you like in the comments. If you want cheering up, poke this.
September 11, 2013 — 7:33 pm
Comments: 12