ST28P7TS

B-17E Crew's Story

formed in Dec 1941

left USA Jan 2, 1942

via Africa

to 28th Sqd 19th BG Java Jan 21, 1942

First mission within 36 hours

by Col Ted Swanson

Tampa, FL to Porto au Prince, Haiti to Belem, Brazil to Natal, Brazil to Freetown, Sierra Leone, Africa

to Kano, Nigeria to Karthoum, Sudan to Cairo, Egypt to Habbaniyah, Iraq to Bangalore, India to Sumatra

to Surabaya, Java to Malang -- Java Evacuation; Java to Broome, Australia Mar 2 1942 Broome to Melborne

to Cloncurry to Mareeba, Australia to Port Moresby Aug 1942 -- the tide was turned

B-17 E, with tail gun (but no self sealing bomb bay tanks); replacement for B-17D’s

In December 1941, my wife, Gladys' mother, brother Willis and family were visiting us at Langley Field. On Sunday afternoon December 7, 1941, we decided to visit the Mariners Museum at Newport News,VA. While there, it was announced over the speaker system that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and that all military should return to their units immediately if not sooner!

We went back to Langley Field,VA and everybody was running around like a hill of disturbed ants. I was told to be ready to leave on a minute's notice. I asked "To where and what should I take?" They said "We don't know, better take everything and be prepared for anything". They woke us up at three in the morning and said that I should be ready to take off the first thing in the morning.

B17D, the latest model at Clark Field Dec 8, 1941, replaced by the newer B-17E’s

I went down to the flight line and found the last and only B-17 and a completely strange crew waiting for me. However, I had flown a couple of times with the copilot, Earl Longacre. Ted Adamczyk was the radio operator. He was so tall and lanky we made a side gunner of him because we could not fold him up to fit into the ball turret. Sgt Norman Forte, his assistant, took the ball turret. Leo Ferraguto was crew chief and George Sweedar was assistant crew chief. We made a tail gunner out of him because he loved to sleep in the tail of the plane even through thunderstorms. Then Gabriel Frumpkin, the navigator, and O'Neil Reynalds Bombardier completed the crew. After flying together for three weeks, Leo and George had cured the rocker box cover oil leaks and after flying several missions together where you depended on each other to keep the whole crew and airplane alive, we became quite good. friends.

We took off at about ten o'clock Dec 8, 1941 for Fort Knox, KY. About 3 plus hours out we started to lose oil pressure on one engine. We had a quick pow-wow with the crew. By now we were closer to Fort Knox than to Langley and since goodbyes were so painful that we would have to keep saying goodbye until we left, we decided to go on.

The oil problem fixed the next morning, we took off for Lowry Field, Colorado. The Key brothers were there and I must have met Jim Etter, Al Key's navigator that evening. We would both get a contaminated yellow fever shot at MacDill Field, FL. within a day or two of each other and 3 months later in Melbourne, Australia we both came down with Yellow Jaundice within a day or two of each other.

We then took off for Geiger Field, Wash. to patrol the west coast. I never did go on a patrol mission because I always got ranked out of my airplane. It was the only one with guns and armor plate and for some reason the Captains wanted my plane! After about a week, somebody wrote orders on us to go to PLUM, the code name for the Philippines. We spent Christmas eve 1941 on the train on our way to Bakersfield, Calif. to pick up a new B-17E. The train stopped quite often so the Key brothers got off and cut a Christmas tree. We talked the conductor into getting us some eggshells from the dining car so we would have some glue to make paper chains. Somehow the tree got decorated.

I had made arrangements with Earl, my copilot, that I would do the leg work at Bakersfield, CA while he spent time with his wife and he would do the leg work at MacDill, FL while I spent time with my wife. Gladys left Rochester on a weekend so didn't get the money she should have. She got on the train for Florida without a ticket and managed to stay on until somewhere in Georgia when the conductor insisted that she must get off. Some GI overheard the conversation and gave her enough money to complete the trip. We checked. into a hotel in Tampa, FL. We had New Years eve dinner with my navigator, Gabriel Frumpkin.

Map 2 New B-17E crew starts Bakersfield, CA to Tampa, FL -- Destination Malang, Java

Well anyway, I believe it was 2 January 1942 at some ungodly hour like 3:00 AM that some over-eager officer at MacDill called me at my hotel in Tampa and wanted to know why I was at the hotel instead of at the field. He told me in no uncertain terms to get my butt out to the field immediately or else! Like a damned fool, I complied. It was 5:00 AM before I found a mattress and cover and a bunk. Then I got up at 7:00 to get our airplane ready.

We finally took off at about 8:00 PM for a 12 hour flight to Port au Prince, Haiti so I had been up like 30 hours by the time we landed. See maps following text. Then to make matters worse, we landed at the wrong field. It should have been Waller Field, so we took a taxi. The driver drove full throttle just missing any animals or humans along the road that was almost worse than a combat mission. Any way, we got off the ground enroute to Belem, Brazil in the mouth of the Amazon river. One thing I remember about the road from the airport to Belem was that they must have collected all the pot holes in the world to build it!

[01-03-42] We took off for Natal, on the east tip of Brazil. About 4 hours out, I asked the navigator for a position report-- "Ah-ah, I have been sick for the last two hours". (It was very hot and bumpy.) He said "I haven't the slightest idea where we are." Of course, over the Brazilian jungle there are no checkpoints like roads or railroads. We came upon a town and I asked Gabe "What town is that?" I can't find it on the map" was the reply. I was not about to stop circling that town until we identified it. "Bring up the maps" I said. We couldn't find it either. "Bring me the map beyond these" I said. I identified the town, but Gabe insisted that wasn't it so I said "Prove that it is not." Gabe said "I can't." "Then plot me a course from that town to Natal." We arrived. late afternoon and I immediately started to refuel since we had to do it by a wobble pump from 55 gallon drums and 1800 gallons is a hell of a lot of wobbling, so all the crew had tired arms by the time we were ready to take off for that long trip across the Atlantic Ocean.

Map 3 Tampa, FL to Port au Prince, Haiti to Belem, Brazil

Map 4 & 5 Belem, Brazil to Natal, Brazil across the Atlantic to Freetown, Sierra Leone, Africa

Our Assistant Crew Chief, George Sweeder, just loved to fly the B-17 by instruments and since it took so much of their time to keep the autopilot in working condition, and. since George was so good at flying it, we would let him fly it any time and as long as he wanted to fly. I understand that this really paid off later after somebody took over my crew when I was assigned to the 8th Service Squadron as Maintenance and Flight Test Engineering Officer. I understand that they went out on a very rough mission in very dirty weather. On the way home, the pilot and copilot got so sick that they could. not fly. George spoke "I can fly this plane." They gave him a try and he flew it all the way back to Australia under actual instrument conditions. In hindsight, somebody should have put him in for a DFC.

Map 6 Freetown, Sierra Leone to Kano, Nigeria to Karthoum, Sudan to Cairo, Egypt

[01-06-42] We took off just after dark from Natal on the east tip of Brazil for Freetown, Sierra Leone on the west tip of Africa. When flying into the night and into a storm, it gives you a very depressed feeling, but after flying all night through tropical storms and then to be flying out of the storm into daylight and sunshine, you get a feeling of great relief and exhilaration even if land is not in sight yet. When land is finally sighted, it just adds to that great feeling. After we landed at Freetown and taxied up to the refueling spot, I don't remember it, but my crew chief, Leo Ferragutto, tells me that one engine quit for lack of fuel.

We flew down to Accra where I met a cadet classmate. He begged me for a .45 and some ammunition. He said the natives were sticking their heads into his hut and screaming at all hours of the night. He hadn't had a good night sleep in months. So, violating all regulations, I fixed him up. At our 50th Reunion in San Antonio, I tried to talk him out of that .45, but naturally he no longer had it. He said be had never fired it.

[01-09-42] From there we flew to Kano in mid-central Africa, a real small dirt field. We took off absolutely no wind. I used landing lights during takeoff and when you reached the end of the runway, you pulled back on the stick and hollered "Lights out, wheels up!" and went on instruments. I almost made a fatal mistake. I got into a very steep turn before I had decent airspeed. The artificial horizon was in such a horrible position that Earl thought it was malfunctioning and caged it on me. Between saying "NEEDLE, BALL, AIRSPEED" I was swearing a streak. Anyway, we lived through it.

[01-10-42]We were on our way to Karthoum, Sudan where we got our cholera shots that left a knot in our arms for months. Then up to Cairo where we did maintenance and saw the pyramids for a couple of days. Our next stop was Habbaniyah, Iraq where the Tigress and Euphrates rivers join. We told the Punjab guard not to let anybody near our airplane, so the next morning, he would not let us near our plane. We had to get some British authorities to straighten things out.

Map 7 Cairo, Egypt to Habbaniyah Iraq to Bangalore India

Map 8 Habbaniysh, Iraq to Bangladore, India to Sumatra

[01-14-42] Next stop, Bangalore, India where we had to prepare for that long hop to Java. We looked over the city. It was windy that day. The dust and dirt was thick and begger boys were on every street corner. We felt so creepy and crawly that we were really glad for a shower that night.

An amusing incident occurred at Karthoum. Jim Etter haggled with an Arab for hours over a large pile of carved ivory and used the left over large, impressive Brazilian bills. Al Key kidded him "That's celluloid, not ivory." Jim said "That's got to be ivory". He haggled too hard. Al said "Let's prove it" and applied his lighter to the edge of the pile. "Whoosh" and the whole pile disappeared. Jim said "Why that dirty, low-down, lying, cheating SOB!"

Map 9 Northern Sumatra to Surabaya, Java to to 19th BG at Malang, Java

[01-19-42] They would only let us take off in groups of three. They said we would have a few tropical storms enroute. We climbed up to 17,000 feet and got into the damndest snow storm over the equator. We were really icing up and the deicer boots didn't seem to remove much so I went down until it melted off. Now our only problem was that we had to clear some, or rather one real high mountain that was directly on course, so we climbed back up. We missed the mountain and saw Sumatra below us, but our gas gages had been bouncing on empty for too long. We descended, but could not find the field. A strange plane pulled up along side of us. We swung our guns on him. He wiggles his wings and buzzed a field that the natives were busy removing obstacles from. We had already concluded that he was Dutch. The only place we could find to sleep was the concrete porch of a municipal building. We were so tired we had no trouble going to sleep.

[01-20-42] We gassed up and flew into Surabaya, Java, arriving about 13:15 on 21 January 1942. We made the trip quicker than other crews. We were met by Frank Kurtz who took us into the field at Malang, our new home base. It was an L shaped sod field with plenty of water puddles on it.

Within 3 days, Jan 25, they had us on our first mission. They gave us Fred Crimmons for a combat experienced pilot. We ran short of gas and. landed on a beach on the northeast edge of Java. We asked, the Dutch for some jacks and 300 plankas ("plankas" is Dutch spelling for English "planks"). The Dutchman said "300 plankas? Hell, there is not 300 plankas in all Java." They did lend us Ad Vink and his light house tender, the Polestar. He stood off shore while we used the one barn jack to jack up one wing as high as we could and put plankas under that wheel and shoveling a lot of sand too. Then we would jack up the other wing. We kept repeating this until we had our plane out of the sand and could build a short runway of plankas. One night Captain Ad Vink invited us to dinner in his cabin. He started off with a good dry martini and boy, after a hard day of jacking and shoveling it sure eased the pain. On Jan 28 we put in just enough gas to get to the field, ran up about 60 inches of manifold pressure, released the brakes and we were off the beach. The prop blast picked up those heavy plankas -- three inches thick, a foot wide and eight to ten feet long! Some of the plankas struck the horizontal stabilizer and put some holes in it.

We were each authorized one telephone call from Java to home. Both Earl and I put in our requests. We stayed up until after midnight trying to get our calls through and then up at six for a mission. After two weeks of this we were so tired we had trouble staying awake flying formation. I would backhand Earl and say "You fly this thing while I nap awhile." A few minutes later Earl would backhand me and say the same thing. Then the Nips would attack ending our napping procedure and put us in a scared wide awake mode. All this time, Gladys knew I was O.K. because I was trying to call her. It was sure good she did not know the true facts.

[02-08-42] On about the third mission, I was flying on Duke DuFrane's right wing. Just after takeoff a little gremlin yelled in my ear "Swanson, you are not coming back today". We were jumped by about 20 Zeros. They came directly at us head on with little lights blinking in their wings. I said "I'm not scared", but I looked down at the bag of my oxygen mask and it was hyperventilating. Later, I learned that the blinking lights were muzzle flashes, then I got scared! The best we can figure is that Tom Schumacher was flying on Dukes left wing. I noticed a flicker of flame through Duke's small radio operator's window and before I could pick up my mike and tell him to salvo everything, flames were coming out the side gunner's window. The crew started bailing out. That's quite a decision -- To bail out of a flaming B-17 full of bombs into a shark-infested sea. I guess they decided right because DuFrane's plane descended 2000 feet and exploded. We never found any of them.

When we returned to Malang it was under attack so we landed at a small auxiliary emergency field and promptly sunk up to our axles in mud. So the gremlin was right, but not in the way I thought. He almost made a coward out of me. We got about 500 natives and two good ropes and out we came. They sent Captain Montgomery over to fly the plane out -- I guess they didn't trust me yet.

I guess I borrowed. Al Key's plane while mine was being fixed. Al was real unhappy. He said "Ted, I lend you a perfectly good airplane and what the hell do you do? You take it out and get it shot full of holes!" I brought it back and there were only 20 holes in the wing.

Our mess sergeant ran out of food and the only thing be could find locally was nest ripened eggs. He could not fry them because they would run too flat, so he made them into a French toast mixture and the cockroaches would fall into it overnight and would end up nice and crisp on the toast. Then to make matters worse, they put the mess hall in the latrine. After waiting in line for a half hour breathing those intriguing latrine fumes and after eating delicious french toast with a couple of nice crisp roaches with Borden's sweetened condensed milk for syrup, we were so combatish we would fight anything or anybody! Now I knew why the staff of the 19th Group put the mess hall in the latrine!

[02-03-42] On 8 Februarywe made a raid on Balikpapan on the east coast of Borneo. We made our bomb run at 25,000 feet and were attacked by several Zeros, setting our No.1 engine on fire. They also hit us with a 20 mm explosive shell just below the left gunner's position and blew the sides out of a couple of ammo cans and several flying suits on the center catwalk. There was suit fur and shrapnel all over the back end of that plane, but not a scratch on any crew member. I gave an order to bail out over Arendis Island on the south edge of Borneo, then we landed our Queen wheels up on the tidal flats. Earl quickly put out the oil tank fire. The tide came in and almost covered the wings. The mosquitoes had, a feast and we had no sleep. Earl shook hands with the island chief and talked him out of a cooking pot for the dove I shot with our survival shotgun. The next day the US Navy picked us up in a Dutch Dornier flying boat. They were unhappy that we took so long to get out to deep water in our rubber life raft because we insisted on taking the Norden bomb sight with us. It sure made us sad to leave the Queen that had taken us halfway around the world, through several missions and off a beach. If we had just feathered the engine at altitude and let it get really cold, there would have been no hot oil to feed the flame and the fire should have gone out and could have easily flown back to base on three engines and saved the plane for all those urgently needed spare parts. So much for late information and questionable judgment.

[02-12-42]?We took off one night for an early raid on Palembang, Sumatra. We really experienced St. Elmo's fire that night. Each raindrop that hit the windshield fluoresced and each prop was a disk of fluorescent light. The bombardier, Neil Reynolds, came out of the nose like a scared rabbit. He screamed "Sparks are jumping off my machine gun a foot long!" It was a real eerie experience.

We were supposed to make our bomb run just below the cloud cover, but the clouds kept lowering so when we broke out and started the bomb run, we were at 2000 feet. We could see the ack-ack guns on the ships firing and then a black rose would appear in front of us. This continued for the entire run.

On another mission, a gunner, reported to be John Hines, called out, "I have been hit in the stomach". I could envision blood and guts all over the place. A Jap 30 caliber had ricocheted off the large wooden 250-500 round 50 caliber shipping box that we sat on the narrow catwalk below the side guns. We fed the ammo from this box through the flared bottom of a small ammo can so the gunner would not have to use valuable time to change cans when under attack. The bullet went through his flying jacket, through his flying pants and fell down inside his pants. He said it felt like a mule had kicked him in the stomach.

Map 10 Java to Broome, Australia to Melborune to Cloncurry to Mareeba, Australia

[03-02-42] We were moved from Malang to Madiun just before this mission. We stayed at Madiun until we evacuated Java on 2 March 1942 at midnight. We had picked up a new navigator, Thomas B. Joyce. We headed for Broome Australia and landed about 08:00. He missed his ETA by less than two minutes, and I never congratulated TB for this excellent job.

Our landing at Broome was one hour or one hour and one day from a big Jap raid on Broome that sank a Dutch flying boat full of refugees. We had 18 refugees aboard our B-17. Then down to Perth, where I got a little confused and landed at a small field of only 2700 feet! Now our problem was to get off and to the right field so we could get some gas. I should say "petrol". Some of the crew celebrated a little too much and got thrown in the brig. Earl couldn't talk the Aussies into letting them out so we had to take off for Melbourne without them. They said that was the longest damned train ride they ever want to take! When we arrived in Melbourne, the 19th Group was in the process of reorganizing. We got settled into the Regency Hotel and had a large meal of lamb, but I guess it was mutton because that night I was feeling real bad and had to go to the toilet one could smell the sheep jumping out of the barn. I felt so horrible the next morning that I checked in to sick call. The doctor sent a blood sample in for a check. After several hours, he said "That can't be, that's an Oriental disease". Then he told me that I had Yellow Jaundice. He put me in an Aussie hospital. My close friend to be was there. Our main no-fat meat course was TRIPE! After three weeks of a tripe diet, Jim Etter couldn't stand it any more and got us transferred to the U S Army 4th General Hospital. Of course, I didn't complain! They called us the Gold Dust twins we were so yellow. We drove the nurses nuts with our maverick bridge playing. After I was released from the 4th General, I checked into the Regency again. I put on all the clothes I owned, went to bed and shivered! Then walked the streets and shivered! I was real happy when they gave me a B-17 and sent me up to Cloncurry, Queensland where I recommended that they check Earl out as a First Pilot. Unfortunately, the check pilot said "No". I had made Earl do half the landings and take-offs on our entire trip to Java. Later, he was checked out O.K.

Map 11 Mareeba, Australia to Port Moresby New Guinea

[04-??-42] Shortly after my arrival at Cloncurry, I came down with Dengue fever or bone-break fever which is a better name because you ache all over and the minute you twitch you feel great, but the second you relax it hits you again. After two weeks of twitching on an aspirin diet, you are so tired you don't know what ailed you, but by then the fever has run its course.

They immediately made me Train Commander to take the 30th Squadron to Mareeba on the Atherton tablelands 50 miles west of Cairns. It was quite a trip.

On 1 August I went up to Port Moresby as a spare flight leader and ended up spending all night helping other crews load their bombs. One crew had raised one bomb three times and couldn't hook the shackle on the bomb rack. Due to a design error the sling was made too long. By putting a pillow between sling and bomb, it solved the problem. On 12 August 1942, I was transferred to the 8th Service Squadron at Charlieville as Flight Test Maintenance Officer. My experiences there in the 45th Service Group is another story.

Many of the Replacement crews moved up to Port Moresby and participated in the subsequent year and a half fight to reach and take the Marianas.

Many of the original 19th BG, at Clark Field Philippines, returned to the States to form up new

B-29 units for operations out of the Marianas, they would not return until Feb 1945.

MAP / EVENT INDEX

Map 1 The B-17 “Queen” used the prewar Pan American route to the Far East

Map 1 The World Dec 7 1941 Pearl Harbor Bombed

Map 2 The USA Jan 2 1942 Leave Tampa, FL

Map 3 The Caribbean

Map 4 South America

Map 5 The South Atlantic

Map 6 Africa

Map 7 The Near East

Map 8 India

Map 9 Java Jan 21 1942 Arrive 19th BG Malang

Map 10 Australia Mar 2 1942 30th Sqd, 19th BG Far Pacific Air Force

Map 11 New Guinea Aug 12 1942 8th Sqd, 45th Service Group

The 44 day life span of the Queen

Bakersfield, CA Dec 26 1941

South edge of Borneo Feb 8 1942