Eric Walz History 300 Collection Warren Ricks Widdison Life during WWII By Warren Ricks Widdison October 27, 2004 Box 6 Folder 30 Oral Interview conducted by J. Tevya Washburn Transcript copied by David Garmon January 2006 Brigham Young University Idaho
2 TW: Can we start out by just going over a few things so anyone else looking at this will know who you are and things like that? WW: Very good. TW: Maybe if you d just state your full name and tell us a little about where you served in WWII, and your positions and roles and things like that. WW: I m Warren R. Widdison, originally from Rexburg, Idaho now living in Nampa, Idaho. I went into the service at the age of 18. I received a draft notice, but instead of being drafted in the Army I enlisted in the Air Corps. I went into the Army on the 1 st of December 1943. Receiving my basic training at Shepherdfield, Texas, went to gunnery training in Arizona Kingman, Arizona. Following that I was assigned to a combat crew. Went to Louisiana, Alexandra, Louisiana, for overseas training where we were assigned found our crew members and trained together. And then in August of 44 we went overseas and then was assigned to the 390 th Bomb Group, the 569 th Squadron of the 590 th [?] Bomb Group and then began flying missions soon after that, most of them over Germany and that area. TW: What was the aircraft? WW: We flew in the B-17 which was known as the Flying Fortress. It had four large engines on it and four six eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen it had thirteen 50-caliber machine guns. My position on the plane was the ball turret underneath. They called it the fish-bowl but it was underneath the belly of the B-17, just back from the bomb bay. I was equipped with two 50-caliber machine guns carrying 950 rounds of ammunition. TW: Do you remember where you were when you heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor? WW: I don t remember where I was at, but that was quite a terrible thing. It was devastating for us to think that we had helped Japan quite a bit over the years and then to have them attack us. Too while we were engaged in trying to oppress the Germans because of their aggressions on England and France and so on, it seemed that it was quite a load for us to carry too by fighting two big nations at the same time. TW: Do you feel like the attack on Pearl Harbor influenced your decision to join? WW: Well it wasn t the influence, see I turned 18 in August of 43 and then at that time we had to register. So I went to the draft board, registered, and then I was classified in 1-A, and then I received notice that I was supposed to report to be inducted into the Army. I guess I felt like I didn t want to go into the Army, and I don t know where this is kinda connected with our religious belief I might say that I had received my Patriarchal blessing and in that blessing I was blessed that I would not see enemy action on the land or on the sea. Going into the Army it seemed I was headed for action on the
3 land and of course it didn t say anything about the air. So I had my father go with me to the draft board and they postponed by induction, then I went and enlisted in the Air Corps. TW: That s great. I m sorry, maybe you already mentioned it, but what was your rank? And did you advance throughout? WW: Course when I went into the service I was a private and by the time I received my discharge, the last part of my missions, I was a staff sergeant. TW: What about friendships, you talked about how you trained together and then you actually got assigned to different missions and such, did you build a lot of friendships? WW: Well over the period of time, course down in basic training we were out on bivouac and so on, and I had some good friends there and had a young man that was not course there were two or three that were LDS but this young man was not LDS but he would come to my tent and I had the Ensign with me and he looked at it and said, Can I borrow that? And I said, You re welcome to it, you just take it, I can just get another one. Then after I got into gunnery training I had a good friend from up in Wyoming, his last name was Welling Blain K. Welling after we came home and I was involved in the Church and I looked up his name one time in the directory and he was a stake president in a stake up near Rock Springs, Wyoming. A good man. But when we went overseas course when I was assigned to a crew I knew none of the men that was assigned to the crew. They were from different areas: New York, New Jersey, Texas, Massachusetts, California, and we went over together. There were nine of us on the crew, and we became very close, and none of them were members of the Church. They had great respect for my faith and beliefs. We were just good friends. We had four officers: a captain and three first lieutenants that were the officers, the pilot, copilot, bombardier, navigator. The rest of us, the other five, were all enlisted men. We became very we were very close, and very concerned for each other. When we were not flying they segregated the officers from the enlisted men, and yet the officers were over to our hut and we were over with them. When we had a leave we went into London or something, the officers and the enlisted men would go together and were very close that way. When we were flying our missions we were always concerned about the other person and what was happening with them. I don t know whether it s appropriate and I say this with all humility but at times when we had some very close calls, some of them would indicate that it was because I was there with them that we were protected because of my faith and feelings and concern close to the Lord and such. TW: You mentioned London, were you then located somewhere near London? WW: We were out a ways, we were in the Franlingham area and Wickham Market as they call it, and I imagine we might have been a hundred miles or so from London. We could catch the train we went into London a time or two on leave. Course back then they had the blackouts there was the nights they had no lights and they were concerned
4 about bombing raids and such. They had the buzz-bomb, they called it a jet-propelled bomb that the Germans would shoot off from on the Belgian coast. They had it programmed and directed so that it would fly over and then when it would get over London, then it would stop they had it so the motor would stop, then it would just drop on them over there. They were sending those over at night quite a bit. Then they flew right over our airbase and you could see in the night the flames from the jet on this buzz bomb. They had search lights around that area and they would put the lights on it and try to shoot it down. And they never did shoot one down while I was there that I know of. It was something that the London... TW: Were you, I should say you and your crew, involved in any of the major battles of the war, or was it mostly other missions before or after the actual battle? WW: Our missions that we d fly, we d carry five one-thousand-pound bombs or ten five-hundred-pound, but we carried five-thousand pounds of explosives. Our missions went like we would fly to Hamburg and bomb a factory that was manufacturing air parts for airplanes. We would fly into Berlin area outside of Berlin they had some underground oil storages there where they were storing their fuel for their airplanes and other activities, and we would bomb them. We went to different places and bombed railroad terminals and bridges and things like that. We flew to Nuremburg and Cologne and Dresden and a lot of those places. All to destroy certain things that would slow down the Germans and make them crippled so they couldn t operate. The only mission that we flew that was not of that sort was at one time in I think it was in October of 44 the Germans had surrounded Warsaw, Poland and cut them off from everything. And they were destitute for materials: medicines, food, and other things. They contacted the different ones (nations) Russia was right on the border and they wouldn t help them and England didn t feel like they could help them and so we received an order that we were going to fly over to help them. So in come the supplies and things, and we loaded our bomb bay full of these supplies and we flew out. We had somewhere near forty bombers full of things we flew over and dropped these supplies and as they went down each type of material was in a different color of parachute. Like the medical was in one and there were supplies in another and it was beautiful to see them going down. So we dropped our supplies and we had to fly in so low that the Germans shot down five of our planes with their tanks. Then we went over to Russia, landed down below Moscow at a makeshift runway, parked in the sagebrush there. The Russians had made some stew in the kettle out there and they served us stew. Then we slept in our planes all night. The next morning we loaded a load of Russian bombs, went down and bombed a railroad yard in Budapest, Hungary and then flew on down to Italy. Down to Foggia, Italy and landed down there at one of our airbasees and we stayed down there five days and flew back up over France, back to England. But the rest of our missions were all at strategic targets to help cripple Germany so that we could get them to surrender. TW: So tell me about a typical mission, was there usually lots of anti-aircraft fire, was there usually enemy fighter planes, what else was going on during these missions?
WW: Not always. We would be notified that night before that we were on alert the next morning they would wake us around three o clock, and we would get ready and go over to the mess hall and have powdered eggs and powdered milk. That wasn t too appetizing but that was our breakfast. Then they would take us by truck down to briefing. We would go to this room. It was kind of a solemn occasion to go in there. We didn t know where we were going on our mission. They had the big board with the map on it covered. We were in there anticipating. Then an officer would come and would of course call attention and we would stand at attention and at ease. And they would pull the drape from the map and we then seen our course plotted. As they explained the direction we were going and why we were going, then they would say, Now in this area there is so many aircraft guns and you will receive some either light flack, medium or heavy flack that was your anti-aircraft shells would be shooting at you. Then they would tell us approximately how many enemy fighter[s] and what kind of fighters, whether it was Fock Wulf, 190 or Hemi (?), or 209 s or whatever, and they would tell us how many of those we would expect. They would tell us your bomb and that we re going to this target to bomb either a railroad bridge, or factory, or oil, or whatever. Then after that we would go and pick up our equipment, our flying suits and such. We wore electrical-heated flying suits so we wouldn t freeze to death up there sixty, seventy below zero. Then they would issue us our dinner which was a package of Wrigley s Juicy Fruit gum, and a Hershey bar. That was our lunch. We took that and then the truck took us out to our plane and our ground crew had been working all night to make sure that everything, that the motors were fine, that our guns were clean and ready, and our ammunition was loaded. Then we would get to our plane and then we double-checked again that everything was alright and we knew we were okay. Of course we got on our outfits. We stripped down to our underwear and then put on our electrical-heated suits and our they had booties that were electric that plugged into our pants and then they all plugged in together. Then our headsets we had the headsets, and our oxygen masks and everything, we needed to check those out. Then we d put on another layer of clothing over our electrical-heated suits, then of course boots. Our gloves, we wore a real sheer nylon glove that we put on before we put our electrical gloves on, and then our other gloves on top on that. The main reason for that is when we got up there and were flying, if our gun should jam and we had to work on it, your bare hide would freeze to the metal because it was so cold. With the silk-nylon glove on, why you could work on it and feel, but you had to work quick or your hands would freeze because it was so cold up there. Then if everything was alright then we were there waiting, and we would wait, and we would watch the control tower. Finally they if they would shoot out a red flair and a yellow flair to show us that everything was alright and we should board and start our engines. We would get in the plane and we d already pulled the props through, they were ready. They would start the engine, then we would wait until it was our turn to taxi out on the taxi strip. We were in little what they called heart stands. We weren t lined up all together, all the planes, you were out there all by yourselves so that if we ever had an attack they couldn t come down the line and destroy the planes. So we were in what they called heart stands and our crew was there and had a little building out there with parts and things. So then we would taxi out and down and get lined up on the runway, and then wait for their orders for us to start down and takeoff. There was only two times 5
that we were out there ready to takeoff and then they shot another amber flair saying that the mission had been canceled. Of course we would go back and then we would go. But when it was our turn to takeoff, we were lined up on the runway and would takeoff. A full load of fuel and a big load of bombs. We would take the whole runway and then would takeoff. And then we d start up and we had a flight plan we would follow. Every plane followed this flight plan so that they didn t get in each other s road. You d fly so many minutes down and then you d turn and come and we d just follow that flight pattern around and around, climbing until we go[t] up to ten thousand feet. Then when we got up to ten thousand feet, we would get in formation. Our element our little group, why we had three planes that were high, three planes in the middle, and three planes below them. They were kind of staggered so that you wouldn t be in the propwash of the other planes. And then we had another group similar that was high and low in the middle of that same number, and that was your formation was forming that way. We would form and then we would gather other B-17 s from other airbases would come in and we would have hundreds of planes headed over that way. But as soon as we got into formation up there at ten thousand then we would head for the Channel. When we got over the Channel, then we got in our positions. I would get down in the ball turret, the tail gunner went back to his position and all. Then we would check our guns. We would load them and fire a burst to make sure that they were both working and everything. We would report and let the pilot know that everything was alright. We were continually climbing and we normally went in on our bomb run flying at 25,000-30,000 feet. Sometimes we would takeoff and it was cloudy and we would takeoff and fly up through the clouds and get in formation up above where it was clear. And there was times then we would fly over with the cloud covering underneath us and we would bomb through that cloud because our bomb sight could detect the target through the clouds. We would drop our bombs and then come back and then come down through the clouds and land. We would even with the clouds we would by flying and then up ahead of us we would see bursts of anti-aircraft shells and we knew that they were waiting for and they had our altitude pretty close figured out. Sometimes we would try to divert, go around and we could do that until when we got to the IP which was the Initial Pinpoint that was the point where we turned and headed for the target. When we did that, and then we d open our bomb bays, it didn t matter what was shooting at us, we flew right through it. We d feel those old shells exploding and hear the flack hitting our plane and of course we d get a bunch of holes and things, but we just flew right through that and dropped our bombs. Then we would peel off and get out of there. I was just reading here in one of these (a veterans newsletter he receives, sent to those who served aboard B-17 s) about one mission we flew where we went over to bomb an underground oil target over near Berlin. And we lost nine planes. That s about seventy men would go on that. So it wasn t always easy. We had the P-51 s there towards the latter part of our missions. We had the P-51 s as escorts. They d meet us after we got over there quite a ways and fly along to kind of protect us. One time we went to the Berlin area and when we turned at the IP, why here comes some German fighters, so our escorts went out to chase them and see if they could shoot some of them down. So we went on to the target, and about the time we got to the target a bunch more jumped us. And that s when we lost quite a few of our planes. 6
7 They (the German fighter pilots) were good fliers you know, they were like us, they had a family and so on. One time one of our bombers was coming back, limping along. He d gotten shot up real bad and was straggling he was away from the formation. A German fighter plane came up and they thought, Well we ve had it, because they thought they couldn t protect their self. He flew right up to them and they could see him and he saluted them and then he took off. It was kind of a special thing. TW: Wow, that is neat. WW: One time we were over on a mission and we got hit on one side. Our one engine on the right started burning and flame was coming out. They re built with an extinguisher, so they applied that and it seemed to quench the fire. It was still smoking some, and then they feathered the prop which was turning the plane. So they went into the wind and it would keep turning and maybe tear off and run through the fuselage. We had to veer out of the formation because we d lost power. As we went off we got a hit on the other side and another motor started on fire. So we went down trying to see if we could blow that out with the wind. They extinguished that pretty well and they had to feather that so we ended up with just two motors. So we went down low to give us a little more power and then we were just kind of skimming along by ourselves. We opened our windows and threw out our guns and ammunition and everything we could tear loose that was any weight at all, that would help. We had already dropped our bombs at the target area. So we just kept going, and flying along. Of course our pilot advised us that we were using a lot of fuel, cause these two motors had to work much heavier, harder to keep us going. We got to the Channel and he said, Now we re just about out of fuel, he said, should we ditch in the Channel, or should we try to make it home? He said there is a possibility we could make it home. We all voted to go for home. So we just kept going and praying, and then he come on the intercom and said, There s our field. And we just come scooting over the top of the trees and the building and come in and landed. When we landed and got down to the end of the runway, one of the motors started coughing and we were out of fuel. It was close, but there was things like that, the Lord blessed us and we come back with over a hundred holes in our plane. We had another time when those anti-aircraft shells came up and went right through our wing. It was not set it exploded above us but it went through our wing, between the wing-tip and the fuel tank, right in there. It made a hole bigger than a basketball right up through it. You had the B-17 which was such a great plane and flew well even though we had damage and such TW: Now go ahead, I m sorry. (I mistakenly thought he was through, then realizing he wasn t, tried to encourage him to go on. He politely asked me to go ahead with my question.) WW: No that s okay. Go ahead. TW: I was just going to ask, and maybe you just told it, but did you have maybe one experience that meant the most to you? Just one experience that meant a lot to you and had an influence on [y]our life and maybe the lives of your fellow crewmen?
8 WW: Well, I just feel that that relationship that we had as a crew was so special and we have kept that association all the rest of our lives. We have got together as a crew. We have gone to California and had a reunion of just our crew down there where the engineer was. We went to New York and had a reunion with the navigator and his family. We went to New Jersey, we went to Texas where the tail gunner is and then we all had them come to Idaho one year and had the reunion here. Actually the Idaho Press-Tribune came, they came and took a picture of us at the Warhawk Museum as a crew and put on the front page of the paper. After I d been home for a while, it was back in 1963, we went back to New York. My father had passed away and my sister was coming home from her mission. We went back to New York to pick her up and I had called the navigator and told him we were coming back that way and that we wanted to come and see them. When we went up there even though he was not a member of the Church, he knew enough about and he d done some checking he had gone and picked up some information about Joseph Smith and his activities there and Brigham Young and one of the places where Brigham Young spent his time. He had these places lined up for us to go see, of course the Hill Cumorah and other things. He had gone out and gotten all these things put together for us. He just felt that we would like to see those things. We had prayer together and they were just so kind and so complimentary. When we had our first reunion as a crew that we didn t have until 1977, we went back to St. Louis and when we got back there, Saturday morning we all got together. We were all going to have breakfast together and this man, the navigator, he said, Now, before we have breakfast, we need to have Warren offer prayer, and give thanks that we re all here safely and that we ll have a good time together. And from there on it seemed like every time we got together he d say, Warren will you offer the prayer for us? It was a very humbling and special occasion as we met together. One experience that sticks in my mind. One morning they came and woke me up we weren t scheduled to fly. They woke me up and said that this other crew they were putting a crew together, from just different ones and I needed to fly with this crew. I had a very chilly feeling and I felt that things weren t going to be good. So I just offered a prayer, a special prayer, to Heavenly Father. That if there is something that s not right wouldst Thou intervene so that no harm would come to us. So we [went] out and I met this crew. We got on the plane and we started it. Actually we were out on the runway, we were the next one to take off and they canceled the runway. I felt a radiant answer to my prayers at that time. TW: (We talked briefly further. He seemed like he d shared what he was ready to share at that time. I thanked him for is time and contribution. I also thanked him for his service to myself and all Americans and free peoples, who benefited from his service and the service of all who served along with him in WWII. When I asked if he had anything further he d like to share, he answered as follows:) WW: I feel like that even though it was a time of great concern, and I felt like that I was serving and putting my life on the line for my country and I was happy to be able to do that in a way that I was fulfilling my duty. I felt that our government was doing the right
thing, it was where we should be. They told us that if we flew five missions successfully that we had paid for our training and the plane and everything and we were profit to the government from there on. We lost a lot of planes, we lost a lot of men over there, but yet we felt that we did a great service and we were an important part in helping to bring the war to an end. We came home on a troop ship the war was still on I finished my missions in January and came home the first part of March in 45. We were in a convoy of some seventy ships coming across the ocean. When we got into New York I was out on the deck and seen the Statue of Liberty and knew that I had reached our own country. It was a great thrill. I again felt a great pride in the fact that I had gone and done what I was asked to do and that we had the greatest country in the world and that we stood for peace and that we were trying to accomplish what we needed to do to establish that peace upon the earth. We felt then, and hoped it would be the last time that anything like that would need to be done, but of course Satan feels otherwise. 9