Related Page:
Ferbache Crew
Page
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Ferbrache Crew: BASTARDS BUNGALOW - 418th Bomb
Squadron
100th BG Photo Archives
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| Lt Elmer E.Ferbrache |
| Lt
Anthony D.Slatinsky |
| Lt
Burton Hufsey |
| Lt
David N.Hegge |
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S/Sgt Harold H.Patterson |
| Sgt
John P.Lucarelli, |
| Sgt William T.Behr |
| Sgt Clifford H.Leming |
| Sgt Benjamin J.Devine |
| Sgt
Howard O.Williams |
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| Crew, as above, joined the 100th
Group on Feb. 26, 1944. Letter from William
Behr 13/3/84 to Jim Brown:
...Ferbrache finished hls tour early
and went home on furlough & returned to the group as a Major.
He, I believe,was assigned to the 349th. I was wounded over
Liege,Belgium late in May & by the time I rejoined the crew, was
five missions behind. When the crew finished 35 in Sept. I was
removed from flight status as some more surgery was due on my arm and I
also had ulcers.. The enlisted members of the crew came back to N.Y.
together on the Queen Mary late in Sept.1944."..Bill adds that the
Officers of his crew were forced to suffer a Liberty ship for their return
to the States.Letter from William T.
"Bill" Behr to Paul West - -Dec 20th, 1993:
...This is a little story of how our
plane was named. March 6, 1944, we were pretty well shot up, both waist
gunners wounded, and though we returned to base the next day we were sent
to some depot to pick up a new plane. Wherever this was it was like an
auto dealers lot and we were told to go out on the line and pick one. As
we walked down the line we came to an unpainted "G" model which caught our
eye. My mother was sort of superstitious and she had sent me off to war
with a Silver Dollar for luck. as we were discussing if this would be our
choice I took my lucky coin out of my wallet and said it shines like my
Silver dollar. That was our choice and it was fittingly named
"Silver Dollar-In God We Trust". After my mother heard what the name was
she sent over nine more lucky coins and to my knowledge the remaining crew
members still have them. The name may have had something to do with
survival as Pecos Reeves, our crew chief, said it lasted for 103 missions
before it was involved in a taxi accident. The story is continued in the
booklet about the museum at Thorpe Abbotts. Col. Jeffrey had the two
wrecks of the accident reassembled as one plane and he used it as his
plane during the food flights after the war.p>There is another item I have had in my mind and it has to do with me on
D-Day, June 6, 1944. On our 21st mission I was wounded over Liege,
Belgium. The next day our crew was to go on Flak Leave (R&R) and instead I
was in the hospital while my buddies went to their Red Cross rest home.
After I was released from the hospital I was sent on my leave to a rest
home in Bournemouth. It was a very nice estate and things were fine until
the morning of June 6th. It was quite evident that the invasion was on and
the folks running the home were finally able to find out that all leaves
had been canceled. For some reason or other we had not been notified,
maybe they were afraid we would tell the wrong parties. It took some doing
but they eventually got us to the railroad. As you can imagine the amount
of traffic in those towns along the channel was much more than the streets
were designed for.
All was fine now, I thought, as I
was on my way back to London for a change of trains. In London I was
picked up by the MP because no service personnel were supposed to be
anywhere except on their base. Even the MP Officer of the day had trouble
getting thru to Thorpe Abbotts as telephone usage that day was restricted
due to the invasion. Eventually he was able to confirm our problem and we
were escorted to the train and headed home. For the life of me I can not
recall who the others were that were involved.Another story involves an incident
that occurred on the hardstand iust prior to our getting into the plane.On
the morning of a mission we were taken to our hardstand and have a normal
procedure to prepare for take-off. Our guns were stored in a tent at our
parking spot and the first order of business was to clean them of excess
oil and install them in our position and check the ammunition that had
been put aboard by the armorers. This could all be done in a few minutes
which meant we had some time before our pilot would tell us to load up. We
normally spent this time in the tent just to get inside. On the morning I
am referring to we were in there when we heard a plane approaching. It had
gotten to the point that we could guess that it was a twin engine noise
and someone remarked that it sounded like a B-25. This tent had some
windows, Mica I believe, and that moment we heard two bombs go off and I
saw two flashes in the runway area. I iumped for the door and hit the
light switch as I landed in the puddle at the door and was crawling
out.way either. I hadn't gone far when our tail gunner stepped right
on my back and flattened me in the mud. Even to this day he has spoken
about this and not in an apologetic manner.
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| MISSION LOG OF WILLIAM T. BEHR -
SORTIES COMPLETED |
| 01. Brunswick, Germany |
| 02 Secret, Germany (No
Ball) |
| 03 Berlin, Germany |
| 04 Brunswick, Germany |
| 05 Augsburg, Germany |
| 06 Munich, Germany |
| 07 Secret, France (No
Ball) |
| 08 Berlin, Germany |
| 09 Brunswick, Germany |
| 10. Recall over enemy territory |
| 11 Quackenbruck, Germany |
| 12 Secret, France |
| 13 Rostock, Germany |
| 14 Berlin, Germany |
| 15 Werl, Germany |
| 16 Marquenneville, France |
| 17 Hamm, Germany |
| 18 Friedrickshafen, Germany |
| 19 Sarregvemines |
| 20 Couvron, France |
| 21 Liege, Bel (Wounded) |
| 22 Berlin, Germany |
| 23 Paris, France |
| 24 Bourth, France |
| 25 Auxerre, France |
| 26 Kiel, Germany |
| 27 Schweinfurt, Germany |
| 28 Werseburg, Germany |
| 29 Ludwigshaven, Germany |
| 30 Battle Line, France |
-end-
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