Home : World War II : United States Army Air Forces :

458th Bomb Group

A Command Pilot's Last Mission

This is the story of a command pilot, Major Chuck Booth, who flew his last combat mission for the 458th Bomb Group, 755th Squadron with Bill Beno's lead crew. It happened 3 March 1945 on a bombing mission to a railroad bridge in Nienburg, Germany. As the flight left Horsham St. Faith, everything was going along just line. All squadron B-24s were in formation flying above 10,000 feet heading out over the North Sea for Germany.

Unbeknownst to pilot Beno and the rest of the crew, Chuck was squirming in his seat with pains in his belly telling him that he had a serious call from Mother Nature. Soon he could stand the pain no longer. He plugged his oxygen mask into a portable O2 bottle and proceeded to go below deck to the bomb bay area. Flight engineer Del Shaffer observed the proceedings from the flight deck, and it looked to him like Chuck took down his pants and was doing his business in a flak helmet, but Chuck did not have a flak hehnet. He had pulled out a handkerchief, placed it over his right hand, and relieved himself. Then, by way of sign language, he motioned to Del to tell him how to open the bomb bay doors.

Del showed him where the lever was that he had to push to open the doors. Feeling very proud, Chuck finally opened the doors and moved closer to them to throw the contents in his right hand out the doors. Well!!! The turbulence of air in the bomb bay scattered the contents of the handkerchief like a blast of hot air from hell. Chuck quickly closed the doors and pulled up his pants. Then, while trying to understand what had happened, he embarrassingly surveyed the resulting mess. His flying suit was well splattered with dots and dashes of excrement that didn't smell too good. He looked up to the flight deck and swore he saw Del scraping with his shoe some splattered contents off the deck down on him (of course, Del denied it.) Chuck could see that the handkerchief ended up on the nose of one of the bombs in the bomb bay. (Later, Del told him that, with his oxygen mask opened to one side, Del could see that his exposed face was quite red.) Chuck reluctantly returned to his copilot seat feeling relieved and kind of smelly. (Wars don't stop for soldiers to take care of their personal hygiene problems.)

The mission continued as if nothing had happened. When the bomb run started at the IP (Initial Point), it was Del's duty to open the bomb bay doors. He later reported that he noticed the handkerchief on one of the bombs, and also observed that the bombs were splattered with odd-looking markings that were not there when he had removed the pins to arm the bombs. (This has to be the only time that, a command pilot in the 8th Air Force had personally marked the bombs in the bomb bay with his own DNA to send greetings to Hitler!)

The primary target, was nine-tenths cloud-covered, and after two trips around and over the target, the bombardier couldn't get a visual sighting so Chuck ordered to go to the secondary target - Bielefield Railroad Viaduct. The bombs were dropped, the doors were closed, and the return to home base was uneventful after the 7:19 flight.

At Horsham St. Faith, it was customary for Col. Isbell to greet the command pilots after each had successfully completed their last tour of duty mission. He would congratulate the command pilot with a hearty handshake, and have a photographer take a photo of him with the crew. However, when command pilot Chuck Booth crawled out of the plane, he was in no condition to have his photo taken, or even to get close to Col. Isbell. He wanted to command a Jeep, get to the barracks, clean up, and return to the critique before meeting the Colonel. As he started for the Jeep, Col. Isbell pulled up in his staff car and intercepted him. Chuck saluted and Col. Isbell saluted back and stuck out his hand, but he inumediately pulled it back and ordered Chuck to put his gloves on before shaking hands. Chuck and the Colonel both had a good laugh. Pilot Beno also shook hands. Col. Isbell said, "Go get cleaned up, I'll hold up the mission critique meeting."

After Chuck got himself cleaned up, he was seen at the mission critique downing a "few" shots of whisky to relieve the tension and stress of the mission. Beno again shook his hand, congratulating him on completing his "Last Mission." Chuck said to pilot Beno, "You know, if we had to bail out today, the Germans would have said, `We're not shooting too many down lately, but we sure we scaring the shit out of them.'"

Chuck Booth & Del Shaffer (458th). A Command Pilot's Last Mission. The Journal 2nd Air Division. Volume 45 Number 1, Winter 2006.

The Kingsbery Brothers

I was trained in the States as an engineer/gunner on the B-24 but was grounded from combat just before I arrived in England because of asthma. I was then assigned to the 458th BG as crew chief on B-24 bomber number 628.

Horsham St. Faith was an old British airbase and fortunately the Germans hadn't bombed it. I reported to the Operations office that morning. I was told to take a Jeep and drive to an airbase about twenty miles to the east of our base. One of our planes had engine trouble and had landed at the other field the day before. I told the officer that I had never driven in England. He said, "No problem. Just think `left', think `left' and you will be okay." Driving on the left side of the road was sure different from driving in the U.S. I kept thinking "left," "left" and made it just fine. I got the bomber's engine fixed and ready to fly to our base at Norwich. The bombardier on the crew mentioned that he had driven in England several years before, so I told him to drive the Jeep back and I would take the plane. I thought it would be safer to fly.

In February of 1944 the Germans launched their last all-out bombing attack on London. It took place at night, and since all of southern England was totally blacked out, the Germans dropped flares attached to parachutes over London so the German bombers could see their targets. The bombs did lots of damage to London and the lighted flares kept burning as they hit the ground and set lots of additional fires. It was a clear night, and from our base we could see the thousands of burning flares coming down over London. That was the last big attack on London and was an awesome sight to watch.

The bombing of southern England had slowed down some after we arrived, but in June 1944 the Germans started launching the V-1 "buzz" bomb. It was actually a cruise missile with wings powered by a pulsejet engine and controlled by an electrical compass in its nose. The V -Is were launched from France close to the English Channel and would fly until they ran out of fuel.

Each V-1 carried a 2300-pound warhead that did lots of damage when it exploded. The V-1 was more of a nuisance than a threat because most of them were dropping in open areas instead of cities.

At first everybody jumped out of bed and ran to the air raid shelters. We soon learned to stay in bed when the air raid siren was sounded and listen for the distinct sound of the buzz bomb's engine. As long as the engine was running we were safe, but as we heard it cut out, there was a mad scramble to the air raid shelter. Only two or three V -Is hit close enough to our base for us to hear.

In September 1944 the Germans introduced a new weapon, the V-2 missile. It was a rocket-propelled bomb with a longer range than the V-1 and a better guidance system. Over 1,100 V-2s hit southern England, killing 2,700 people, mostly civilians. One V-2 hit our base close to the NCO Club hut. It caved in one side of the club but no one was hurt. I picked up a small piece of that V-2 missile that I still have.

My two brothers served in the Army. My older brother Hank was a B-24 bomber pilot based in England, not too far from my base. In 1944 his plane blew an engine on take-off and crashed. The flight engineer was killed instantly, but Hank survived along with the rest of his crew. Hank had a broken jaw and leg but recovered and was discharged in 1945.

My younger brother Tom got to use his ranch experience in the Army's 10th Mountain Division, training horses and mules for mountain warfare. He was stationed at Camp Hale in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado where Tom and his friend Price Wood trained pack mules for mountain warfare in Italy. After the mules were shipped to Italy, Tom and Price were sent to Fort Reno, Oklahoma. Prior to World War II the U.S. Army used thousands of horses and mules. Except for the pack mules used in Italy, modern mechanized warfare had rendered them obsolete. The Army continued to feed and care for the horses and mules, and Tom and Price, both being cowboys, were perfect for the job.

Fort Reno had ten thousand horses, all of which were broken to ride, and nine thousand mules. The Army cowboys built a roping arena and a racetrack at the fort and had a great time picking horses for roping and racing. After the war the Army sold the horses and mules to the public. A lot of the horses were auctioned off at a big sale in Fort Worth. A well-known horse trader hired Tom to come to the sale and point out the good horses in the bunch.

Tom was discharged in November 1945. Whenever Hank and I started talking about our war experiences, Tom would say he had the most dangerous Army assignment: Fighting off nine thousand hard-kicking mules with one pitchfork.

Jack Kingsbery. 458th Bomb Group, Horsham St. Faith. The 3 Kingsbery Brothers - or Texas Ranch Hands at War.

Jump to page:  [ 1 ]  [ 2 ]  [ 3 ]

top of page

back a page