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Rome Raid 'Just Another Mission’ for Teggie AnnBy CpI. Ralph CohenThe only thing big about the Rome raid were the mission and ;the headlines. Otherwise it was ust another routine raid for us— n fact, one of our easiest.Lieut. Donaldson B. Hurd of Indianapolis, Ind., shifted his gum as he flicked off this remark; continued chewing with the compos, nre of a big-leaguo pitcher. For the pilot of a B-2lt;i he seemed rather young-young as oil OCS graduate. But so were the rest of his crow: Lieuts. Jack Reiter of New York City, Frank C. Wright of South Dakota, and Kcrmit. P. Hansen of Hartley, Iowa; T/Sgt. John K. Farnam of South Caroli-na, T/Sgt. Horry W. Crnmpton of Lebanon, N.J.,, S/Sgfc. Donald J. Emaus of Grand Rapids. Mich., S/Sgt. Alfred S. Farrington of Kokomo, Ind., and S/Sgl. Arthur L. Johnson of Keokuk. Iowa.But young or not, these are the boyfriends of Teggie Ann, and Teggir was leader of the All-American bombing of Rome’s marshalling yards; she was first over, and led tho others on tljc right, track. An Experienced Crew After last week's Roman holiday, Teggie and the boys took a Cairo holiday. Pilot Hurd was too cool for a hot summer day.Y’know, he confided, wc were pretty glad to learn Rome our target. It took long hours of flying—and boy that helps towards our goal of 300 hours of combat flying.“Can’t say there was any special thrill to the mission,’’ he continued. Wc know this was the first blow at Rome, that we were the first B-4 to strike it. We got) a kick out of that. But it was my thirty-first raid, and the twenty-ninth or thirtieth of the rest of the crew—so it was just another raid.You’ll remember, the R.A.F. dropped leaflets on the capitoI, telegraphing our punches. We expected a welcome party of fighters, but it didn’t materialize. There was little ack-ack on the wav in and out of Rome, and Jess than that over the city. And the target was easy to pick up because of its outstanding checkpoints. Wo sighted Rome 50 miles away.Pilot Hurd spit out his gum and automatically unwrapped a new slice. He was enjoying the luxuries of Cairo by becoming a chain chewer.He patiently related: “We were briefed at 5:30 in the morning for the raid. Emphasis was put on the long run that we should take as a precaution against destroying cultural and religious objects which wero less than five milesaway. The curious fact- ts that we really didn't bomb Rome proper. The railroad yards were on, the outskirts with very few buildings around it.A Flurry of TroubleOn the way home we had some excitement—a little too much for comfort. Southeast of Sicily, half way across the Med. at 5000 feet, three engines cut. out. We had trouble with our fuel transfer system; it wasn’t feeding the engines We started to drop. Sgt, Crnmpton radioed!an SOS; told other planes in the formation to watch where we hitv The crew responded wonderfully. East did his own job and stood by for the landing in the water. Each man strapped on his cantedn. Sgts. Farrington and Johnson got the emergency floating radio ready in the waist to be wSsod out. Hansen grabbed the water jug. Crnmpton and Farnam filled their pockets with flares and the flare pistol. All stood ,bv.But thanks to co-pilot Wright and engineer Farnam. we didn’t crush. They did an amazing joh in, fixing the fuel line. We hod dropped 3000 feet by then. Our pulse dropped too. From then on it was smooth sailing home. And the moment we ilanded Sgt. Johnson leaped out and double-timed around the plane shouting, ‘Good ole terra firma was never firmer!’We were all tired, hungry—but happy. We hadn’t eaten for seventeen hours, but we didn’t mind. Although we didn't eat, wo knew Mussolini did. Wo made him eat his heart out !FATHERS DEFERREDWASHINGTON. — Fathers of draft age will not: be inducted for at least three months. Selective service officials 'said there were enough prospective selectees to meet tire needs of the armed services for that period. They announced that the armed forces now-total 9,300,000, an all-time high for the United States.A BUM, NOT A BOMBFORT KNOX, Ky.—Troops returning from 'Panama brought back this story. It seems a large, heavy object was dumped from the deck of an interned Italian liner near the Atlantic entrance to the canal. Fearing the worst, the Navy ordered divers to retrieve the object re. gardless of risk. Tim divers dived — and brought to tin-surface a large statue of Mussolini •
Newspaper Details
Middle East Stars and Stripes
Cairo, Cairo, EG
Fri, Jul 23, 1943
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Margaret R.
PA, USA 12 Jun 2017
Other Publications Near Cairo, Cairo
Middle East Stars and Stripes
