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Flying Fortress Shot Up Numerous Times OnBombing Missions, Lota! Bombardier RelatesIIiGood ships and prayer are saving the lives of men in the American air force every day,” 1st Lieut. Kenneth M. Celary, lead bombardier of a B-17 with the 8th AirForce, stated when telling aboutthe 30 missions in which he took part. Only one man. the navigator. was wounded, and he not seriously.Son of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Cleary. 1403 South Sixth street.1Lieut. Cleary is thankful for the good fortune which has given him a “leave on delay enroute” that tierrr.its him to be home for Christmas.He enlisted in the air corps June 18. 1542. was commissioned a second lieutenant after completing his bombardier training at Deming, N. Mex., Oct. 2, 1943. and left for overseas duty in April, 1944. A fellow air corpsman. Lieut. Jerry*Monarity, formerly of The Tribune staff, is now one of the bombardier instructors at Carlsbad. X. Mex. He was m training there at the same time as Lieut. Cleary.♦power makes it necessary for many centers to be bombed over and over, he explained, when telling why it is necessary to bomb the same city so much.Cleary said many of the air force crew members spend their leaves and days off in Scotland and like the country and the people very much. On one of his trips, Cleary was an invited guest in a Highland home, where picturesque cataracts could be seen from the backdoor. He was there during early October when the fields of purple heather were a never-to-be-forgotten sight.There is nothing too good for an American soldier lad in a Scottish home and “we were given the best of everything Mmy had,” hesaid.Bicycles Are PopularTrlkui ffctuLIEUT. KENNETH M. CLEARYLead Bombardier1I.His first mission was on D-Day when the squadron worked in direct support of the ground forces.Of his 30 missions, Lieut. Cleary has been lead bombardier in 16 of them. Only twice did their plane have to crash land, and only once away from their own base. Then they were so shot up from flak, their plane forced out of formation. They had to fight off attacks by three German Mes-sersehmitt 109 fighters before landing at a Royal Canadian Air Force fighter strip behind the Allied lines.After a night in the heart ofthe b.«ttle area, with shells dropping all around, the Fortress crew was taken back across the channel to England in a British launch and flown to their 8th Air Force base w ithout the loss of a single man.Another experience that Cleary does not care to have repeated was when the brakes of the Fortress were shot away and they had to use parachutes for brakes. Thisthey did by breaking the windows of the plane and “popping the chutes.” The drag of the air in the opened parachutes slowed down the big Fortress sufficiently so they were able to all land safely and at their home base. Their little friends” the fighter escorts, kept off enemy planes.fEverybody rides bicycles in England and Scotland, so part of his visit in Scotland was spent pedalling around the country, with a visit to and through the ancient historic castle of Edinburgh being on one of the tours.§•Plane Hit Many Times.All but six times this crew’ of aB-17 came back to the base with holes in the mammoth ship, sometimes so many holes they wondered just what did hold it together.Their misions took them over a large part of Germany's vital industrial area and their targets were especially oil refineries and mas shalling yards. One of the toughest misMons flown was over Mere.berg, near Leipzig wherethey bombed large synthetic oil depot. Other places included Hanover, Hamburg and Dussel-dorf.Germany’s high recuperativeSince gas has been rationed so carefully, most car and bus drivers now use charcoal converters attacher to the rear of their vehicles. he said.Cleary has two brothers in the service. Howard R. Cleary, a lieutenant in the service and supply command, is stationed in Philadelphia. and Pft. Roy L Cleary is acombat in France.Kenneth was graduated from Aquinas high school with the 1938 class and later worked as a spot welder at Trane’s until he enlisted.He has been awarded the airmedal with three oak leaf clusters, a presidential citation and the distinguished flying cross for outstanding achievements in enemy territory in the face of clanger.
Newspaper Details
La Crosse Tribune
La Crosse, Wisconsin, US
Sun, Dec 24, 1944
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 21 Feb 2020
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