By Sam Wyrouck
My crew, number 5383 was part of the 351st Bomb Group. During World War Two the Eighth Air Force was the thrust of the air was against Hitler’s Germany and was made up of forty some groups. Each group consisted of four squadrons each of twelve planes and twelve crews plus spares. These were heavy four engine B-17’s and B-24’s. Except for rare occasions, each group put only three sqaudrons for each mission. This gave the standing down crewman a chance to do personal things.
When a mission is completed, returning bombers with wounded aboard fire red, red flares and they have priority to land first. After each mission there at the end of the runway are lined up the inevitable “Meat Wagons.” After that, planes with battle damage land next. After that each bomber takes its turn to land. It takes time for each group of 36 bombers to get them all on the ground, especially during the long nights of winter months. They often present English fog and the fact that other nearby groups are in the same landing mode make for a complicated and dangerous undertaking. Once when my crew was not flying that mission a collision and explosion happened nearly above where I was standing. Not many large pieces of those two B-17s hit the ground, but one engine fell about 50 feet from where I was standing. One evening when we of the 508th squadron stood down for that day’s mission, some of us decided to go to the base movie theater. Half way through the movie, the show was stopped. A Medic Sergeant jumped up on the stage and said the following: “The mission came in and there are eight wounded and we need eight pints of blood. As you know, we get blod plasma from the stats, but not whole blood.”
He then gave a list of how many of what type he needed. Some from the movie audience stepped up, but he still needed more. He called our “Corporal ------- you haven’t given blood lately, it’s your turn.” He called out a few more and then and then he said that the movie wouldn’t resume until he had enough donors. All service people always know their blood type because that information is printed on each dig tag.
He got the rest of the donors and the movie resumed. Combat crewmen were not permitted to give blood because maybe the next day they may be in need.
The medic knew just about each of the ground pounders and their blood type and their rate of donations.
When the day’s mission returns, then the ground pounders work begins. They work all through the night to get the planes ready for the next day’s mission, which starts when the start engines flare is sent off at about 6 or 7 a.m. They patch holes, change engines, load gasoline, bombs, ammunition and oxygen. Besides all this, they are also the blood supply.
Sam Wyrouck is a Pocatello native who served as a ball turret gunner on an Army Air Corps. B-17 bomber during WWII. He now lives in Hurricane, Utah.
