A tale of two brothers

Part 1

My father was the most gentle and honest man I have even known. A boy could not have asked for a better parent.

But he was also a World War II soldier who parachuted into Germany after his plane was shot down. He spent about 11 months as a German prisoner of war.

“Did you ever shoot down an enemy fighter?” I asked him when I was very young.

“I shot at a few Messerschmitts and Folke Wolfes and never shot one down,” he responded. “I don’t know if I even hit one. They would come in so fast I would only have seconds to shoot at them.”

When he was sick with cancer in the 1980s, I asked him to write down details about his life. And he did. Years later, after uncle Francis sent me his journal he kept in World War II, I dug into my father’s old papers to find out what happened to him during the war.

What they went through is beyond what I can comprehend. For the dread and fear they experienced, the bravery they exhibited for their country and the world, they are the greatest men I have ever known and they hold my highest admiration.

The Smith brothers grew up in the hill country of rural Indiana. Lloyd Sr. was the oldest son and Francis was the youngest. Lloyd Sr. was already overseas and flying missions when his kid brother joined the 720th Squadron. Each man in the Army Air Corps was required to complete 50 missions to fulfill their duty to serve.

I didn’t know about my uncle’s journal until my aunt and uncle came to visit in the summer of 1989. While in Fairbanks, we visited Fort Wainwright so I could show him an old World War II bomber that was being used as an air tanker by the Bureau of Land Management to drop liquid retardant on wildfires. The captain of the plane gave us a tour.

The aircraft was a PB4Y-2, the last modification of the B-24 and was used by the Navy. The pilot informed us that the planes were modified in 1943 by adding a single vertical stabilizer to the tail and adding 3½ feet to the nose and tail sections.

The old bomber had been further modified as an air tanker and no longer had machine gun turrets. The eight tanks in the belly could hold 2,000 gallons of liquid retardant that could be dropped on the forest fires one tank at a time or all at once.

“This looks just like a B-24,” my uncle said as he stepped into the interior of the old bomber and looked at the original OD green paint.

“I kept a journal in WW II. Would you like to see it sometime?” my uncle asked as we walked away from the aircraft.

“I would love to read it,” I replied.

On a winter day a few days before Christmas, I received a small package in the mail. My uncle had sent me a copy of his journal.

I started reading it and could not put it down.

The following is my uncle’s journal and the story of what happened to my father when his plane went down over enemy territory.

Journal of S/Sgt. Francis E. Smith 35691577

450th Bomb Gr. 720th Bomb Sqdn.

Mission 1 May 26, 1944 7½ hrs

Pilot: Lt. Stebbing

Target: Marshalling yards, Nice, France

Position: tail turret

Remarks: Was very good mission. Had P-38 escort. Some flak way out on our right but didn’t come near us.

Mission 2 May 27, 1944 8½ hrs

Pilot: Lt. Augistinburg

Target: Freight yds, Marseilles, France

Position: Nose turret

Remarks: Had P-51 escorte, probably 75 in number. Quite a bit of accurate flak. One piece came through dome of upper turret and dented gunners helmet.

Mission 3-4 May 30, 1944 7h45m

Pilot: Lt. Stebbins

Target: Aircraft parts factory Weiner Neustead, Austria

Position: Tail turret

Remarks: This was a very rough mission. Got my first shot at enemy fighters. Six ME 109s attacked us from the tail, but fire from tail guns and waist gun drove them off. About 10 fighters were on us for almost one half hour. Flak was very heavy. Saw two B-24s go down, one in flames. This was a double mission.

Mission 5-6 May 31, 1944 7 hrs

Pilot: Lt. Olney

Target: Oil refinery, Ploesti, Romania

Position: Tail turret

Remarks: Another rough mission had P-38 escorte: flak was very heavy. Fighters attacked us as we left the target, but didn’t hit our element. Saw two B-24s go down: also one ME 109. Saw several men bail out. This was a double.

Mission 7 June 5, 1944 5½ hrs.

Pilot: Lt. Booth

Target: Marshalling yards, Castle Maggorie, Italy

Position: Waist gun

Remarks: flak was very accurate. We got four holes in our ship. Ship out on our right had about five feet shot off of wing tip, but returned OK. Saw three enemy fighters, but they didn’t attack us.

Mission 8-9 June 6, 1944 6h45m

Pilot: Lt. Booth

Target: Oil refineries, Ploesti, Romania

Position: Waist gun

Remarks: flak was very heavy, but not too accurate. Had P-38 & P-51 escorte. Target was covered with smoke screen. Used pathfinder bombing. On the way back we got news on the radio that the invasion had started in France.

Mission 10-11 June 9, 1944 8 hrs

Pilot: Lt. Booth

Target: Munich, Germany

Position: Waist gun

Remarks: Had very good escorte of P-51s & P-38s. Had some flak. Got about four small holes in our plane. This was the mission that Lloyd and his crew went down on. I saw their ship drop out of formation at about 9:50 a.m., just 15 minutes before we reached the target: ship was still under control and looked OK saw two men bail out, then the plane flew into some high clouds out of sight.

Lloyd T. Smith lives in the Mat-Su Borough. Contact him at news@frontiersman.com.

Sorties, Target Missions

1. Nice, France 1

2. Marseilles, France 1

3. Wiener Neustadt, Austria 2

4. Ploiești, Romania 2

5. Castle Maggiore, Italy 1

6. Ploiești, Romania 2

7. Munich, Germany 2

8. Munich, Germany 2

9. Osijeck, Yugoslavia 1

10. Tulon, France 1

11. Vienna, Austria 2

12. Brod, Yugoslavia 1

13. Labreb, Yugoslavia 1

14. Giurgiu, Romania 2

15. Tulon, France 1

16. Zagerb, Yugoslavia 1

17 Ploiești, Romania 2

18. Budapest, Hungary 1

19. Ploiești, Romania 2

20. Ploiești, Romania 2

21. Vienna, Austria St. Polten (nearby area) 2

22. Brenner Pass, Italy 1

23. Tulon, France 1

24. Southern France. (Tulon area) 1

25. Beachhead Southern France 1

26. Vienna, Austria 2

27. Vinkovie, Yugoslavia 1

28. Miskolc, Hungary 1

29. Kraljevo, Yugoslavia 1

30. Kraljevo, Yugoslavia 1

31. Trento, Italy 1

32. Munich, Germany 2

33. Greece 1

34. Budapest, Hungary 1

35. Budapest, Hungary 1

36. Novi Sad, Yugoslavia 1

37. Ora, Italy (Brenner Pass) 1

38. Vienna, Austria (turned back) 1

Source: Journal of S/Sgt. Francis E. Smith, 450th Bomb Gr. 720th Bomb Sqdn.