The Day of My 44th
Mission
| My
name is Joseph Byrd and I arrived in Corsica during the latter months
of 1944. In the photo to the right, the name over my tent door was
put there to commemorate the birth of my first son, born while I
was on Corsica.
Of the 44 missions
I flew in the European Theater as Bombardier, the most eventful
was the final flight of the Battlin' Betty. While on the bomb run
to the target, our aircraft sustained heavy damage from flack. The
damage to our bomb release systems made it impossible for us to
release our bomb load. Over the target we took a direct hit in the
right engine, causing a fire and shut-down of that engine. Slowly
losing altitude, Emmett Hughes and Vic Ramirez, kept this aircraft
in the air as long as they possibly could, allowing myself and the
rest of the crew to bail out, thereby saving our lives. |
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Due to the time difference
in bailing out, we were separated by some distance when we got to
the ground. I do recall that I did not see any of our crew after I
left the aircraft. Consequently, I was captured alone by six enemy
soldiers, and was inclined to believe that all the others were also
captured individually. I was then transported to a little town in
Italy, put in a very small dark cell, and interrogated twice daily.
I will always be grateful to Hughes and Ramirez for their heroic efforts
to maneuver our plane back toward land, thus preventing a water disaster.
Before we bailed out, we threw out everything that we could to lighten
the aircraft in hopes of being able to get back over friendly territory.
We were forced to leave our formation, because of not being able to
stay airborne with only one engine. As we left our group, enemy fighters
shot at us in an effort to finish us off. In fact, two fighters shot
at me as I floated down in my parachute. Fortunately, I was not hit
. . . . . but I can still remember the fearful sound of bullets whizzing
past my body. |
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After about a week,
I was turned over to four guards along with three or four other
prisoners. We started our trip back up the Brenner Pass to Stalag
7A in Mooseburg, which was about 30 miles north of Munich, Germany.
We were paraded through Munich as prisoners and spit upon, had objects
thrown at us, hit and abused in all ways possible. On our way back
through the pass, we saw first hand the damage that our groups and
squadrons had done to the sites along the Brenner Pass. In fact,
we were caught in a raid by our own B-25's on a bombing mission.
Our guards were as scared as we were and took us into an old mountain
cave to escape the falling bombs.
Left front row:
Robert Crowley, co-pilot; Joe Byrd, Bombardier; John Dobbs, pilot
- taken at Hunter Field in Savannah, Georgia prior to leaving for
overseas duty.
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On
another occasion we got a short ride on an old flatbed truck, and
this time we were strafed by our own P-51 fighters who were doing
their job by strafing anything moving on the ground. The old truck
was going very slow, the guards along with us jumped off just before
the fighters started their run on the truck. They did indeed destroy
the truck. We kept walking and eventually reached Stalag 7A where
we remained until General Patton's forces liberated us on April
29, 1945. When the American flag was raised over Stalag 7A prisoner
of war camp, believe me it was a very emotional event to every person
who had been held prisoner there.
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