Veterans reunite with "thier" aircraft

Antipodean Andy · Jun 17, 2008

World War II aircraft land in Tri-Cities (w/ videos) - Mid-Columbia News | Tri-City Herald : Mid-Columbia news - videos and pics at link.

Three World War II bombers and a P-51 fighter plane swooped into the Tri-Cities on Monday afternoon, wowing spectators and giving one Kennewick man a rush of memories from his days on a B-17G bomber 64 years ago.

The aircraft are part of a Wings of Freedom Tour across the United States this spring by the Collings Foundation in Massachusetts. The planes came from Portland on Monday and will be in the Tri-Cities for three days for Richland's 50th anniversary.

A B-17G Flying Fortress, a B-24 Liberator with 130 war missions to its credit, and a B-25 named Tondelayo with a likeness of half-nude actress Hedy Lamarr on its nose joined a sleek, polished aluminum P-51 Mustang for the visit.

Hundreds of warbird aficionados welcomed the vintage aircraft Monday at Bergstrom Aircraft at the Pasco Airport.

"This is cool," said James Fishback of Richland, who brought his 8-year-old son Tyler for a close-up look.

"This is big. I wonder how they get it up in there?" said Tyler while examining one of the B-25's two wheels that were nearly as tall as he was.

The Tondelayo's Plexiglas nose gunner turret intrigued the boy, who noticed a narrow crawl space beneath the cockpit that was the only way in and out.

Spectators stood in a long line to get an inside look at the B-17, which was built to carry a crew of 10 and packed six machine gun positions and a payload of bombs.

"These are time machines," said Bob Oehl, 55, of Gainesville, Fla., who has piloted the Tondelayo for 31/2 years.

Sons, dads, girlfriends and wives gawk at the big green warbirds with curiosity, but it's the veterans who truly connect to them, Oehl said.

"Guys come out here and touch the outside of these planes. It brings them to tears," he said.

One of those veterans who hopes to see the planes is Pat Quain, 84, of Kennewick. The last time he was on a B-17 was May 12, 1944 -- three weeks before D-Day. He was a radioman on his 18th mission flying over Europe, unloading bombs on a synthetic oil plant in Czechoslovakia.

"We were the lead crew. The German fighter planes came at us head-on and on the first pass knocked out two of our (four) engines. We went into a spiral," Quain recalled.

But the pilot got the wounded B-17 pulled out of the death drop and told the crew they had a choice: Prepare to bail out over Berlin and a likely execution or try to ride the failing bomber to Switzerland.

Quain said everyone wanted to get distance from Berlin. But the shortest way meant flying a gauntlet of flak and intense ground fire, which eventually rendered the B-17 powerless.

The crew of the "Victoria Lee" were 20 minutes shy of Switzerland when the bomber dropped into a freshly plowed field in the Alsace-Lorraine.

"The dirt helped extinguish flames. We all walked out," Quain said. And they spent the next 1 1/2 years in a German POW camp.

Quain's father in Detroit, Howard, thought the entire crew died and accepted the Air Force Air Medal, not knowing his son was a POW.

"My dad was my best friend. I don't know how he did it," said Quain, while showing a picture taken of his father accepting the medal.

Quain said the Victoria Lee was a borrowed bomber because his crew's personal B-17, the "Lady Jane," was grounded for repairs.

Only two months earlier in a mission over Berlin, the Lady Jane showed how tough the Boeing-built B-17s really were when another bomber released its load over the Lady Jane's left wing. Despite three large holes and one-fourth of the end of the wing missing, the B-17 flew on.

The pilot ordered "everything not bolted down" to be jettisoned, Quain said. That included the ball gun turret, all ammunition, personal firearms, radios and even parachutes. Crew members decided not to toss their boots because they could be essential for survival, he said.

All the instruments were shot out, so Quain used a wireless radio to contact the British Air/Sea Rescue, which provided a compass course. The navigator used a pocket compass to guide the pilot on a 12-hour return flight to an eventual crash landing in England.

"We flew right over the rescue ship sent to help us. They saw the (wing) damage and were waving," Quain recalls.

The Lady Jane was repaired and later returned to combat, but was destroyed by a rocket, killing the crew, Quain said.

Quain lost about 80 pounds as a POW, but ended the war with three Air Medals, one for shooting down a Messerschmitt 109. He also had a surprise reunion with his father.

Quain hopes to see the B-17 today or tomorrow and see if it "still has that distinctive smell that I remember."

Oehl said the Boeing aircraft weren't bulletproof, but they were remarkably airworthy. "That's why they say, 'If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going,', he said.

But Oehl said the Tondelayo was an equally tough warbird. Its crew won Silver Stars following a fight over New Guinea in 1944 in which it and two other B-25's sank a 6,000-ton Japanese freighter and then encountered 50 Zero fighters.

With one of its two engines disabled, the pilot brought the Tondelayo to within 30 feet of water so its gunners could pick off the attackers above.

"It was the airplane that wouldn't die," Oehl said.
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