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Ball Turret gunner

November 13th, 2009 Mike Leave a comment Go to comments

My father is Edward Waters from Washington DC. He was stationed at Great Ashfield with The 385th Bomb Group. He was assigned to the B-17 serial #42-31237 Alexanders Rag Time Band. On May 8th 1944  the misson he was on was a bombing run on Bremen Germany . Because he wanted to increase his missions to go home he volunteered for the mission with another plane the Jeanne Rickey (Gin Rickey) serial #42-31786. The Ball Turret gunner on this crew was sick and my father was the last minute replacement. My father told us he loaded the plane seconds before taking off and he knew no one on the crew. He asked the crew what the target was but no one told them. The MACR was 4563 that only states that the plane was shot down over Bremen Germany and he was a Pow at Stalag Luft 3 Sagan Silesia Bavaria .I hope you can shine more light on the missing crew members on the May 8th 1944 bombing raid to Bremen

Jim Waters Aka Mudue8

  1. admin
    January 17th, 2010 at 16:59 | #1
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    From reader Matt: I read a post called “ball turret gunner”… That should be the flight Clem was on that got shot down. that being the case the person who wrote that post should know that Clem wrote about this mission and the following imprisonment in a book called something like “On Eagles Wings.” If you do a search for Clement Irons and Eagle Wings something should come up.

  2. admin
    January 17th, 2010 at 19:16 | #2
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  3. Mike
    February 2nd, 2010 at 09:44 | #3
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    A story related to us from the book “On Falcons’ Wings: An Intrepid Generation” from Clem: There’s a point in the story where he tells of the march to another camp since the Russians were advancing on their camp and as they were on the trail they saw bombers and fighters. He saw the fighters turn toward the group of some several thousand men, in an obvious ready to attack position. The POW’s grabbed everything white available and spelled out POW on the ground, the fighters tipped their wings and flew off.

  4. Charles Lundsberg
    August 16th, 2010 at 08:17 | #4
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    Hi Jim-
    I looked up your dad on the records that I have and will paste the info below (though it may look messy since it’s from an xls doc.)
    This will show his name, position on plane, mission #, date, crew name (pilot), target, plane serial # and plane’s name.
    Next I’ll cross reference the crew he was with on his last flight.
    Waters, Edward M. WGL 48 31-Dec-43 Cognac Alexander 42-30737 Ohio Air Force
    Waters, Edward M. WGR 54B 21-Jan-44 V2 Site Alexander 42-31237 Alexander’s Ragtime Band
    Waters, Edward M. WGL 56 29-Jan-44 Frankfurt Alexander 42-31237 Alexander’s Ragtime Band
    Waters, Edward M. WGL 57 30-Jan-44 Brunswick Alexander 42-31237 Alexander’s Ragtime Band
    Waters, Edward M. WGR 58 3-Feb-44 Wilhelmshaven Alexander 42-31237 Alexander’s Ragtime Band
    Waters, Edward M. WGL 61 6-Feb-44 Brux Alexander 42-31237 Alexander’s Ragtime Band
    Waters, Edward M. WGR 62 8-Feb-44 Wiesbaden Alexander 42-31638 Big Gas Bird
    Waters, Edward M. WGL 63 10-Feb-44 Brunswick Alexander 42-3335 Fickle Finger of ?
    Waters, Edward M. WGL 64 13-Feb-44 V2 Site Alexander 42-31237 Alexander’s Ragtime Band
    Waters, Edward M. WGL 67 24-Feb-44 Rostock Alexander 42-97530 Quittin’ Time
    Waters, Edward M. WGL 69 28-Feb-44 V2 Site Alexander 42-31335 Honky Tonk Sal
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 71 3-Mar-44 Berlin Alexander 42-31237 Alexander’s Ragtime Band
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 72 4-Mar-44 Berlin Alexander 42-31778 Wells Cargo
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 74 8-Mar-44 Berlin Clark 42-39918 Stormy Angel
    Waters, Edward M. WGR 75 9-Mar-44 Berlin Bartley 42-31778 Wells Cargo
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 79 18-Mar-44 Munich Alexander 42-31237 Alexander’s Ragtime Band
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 85 1-Apr-44 Recall Alexander 42-38199 Hair’s Breath
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 86 8-Apr-44 Quackenbruck Alexander 42-97079 Dozy Doats
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 89 11-Apr-44 Politz Alexander 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 90 13-Apr-44 Ausburg Alexander 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 91 18-Apr-44 Barnwitz Alexander 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 92 19-Apr-44 Wert Alexander 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 93 20-Apr-44 V2 Site Alexander 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 94 22-Apr-44 Hamm Alexander 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 95 24-Apr-44 Freidrichafen Alexander 42-31677 Satan’s Mate
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 96 26-Apr-44 Brunswick Alexander 42-31833 Mickey II
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 97 27-Apr-44 Crossbow Alexander 42-31764 War Horse
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 103 7-May-44 Berlin Alexander 42-31833 Mickey II
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 104 8-May-44 Berlin Alexander ?? Unknown
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 104 8-May-44 Berlin Drobysh 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky

  5. Charles Lundsberg
    August 16th, 2010 at 08:21 | #5
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    Shows your dad in 2 crews that day. I’ll post info for pilot Drobysh crew since he flew the Jeanie Ricky that day.
    Moore TG 104 8-May-44 Berlin Drobysh 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky
    O’Donnell, Joseph V. TTG 104 8-May-44 Berlin Drobysh 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky
    Waters, Edward M. BTG 104 8-May-44 Berlin Drobysh 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky
    Boyko, Russel J. WG 104 8-May-44 Berlin Drobysh 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky
    Carter WG 104 8-May-44 Berlin Drobysh 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky
    Cotton, Cullen R. RO 104 8-May-44 Berlin Drobysh 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky
    Drobysh, Andrew, Jr. P 104 8-May-44 Berlin Drobysh 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky
    Gousha, Harry M., Jr. CP 104 8-May-44 Berlin Drobysh 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky
    Hudson, Robert L. B 104 8-May-44 Berlin Drobysh 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky
    Irons, C. I. N 104 8-May-44 Berlin Drobysh 42-31786 Jeanie Ricky

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