WW II Bomber Brings Out Memories
6/10/2008 – 04:02:32 pm – KOTA TV
This week’s visit in Scottsbluff by a B-17 is more than just a history lesson for many, but for one man it’s also a chance to connect with the experiences of his father.
Patrick Vann of Torrington never heard a lot about his father’s experience as a bombardier and tail gunner in a World War II B-17, but there were a few times George Vann Jr. did open up about it.
Vann, a tail gunner and bombardier, was shot down over France on his 4th mission. Pinned inside a spinning aircraft, Vann was fortunate to escape along with one other crew member; but that crew member did not make it to the ground alive.
Patrick Vann says his father’s love of the B-17 started during training at a Texas air base and continued once he made it to Europe. “He said, ‘that beast’, he said he would be up there and that plane would be taking a hammering from all the Messerschmidt shooting back and the flak, and he said that thing would just keep on flying.”
Vann was captured by the Nazis and taken to Stalag 17-b, made famous by the movie with William Holden and later by tv’s Hogan’s Heroes. Patrick says his father told him ‘yes, there was a sergeant Shultz’ and the allied prisoners would sometimes get the best of their captors, but it was the Germans who had the upper hand. “One of the things he shared with us is during Christmas time, for 30 days, 24-7, they played White Christmas by Bing Crosby over and over and over on the loudspeakers. And he said it literally drove some of the guys crazy.”
After 14 months in the p-o-w camp, Vann returned home but never to fly on another version of his favorite plane. Patrick Vann says the images from the crash of his father’s plane had a lasting effect. “He said the last thing he did was look over and see the plane explode into flames. So him and another guy were the only ones got out. He said it was such a horrifying thing to see, he never stepped foot in a B-17 again.”
The B-17 “Sentimental Journey” remains at Scottsbluff’s Western Nebraska Regional Airport through Thursday.
Technorati Tags: WWII, WWarII, History, Personal, B-17, Veteran, Stalag, France
