September 27, 2024 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Loretto M. Thompson recounts her significant yet distant memories of her father - and how she grew to know him so much better by reading his letters from his service in World War Two. Her book is called An Unexpected Coddiwomple: The Story of a Father's Sudden Death, a Box of WWII Letters, and a Daughter's Life Transformed.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories
to show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next, a listener's story from Loretto M. Thompson. Loretta
was the author of an Unexpected Cuddiewomple, the story of
a father's sudden death, a box of World War II letters,
and a daughter's life transformed. Today. She shares that story.
(00:34):
Take it away, Loretto.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I never really knew him. I remember him shaving, being
on the sync with him when he was shaving, and
he'd put a doll of shaving cream on my nose.
I remember that I had pushed my younger brother off
the chair, and then when my father asked me if
I had done that, I said no. I think the
(00:57):
spanking that I received was more about the life then
about pushing my brother off the chair. And I remember
the day that he died. He was forty four years
old and I was four, and our mother raised us,
(01:19):
seven of us for ten years by herself, and we
were dependent on the stories that our mother told us,
stories that she would tell over and over again, and
one of those was the story about how our father
had written his mother every day when he was in
World War two, but it never really clicked that the
(01:42):
letters still existed, and as she aged. At one point
we were at lunch and she said, I have all
the letters. I kept them because I always thought I
would read them, but I'll never read them now because
of her vision problems. She had gleackcoma and macular degeneration.
(02:04):
So I said, well, I'll read them to you. And
I couldn't imagine there would be that many letters, because
I'm thinking, here's a twenty two year old guy, and
he's really going to write his mother every day. But
when she told me where the box was, I went
down into the basement and brought it up and dusted
(02:25):
it off, and when I opened it up, I had
to catch my breath because I was shocked. It was
packed full of letters, all handwritten script letters, perfect condition,
and they were haphazard thrown into this box. Five hundred
and twenty two letters passed into this box. Well, I
(02:53):
had said I would stay reading them to my mother,
and so on Sundays after church we would get coffee
and it was quiet, nobody else was there, and we
started to read the letters.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
February ninth one, ten pm.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Dear Mother, Harry and Mike, Well, I guess I'll have
to snap off a quickie.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I planned on having an extra time.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Yesterday, but since the barracks at a GI party, I
was delayed again. January twenty seventh, Company C, Barracks, Number eight,
January thirtieth, three o'clock pm. Dear mother, Harry and Mike, Well,
how are things at the old four fifteen and a
half these days? I'm afraid it didn't get enough chicken,
but I'm learning to give the cook that come hither.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Look, I didn't really know too much about my father
as far as his background. My mother, even in reading
the letters to her, she said she didn't really know
him at that time. He was only twenty two and
she didn't meet him until ten years after he'd returned
from the war. He and his brother were born in Buffalo,
(03:56):
and my father, Frank, would have been seven and his
older brother there would have been nine when their father
came down with pneumonia, and within six days he had
actually died, and so that left their mother with these
two boys. And I look at it and I think, wow,
it's like history repeating itself. Because my older sister, Barbara
had been seven when my father died when Pearl Harbor
(04:22):
hit He was too young for the draft, so he
decided that he was going to sign up, because then
if you enlisted on your own, you got to choose
what you wanted to be. So he signed up for
the Army Air Corps and that he wanted to be
a pilot. He had to report in January of nineteen
(04:47):
forty four to Fort Dixon. This is so funny because
his first letter postcard that he sends home his dear
mother and Harry.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Just arrived at Trenton was delayed when I got off
a Quaker town instead of Jenkin.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
But it proved worthwhile.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Is they grow great a redheads here lay over for
three hours.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
This was a great way.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
To get here, and people are still more fun than anybody.
All's well, and we'll start for Dixon. A few moments.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Loved to all Frank, and I thought, oh, well, here
we go. Because my mother was a redhead. All in all,
my mother had eight years with him, and it's kind
of a fairy tale relationship how they met. My father
was a doctor at the time. My mother had really
bad allergies and so she was going to visit my uncle,
(05:36):
who was her medical doctor. However, he was out of
town and so this young doctor was filling in for him,
doctor Thompson, So he scheduled the appointment for her to
go to the specialist, and then he also scheduled a
filop appointment with him. In the beginning with the allergy shots,
apparently you're supposed to have him like once a week,
and then it goes to once every two weeks. Regardless,
(05:57):
it meant that she had to have quite a bit
of visits. So what happened was they couldn't date. He
was her doctor, So I don't know how the decision
came up, but he quit the practice, went back to school,
and my mother at the time was working on her
master's and she would take the bus to Buffalo State
Teacher's College. And my mother would say, well, you know,
(06:19):
I'd be waiting at the bus stop and he would
just happen to drive by and offer me a ride
to school. She said, well, he said that it was
on his way. Well, we all know that buff State
is completely in a different direction than you be. We
try to tell her mom, and this was not a mistake.
He was probably timing it out to make sure that
you would be at that bus stop. Part of their
(06:40):
courtship would be done while he was on house calls,
and so he would pick her up and they would
drive tell the house calls, and then she would wait
for him and then they would drive to the next one.
Eventually he proposed to her, and I'm not quite sure
what he gave to her, but I did find a
little card and it said something about how so he
had not put her last name initial on whatever this
(07:04):
was because he was hoping to change that. They got
engaged in fifty six and they would have married in
fifty seven, and the first baby arrived in fifty eight.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And we're listening to a listeners story from Loretto M.
Thompson about how she came to know her father and
when we come back, we're going to learn more about
this relationship. This relationship spawned through in the end letter writing.
When Our American Stories continues, Liehbibe here the host of
Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing
(07:37):
inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from our
big cities and small towns. But we truly can't do
the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make If you love what
you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go
to Ouramericanstories dot com and give. And we returned to
(08:10):
our American Stories in Loretto M. Thompson's story, or more specifically,
the story of her father Frank. When we last left off, Loretto,
who never knew her father, had discovered his letters, all
five hundred plus in her mother's basement and begun reading
them to her mother. Frank wanted to be a pilot,
it turns out, but the Army had other ideas. Let's
(08:32):
return to the story.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
At that time, they were saying they had too many pilots.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
February twenty eighth, four to thirty pm Monday, Greensboro, North Carolina. Well,
I've been in the Army a month now, a month
to get a crack at what I did today. Today
we took exams to qualify for aircrew. But I fear
it didn't do too well. Some of the fellows even
feel confident. I have no such feeling. Perhaps have been
away from concentrated to endeavor for far too long.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I don't know, but I'm not going to worry too much.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
About it, so it was really touch and go for
a little while. And I have a little letter here.
At this point he's not only writing Harry and his mother,
he's writing also his dog Mike. So from here on
in all of his letters are dear mother, Harry and
(09:25):
Mike the dog, which just cracked me up.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Dear Mother, Harry, and Mike. We were interviewed today by examiners.
This is in case we don't get cadet, and I
believe that they are going to make a radio gunner
out of me. I'm not too keen about this, but
it is a good deal and that I shall be
in school and in country for at least five months.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
You see a lot of the boys who funked out
are sent directly to Poe Port of Embarkation, which means
they were shipped out immediately. And so that's when he
embarked on becoming a radio operator and a gunner. Ruby seventeen.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
October sixteenth, nine pm Monday, Dear Mother, Harry, and Mike.
Received no mail from you people today, but I did
get three gazettes. In a letter from Coach, he slipped
a couple of greenbacks in which to me at this
time was quite acceptable any loose changes just before you
shipped to any place. For somehow you always managed to
spend more than you plan. Dear Mother, Harry, and Mike.
(10:30):
I wrote to the aunts last night, They've been so
good to me. Missut asking for opinion in her last
letter of coach going to Niagara Falls High school boy,
I told them never would have said a damn thing
if I had seen home. Guess I think I have
special privileges since I'm away.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Interesting for me in researching my father's life is there
was a couple that were like grandparents to Sarah Coach
Mister and Missus Franklins called the Mamiot and Papa, and
when we asked about were they related to us, my
mother would just tell us that they were friends of
(11:09):
your father's. Well, I learned that the ants, who had
no children and they were both teachers, lived in the
flat in the house next door to them, And so
growing up, Papa, my father would refer to him as
coach because he was a coach at the high schools.
(11:29):
He served as the father figure for them growing up,
and then as my father married my mom and the
children came, Papa was just there for every every baptism,
every first Communion, every Sunday dinner, every holiday, Easter, every Christmas,
every birthday. They were just always there. I wish I
(11:51):
would have known that when he was here. He lived
to be ninety six years old. But it was nice
to find out that connection, because apparently those boys, Frank
and Harry really like children to mania and pop out,
and then they in turn got to have grandchildren. In
a way by taking care of all of us. Abot
(12:12):
taught all of us how to swim. They would go
on vacations with my parents and they would watch the
kids so that my parents could have a dinner without children.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
November, Dear Mother, Harry and Mike.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
It looks as though I'll be off in a cloud
of dust tomorrow at around four pm.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
I'm on shipping orders and I've been to sign a crew.
Looks like a fairly good crew. I just went up
to get the names of the fellows. Seems like a
fair bunch. Two second Louise, pilot and co pilot. No
bambaeder or navigator assigned to the crew as of yet.
We'll pick them up later.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yes, the destination will be Gulfport, Mississippi. I believe.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
The one thing I hope for is that they don't
make New Orleans off limits to us.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Too bad.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
We will miss the KFC supper dance this evening, but
that's the way it goes, Love Frank.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
He did write at one point about how he felt
much safer in what he always referred to as the
Big Birds, and he also felt good about his crew.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
And he says, our crew is of course very green,
no men with combat experience on it whatsoever. And I
still think we have the framework for a smooth working team.
The pilot is a tall six foot my guess Swede
from Rhode Island. I'm glad to say he seems like
a stand up guy. The quality of enthusiasm is priceless.
(13:34):
This bunch seems to have it. Frankly, I would rather
have a young, eager bunch to work with than that experience,
know it all attitude to fly with.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
This way we will all learn together.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
He's been writing all these letters and talking about his
antics and just normal life on a base.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
February thirteenth telegram, Dear folks, please telegraph twenty or twenty
five dollars as soon as possible. Love Equal Frank, Sunday,
twelve ten Golfport, Air Force Base, Mississippi, Dear Mother, Harry
and Mike.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
First, the weather.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Here, as you can realize, being right on the golf,
it is essentially damp. Dear Mother, Harry and Mike. From
what I can see now, I will be a very
busy boy. We will be on duty ten to twelve
hours when we fly. Dear Mother Harry and Mike. This
morning they got us up for child late to go
to mass so we fully intended to go at ten thirty.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
But the sack looks so good that we climb back in.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
But you didn't really hear too much about whether or
not he was afraid. And then I found this letter
he wrote to Harry just before he left for the UK.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Dear Harry, I've been meaning to write this a little
missive for some time now.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
I've thought a lot about it.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
And besides, I've owed the only breadweather in the family
an exclusive one for some time now.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
And the truth of the matter is, I'm scaredless. We
all are.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I'm trying not to dramatize it. A hell of a
lot of darn good men have gone, but I expect
that we are all at least a little leery of
the unknown. I fully expect, if it is God's will,
to return to you one of these fine days and
begin a new something from which we've all drived so
much pleasure, happiness and security, but just on the outside.
(15:20):
If I don't quite make it, let's call this a
final confession, or whatever the hell we will. I don't
honestly expect that what follows will influence you too much.
I've been away for too long, and mainly I have
failed you for a year now to contribute to the
prerequisite of our triumvirate my presence, my bitching, my morale,
and least important, my economic support. However, I would set
(15:43):
a few things down here, a little advice, I suppose
you'd call it. Even if you were in my obligation,
I would not try to insist you consider them too seriously,
for you are now the pilot, so let's just call
them ideas.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
God knows.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
I don't leave you much, but you'll have two thousand cash,
and the other will get sixty dollars a month for better
for my government insurance.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
With her property.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
This should, in a very modest way, make her almost independent.
You will have to help them, of course, but it
should not be too much, and should in a way
give you even more of an opportunity to shape your
own life.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I know we both in our.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Hearts, always considered it a privilege if you enjoyed to
live at home in our piano box with Mom and Mike.
But as you continue to succeed at your own work,
you owe it to yourself and mother and me to
have a family of your own.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Please name one of the boys after me. Huh.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Your breeding so adequate and by one hand alone, must
dictate you to compromise with nothing and accept only the
best and most perfect. This means friends, the selection of
a wife, and in living a life in itself, you
are blessed with honesty and truth. Guard them zealously as
you go along. I wish I had your spiritual faith.
It has and will ever be your best criterion in
(16:52):
all things. I was most proud of you when you
came in with two jobs one night and also one afternoon,
when you bounced upon the high school stage and walked
off with what represented three years of sweating out night school.
I couldn't stomach that deal and admitted it by doing
so poorly. I never did get to do much that
amounted to anything. Honestly, seems like a man of twenty
(17:15):
four should have left a greater mark on life. Well,
it still remains to be seen what I could do
when I get back. I want you to keep on
being a good boy, Harry. You're still the best buddy
a guy ever had, and I have some pretty good ones. Now,
don't show this to mother, not now anyway, My special
Tuesday blessing fella, love Frank, and.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
You've been listening to Loretto M. Thompson's story and the
story of her father, Frank, a radio gunner on bombers
in World War Two. We'll learn more about Frank, his doubts,
his fears when we continue here on our American story.
(18:08):
And we returned to our American stories and Loretto M.
Thompson's story, the story of her father, Frank Thompson, a
radio gunner on bombers in World War Two. When we
last left off, Frank had gone to Britain. Let's continue
with the story and with his.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Leves, dear mother, Harry and Mike. The four things the
British don't like about an American soldier. He's overdressed, he's overpaid,
he's over sexed. He's over here, but.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I did want to talk about before he left for
the UK. One of the things he learned before then
is that they were training for a ditching, and he
wrote about it and he seemed really annoyed by it.
They keep training us for the stitching.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
December twentieth, Wednesday, Dear Mother, Harry and Mike. We had
the usual ground school today, had a three hour session
of ditching. You remember Jack Stolt said we get that
till we turn blue in the face. Well it has begun,
you know. It's the procedure involved in landing your ship
in the water and safely abandoning it. December twenty first, Thursday,
(19:17):
Dear Mother, Harry and Mike.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Another long day.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Up at four am and up into the wild blue yonder.
When we were down, I got my mail, goped some
pork chops and French fries at the base cafeteria and
hurried over to the ditching drill. Just finished eating again
at the mess hall, and I'm a little pooed out and.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
For me because I was reading it in the present.
He was writing his present. I would be his future.
He is my past. But he and I want to
tell him you need to pay attention to this because
you're going to need this, and I couldn't tell him.
And it was the strangest feeling, because the more I
(19:55):
read about what he was doing, the more I wanted
to give him a heads up. Of course, you know,
that was not something that would happen. One of the
things that also intrigued me was that I learned that
while they were leaving the States to go to Europe,
(20:18):
they had flown from Savannah, Georgia, to Gander, Nufouland. Well,
from Gander, they had to fly into Iceland, but they
flew on my father's birthday, so I can imagine that
they had themselves a little bit of a party the
night before, because my understanding is that they were up
quite late, and then they had to fly to Iceland.
(20:41):
While while they were flying, the pilot said, well, that
he would take the first watch. The plane was on
automatic pilot, so all the rest could sleep well while
he was on watch, he also fell asleep, and so
here's this be seventeen with an entire crew sleeping. It
(21:01):
wasn't until the navigator woke up and said, well, where
are we going? And the pilot woke up and realized
that he had leaned on the joystick, which then starts
to take the plane off track, and so they had
to quick hustle and manually calculate all of the what
they called search problems in order to find their way
(21:23):
back to the path they were supposed to be taking
to Iceland. I read about this happening to Cruise and
there were well over a thousand crews that on their
way to the European Theater. They never made it. They
got lost somehow, and then they're never heard from again.
(21:43):
So I mean, so it seems like at every step
of the way there were chances that he would not
have made it. And he gets to England and he
starts flying these missions. They were all declassified in two
thought ten.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
April fourth Mission three oh nine Keel, Germany aircraft forty
two ninety seven one ninety four aka good Pickin primary
target U boat submarine installations thirty seven B seventeens took off,
thirty seven returned major flak damage. April fifth, Mission three
(22:26):
ten Nurburg, Germany aircraft forty four eighty two seventy two
aka Lizabeth II, primary target raillyards east of city. Unable
to attack due to clouds attack secondary target moderate flak.
Mission three point fifteen Bird, Germany aircraft forty four sixty
(22:47):
four seventy five. Primary targets, hangars and runways of Bird Airfield.
Malfunctions left and right, from electrical systems to scopes, to
transmitters to engines. Attacked by two six Tues two shot
down by P fifty one Mustangs, two B seventeens hit
by enemy aircraft and blown up one behind aircraft forty
(23:08):
four sixty four seventy five, No shoots seen exiting the bomber.
April tenth, Tuesday. Dear mother, Harry and Mike, just one
of the unsatisfactory type. Purpose to let you know that
all is well and my crew is fine. Please keep
watching my boy Mike, and please don't forget to keep
(23:28):
the crew in your prayers.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Lots of love, Francis, George.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
You just have to ask yourself, you know, how did
an entire crew come back on scape? Is miraculous?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
This is London Court.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Here is a news flash.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
The German radio has just the nuns that Hitler is dead.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Mission three twenty two Haig Holland Aircraft forty four sixty
four seventy five One day after Hitler's suicide mission, dropping
seven hundred tons of ten and one rations food to
the people of Holland. Dear mother, Harry and Mike. I
flew yesterday with a Captain Thomas. He has finished but
(24:10):
wanted to fly in one of those mercy missions, so
I went along as ro. This was the first time
I've been over Holland since the crowds they're capitulated. I
don't know where they kept all the Dutch flags during
the German occupation, but they were everywhere yesterday. They waved
at us from bridges, horse stops, road junctions, everywhere.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
It was a wonderful sight.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Crowds down there shaking their fists to the beds, cut
up the spell.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Yes, delivering groceries of them was certainly worthwhile. Makes you
feel a little better to be dropping something constructive instead
of those hell raisers.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
What the childhow missions were. There was a limited ceasefire
on behalf of the Germans in order to allow the
Allies to drop food to the Dutch people who were starving.
And what my father did at the time was his
eventual wife, my mother, my mother's father, came from Holland
(25:09):
and some of those people that he was dropping food too,
could easily have done his future relatives. Of course, that
would never have occurred to him.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
May eighth Tuesday, Dear Mother, Harry and Mike. Today's V Day,
her Churchill speak and everything. No doubt you people are
very elated.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
I hear of big.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Doings in NYC and also London, and well it might
be we have cause to rejoice and thank the Good
Lord for being so kind to us.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
And then to the debt.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Civilian Americans will never never be able to repay the
debt ode to the men that did.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
The job for them. Oh, I don't mean guys like me, but.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
The fellows who really had it roth, the ones who
really know what it's all about. To a lot of
us here, it is a little anti climax. I flew
of copilot while he took an instrument tech yesterday. We
had advanced him from then. So we came back and
opened up the seagrum seven some of the crew and
started a little celebration.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Of her own.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
After flying the missions, they had had V Day and
all of the crews now were preparing to come back
to the States. But my father and his crew, they
didn't realize they were going to be sent on a mission.
But they were tracked down by the pilot and co
pilot and they said, it's called a Showtime, Showtime and engine.
(26:27):
So this particular ship, the name of it was Heavy Date.
And then they were told well, they were going to
do this dead reckoning mission the next day, and they
took it out over the North Sea. Well, while they
were out there, I knew that their plane had ditched,
because my mother had told me that their plane had
gone down in the water. But it took a little
(26:47):
while to figure out exactly what happened. And then finally
I came across this letter that was written a few
days after it had happened. And again it was written
only to Harry and.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
You listening to the story of Frank Thompson as told
by Loretto M. Thompson reading her father's war letters. When
we come back more of this remarkable story and Loretto M.
Thompson here on our American stories, and we returned to
(27:38):
our American stories in the final part of Loretto Thompson's
story on her father, Frank, a radio gunner on bombers
in World War Two. When we last left off, the
war it ended, but Frank had been sent up for
another mission over the North Sea that would end in disaster.
Let's return to the story and Frank's letter about that.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Incident, May thirty, first Thursday. Dear Harry, Well, oh boy.
Following my lifetime policy of letting you in on old
the poop, I'll get you this one off, which should
serve the dual purpose of informing you and also keeping
(28:20):
something for the record. Under no circumstances. Do I want
you to let Mom read this. You'll only worry her.
A few days ago we found out we had a
DR mission dead reckoning. It is a navigational training mission,
and so we went to bed early and we woke
up in the morning early. We got up, went to
(28:41):
more or less token briefing where we found out we
were to fly over the North Sea. Also, in addition
to pilot, copilot, navigator, engineer and ro who must fly
with the ship, we took on our Obamadier Herb Robinson,
who hadn't wanted to fly that day, didn't really feel
like it, but the squadron navigator wanted him to go
along and get checked out on DR navigations. So that
made six of us when we got out to the
(29:03):
big bird. We found out that a Sea one maintenance
man was supposed to go too. C One is automatic pilot,
and we call him George. He didn't show up at takeoff,
so we took off without him. The weather was bad.
We couldn't fly over the stuff, so we flew under it.
I was supposed to send it in position report every hour,
so about ten minutes after nine I called a navigator
for a fix. The bombedeer told me that he was
(29:25):
taking a double drift wind reading and would call me
as soon as he was through.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
I was tuned up on my radio on an.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Emergency DF frequency as soon as I had left the coast,
and it called in and obtained a fix, which was
seven miles off according to the navigator. The trouble with
accuracy was we were too low for a good transmission.
When I found I couldn't get a fixed position report
from the navigator, I tuned up to the base ground
stations so i'd be ready when he got ready to
give it to me, for it was late already when
(29:53):
I asked for it, the pilot had heard me and
said we were.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Too low to send it. Then we were too low
for comfort.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
I was unhappy because it was not much fun getting
there all alone doing nothing. So I called up the
base station and got a frequency check okay, and a
maximum single strength. I was about to call again when
I heard the copilot over the interphone giving the order
prepared to ditch. I better explain here that ditching refers
to landing your aircraft on the water when you were
run out of gas or in dire distress. We were
(30:21):
losing altitude fast, so I immediately changed my radio set
up to the emergency, and by the time the navigator
in bombaedier had come from the nose through the bombay
to the radio room, all members of the crew took
places seated on the radio room floor with their hands
locked behind their necks. For when you were to ditch,
there is a terrific impact when you hit. Figure it
out for yourself. We hit the water at one hundred
(30:42):
and five miles per hour. I was hopelessly trying to
get in an SOS to the DF station, but I
knew that by that time we were far too low.
I was setting into the blind for I had to
listen to the interphone for the prepared to impact order
until the three boys who were seated so they'd be ready.
The copilot had kept asking me, are you ready, and
finally I said they were, and in a few seconds
(31:04):
he gave.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
The order I related to the boys. They got set.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
I pulled my chute and stuffed it between me and
my radio to absorb the.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Shock, and then we hit.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
Water came in from all places immediately, although the actual
shock had not been as bad as I expected. That
was a tribute to a damn good pilot. As soon
as we observed the first shock, we started to climb
out and turned from the radio room hatch. The cover
had been taken off and thrown out when they came back.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Joe got out first.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
I got out second to last, and it was then
that I finally discovered why we ditched. The number four
engine was burning, still going in the water, flames about
six to eight feet high.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
When I got out. Herb, the bombadier, tried to lift
the radio.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
Out, but it couldn't do so since the water was
up to his waist, so we got out and into
the dinghy. I was reluctant to leave the radio, so
I finally got a hold of Herb's knife and tried
to cut it out with the impact. The radio had
become jammed in the rack. We used the house radar
jammy equipment on combat missions. It was impossible to cut
her loose, and I left the top of the ship
(32:05):
just a few seconds before she went down. We had
to push our rubber boat away to avoid being hit
by the tail, which was the last section to disappeared
under the water. Then we were alone, nothing on the
horizon but water. It was cold too, and no radio.
This was unfortunate, for we knew there were ships at
least within fifty miles of us as far as we knew,
(32:27):
though no one knew that we were down. It was
a chance in a million that my SOS had been
picked up, and we were so low we were a
bunch of sad looking sacks. The four of us who
had been in the radio room were drenched the skin.
We sat there about five minutes, checking to make sure
no one was hurt. And then there was when providence
entered in. A beautiful big bird came over us. We
(32:48):
frantically grabbed flare pistols and flares and shot them off
like crazy. We yelled like mad men, although we knew
they couldn't hear us. At first, it looked as though
they wouldn't see us, but they did. Shortly to the
end of the second hour in the water, a British
plane arrived with a small boat tied to the bottom
of it. The B seventeen that had been keeping us
company buzzed us and left. That ship had been on
(33:10):
a dead reckoning from our base, just as we had,
but it was a wonder that their course followed so
closely to our own. We waved her grateful goodbye and
turned our attention to the RAF ship. It made seven
or eight passes at us, and finally dropped the boat.
None of the shoots on one end open, and when
we had finally paddled to it in the dinghy, we
found it splintered to pieces.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
We ditched at nine thirty am and we're picked up
about five thirty PM, very little the worse for wear.
We didn't get back until one thirty that night, for
it seems we went down dead center in the North Sea,
about one hundred and fifty five to one hundred and
sixty miles out. They fed us two quarts of good
(33:52):
scott and hot ham and eggs. We went to bed
in nice, warm English blankets. Joe got sick from drinking
too much, but got some sleep. Later. The Wrens woke
us up at seven in the morning with a cup
of tea. Oh it was rough. We had breakfast with
the naval officers and I got to mass and we
got a chance to go through an English submarine before
(34:15):
we left for an RIF base, where a big bird
picked us up and flew us back to the base. Well, fellow,
that is it. We returned about three pm Sunday, and
at eight they told us we could have a forty
eight hour pass if we wanted it, so we took
off for London. Herb Bombadier didn't go, had to have
(34:35):
his back X ray. So I hope you at least
will understand why I didn't write for a few days.
Have to run off to lunch now except to take
a cross country over Ireland this PM. So be good,
oh boy, and please keep remembering us. We sure need it, love, Frank.
(35:01):
When I started on this project, I'll be honest with you,
I didn't have a lot of attachment to my father.
I mean, I knew I loved him, but I didn't
know him. I just loved him because he was my father,
and I know he had died. I know he had
been a doctor and he had helped a lot of
people because I heard about it all the time, but
there was no real emotion. Even when I watched the
(35:24):
family movies from when he was alive, I didn't really
feel a connection to him. But after going through this
whole project, reading all of these letters that he had written,
I feel as though I know him that and to me,
what didn't seem to move me emotionally beforehand is truly
(35:48):
heartbreaking too when you think about it. Here's a guy
who fought in World War Two, came home against all odds,
became a doctor, helped all these people, his family, and
to have his life cut short at forty four years old,
and then we never talked about him. I don't really
know why. I mean, I realized after reading all these
(36:10):
letters that that was really just a shame, Like how
could this entire life, this man who had accomplished so
much in such a short amount of time and then
left us, all of us could just be forgotten. So
that was one of the driving forces for me behind
(36:30):
this project. And if it weren't for the pilot who
told me to write the damn book, I probably wouldn't
have shared this story. But I can imagine that there
are other adult children of World War II veterans that
would have loved the opportunity to talk to their parents
about what happened over there. And I think that my
(36:54):
father speaks for a lot of them because he was
an everyman. He wasn't one of these heroes that you
see these films that are about He represented the average
gi and what they were going through and how they felt,
and the only thing that they wanted to accomplish was
(37:15):
to get home, just get through this war and get home.
And for him to leave behind five hundred letters, I mean,
it's miraculous that they even survived. Like one his mother
had to keep them, which he did ask in one
of his letters, he said, you know, I'd like you
to hang on to these. I'd like to read them
to my grandchildren one day. Well, now his grandchildren are
(37:36):
reading them. His story was meant to be told, and
he left those letters for us in order to give
us his voice.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Superb effort by Monte Montgomery on the production, and again
a special thanks to Loretto Thompson, a listener and fan
of the show, and we're fans of hers and we
became listeners. And that's what we love about this show.
Sometimes we listen to you the story of Loretta Thompson's father, Frank,
a radio gunner on bombers in World War Two, as
she described him in every Man Here on Our American
(38:13):
Stories
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories
to show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next, a listener's story from Loretto M. Thompson. Loretta
was the author of an Unexpected Cuddiewomple, the story of
a father's sudden death, a box of World War II letters,
and a daughter's life transformed. Today. She shares that story.
(00:34):
Take it away, Loretto.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I never really knew him. I remember him shaving, being
on the sync with him when he was shaving, and
he'd put a doll of shaving cream on my nose.
I remember that I had pushed my younger brother off
the chair, and then when my father asked me if
I had done that, I said no. I think the
(00:57):
spanking that I received was more about the life then
about pushing my brother off the chair. And I remember
the day that he died. He was forty four years
old and I was four, and our mother raised us,
(01:19):
seven of us for ten years by herself, and we
were dependent on the stories that our mother told us,
stories that she would tell over and over again, and
one of those was the story about how our father
had written his mother every day when he was in
World War two, but it never really clicked that the
(01:42):
letters still existed, and as she aged. At one point
we were at lunch and she said, I have all
the letters. I kept them because I always thought I
would read them, but I'll never read them now because
of her vision problems. She had gleackcoma and macular degeneration.
(02:04):
So I said, well, I'll read them to you. And
I couldn't imagine there would be that many letters, because
I'm thinking, here's a twenty two year old guy, and
he's really going to write his mother every day. But
when she told me where the box was, I went
down into the basement and brought it up and dusted
(02:25):
it off, and when I opened it up, I had
to catch my breath because I was shocked. It was
packed full of letters, all handwritten script letters, perfect condition,
and they were haphazard thrown into this box. Five hundred
and twenty two letters passed into this box. Well, I
(02:53):
had said I would stay reading them to my mother,
and so on Sundays after church we would get coffee
and it was quiet, nobody else was there, and we
started to read the letters.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
February ninth one, ten pm.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Dear Mother, Harry and Mike, Well, I guess I'll have
to snap off a quickie.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I planned on having an extra time.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Yesterday, but since the barracks at a GI party, I
was delayed again. January twenty seventh, Company C, Barracks, Number eight,
January thirtieth, three o'clock pm. Dear mother, Harry and Mike, Well,
how are things at the old four fifteen and a
half these days? I'm afraid it didn't get enough chicken,
but I'm learning to give the cook that come hither.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Look, I didn't really know too much about my father
as far as his background. My mother, even in reading
the letters to her, she said she didn't really know
him at that time. He was only twenty two and
she didn't meet him until ten years after he'd returned
from the war. He and his brother were born in Buffalo,
(03:56):
and my father, Frank, would have been seven and his
older brother there would have been nine when their father
came down with pneumonia, and within six days he had
actually died, and so that left their mother with these
two boys. And I look at it and I think, wow,
it's like history repeating itself. Because my older sister, Barbara
had been seven when my father died when Pearl Harbor
(04:22):
hit He was too young for the draft, so he
decided that he was going to sign up, because then
if you enlisted on your own, you got to choose
what you wanted to be. So he signed up for
the Army Air Corps and that he wanted to be
a pilot. He had to report in January of nineteen
(04:47):
forty four to Fort Dixon. This is so funny because
his first letter postcard that he sends home his dear
mother and Harry.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Just arrived at Trenton was delayed when I got off
a Quaker town instead of Jenkin.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
But it proved worthwhile.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Is they grow great a redheads here lay over for
three hours.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
This was a great way.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
To get here, and people are still more fun than anybody.
All's well, and we'll start for Dixon. A few moments.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Loved to all Frank, and I thought, oh, well, here
we go. Because my mother was a redhead. All in all,
my mother had eight years with him, and it's kind
of a fairy tale relationship how they met. My father
was a doctor at the time. My mother had really
bad allergies and so she was going to visit my uncle,
(05:36):
who was her medical doctor. However, he was out of
town and so this young doctor was filling in for him,
doctor Thompson, So he scheduled the appointment for her to
go to the specialist, and then he also scheduled a
filop appointment with him. In the beginning with the allergy shots,
apparently you're supposed to have him like once a week,
and then it goes to once every two weeks. Regardless,
(05:57):
it meant that she had to have quite a bit
of visits. So what happened was they couldn't date. He
was her doctor, So I don't know how the decision
came up, but he quit the practice, went back to school,
and my mother at the time was working on her
master's and she would take the bus to Buffalo State
Teacher's College. And my mother would say, well, you know,
(06:19):
I'd be waiting at the bus stop and he would
just happen to drive by and offer me a ride
to school. She said, well, he said that it was
on his way. Well, we all know that buff State
is completely in a different direction than you be. We
try to tell her mom, and this was not a mistake.
He was probably timing it out to make sure that
you would be at that bus stop. Part of their
(06:40):
courtship would be done while he was on house calls,
and so he would pick her up and they would
drive tell the house calls, and then she would wait
for him and then they would drive to the next one.
Eventually he proposed to her, and I'm not quite sure
what he gave to her, but I did find a
little card and it said something about how so he
had not put her last name initial on whatever this
(07:04):
was because he was hoping to change that. They got
engaged in fifty six and they would have married in
fifty seven, and the first baby arrived in fifty eight.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And we're listening to a listeners story from Loretto M.
Thompson about how she came to know her father and
when we come back, we're going to learn more about
this relationship. This relationship spawned through in the end letter writing.
When Our American Stories continues, Liehbibe here the host of
Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing
(07:37):
inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from our
big cities and small towns. But we truly can't do
the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make If you love what
you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go
to Ouramericanstories dot com and give. And we returned to
(08:10):
our American Stories in Loretto M. Thompson's story, or more specifically,
the story of her father Frank. When we last left off, Loretto,
who never knew her father, had discovered his letters, all
five hundred plus in her mother's basement and begun reading
them to her mother. Frank wanted to be a pilot,
it turns out, but the Army had other ideas. Let's
(08:32):
return to the story.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
At that time, they were saying they had too many pilots.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
February twenty eighth, four to thirty pm Monday, Greensboro, North Carolina. Well,
I've been in the Army a month now, a month
to get a crack at what I did today. Today
we took exams to qualify for aircrew. But I fear
it didn't do too well. Some of the fellows even
feel confident. I have no such feeling. Perhaps have been
away from concentrated to endeavor for far too long.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I don't know, but I'm not going to worry too much.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
About it, so it was really touch and go for
a little while. And I have a little letter here.
At this point he's not only writing Harry and his mother,
he's writing also his dog Mike. So from here on
in all of his letters are dear mother, Harry and
(09:25):
Mike the dog, which just cracked me up.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Dear Mother, Harry, and Mike. We were interviewed today by examiners.
This is in case we don't get cadet, and I
believe that they are going to make a radio gunner
out of me. I'm not too keen about this, but
it is a good deal and that I shall be
in school and in country for at least five months.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
You see a lot of the boys who funked out
are sent directly to Poe Port of Embarkation, which means
they were shipped out immediately. And so that's when he
embarked on becoming a radio operator and a gunner. Ruby seventeen.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
October sixteenth, nine pm Monday, Dear Mother, Harry, and Mike.
Received no mail from you people today, but I did
get three gazettes. In a letter from Coach, he slipped
a couple of greenbacks in which to me at this
time was quite acceptable any loose changes just before you
shipped to any place. For somehow you always managed to
spend more than you plan. Dear Mother, Harry, and Mike.
(10:30):
I wrote to the aunts last night, They've been so
good to me. Missut asking for opinion in her last
letter of coach going to Niagara Falls High school boy,
I told them never would have said a damn thing
if I had seen home. Guess I think I have
special privileges since I'm away.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Interesting for me in researching my father's life is there
was a couple that were like grandparents to Sarah Coach
Mister and Missus Franklins called the Mamiot and Papa, and
when we asked about were they related to us, my
mother would just tell us that they were friends of
(11:09):
your father's. Well, I learned that the ants, who had
no children and they were both teachers, lived in the
flat in the house next door to them, And so
growing up, Papa, my father would refer to him as
coach because he was a coach at the high schools.
(11:29):
He served as the father figure for them growing up,
and then as my father married my mom and the
children came, Papa was just there for every every baptism,
every first Communion, every Sunday dinner, every holiday, Easter, every Christmas,
every birthday. They were just always there. I wish I
(11:51):
would have known that when he was here. He lived
to be ninety six years old. But it was nice
to find out that connection, because apparently those boys, Frank
and Harry really like children to mania and pop out,
and then they in turn got to have grandchildren. In
a way by taking care of all of us. Abot
(12:12):
taught all of us how to swim. They would go
on vacations with my parents and they would watch the
kids so that my parents could have a dinner without children.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
November, Dear Mother, Harry and Mike.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
It looks as though I'll be off in a cloud
of dust tomorrow at around four pm.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
I'm on shipping orders and I've been to sign a crew.
Looks like a fairly good crew. I just went up
to get the names of the fellows. Seems like a
fair bunch. Two second Louise, pilot and co pilot. No
bambaeder or navigator assigned to the crew as of yet.
We'll pick them up later.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yes, the destination will be Gulfport, Mississippi. I believe.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
The one thing I hope for is that they don't
make New Orleans off limits to us.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Too bad.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
We will miss the KFC supper dance this evening, but
that's the way it goes, Love Frank.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
He did write at one point about how he felt
much safer in what he always referred to as the
Big Birds, and he also felt good about his crew.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
And he says, our crew is of course very green,
no men with combat experience on it whatsoever. And I
still think we have the framework for a smooth working team.
The pilot is a tall six foot my guess Swede
from Rhode Island. I'm glad to say he seems like
a stand up guy. The quality of enthusiasm is priceless.
(13:34):
This bunch seems to have it. Frankly, I would rather
have a young, eager bunch to work with than that experience,
know it all attitude to fly with.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
This way we will all learn together.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
He's been writing all these letters and talking about his
antics and just normal life on a base.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
February thirteenth telegram, Dear folks, please telegraph twenty or twenty
five dollars as soon as possible. Love Equal Frank, Sunday,
twelve ten Golfport, Air Force Base, Mississippi, Dear Mother, Harry
and Mike.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
First, the weather.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Here, as you can realize, being right on the golf,
it is essentially damp. Dear Mother, Harry and Mike. From
what I can see now, I will be a very
busy boy. We will be on duty ten to twelve
hours when we fly. Dear Mother Harry and Mike. This
morning they got us up for child late to go
to mass so we fully intended to go at ten thirty.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
But the sack looks so good that we climb back in.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
But you didn't really hear too much about whether or
not he was afraid. And then I found this letter
he wrote to Harry just before he left for the UK.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Dear Harry, I've been meaning to write this a little
missive for some time now.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
I've thought a lot about it.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
And besides, I've owed the only breadweather in the family
an exclusive one for some time now.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
And the truth of the matter is, I'm scaredless. We
all are.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I'm trying not to dramatize it. A hell of a
lot of darn good men have gone, but I expect
that we are all at least a little leery of
the unknown. I fully expect, if it is God's will,
to return to you one of these fine days and
begin a new something from which we've all drived so
much pleasure, happiness and security, but just on the outside.
(15:20):
If I don't quite make it, let's call this a
final confession, or whatever the hell we will. I don't
honestly expect that what follows will influence you too much.
I've been away for too long, and mainly I have
failed you for a year now to contribute to the
prerequisite of our triumvirate my presence, my bitching, my morale,
and least important, my economic support. However, I would set
(15:43):
a few things down here, a little advice, I suppose
you'd call it. Even if you were in my obligation,
I would not try to insist you consider them too seriously,
for you are now the pilot, so let's just call
them ideas.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
God knows.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
I don't leave you much, but you'll have two thousand cash,
and the other will get sixty dollars a month for better
for my government insurance.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
With her property.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
This should, in a very modest way, make her almost independent.
You will have to help them, of course, but it
should not be too much, and should in a way
give you even more of an opportunity to shape your
own life.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I know we both in our.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Hearts, always considered it a privilege if you enjoyed to
live at home in our piano box with Mom and Mike.
But as you continue to succeed at your own work,
you owe it to yourself and mother and me to
have a family of your own.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Please name one of the boys after me. Huh.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Your breeding so adequate and by one hand alone, must
dictate you to compromise with nothing and accept only the
best and most perfect. This means friends, the selection of
a wife, and in living a life in itself, you
are blessed with honesty and truth. Guard them zealously as
you go along. I wish I had your spiritual faith.
It has and will ever be your best criterion in
(16:52):
all things. I was most proud of you when you
came in with two jobs one night and also one afternoon,
when you bounced upon the high school stage and walked
off with what represented three years of sweating out night school.
I couldn't stomach that deal and admitted it by doing
so poorly. I never did get to do much that
amounted to anything. Honestly, seems like a man of twenty
(17:15):
four should have left a greater mark on life. Well,
it still remains to be seen what I could do
when I get back. I want you to keep on
being a good boy, Harry. You're still the best buddy
a guy ever had, and I have some pretty good ones. Now,
don't show this to mother, not now anyway, My special
Tuesday blessing fella, love Frank, and.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
You've been listening to Loretto M. Thompson's story and the
story of her father, Frank, a radio gunner on bombers
in World War Two. We'll learn more about Frank, his doubts,
his fears when we continue here on our American story.
(18:08):
And we returned to our American stories and Loretto M.
Thompson's story, the story of her father, Frank Thompson, a
radio gunner on bombers in World War Two. When we
last left off, Frank had gone to Britain. Let's continue
with the story and with his.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Leves, dear mother, Harry and Mike. The four things the
British don't like about an American soldier. He's overdressed, he's overpaid,
he's over sexed. He's over here, but.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I did want to talk about before he left for
the UK. One of the things he learned before then
is that they were training for a ditching, and he
wrote about it and he seemed really annoyed by it.
They keep training us for the stitching.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
December twentieth, Wednesday, Dear Mother, Harry and Mike. We had
the usual ground school today, had a three hour session
of ditching. You remember Jack Stolt said we get that
till we turn blue in the face. Well it has begun,
you know. It's the procedure involved in landing your ship
in the water and safely abandoning it. December twenty first, Thursday,
(19:17):
Dear Mother, Harry and Mike.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Another long day.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Up at four am and up into the wild blue yonder.
When we were down, I got my mail, goped some
pork chops and French fries at the base cafeteria and
hurried over to the ditching drill. Just finished eating again
at the mess hall, and I'm a little pooed out and.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
For me because I was reading it in the present.
He was writing his present. I would be his future.
He is my past. But he and I want to
tell him you need to pay attention to this because
you're going to need this, and I couldn't tell him.
And it was the strangest feeling, because the more I
(19:55):
read about what he was doing, the more I wanted
to give him a heads up. Of course, you know,
that was not something that would happen. One of the
things that also intrigued me was that I learned that
while they were leaving the States to go to Europe,
(20:18):
they had flown from Savannah, Georgia, to Gander, Nufouland. Well,
from Gander, they had to fly into Iceland, but they
flew on my father's birthday, so I can imagine that
they had themselves a little bit of a party the
night before, because my understanding is that they were up
quite late, and then they had to fly to Iceland.
(20:41):
While while they were flying, the pilot said, well, that
he would take the first watch. The plane was on
automatic pilot, so all the rest could sleep well while
he was on watch, he also fell asleep, and so
here's this be seventeen with an entire crew sleeping. It
(21:01):
wasn't until the navigator woke up and said, well, where
are we going? And the pilot woke up and realized
that he had leaned on the joystick, which then starts
to take the plane off track, and so they had
to quick hustle and manually calculate all of the what
they called search problems in order to find their way
(21:23):
back to the path they were supposed to be taking
to Iceland. I read about this happening to Cruise and
there were well over a thousand crews that on their
way to the European Theater. They never made it. They
got lost somehow, and then they're never heard from again.
(21:43):
So I mean, so it seems like at every step
of the way there were chances that he would not
have made it. And he gets to England and he
starts flying these missions. They were all declassified in two
thought ten.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
April fourth Mission three oh nine Keel, Germany aircraft forty
two ninety seven one ninety four aka good Pickin primary
target U boat submarine installations thirty seven B seventeens took off,
thirty seven returned major flak damage. April fifth, Mission three
(22:26):
ten Nurburg, Germany aircraft forty four eighty two seventy two
aka Lizabeth II, primary target raillyards east of city. Unable
to attack due to clouds attack secondary target moderate flak.
Mission three point fifteen Bird, Germany aircraft forty four sixty
(22:47):
four seventy five. Primary targets, hangars and runways of Bird Airfield.
Malfunctions left and right, from electrical systems to scopes, to
transmitters to engines. Attacked by two six Tues two shot
down by P fifty one Mustangs, two B seventeens hit
by enemy aircraft and blown up one behind aircraft forty
(23:08):
four sixty four seventy five, No shoots seen exiting the bomber.
April tenth, Tuesday. Dear mother, Harry and Mike, just one
of the unsatisfactory type. Purpose to let you know that
all is well and my crew is fine. Please keep
watching my boy Mike, and please don't forget to keep
(23:28):
the crew in your prayers.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Lots of love, Francis, George.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
You just have to ask yourself, you know, how did
an entire crew come back on scape? Is miraculous?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
This is London Court.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Here is a news flash.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
The German radio has just the nuns that Hitler is dead.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Mission three twenty two Haig Holland Aircraft forty four sixty
four seventy five One day after Hitler's suicide mission, dropping
seven hundred tons of ten and one rations food to
the people of Holland. Dear mother, Harry and Mike. I
flew yesterday with a Captain Thomas. He has finished but
(24:10):
wanted to fly in one of those mercy missions, so
I went along as ro. This was the first time
I've been over Holland since the crowds they're capitulated. I
don't know where they kept all the Dutch flags during
the German occupation, but they were everywhere yesterday. They waved
at us from bridges, horse stops, road junctions, everywhere.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
It was a wonderful sight.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Crowds down there shaking their fists to the beds, cut
up the spell.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Yes, delivering groceries of them was certainly worthwhile. Makes you
feel a little better to be dropping something constructive instead
of those hell raisers.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
What the childhow missions were. There was a limited ceasefire
on behalf of the Germans in order to allow the
Allies to drop food to the Dutch people who were starving.
And what my father did at the time was his
eventual wife, my mother, my mother's father, came from Holland
(25:09):
and some of those people that he was dropping food too,
could easily have done his future relatives. Of course, that
would never have occurred to him.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
May eighth Tuesday, Dear Mother, Harry and Mike. Today's V Day,
her Churchill speak and everything. No doubt you people are
very elated.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
I hear of big.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Doings in NYC and also London, and well it might
be we have cause to rejoice and thank the Good
Lord for being so kind to us.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
And then to the debt.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Civilian Americans will never never be able to repay the
debt ode to the men that did.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
The job for them. Oh, I don't mean guys like me, but.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
The fellows who really had it roth, the ones who
really know what it's all about. To a lot of
us here, it is a little anti climax. I flew
of copilot while he took an instrument tech yesterday. We
had advanced him from then. So we came back and
opened up the seagrum seven some of the crew and
started a little celebration.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Of her own.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
After flying the missions, they had had V Day and
all of the crews now were preparing to come back
to the States. But my father and his crew, they
didn't realize they were going to be sent on a mission.
But they were tracked down by the pilot and co
pilot and they said, it's called a Showtime, Showtime and engine.
(26:27):
So this particular ship, the name of it was Heavy Date.
And then they were told well, they were going to
do this dead reckoning mission the next day, and they
took it out over the North Sea. Well, while they
were out there, I knew that their plane had ditched,
because my mother had told me that their plane had
gone down in the water. But it took a little
(26:47):
while to figure out exactly what happened. And then finally
I came across this letter that was written a few
days after it had happened. And again it was written
only to Harry and.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
You listening to the story of Frank Thompson as told
by Loretto M. Thompson reading her father's war letters. When
we come back more of this remarkable story and Loretto M.
Thompson here on our American stories, and we returned to
(27:38):
our American stories in the final part of Loretto Thompson's
story on her father, Frank, a radio gunner on bombers
in World War Two. When we last left off, the
war it ended, but Frank had been sent up for
another mission over the North Sea that would end in disaster.
Let's return to the story and Frank's letter about that.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Incident, May thirty, first Thursday. Dear Harry, Well, oh boy.
Following my lifetime policy of letting you in on old
the poop, I'll get you this one off, which should
serve the dual purpose of informing you and also keeping
(28:20):
something for the record. Under no circumstances. Do I want
you to let Mom read this. You'll only worry her.
A few days ago we found out we had a
DR mission dead reckoning. It is a navigational training mission,
and so we went to bed early and we woke
up in the morning early. We got up, went to
(28:41):
more or less token briefing where we found out we
were to fly over the North Sea. Also, in addition
to pilot, copilot, navigator, engineer and ro who must fly
with the ship, we took on our Obamadier Herb Robinson,
who hadn't wanted to fly that day, didn't really feel
like it, but the squadron navigator wanted him to go
along and get checked out on DR navigations. So that
made six of us when we got out to the
(29:03):
big bird. We found out that a Sea one maintenance
man was supposed to go too. C One is automatic pilot,
and we call him George. He didn't show up at takeoff,
so we took off without him. The weather was bad.
We couldn't fly over the stuff, so we flew under it.
I was supposed to send it in position report every hour,
so about ten minutes after nine I called a navigator
for a fix. The bombedeer told me that he was
(29:25):
taking a double drift wind reading and would call me
as soon as he was through.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
I was tuned up on my radio on an.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Emergency DF frequency as soon as I had left the coast,
and it called in and obtained a fix, which was
seven miles off according to the navigator. The trouble with
accuracy was we were too low for a good transmission.
When I found I couldn't get a fixed position report
from the navigator, I tuned up to the base ground
stations so i'd be ready when he got ready to
give it to me, for it was late already when
(29:53):
I asked for it, the pilot had heard me and
said we were.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Too low to send it. Then we were too low
for comfort.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
I was unhappy because it was not much fun getting
there all alone doing nothing. So I called up the
base station and got a frequency check okay, and a
maximum single strength. I was about to call again when
I heard the copilot over the interphone giving the order
prepared to ditch. I better explain here that ditching refers
to landing your aircraft on the water when you were
run out of gas or in dire distress. We were
(30:21):
losing altitude fast, so I immediately changed my radio set
up to the emergency, and by the time the navigator
in bombaedier had come from the nose through the bombay
to the radio room, all members of the crew took
places seated on the radio room floor with their hands
locked behind their necks. For when you were to ditch,
there is a terrific impact when you hit. Figure it
out for yourself. We hit the water at one hundred
(30:42):
and five miles per hour. I was hopelessly trying to
get in an SOS to the DF station, but I
knew that by that time we were far too low.
I was setting into the blind for I had to
listen to the interphone for the prepared to impact order
until the three boys who were seated so they'd be ready.
The copilot had kept asking me, are you ready, and
finally I said they were, and in a few seconds
(31:04):
he gave.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
The order I related to the boys. They got set.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
I pulled my chute and stuffed it between me and
my radio to absorb the.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Shock, and then we hit.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
Water came in from all places immediately, although the actual
shock had not been as bad as I expected. That
was a tribute to a damn good pilot. As soon
as we observed the first shock, we started to climb
out and turned from the radio room hatch. The cover
had been taken off and thrown out when they came back.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Joe got out first.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
I got out second to last, and it was then
that I finally discovered why we ditched. The number four
engine was burning, still going in the water, flames about
six to eight feet high.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
When I got out. Herb, the bombadier, tried to lift
the radio.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
Out, but it couldn't do so since the water was
up to his waist, so we got out and into
the dinghy. I was reluctant to leave the radio, so
I finally got a hold of Herb's knife and tried
to cut it out with the impact. The radio had
become jammed in the rack. We used the house radar
jammy equipment on combat missions. It was impossible to cut
her loose, and I left the top of the ship
(32:05):
just a few seconds before she went down. We had
to push our rubber boat away to avoid being hit
by the tail, which was the last section to disappeared
under the water. Then we were alone, nothing on the
horizon but water. It was cold too, and no radio.
This was unfortunate, for we knew there were ships at
least within fifty miles of us as far as we knew,
(32:27):
though no one knew that we were down. It was
a chance in a million that my SOS had been
picked up, and we were so low we were a
bunch of sad looking sacks. The four of us who
had been in the radio room were drenched the skin.
We sat there about five minutes, checking to make sure
no one was hurt. And then there was when providence
entered in. A beautiful big bird came over us. We
(32:48):
frantically grabbed flare pistols and flares and shot them off
like crazy. We yelled like mad men, although we knew
they couldn't hear us. At first, it looked as though
they wouldn't see us, but they did. Shortly to the
end of the second hour in the water, a British
plane arrived with a small boat tied to the bottom
of it. The B seventeen that had been keeping us
company buzzed us and left. That ship had been on
(33:10):
a dead reckoning from our base, just as we had,
but it was a wonder that their course followed so
closely to our own. We waved her grateful goodbye and
turned our attention to the RAF ship. It made seven
or eight passes at us, and finally dropped the boat.
None of the shoots on one end open, and when
we had finally paddled to it in the dinghy, we
found it splintered to pieces.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
We ditched at nine thirty am and we're picked up
about five thirty PM, very little the worse for wear.
We didn't get back until one thirty that night, for
it seems we went down dead center in the North Sea,
about one hundred and fifty five to one hundred and
sixty miles out. They fed us two quarts of good
(33:52):
scott and hot ham and eggs. We went to bed
in nice, warm English blankets. Joe got sick from drinking
too much, but got some sleep. Later. The Wrens woke
us up at seven in the morning with a cup
of tea. Oh it was rough. We had breakfast with
the naval officers and I got to mass and we
got a chance to go through an English submarine before
(34:15):
we left for an RIF base, where a big bird
picked us up and flew us back to the base. Well, fellow,
that is it. We returned about three pm Sunday, and
at eight they told us we could have a forty
eight hour pass if we wanted it, so we took
off for London. Herb Bombadier didn't go, had to have
(34:35):
his back X ray. So I hope you at least
will understand why I didn't write for a few days.
Have to run off to lunch now except to take
a cross country over Ireland this PM. So be good,
oh boy, and please keep remembering us. We sure need it, love, Frank.
(35:01):
When I started on this project, I'll be honest with you,
I didn't have a lot of attachment to my father.
I mean, I knew I loved him, but I didn't
know him. I just loved him because he was my father,
and I know he had died. I know he had
been a doctor and he had helped a lot of
people because I heard about it all the time, but
there was no real emotion. Even when I watched the
(35:24):
family movies from when he was alive, I didn't really
feel a connection to him. But after going through this
whole project, reading all of these letters that he had written,
I feel as though I know him that and to me,
what didn't seem to move me emotionally beforehand is truly
(35:48):
heartbreaking too when you think about it. Here's a guy
who fought in World War Two, came home against all odds,
became a doctor, helped all these people, his family, and
to have his life cut short at forty four years old,
and then we never talked about him. I don't really
know why. I mean, I realized after reading all these
(36:10):
letters that that was really just a shame, Like how
could this entire life, this man who had accomplished so
much in such a short amount of time and then
left us, all of us could just be forgotten. So
that was one of the driving forces for me behind
(36:30):
this project. And if it weren't for the pilot who
told me to write the damn book, I probably wouldn't
have shared this story. But I can imagine that there
are other adult children of World War II veterans that
would have loved the opportunity to talk to their parents
about what happened over there. And I think that my
(36:54):
father speaks for a lot of them because he was
an everyman. He wasn't one of these heroes that you
see these films that are about He represented the average
gi and what they were going through and how they felt,
and the only thing that they wanted to accomplish was
(37:15):
to get home, just get through this war and get home.
And for him to leave behind five hundred letters, I mean,
it's miraculous that they even survived. Like one his mother
had to keep them, which he did ask in one
of his letters, he said, you know, I'd like you
to hang on to these. I'd like to read them
to my grandchildren one day. Well, now his grandchildren are
(37:36):
reading them. His story was meant to be told, and
he left those letters for us in order to give
us his voice.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Superb effort by Monte Montgomery on the production, and again
a special thanks to Loretto Thompson, a listener and fan
of the show, and we're fans of hers and we
became listeners. And that's what we love about this show.
Sometimes we listen to you the story of Loretta Thompson's father, Frank,
a radio gunner on bombers in World War Two, as
she described him in every Man Here on Our American
(38:13):
Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com