May 7, 2025 • 31 mins
Melvin Hurwirz was 16 years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Within just a few years, all four boys in his family were at war, each in a different branch of the service. After enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Corps, Hurwitz was assigned as a gunner and as a radio man for a B-17 bomber crew after an aptitude test showed his proficiency at Morse Code. His crew then had a bit of an adventure flying the bomber over to Great Britain. It was Spring 1945 by the time he saw his first bombing mission.
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Hurwitz explains why he chose the Army Air Corps, what he was thinking as he went up on that first mission, and the amount of enemy resistance he faced in those final weeks of the war.
Hurwitz also details his four bombing missions, particularly two aimed at German personnel still in France and how his was among the first planes ever to drop napalm in Europe. Hurwitz also tells us about bringing desperately-needed humanitarian aid to Belgium and the Netherlands at the end of the war and bringing French POW's back from Germany.
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Hurwitz explains why he chose the Army Air Corps, what he was thinking as he went up on that first mission, and the amount of enemy resistance he faced in those final weeks of the war.
Hurwitz also details his four bombing missions, particularly two aimed at German personnel still in France and how his was among the first planes ever to drop napalm in Europe. Hurwitz also tells us about bringing desperately-needed humanitarian aid to Belgium and the Netherlands at the end of the war and bringing French POW's back from Germany.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Melvin Hurwitz. He's a US Army Air
Corps veteran of World War II. He served as a
gunner and radio man aboard a B seventeen bomber in
the four hundred and ninety third Bomb Group during the
final months of the war in Europe. Today we'll hear
(00:33):
about why he joined the Air Corps, his role as
a radio man, and his most memorable missions during and
after the war. Melvin Hurwitz was born in Baltimore, Maryland,
in March nineteen twenty five. He was sixteen years old
when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen
forty one, and he remembers it vividly.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
That was interesting. Oh I don't remember, zach me what
I heard of the attack itself, but I remember sitting
in my senior year in high school and we had
little sound systems going into ease classroom and President Tellanor
(01:16):
Roosevelt made his famous speech saying that the Empire of
Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor and we now were in
a state of war. I remember that very clearly.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Even though he was too young to join the service
at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Herwit
says he still wasn't fired up to join the military,
but by nineteen forty three he was ready.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
At that moment, I really didn't know too much about war,
having the idea of the extent of the damage without
at Pearl Harbor. But as a time go on, I
knew I was going to enter the service, said, I
entered college for six months until I turned eighteen, and
then I joined the Art Corps.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Herwitz new he wanted to join the US Army Air Corps,
which would later become the US Air Force. So was
it a love for flying, or knowing someone else in
the Air Corps, or maybe some financial incentive that drove
his decision? Not at all. His teenage brain placed one
factor above all the others.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I wonder way that George Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee.
My brothers are all going down there. I knew I'd
only short time to fill in until I was eighteen,
and the fellows the city around the dorm's talking, and
why didn't you join the Air Corps? You'll always have
a bed you'll always have a hospital, you'll always have food,
(02:48):
and you'll wear silver wings. And the girls love silver wings.
So that sold me and I went down to the
recruitment center in Nashville. I joined the Air Corps, but
I wasn't old enough, so when I became eighteenth, I
went back to my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, and was
(03:11):
inductor at Fort Hollibirn, Maryland. I went for basic training.
The first place was Greensboro, North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
The Hurwitz family devoted a great deal to the war effort.
Melvin says, all the boys in the family were eager
to serve, but none of them could agree unaware to serve.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
There were four boys in my family, and all four
of us served in World War Two, and each one
in a different branch of the service. My youngest brother, Jerry,
served in the US Army. Brother Will was an ensign
in the Navy, serving the Pacific. My oldest brother, Albert
(03:51):
was a marine served in the first Marine Division, also
in the Pacific, And I, of course was in the Air.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
As Herwitz mentioned a moment ago, he did his basic
training in North Carolina, but there was a lot more
preparation to come and aptitude tests showed that he was
ideally suited to serve as a radio man on a
B seventeen bomber, and that led to a lot more
training and the formation of a crew before Hurwitz could
(04:21):
head overseas quite.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
A long time. From Nisai Air Center, I went to
a radio school at Scottfield, Illinois. And from Scottchfield, Illinois,
Miama was radio gunner. So after Scottchfield, Illinois, I went
(04:42):
to gunnery school in Yuma, Arizona. And after gunnery school
I was qualified. Then from there we I went to
McDill field in Florida. McDill field was a center for
(05:04):
putting crews together before going overseas, and it was at
McDill field that I met the nine that other gentlemen
fellows that I became members of crew with, and we
stayed together till the end of the war.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
That crew would be serving aboard B seventeen bombers. As
we said a moment ago, Herwitz describes what those big
planes were like.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
B seventeen was tough airplane. It took a lot of
battery and took a lot of injury. But at matt
it's always as much as possible to come home safely
or enough to justified being what it was. The quarters
(05:54):
of the B seventeen was very tight, very narrow, very
rough deal and so forth. There's not a lot of
comfort there. I was fortunate. I was the few of
the un listened men that have a seat because we
had I had a little table with the radio on it.
But the wastegunners some of the others did not have
(06:18):
that luxury. Of course, the navigator did. Of course.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Bob deer Herwitz elaborated a bit on his radio operator
training as well. He says his ability to tap out
Morse code very quickly made him a natural.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Fit standards about twenty twenty five words a minute. I
was talking about twenty eight to thirty words of an
I think. But once you were able to do that,
you were passed the tests and love with some other
slightly technical law lessons on the radio itself, but the
main thing was be able to take and receive Morse code.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Herwitz also says his main focus was as a gunner,
and his job as a radio man only mattered if
there was a crisis.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Well, on a plane, we did not do anything with
our radio unless have had an emergency the pilot had
its own method of communicating with us, with the base
and other airplanes, but in case of emergency, we had
(07:23):
the long distance capability of contacting. We also had both
known as a trailing wire antetta, which was all of
war less spool with a weight, and you could unravel
that down below the plane and that would give you
have an opportunity to go spark to go for the distance.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
In early nineteen forty five it was time to go
to Europe. Herwitz says they didn't take a ship. They
flew their B seventeen over to England, but getting there
was a bit of an adventure as well.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Shortly after our cruise made up around was as follows.
We stopped at Hunterfield, Georgia for refueling on the way north,
and we flew up to Bangor, Maine, and Bagor, Maine
was the last stop. We flew overseas completely in by
(08:21):
P seventeen. We never took a ship. We flew up
bag Or, Maine, and then Gann in Newfoundland and Goose Bay, Labrador.
We were refueling each one of those stations, and then
we stopped at Greenland refueled. The Greenland did not get
off the plane there. From Greenland we went into Iceland.
(08:44):
Iceland was one of the more memorable times in my
World War Two experience because we got there with a
large snow storm and we were snowbound in Iceland for
probably seven or eight days. We had to lock arms
three or four fellows at the same time, but to
(09:06):
go to bess Hall, but so we wouldn't get blown
off our truck. I had an interesting experience there. One
person out to stand guard on the airplane each night
with Chase. We never left the airpload alone. Our play
was right there, a little tin hunt with three or
four Welsh arabin had a little pot belly stove and
(09:27):
they fixed me tea and they were happy to see
a Yank and talk to someone different, talking to some
Welsh words and for a kid away from home, had
no experience of any figure in the world. There was
a lot of a lot of excitement. And then from
Iceland to cleared up and we went into landed at
(09:49):
the Hollyhead, Wales in England.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
From there it was onto their new base in East
Anglia in the UK.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Our base was in Debitsch, England. Could train from Wales
down to uh Davits, which was there the city of Ipswich,
all in East Sanglia, where most of the Air Corps
bases were. In East Aanglia, it's closest to the to
the coast. I stayed that the four ninety third Bomb Group.
(10:19):
The four ninety third Bomb Group was the last bomb
group to be formed in the Eighth Air Force.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
But even then it was still not quite time to
get in the fight. Herwitz says there were still some
more flights they had to complete before getting the green
light for their first real bombing run.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Now we were flying sped Frice at that time. The
weather Dengler was terrible. We had the bath Stone and
Margan Bridge and and all these uh battles going on,
and UH they're waiting for us to come in to
give them air support. Were ignored the bars, just waiting
(11:02):
for the h weby to clear.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
That's Melvin Hurwitz. He's a US Army Air Corps veteran
of World War Two and served as a gunner and
radio man on board of B seventeen bomber. In a moment,
Hurwitz takes us with him on his first mission and
remembers what he was thinking as he joined the fight.
Near the end of the war. I'm Greg Corumbus and
this is Veterans Chronicles.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
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Speaker 1 (12:25):
This is Veterans' Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Melvin Hurwitz. He's a World War Two
veteran and a veteran of the US Army Air Corps,
the precursor to the US Air Force. He served as
a gunner and radio man on a B seventeen bomber crew.
Hurwitz and his crew did not enter the fray against
(12:48):
Germany until the spring of nineteen forty five, and as
they got ready for their first bombing run, there was
still one final piece of unfinished business naming the plane.
Herwitz explains how they're B seventeen got tagged with the
name Organized Confusion.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Towards the end of the war, and our plane did
not have a name, and we had all these glory
names of place they sided as a plane, so we
decided to name it. One of the guys came up
with a plane organistitution. So then one of our crew
was a French boy. We called him Fredgy, and he
(13:27):
was an artist. He did a beautiful painting of our
plane on the back of our A two jackets. I'm
proud to say that my A two jacket is now
on display in our museum in Devitch, England, and it's
the only A two jacket in the museum that originated
(13:49):
from that airbase.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Finally, it was time for the real thing. Herwitz remembers
some of the thoughts that ran through his mind as
that B seventeen climbed into the sky, got into formation,
and prepared to strike enemy targets.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I remember figuring what I was up at first time.
I was up at about thirty thousand feet twenty eight
thousand feet, had the mask on and the flying suit
and everything. I'd say, so, how did you get here?
What did you do to get here? But I'm not frightened,
that was excited, it's nervous, but the whole out of
(14:26):
this world experience first time.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Hurwitz referenced the special suit and goggles he and the
others had to wear on their bombing missions. It was
standard attire and without it anyone would pass out and
likely die.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Well because you would freeze the death if you get
over ten thousand feet. The human body can't take that cold.
If your fingers are exposed for more than ten minutes
at a time, that you could, you could freeze, freezelf.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Hurwitz and the rest of his crew were fortunate to
arrive in England when they did. Being on a bomber
crew towards the beginning of the war was not only
a possible death sentence, it was almost a guarantee. The
combination of bombers flying without escorts from fighter planes, aggressive
German pilots in relentless anti aircraft fire or flak made
(15:20):
completing enough missions to go home virtually impossible. By the
time Hurwitz and the rest of his crew took to
the skies, the danger was still very real, but the
odds were far less daunting, as evidenced by Hurwitz explaining
how much flak he dealt with in the skies over Europe.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
None we had to flack the one player go down
with flock. But uh, very little of that too. But
we saw it, but no, I saw no fighters.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
The other major benefit was that after just a few
missions the war was over.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Ali flew four combat missions. I say only, but one
could be fatal. In fact, the four ninety third bob
group flew one hundred and fifty seven missions the day
before the war ended. On the final missions, one did
(16:17):
not return her.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
What's elaborated on those four missions where the targets were
and the other details that stand out from the final
weeks of the war. But it was a mission targeting
Germans who were still in France that stands out the most.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
After one mission into Germany and one into Czechoslovakia and
two into France. That's another story that's very interesting to me.
There was a pocket resistance of Germans in Rayon fress
(16:54):
Roya n and there's about fifty thousand German soldiers there
that were entrenched and would not give up, and the
French and the Allies let them stay because they had
to conquer the continent. They stayed there, but the end
of the war was near and they still would not
(17:17):
give up. My plate was one of them. Our mission
and I have verified it was the first planes in
World War Two in Europe to drop napalm bobs. Napalm
was never used in Europe after that. It was predominantly
(17:38):
used in the Far East the Pacific. But we dropped
napalm onto these Germans in Rayne and the first they
did not give up. The second mission dropped them and
they did give up. We dropped the napalm and then
the planes behind us dropped the bobs at the far
(18:00):
Remember the bomb and deer said to me, Hapes, Parky,
He said, let me show you something. Come over here.
He never called me over when he dropped Bob's I see,
but it was new to him too. So I went
over to looked down and there's like pipes, long black
(18:21):
pipes were sort of bundled up, and these buddles were
dropping from the bomb by instead of the bobs. And
that was the n A bomb and that was new
to him too.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
But there were more missions to come after the combat ended.
They were missions to save lives in two very different ways.
And we'll learn how Hurwitz was planning to join the
war in the Pacific. Our guest is Melvin Hurwitz. He's
a US Army Air Corps veteran of World War Two,
serving as a gunner and radio man on a B
(18:53):
seventeen bomber crew. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles.
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Melvin Hurwitz. He's a US Army Air
Corps veteran of World War II. He served as a
gunner and radio man on a B seventeen bomber in
(19:15):
the four hundred and ninety third bomb group operating out
of England. We just heard Hurwitz explain his four bombing missions,
with a special focus on the German forces still holding
out in France. But soon Hurwitz's focus shifted from combat
to humanitarian missions. He shared his memories of carrying out
(19:36):
General Eisenhower's orders to provide badly needed food to parts
of Europe left on the brink of starvation by the Nazis.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I have four missions after that that stood out vividly
in my mind. The week before the war ended, the
Allies had made a truce for the Germans that if
(20:05):
we came in and dropped food, they were not far
on us. Well, the Germans were starving too. The Dutch
and Belgium were really our need of food, and eyes
hired General Bill Smith. They all knew, and they stuck
(20:25):
out tons and tons of food in England. And we
called it Americans called it our our drop operation Chowhound.
That sounded very American chow The British used another name,
Regency or something like that, but we didn't like that.
So we think that Chowhound and our pictures, wonderful pictures
(20:52):
of uh We're coming in about three hundred feet and
hoping the bomb bays and dropping this food and big
axes marked in fields and one uh one field and
hatover which is a tool of capital at the stand
of the world, and hadover had a big field thank
(21:13):
you Yanks, made out of flowers, tulips and so forth,
and it was maybe four or five acre field. It
was very heartwarming, and it got choked up thinking about
it because here we are so far away from home,
and everything we did was with it ourselves. We did
(21:35):
not shoot at anybody, We did not look at anybody,
was just up there and here these people doal below
had made this thank you Shanks sucked for us, and
it was very heartwarming. And uh, I remember talked to
this somewhat afterwards, who's a sort of a historian on
(21:56):
the Dutch droppings. I said, you know, Alex, I said,
when we weren't head over, I think I remember dropping
food in the stadium because I saw people cheering from
a stadium. He fakes permitted quietly, and he said it
was a it was a racetrack. We had dropped the
(22:20):
food in the middle of a racetrack.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
The Germans surrendered in Europe in May nineteen forty five,
Not long after that, Herwitz says he and his crew
were tasked with flying to pick up prisoners of war
from the Germans and bring them back to Western Europe.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Two other flies that are very memorable that I'll never forget.
We went on two missions to repatriate French prisoners of
war from Germany back to France. We flew into Lynz, Austria,
(23:00):
right on the Danube. I never saw, I'd ever see
the Danube, the Blue Danube, which was a buddy at
the time the war. But we flew into Lynz, Austria
and picked up these prisoners had been just like you
see in the movies, emaciated and shrunken and glass eyed
(23:22):
and uh in rags. And we stripped them of all
their clothes, and we burned the clothes on a pile
of fire, and we deloused them with some sort of powder,
and each wrapped each one in a blanket, and we
lined them up with a fuselage on each sidey you know,
(23:47):
huddled up against the back. And we must have had
thirty or forty prisoners each strip. And we had stripped
taken out the gods, we stripped the place of everything
that were over, so we had were able to carry
the the fellows, and we did that twice. We went
(24:08):
from Let's to Chantay, France. We say, said Tilly here,
but SCHALTI and that big carnival that night, and we
were kids were just we were heroes, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Her what says the condition of these prisoners was all
you needed to know about the cruelty of the Germans
during World War Two.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
They were too weak and two almost like in a daze.
They just looked at us, you know, they wanted to
say thank you, but they couldn't speak English, we couldn't
speak French. And they're just so almost like walking zombies
sort of, you know, just but I'm sure they couldn't
(24:56):
believe that this was happening to them taking them home.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Soon after those missions, Hurwitz was on his way home,
but there wasn't much rest. The fighting was over in Europe,
but the US was still at war on the other
side of the world, and Melvin Hurwitz fully expected to
be in the middle of it.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I went home too weak leave and then I went
to be twenty nine training in the Cannon Air Force
Base in Clovis, New Mexico. And the first week I
was there, they had us a classroom, studying the plane
(25:36):
and preparing us to get up in there. But I
remember looking out across out of the window the clan
froom and looking across the tarbaccent and see these monsters
be twenty nines, and thinking to myself, our play was
like a toothpick compared to these guys. They were monsters
(25:57):
compared to the B seventeen. And while I was there
for the week, then they dropped the bomb and.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
That was it.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
I did not go right over, but I did not
get to Japan.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Melvin Hurwitz left the service in nineteen forty six and
went back to civilian life. He spent his professional life
in the jewelry business, but he hasn't slowed down much
at all. In recent years, Hurwitz has traveled back to
Europe to take part in remembrances of the war, including
at Normandy. He says it's critical that no one forgets
(26:36):
the war, why it was fought, and the cost of victory.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
It's history, it's remembering. It's you've got to know what
happened before before you know it's going to happen in
the future. I was taken over by the Bens of
Fence Foundation, so wonderful organization. Paut Donnie Edwards and his
wife found that they've taken me to Germany. They've taken
me to Pearl Harbor and uh three years to France,
(27:05):
and I'm most grateful for that, all expenses paid.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Herwitz was among the veterans honored at the eightieth anniversary
of the D Day landings in twenty twenty four, and
much to his surprise, he became a bit of a
celebrity thanks to his interaction with Ukrainian President Voladimir Zelenski.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
They said, Melvine, you went Varral. Yes, I said, I
didn't what Varrel meant. He said, you want a fox?
You wanted to be see he said. And then I
got a call from my niece in Frederick, Maryland. They
have she said. The New York Times just called it.
That's not just call. He came down to me, the
only one. I looked up Fritz for privates of Canada
(27:48):
and New Zealand and then it's my wife went down.
Then I kept down. I looked at him. Oh, I
like that. He came on down. He just took my
hand and I told pray for good and it went
up on the biggest screen in France. You know Olvahall Beach.
At the time, I thankd him for what he was doing,
(28:11):
his courage and saving this country, and uh, he thanked
me so much, and uh, I just I pray for you.
I remember everything was going along quietly, and the minute
he bends down, these newspaper journalists are like, oh, it's
(28:35):
like vultures. Your vultures surrounding a dead asshole. They know
in a second he thanked me. I said, I think,
I said, you're my hero. He says, no, he said,
you're the hero.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
In reflecting on his service some eighty years later, Herwitz
says it's what he learned during his service that he's
most proud of.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I was proud I was able to I learned so
much about life and people. I learned about the interaction
with people getting along you're crewel the different types of
individuals that are out in the world. I didn't know
(29:19):
I grew up.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Herwitz also offered plenty of reflection on why he makes
sure to share his story of service. He says it's
not just about what he did in uniform. Herwit says
he wants younger generations to understand what war is really
like and the importance of doing everything you can to avoid.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
It everything because you have to. You have to know
and remember because wars. Somebody said war as hell when
they were kid. It's terrible, it's it's unspeakable. The horus
(30:03):
and lots of friendships have come out of that. I
think it's human nature. I'll think, man, I'll never stop fighting.
So somebody along the way, it's going to do it again.
It's happening now. So we just baked two to each other,
(30:24):
to the best we can.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Melvin Hurwitz is a US Army Air Corps veteran of
World War Two. He served as a gunner and radio
man aboard a B seventeen bomber in the four hundred
and ninety third Bomb Group during the final months of
the war in Europe. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is
Veterans' Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for
(30:57):
listening to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the American Veterans Center.
For more information, please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You
can also follow the American Veterans Center on Facebook and
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(31:19):
and of course please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast
wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening, and
please join us next time for Veterans Chronicles
Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Melvin Hurwitz. He's a US Army Air
Corps veteran of World War II. He served as a
gunner and radio man aboard a B seventeen bomber in
the four hundred and ninety third Bomb Group during the
final months of the war in Europe. Today we'll hear
(00:33):
about why he joined the Air Corps, his role as
a radio man, and his most memorable missions during and
after the war. Melvin Hurwitz was born in Baltimore, Maryland,
in March nineteen twenty five. He was sixteen years old
when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen
forty one, and he remembers it vividly.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
That was interesting. Oh I don't remember, zach me what
I heard of the attack itself, but I remember sitting
in my senior year in high school and we had
little sound systems going into ease classroom and President Tellanor
(01:16):
Roosevelt made his famous speech saying that the Empire of
Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor and we now were in
a state of war. I remember that very clearly.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Even though he was too young to join the service
at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Herwit
says he still wasn't fired up to join the military,
but by nineteen forty three he was ready.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
At that moment, I really didn't know too much about war,
having the idea of the extent of the damage without
at Pearl Harbor. But as a time go on, I
knew I was going to enter the service, said, I
entered college for six months until I turned eighteen, and
then I joined the Art Corps.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Herwitz new he wanted to join the US Army Air Corps,
which would later become the US Air Force. So was
it a love for flying, or knowing someone else in
the Air Corps, or maybe some financial incentive that drove
his decision? Not at all. His teenage brain placed one
factor above all the others.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I wonder way that George Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee.
My brothers are all going down there. I knew I'd
only short time to fill in until I was eighteen,
and the fellows the city around the dorm's talking, and
why didn't you join the Air Corps? You'll always have
a bed you'll always have a hospital, you'll always have food,
(02:48):
and you'll wear silver wings. And the girls love silver wings.
So that sold me and I went down to the
recruitment center in Nashville. I joined the Air Corps, but
I wasn't old enough, so when I became eighteenth, I
went back to my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, and was
(03:11):
inductor at Fort Hollibirn, Maryland. I went for basic training.
The first place was Greensboro, North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
The Hurwitz family devoted a great deal to the war effort.
Melvin says, all the boys in the family were eager
to serve, but none of them could agree unaware to serve.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
There were four boys in my family, and all four
of us served in World War Two, and each one
in a different branch of the service. My youngest brother, Jerry,
served in the US Army. Brother Will was an ensign
in the Navy, serving the Pacific. My oldest brother, Albert
(03:51):
was a marine served in the first Marine Division, also
in the Pacific, And I, of course was in the Air.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
As Herwitz mentioned a moment ago, he did his basic
training in North Carolina, but there was a lot more
preparation to come and aptitude tests showed that he was
ideally suited to serve as a radio man on a
B seventeen bomber, and that led to a lot more
training and the formation of a crew before Hurwitz could
(04:21):
head overseas quite.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
A long time. From Nisai Air Center, I went to
a radio school at Scottfield, Illinois. And from Scottchfield, Illinois,
Miama was radio gunner. So after Scottchfield, Illinois, I went
(04:42):
to gunnery school in Yuma, Arizona. And after gunnery school
I was qualified. Then from there we I went to
McDill field in Florida. McDill field was a center for
(05:04):
putting crews together before going overseas, and it was at
McDill field that I met the nine that other gentlemen
fellows that I became members of crew with, and we
stayed together till the end of the war.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
That crew would be serving aboard B seventeen bombers. As
we said a moment ago, Herwitz describes what those big
planes were like.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
B seventeen was tough airplane. It took a lot of
battery and took a lot of injury. But at matt
it's always as much as possible to come home safely
or enough to justified being what it was. The quarters
(05:54):
of the B seventeen was very tight, very narrow, very
rough deal and so forth. There's not a lot of
comfort there. I was fortunate. I was the few of
the un listened men that have a seat because we
had I had a little table with the radio on it.
But the wastegunners some of the others did not have
(06:18):
that luxury. Of course, the navigator did. Of course.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Bob deer Herwitz elaborated a bit on his radio operator
training as well. He says his ability to tap out
Morse code very quickly made him a natural.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Fit standards about twenty twenty five words a minute. I
was talking about twenty eight to thirty words of an
I think. But once you were able to do that,
you were passed the tests and love with some other
slightly technical law lessons on the radio itself, but the
main thing was be able to take and receive Morse code.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Herwitz also says his main focus was as a gunner,
and his job as a radio man only mattered if
there was a crisis.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Well, on a plane, we did not do anything with
our radio unless have had an emergency the pilot had
its own method of communicating with us, with the base
and other airplanes, but in case of emergency, we had
(07:23):
the long distance capability of contacting. We also had both
known as a trailing wire antetta, which was all of
war less spool with a weight, and you could unravel
that down below the plane and that would give you
have an opportunity to go spark to go for the distance.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
In early nineteen forty five it was time to go
to Europe. Herwitz says they didn't take a ship. They
flew their B seventeen over to England, but getting there
was a bit of an adventure as well.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Shortly after our cruise made up around was as follows.
We stopped at Hunterfield, Georgia for refueling on the way north,
and we flew up to Bangor, Maine, and Bagor, Maine
was the last stop. We flew overseas completely in by
(08:21):
P seventeen. We never took a ship. We flew up
bag Or, Maine, and then Gann in Newfoundland and Goose Bay, Labrador.
We were refueling each one of those stations, and then
we stopped at Greenland refueled. The Greenland did not get
off the plane there. From Greenland we went into Iceland.
(08:44):
Iceland was one of the more memorable times in my
World War Two experience because we got there with a
large snow storm and we were snowbound in Iceland for
probably seven or eight days. We had to lock arms
three or four fellows at the same time, but to
(09:06):
go to bess Hall, but so we wouldn't get blown
off our truck. I had an interesting experience there. One
person out to stand guard on the airplane each night
with Chase. We never left the airpload alone. Our play
was right there, a little tin hunt with three or
four Welsh arabin had a little pot belly stove and
(09:27):
they fixed me tea and they were happy to see
a Yank and talk to someone different, talking to some
Welsh words and for a kid away from home, had
no experience of any figure in the world. There was
a lot of a lot of excitement. And then from
Iceland to cleared up and we went into landed at
(09:49):
the Hollyhead, Wales in England.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
From there it was onto their new base in East
Anglia in the UK.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Our base was in Debitsch, England. Could train from Wales
down to uh Davits, which was there the city of Ipswich,
all in East Sanglia, where most of the Air Corps
bases were. In East Aanglia, it's closest to the to
the coast. I stayed that the four ninety third Bomb Group.
(10:19):
The four ninety third Bomb Group was the last bomb
group to be formed in the Eighth Air Force.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
But even then it was still not quite time to
get in the fight. Herwitz says there were still some
more flights they had to complete before getting the green
light for their first real bombing run.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Now we were flying sped Frice at that time. The
weather Dengler was terrible. We had the bath Stone and
Margan Bridge and and all these uh battles going on,
and UH they're waiting for us to come in to
give them air support. Were ignored the bars, just waiting
(11:02):
for the h weby to clear.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
That's Melvin Hurwitz. He's a US Army Air Corps veteran
of World War Two and served as a gunner and
radio man on board of B seventeen bomber. In a moment,
Hurwitz takes us with him on his first mission and
remembers what he was thinking as he joined the fight.
Near the end of the war. I'm Greg Corumbus and
this is Veterans Chronicles.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
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Speaker 1 (12:25):
This is Veterans' Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Melvin Hurwitz. He's a World War Two
veteran and a veteran of the US Army Air Corps,
the precursor to the US Air Force. He served as
a gunner and radio man on a B seventeen bomber crew.
Hurwitz and his crew did not enter the fray against
(12:48):
Germany until the spring of nineteen forty five, and as
they got ready for their first bombing run, there was
still one final piece of unfinished business naming the plane.
Herwitz explains how they're B seventeen got tagged with the
name Organized Confusion.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Towards the end of the war, and our plane did
not have a name, and we had all these glory
names of place they sided as a plane, so we
decided to name it. One of the guys came up
with a plane organistitution. So then one of our crew
was a French boy. We called him Fredgy, and he
(13:27):
was an artist. He did a beautiful painting of our
plane on the back of our A two jackets. I'm
proud to say that my A two jacket is now
on display in our museum in Devitch, England, and it's
the only A two jacket in the museum that originated
(13:49):
from that airbase.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Finally, it was time for the real thing. Herwitz remembers
some of the thoughts that ran through his mind as
that B seventeen climbed into the sky, got into formation,
and prepared to strike enemy targets.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I remember figuring what I was up at first time.
I was up at about thirty thousand feet twenty eight
thousand feet, had the mask on and the flying suit
and everything. I'd say, so, how did you get here?
What did you do to get here? But I'm not frightened,
that was excited, it's nervous, but the whole out of
(14:26):
this world experience first time.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Hurwitz referenced the special suit and goggles he and the
others had to wear on their bombing missions. It was
standard attire and without it anyone would pass out and
likely die.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Well because you would freeze the death if you get
over ten thousand feet. The human body can't take that cold.
If your fingers are exposed for more than ten minutes
at a time, that you could, you could freeze, freezelf.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Hurwitz and the rest of his crew were fortunate to
arrive in England when they did. Being on a bomber
crew towards the beginning of the war was not only
a possible death sentence, it was almost a guarantee. The
combination of bombers flying without escorts from fighter planes, aggressive
German pilots in relentless anti aircraft fire or flak made
(15:20):
completing enough missions to go home virtually impossible. By the
time Hurwitz and the rest of his crew took to
the skies, the danger was still very real, but the
odds were far less daunting, as evidenced by Hurwitz explaining
how much flak he dealt with in the skies over Europe.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
None we had to flack the one player go down
with flock. But uh, very little of that too. But
we saw it, but no, I saw no fighters.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
The other major benefit was that after just a few
missions the war was over.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Ali flew four combat missions. I say only, but one
could be fatal. In fact, the four ninety third bob
group flew one hundred and fifty seven missions the day
before the war ended. On the final missions, one did
(16:17):
not return her.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
What's elaborated on those four missions where the targets were
and the other details that stand out from the final
weeks of the war. But it was a mission targeting
Germans who were still in France that stands out the most.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
After one mission into Germany and one into Czechoslovakia and
two into France. That's another story that's very interesting to me.
There was a pocket resistance of Germans in Rayon fress
(16:54):
Roya n and there's about fifty thousand German soldiers there
that were entrenched and would not give up, and the
French and the Allies let them stay because they had
to conquer the continent. They stayed there, but the end
of the war was near and they still would not
(17:17):
give up. My plate was one of them. Our mission
and I have verified it was the first planes in
World War Two in Europe to drop napalm bobs. Napalm
was never used in Europe after that. It was predominantly
(17:38):
used in the Far East the Pacific. But we dropped
napalm onto these Germans in Rayne and the first they
did not give up. The second mission dropped them and
they did give up. We dropped the napalm and then
the planes behind us dropped the bobs at the far
(18:00):
Remember the bomb and deer said to me, Hapes, Parky,
He said, let me show you something. Come over here.
He never called me over when he dropped Bob's I see,
but it was new to him too. So I went
over to looked down and there's like pipes, long black
(18:21):
pipes were sort of bundled up, and these buddles were
dropping from the bomb by instead of the bobs. And
that was the n A bomb and that was new
to him too.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
But there were more missions to come after the combat ended.
They were missions to save lives in two very different ways.
And we'll learn how Hurwitz was planning to join the
war in the Pacific. Our guest is Melvin Hurwitz. He's
a US Army Air Corps veteran of World War Two,
serving as a gunner and radio man on a B
(18:53):
seventeen bomber crew. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles.
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Melvin Hurwitz. He's a US Army Air
Corps veteran of World War II. He served as a
gunner and radio man on a B seventeen bomber in
(19:15):
the four hundred and ninety third bomb group operating out
of England. We just heard Hurwitz explain his four bombing missions,
with a special focus on the German forces still holding
out in France. But soon Hurwitz's focus shifted from combat
to humanitarian missions. He shared his memories of carrying out
(19:36):
General Eisenhower's orders to provide badly needed food to parts
of Europe left on the brink of starvation by the Nazis.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
I have four missions after that that stood out vividly
in my mind. The week before the war ended, the
Allies had made a truce for the Germans that if
(20:05):
we came in and dropped food, they were not far
on us. Well, the Germans were starving too. The Dutch
and Belgium were really our need of food, and eyes
hired General Bill Smith. They all knew, and they stuck
(20:25):
out tons and tons of food in England. And we
called it Americans called it our our drop operation Chowhound.
That sounded very American chow The British used another name,
Regency or something like that, but we didn't like that.
So we think that Chowhound and our pictures, wonderful pictures
(20:52):
of uh We're coming in about three hundred feet and
hoping the bomb bays and dropping this food and big
axes marked in fields and one uh one field and
hatover which is a tool of capital at the stand
of the world, and hadover had a big field thank
(21:13):
you Yanks, made out of flowers, tulips and so forth,
and it was maybe four or five acre field. It
was very heartwarming, and it got choked up thinking about
it because here we are so far away from home,
and everything we did was with it ourselves. We did
(21:35):
not shoot at anybody, We did not look at anybody,
was just up there and here these people doal below
had made this thank you Shanks sucked for us, and
it was very heartwarming. And uh, I remember talked to
this somewhat afterwards, who's a sort of a historian on
(21:56):
the Dutch droppings. I said, you know, Alex, I said,
when we weren't head over, I think I remember dropping
food in the stadium because I saw people cheering from
a stadium. He fakes permitted quietly, and he said it
was a it was a racetrack. We had dropped the
(22:20):
food in the middle of a racetrack.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
The Germans surrendered in Europe in May nineteen forty five,
Not long after that, Herwitz says he and his crew
were tasked with flying to pick up prisoners of war
from the Germans and bring them back to Western Europe.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Two other flies that are very memorable that I'll never forget.
We went on two missions to repatriate French prisoners of
war from Germany back to France. We flew into Lynz, Austria,
(23:00):
right on the Danube. I never saw, I'd ever see
the Danube, the Blue Danube, which was a buddy at
the time the war. But we flew into Lynz, Austria
and picked up these prisoners had been just like you
see in the movies, emaciated and shrunken and glass eyed
(23:22):
and uh in rags. And we stripped them of all
their clothes, and we burned the clothes on a pile
of fire, and we deloused them with some sort of powder,
and each wrapped each one in a blanket, and we
lined them up with a fuselage on each sidey you know,
(23:47):
huddled up against the back. And we must have had
thirty or forty prisoners each strip. And we had stripped
taken out the gods, we stripped the place of everything
that were over, so we had were able to carry
the the fellows, and we did that twice. We went
(24:08):
from Let's to Chantay, France. We say, said Tilly here,
but SCHALTI and that big carnival that night, and we
were kids were just we were heroes, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Her what says the condition of these prisoners was all
you needed to know about the cruelty of the Germans
during World War Two.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
They were too weak and two almost like in a daze.
They just looked at us, you know, they wanted to
say thank you, but they couldn't speak English, we couldn't
speak French. And they're just so almost like walking zombies
sort of, you know, just but I'm sure they couldn't
(24:56):
believe that this was happening to them taking them home.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Soon after those missions, Hurwitz was on his way home,
but there wasn't much rest. The fighting was over in Europe,
but the US was still at war on the other
side of the world, and Melvin Hurwitz fully expected to
be in the middle of it.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I went home too weak leave and then I went
to be twenty nine training in the Cannon Air Force
Base in Clovis, New Mexico. And the first week I
was there, they had us a classroom, studying the plane
(25:36):
and preparing us to get up in there. But I
remember looking out across out of the window the clan
froom and looking across the tarbaccent and see these monsters
be twenty nines, and thinking to myself, our play was
like a toothpick compared to these guys. They were monsters
(25:57):
compared to the B seventeen. And while I was there
for the week, then they dropped the bomb and.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
That was it.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
I did not go right over, but I did not
get to Japan.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Melvin Hurwitz left the service in nineteen forty six and
went back to civilian life. He spent his professional life
in the jewelry business, but he hasn't slowed down much
at all. In recent years, Hurwitz has traveled back to
Europe to take part in remembrances of the war, including
at Normandy. He says it's critical that no one forgets
(26:36):
the war, why it was fought, and the cost of victory.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
It's history, it's remembering. It's you've got to know what
happened before before you know it's going to happen in
the future. I was taken over by the Bens of
Fence Foundation, so wonderful organization. Paut Donnie Edwards and his
wife found that they've taken me to Germany. They've taken
me to Pearl Harbor and uh three years to France,
(27:05):
and I'm most grateful for that, all expenses paid.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Herwitz was among the veterans honored at the eightieth anniversary
of the D Day landings in twenty twenty four, and
much to his surprise, he became a bit of a
celebrity thanks to his interaction with Ukrainian President Voladimir Zelenski.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
They said, Melvine, you went Varral. Yes, I said, I
didn't what Varrel meant. He said, you want a fox?
You wanted to be see he said. And then I
got a call from my niece in Frederick, Maryland. They
have she said. The New York Times just called it.
That's not just call. He came down to me, the
only one. I looked up Fritz for privates of Canada
(27:48):
and New Zealand and then it's my wife went down.
Then I kept down. I looked at him. Oh, I
like that. He came on down. He just took my
hand and I told pray for good and it went
up on the biggest screen in France. You know Olvahall Beach.
At the time, I thankd him for what he was doing,
(28:11):
his courage and saving this country, and uh, he thanked
me so much, and uh, I just I pray for you.
I remember everything was going along quietly, and the minute
he bends down, these newspaper journalists are like, oh, it's
(28:35):
like vultures. Your vultures surrounding a dead asshole. They know
in a second he thanked me. I said, I think,
I said, you're my hero. He says, no, he said,
you're the hero.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
In reflecting on his service some eighty years later, Herwitz
says it's what he learned during his service that he's
most proud of.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I was proud I was able to I learned so
much about life and people. I learned about the interaction
with people getting along you're crewel the different types of
individuals that are out in the world. I didn't know
(29:19):
I grew up.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Herwitz also offered plenty of reflection on why he makes
sure to share his story of service. He says it's
not just about what he did in uniform. Herwit says
he wants younger generations to understand what war is really
like and the importance of doing everything you can to avoid.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
It everything because you have to. You have to know
and remember because wars. Somebody said war as hell when
they were kid. It's terrible, it's it's unspeakable. The horus
(30:03):
and lots of friendships have come out of that. I
think it's human nature. I'll think, man, I'll never stop fighting.
So somebody along the way, it's going to do it again.
It's happening now. So we just baked two to each other,
(30:24):
to the best we can.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Melvin Hurwitz is a US Army Air Corps veteran of
World War Two. He served as a gunner and radio
man aboard a B seventeen bomber in the four hundred
and ninety third Bomb Group during the final months of
the war in Europe. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is
Veterans' Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for
(30:57):
listening to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the American Veterans Center.
For more information, please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You
can also follow the American Veterans Center on Facebook and
on Twitter. We're at AVC update. Subscribe to the American
Veterans Center YouTube channel for full oral histories and special features,
(31:19):
and of course please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast
wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening, and
please join us next time for Veterans Chronicles
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