hyder Crew

STANDING, Left to Right:

1st Lt. LeRoy Hyder, Pilot

2nd Lt. Harry Wood, Co Pilot

2nd Lt. James W. Voorhies, Navigator

 Not Known, Bombardier

 

KNEELING, Left to Right

 

T/Sgt. William R. Sulaica, Turret Gunner

T/Sgt. John E. MacLeod, Radio Operator

S/Sgt. Ralph M. Persun Jr., Waist Gunner

Sgt.     Tom J. O'Meara Jr., Ball Turret Gunner

S/Sgt. Donald H. Karg, Waist Gunner (Later Tail Gunner)

Sgt.     Emory M. Hurd, Tail Gunner

The following crew was on board for mission #24 on 9/11/44:

1st Lt. LeRoy Hyder, Pilot

2nd Lt. Harry Wood, Co Pilot

2nd Lt. James W. Voorhies, Navigator

S/Sgt. Richard S Thomas, Bombardier

T/Sgt. William R. Sulaica, Turret Gunner

T/Sgt. John E. MacLeod, Radio Operator

S/Sgt. Ralph M. Persun Jr., Waist Gunner

S/Sgt. Donald H. Karg, Tail Gunner

S/Sgt. Lynn G. Lee, Ball Turret Gunner

The Hyder crew trained at Dalhart, Texas AAFB  then transferred to Transit Station Kearney AAB, Nebraska.  They were assigned B17G, Serial No. 42-102471, Ship #471.  The crew did not name the airplane.  They shipped out for Europe from Fort Dix, NJ  in May, 1944. and joined the 447th Bombardment Group, 710th Squadron at Rattlesden, Suffolk, England in early June.  Due to bad weather, their Atlantic crossing took two weeks. After flying their orientation missions, their first mission as the Hyder Crew was on 8 July, 1944 to St. Andre De L'Eure in the Paris area.

S/Sgt. Lynn G. Lee replaced Sgt. Tom J. O'Mera at ball turret gunner and S/Sgt. Donald H. Karg replaced Sgt. Emory M. Hurd at tail gunner.  Sgt. Richard S. Thomas joined the crew as bombardier (toggleier).

Between July 8th and September 11th, the Hyder crew flew 23 combat missions to targets in France and Germany.  In addition to bombing missions, they dropped supplies to the Maquis.

On September 11, 1944, on their 24th mission, they encountered heavy flak at Bohlen, their primary target area and were hit in several areas of the airplane including the No. 2 engine.  The airplane fell back out of formation and dropped down to cloud level at 20,000 ft.  They flew for another approximately 25 minutes before other aircraft in the formation lost sight of them.  The airplane began to burn due to the heavy battle damage.

Lt. Hyder held the ship level while the crew bailed out.  All the crew successfully exited but the airplane fell into a spin and exploded before Lt. Hyder was able to escape.   The crew survived and were POWs until the end of the war.  Another 710 squadron airplane, the Martensen crew in #541 "Tail Wind" were also shot down that day on the same mission.

When Sgt. Ralph M. "Hap" Persun Jr. exited the aircraft, his parachute harness was not tightened securely and he experienced difficulty in pulling the rip cord.  When he was finally able to pull the rip cord and when his parachute opened, he was very low and almost immediately hit the ground.  He gathered up his chute and hid under an evergreen tree and waited for the German troops to come to pick him up.  After waiting a day and a half, nobody came for him.  He then realized that he was so low when his chute opened, the German troops had not seen him.  He was alone, south of Leipzig, almost in the middle of Germany behind enemy lines.

Hap figured that if he began walking to the southwest, he would eventually meet up with General George Patton's fast moving Third Army that was advancing to the north.  He walked at night and rested during the day and managed to elude capture for 22 days.  He was eventually apprehended on October 4th by a civilian policeman while strolling along the autobahn near Weimar, Germany, having walked about 120 km from Leipzig.  He was concerned that being on the ground that long and not having his dog tags, he could be accused of being a spy, but fortunately after questioning by the Germans, he was sent to Stalag Luft 3.  In early December, he was transferred by train to Stalag Luft 1at Barth near the Baltic Sea where he spent the duration of the war.

Hap describes his experience in the POW camps as follows:   "Except for freezing and starving, it wasn't too bad.  It was so cold during the winter of 1944/45, that the guards would not come out at night and they let the guard dogs run loose in the camp.  I was sleeping on a wooden floor with half inch gaps between the floor boards and the German Shepherds would wake me sniffing between the boards with their noses right next to mine.  As this was after the allied invasion on June 6th, there were no escape attempts from the camp because the guards had orders to shoot any prisoner who tried."  On the morning of May 3rd when they got up, the German guards were gone. The next day, the Stalag was liberated by elements of the Russian Army.

 

Notes:

The airplane in the photo with the Hyder crew is not Ship #471.  It was a B17 at Kearney AAFB that was used for photos.  Note that there is a nose art pin-up girl and a name that has been removed.  Also, it had white sidewall tires!  They were assigned to B17 #471 (42-102471) at a later time.

 

The information is from the personal recollection of Ralph M. Persun Jr., from the 447th Group Combat Missions, and from the MACR of the U.S. Army Air Forces M-1380, RG-92.