Claude Breaux, Ball Turret Gunner of the Bricker crew.
MY WORLD WAR II
By Claude S. Breaux
It all started when I received my induction papers. I had to report on January 25 1944, just six days after graduating from High School. I had always wanted to get into the Air Force, but I was in a catch 22. I could not join once I was eighteen and I wasn’t going to graduate until I was eighteen. I was drafted into the infantry.
I reported to Camp Beauregard in Alexandria, Louisiana. While being processed I went around and talked to anyone who would listen, I told them all the things I had done to prepare myself for the Air Force and how much I wanted to fly. I had taken a course in pre-flight, radio, and other things that would prepare me for flying. I was lucky, someone listened, I was transferred to the Air Force.
I was then sent to Shepherd Field in Wichita Falls, Texas for more tests and basic training. We got a set back, they called us in and told us that the Air Force needed aerial gunners bad and fast, and no other flight training would be offered to us and if we still wanted to fly we would be sent to gunnery school. I wanted to fly so bad I accepted without question.
After we completed basic training we were sent to Las Vegas, Nevada for aerial gunnery training on B-17’s, I was all excited I was crazy about that plane. The actual training took only six weeks. We lost a lot of time waiting to get into a class and then waiting on orders after we graduated which was 24 June 1944. I had earned my wings. We finally got our orders, we were to be sent to Tampa, Florida for advanced training with a crew. We got a break, they gave us a few extra days to get to Tampa allowing us to visit our homes. I was able to show off my new stripes and my new wings to my friends and neighbors, I was some proud.
We eventually arrived, In Tampa we were assigned to a crew. We then went to Drew Field. The training there was great, no kid stuff. They taught us how to function as a crew as well as furthering our training. After a couple of months of training there we were considered a combat crew. They gave us a few more days at home before going overseas.
When we reported in after out leave, we were sent to Marietta, Georgia to pick up a new B-17G and take it to England. I was glad, I wasn’t to anxious to cross the ocean on a ship. We took off for Grenier Field in New Hampshire. It was 40 degrees when we took off in Georgia. It was 10 degrees when we landed in New Hampshire. We didn’t stay there too long. We took off the next morning for Goose Bay, Labrador. That was on 6 December 1944. It was -25 degrees when we landed. Being from Louisiana I had never seen it that cold before.
We had problems in Goose Bay, mostly weather. We took off a few times for Greenland and Iceland, but were turned back because of weather. After 42 cold days (it got down to -50 degrees at times) we finally got to Reykjavik, Iceland. It wasn’t warm there either. That was on 17 January, 1945. We couldn’t go to town for many reasons one being a storm coming in with winds of 100 mph. They sandbagged the wheels and tied the planes down. One crewman had to stay with the plane overnight to guard it. You will never guess who was lucky enough to get that job. Me. Iceland was under black out conditions so at night it was very dark and with the high winds it was scary. I wondered how could a boy from a little town in Louisiana get in a fix like this.
The next day we took off for Wales to deliver this new B-17G. We were then sent to a place called Stone where we were assigned to a bomb group. We were assigned to the 447th Bomb Group. It was located eighty miles north east of London, In Rattlesden, Suffolk, England. We then were assigned to bomb squads. We got the 709th. Our hut was named The Horseshoe Inn.
After a few days of instructions and further training we were to fly a combat mission. For the first couple we were put with a crew that had a few missions under their belts. We were glad to get back with our own crew. If a crewman for some reason missed a mission and his crew did not that crewman had to stay back and make it up with a crew that had a crewman missing. That could take a while and your crew could leave you when they completed their tour (35 missions), so no one would miss a mission. No one on our crew ever missed one.
We flew a total of 27 missions, we got credit for only 25 because we brought the bombs back (orders) We could not bomb occupied territory unless you had 100% visibility and we didn’t have it on two missions.
We were given a three day pass every two weeks or so. Most of the time we went into London. We had some good times there. We were lucky enough to be in London for V.E. Day. That had to be one of the biggest celebrations ever. London at that time was the largest city in the world and it had really been in the war being bombed so much during the war so they had a great deal to celebrate. We also visited smaller towns in England, but they didn’t offer as much as London did to us.
During our tour we did have a few exciting moments. On a mission we got a hit that knocked out #1 & #2 engines over Berlin. We had to leave the formation and fly alone from Berlin back to England. We landed on our own base. The Pilot got the DFC for that one. On another we got a hit on #2 and it caught fire. This was over the North Sea and bailing out would mean freezing to death so the pilot tried to blow it out by diving and it worked. We had lost all of our hydraulic fluid meaning that we had no flaps or brakes. We landed on a English Fido field. The runway was very wide and about five miles long. We used almost all of it trying to stop. A fido field was an English field that could actually lift the fog for planes to land. Another time we bombed our own planes. A group of B-24’s were flying at a much lower altitude than we were and when we dropped those 20lb anti-personnel bombs they met knocking many down. Someone was in the wrong place at the wrong time. We tangled with ME 262’s (German Jet) and the plane on our right wing went down Lt. Glazner was the pilot. Thirty seven years later the Lt. Glazner visited us when we had our crew reunion in New Orleans, La. That was 8 October 1980
A short time after VE Day we were offered the chance to fly a new B-17G home, we accepted, but they broke the crew up. We could not fly home as a crew.
We took off from Wales for Iceland on 21 May 1945. We left in such a hurry they didn’t have time to give me my stripe that would make me a staff sergeant. They said I would get it when I got to the states. They never did and I am still mad about that. It’s not that I didn’t try, They said I did not have enough time in the service to be promoted to staff sergeant. Over seas I would have gotten my promotion.
We arrived in Iceland safely. The weather was a lot different from the way it was in January. No snow and a lot warmer. We didn’t have any time to see much of Iceland, we took off the next day for Labrador. We got there with no problems. We didn’t have any time there either, we took off the next day for the U.S.A. What a great feeling. We landed in New Hampshire at Grenier Field on 23 May 1945.
The next day we were put on a train. It was so old that I’ll bet Jessie James probably robbed it. It was a hot and dirty trip. We didn’t care, we were going home. A few days later we arrived in Hattisburg, Miss. Camp Shelby. We were given physicals, fresh clean uniforms. After getting all of our stripes, patches, etc. sewn on we were given thirty day leaves and sent on our way. I went back to my home town, Lafayette, Louisiana and enjoyed every minute of my leave.
All good things have to end so when my thirty days were up I had to report to a base in San Antonio, Texas. We were sent there for R & R. I guess everyone went to one when he returned to the states. I was there for a month or so, then on to Monroe, Louisiana, Selman Field. They tried to station us as close to home as possible. That was three hundred miles, close by compared to England.
At Selman Field I had varied assignments, I ran a parachute room. There we issued chutes, stored them, and made sure they were inspected, etc. at proper intervals. I ran a post office, which was a combination day room and pool room. The best assignment they gave me, was when I was put in charge of a confidential library, No one ever came in. It was there for a navigational school which never materialized. I guess they had enough navigators for the Pacific Theater.
To everyone’s surprise the Japanese surrendered, thanks to the atomic bomb. They then started discharging servicemen. They developed a point system based on length of service, battle stars, decorations, and an extra point for every month served overseas. When they got down to sixty points, I was eligible for discharge. I was discharged on 17 December 1945.
We (the crew) collected a few goodies along the way.
They were,
- European Theater Ribbon (with 2 battle stars.)
- Air Metal (with 3 OCL’s-equaling 4 Air Metals.)
- American Theater Ribbon.
- Good Conduct Metal
- The Victory Metal
- Group Presidential Citation
- Distinguished Flying Cross (Pilot Only)
Not bad huh? We did all of our missions between 23 February 1945 and 20 April 1945, That’s twenty five plus the two that were not credited to us making it twenty seven in fifty two days.
The crew kept track of each other for the next 33 years, except the Engineer, Robert Brayton from Michigan. He just dropped out of sight when we separated in England. We decided to try a crew reunion. We had it in Charlotte, N.C. 5 managed to make it. It was great to see them again after all that time. The three most used words there were “do you remember”. That was 20 July 1978. Two years later I had the second crew reunion here in New Orleans. Five managed to come to this one. One being was Bob “Pappy” Glazner. He was the Lt. shot down by ME262’s while flying on our right wing over Dresden, Germany. The second to last mission flown over Germany in WWII. It is being established that he was the last bomber to be brought down by an enemy fighter in WWII.
We still keep track of each other and hope to have another reunion someday.
THE CREW
| Richard Bricker | Pilot | California |
| Ernie Cramer | Co-pilot | Iowa |
| Brode Duke | Navigator | North Carolina |
| Ed. Prystup | Armament Gunner | New York |
| Harvey Creech | Radio Operator | North Carolina |
| Robert Brayton | Engineer | Michigan |
| Joe Berger | Waist Gunner | Ohio |
| Guy Chandler | Tail Gunner | Texas |
| Claude S. Breaux | Ball Turret Gunner | Louisiana |
Ball Turret Gunner Claude Breaux (left) and Waist Gunner Joe Berger
Armament Gunner Ed Prystup (left) and Tail Gunner Guy Chandler
MISSIONS FLOWN
| 1-Crailsheim | 2/23/45 | Mission 217 |
| 2-Bremen | 2/24/45 | Mission 218 |
| 3-Ulm | 3/1/45 | Mission 222 |
| 4-Dresden | 3/2/45 | Mission 223 |
| 5-Dattel | 3/7/45 | Mission 225 |
| 6-Frankfort | 3/8/45 | Mission 226 |
| 7-Frankfort | 3/9/45 | Mission 227 |
| 8-Hamburg | 3/11/45 | Mission 229 |
| 9-Marburg | 3/12/45 | Mission 230 |
| 10-Hanover | 3/13/45 | Mission 231 (Mar 14) |
| 11-Berlin | 3/18/45 | Mission 234 |
| 12-Holzwicked | 3/23/45 | Mission 239 |
| 13-Varrelbush | 3/24/45 | Mission 240 |
| 14-Hanover | 3/28/45 | Mission 241 |
| 15-Hamburg | 3/30/45 | Mission 242 |
| 16-Brandenburg | 3/31/45 | Mission 243 |
| 17-Keil | 4/3/45 | Mission 244 |
| 18-Keil | 4/4/45 | Mission 245 |
| 19-Nurenburg | 4/5/45 | Mission 246 |
| 20-Royan (area) | 4/14/45 | Mission 252 |
| 21-Royan (area) | 4/15/45 | Mission 253 |
| 22-Royan (area) | 4/16/45 | Mission 254 |
| 23-Dresden | 4/17/45 | Mission 255 |
| 24-Dresden | 4/19/45 | Mission 256 |
| 25-Neuruppin | 4/20/45 | Mission 257 |
Provided by:
- Family of Claude Breaux