On May 15th, 2008, Fred Riley passed away. Fred was extremely instrumental in maintaining the 456th Bomb Group Association and was invaluable as a historical resource for everyone in the Association - and beyond. His irreplaceable veracity to historical accuracy, humorous approach to the world, wit, charm and dedication will be missed.
Farewell, Fred.
Fred Riley, dapper and debonair in his 50 mission crusher hat (above), circa 1944. Fred has been a driving force in the 456th Bomb Group Association for years, and keeps its history alive with his collection of memorabilia, stories, facts, files, humor and general knowledge of the group. Here's a few of the memories Fred shared in July, 1999, after viewing my B-24 flight experience:
I've just been going through the flight you took and some of the links.All though I've never had a desire to ride in a B-24 again I got some goose bumps. Usually I was alone (as bombardier, in position), the nose gunner was in his turret and frequently the navigator on the flight deck, but not always.
During the bomb run I was always concerned until I had the target in my bombsight, if I was nervous and had to relieve myself, it was done on the nose wheel doors where it would escape through the point where they joined, much to the delight of the ball turret gunner.
Imagine if you can digging through several layers of clothing to find it and while on your knees turning around and stretching out with a throat mike, headphones, heated suit cord and oxygen all hooked up trying to direct a stream to the proper spot.
Maybe you noticed the two ammo cases for the nose turret, well sir after the bombs had been dropped I would spend my time in the nose frantically watching the flak and fighters, rotating from window to window, between the bombsight window, the port and starboard windows and the window above for the astro dome for the navigators sextant.
I would put one foot on each of the ammo cases to look out above but always holding my knees together to protect the jewels, as though it would help!
Your picture from the tail turret was interesting as well. I had purchased a 120 camera in Italy and took it on several missions, I was afraid if we got shot down I would lose my camera so took it infrequently.
On one ocassion I climbed into the tail turret when we were leading the formation, my picture was not impressive but imagine what an impressive view with about 35 planes in formation behind you. Our tail gunner got a bit flaky as he observed so much flak and many planes of our group go down over time.
He had a piece of flak take out a bit of the zipper on the front of his flying boot. On another occasion he had a piece of flak go through his leather helmet, fortunately he had it off and he was holding it in his hand.
He had a piece of board about two or two and a half foot long and at one end he had a hole cut through it several inches in diameter, he placed a piece of flak in the hole and had a piece of plexi-glass on each side. He called this his flak bat. He is deceased but I think I'll write his sister and see if that might still be around.
I might add a little humor, such as the new replacement bombardier that was assigned to our unit. I took him to town with me on day when he was green in the unit.Around Foggia there were a number of places where "il ricovero" was painted on the wall about eye level. I told him that prostitution was legal in Italy and that was the sign for the whore houses. Literal translation means the shelter or asylum and was used to designate the air raid shelters. I never did find out if he had any success.
The handsome guy is "I" in the class of 43 G primary pilot training at Cimarron Field Okalahoma in February 1943. 43 G would be the seventh class to graduate from Cimarron in 1943. Unfortunately due to an inability to fly I washed out and went to Midland AFB to train as a bombardier. There I did graduate in the class of 43 - 11, bombardier classes were numbered while pilot classes were lettered. I was the hottest bombardier in the school, dropping bombs, not inteluctually. I held the school record for smallest circular average at all altitudes. The score was based on, as I remember, the distance from the center of the target was measured at 1:1 at eleven thousand feet and at 2.5:1 at 1000 feet. From eleven thousand ft. altitude a hit at the100 ft ring it was scored as a 100 ft miss, at 1000 ft. altitude a hit on the 100 ft. ring would be scored as a 250 ft. error. My average for the course from all altitudes was 125 feet. In 1943 I represented our school, Midland, at the bombing olympics at Kirkland AFB, Albuerque NM.
I wrote a letter to my tail gunner's sister to see if by chance she had saved his flak bat. I forgot to tell you about another incident with Machka.A cannon shell from a fighter struck the pretty much bullet proof window in his tail turret, it did not shatter or penetrate it, but the window turned opaque and Mac thought for a time he had gone blind.
I'll tell you about my experience in a ball turret on a milk run. We were cruising along over northern Italy, the Group Bombardier and the Group Commander were flying up front and our co-pilot and I went along for the ride - an easy mission with no enemy opposition. I decided to climb down into the unoccupied ball turret to see how it felt and check out the view. When I got into it I felt like I was hanging out in space below the plane's fuselage.
I rotated about a bit and pointed the guns up and down for a while, then deciding I had enough excitement, I rotated the turret so that the hatch was on top so I could exit back into the waist of the plane.
I had some difficulty in getting the hatch open and thought I would give some one a call on the intercom to open the hatch for me. Then I had a decision to make - the turret had a pair of handles to control the movement of the turret.
Each handle had a button on it that could be pressed with the thumb as I recall. In so far as they were not labeled I suspected one to be a microphone switch but what was the other, a gun switch?
Being in doubt I decided to play around rotating the turret about some more and later tried to exit again. This time being successful I climbed out and later asked the ball turret gunner what each of the two buttons controlled. He replied that they were the triggers to fire the guns.
I then asked about the mic switch. He replied the mic switch is a foot pedal! Sure glad I didn't try one of the hand switches - I would of shook up the whole crew including myself.
One thing I forgot to mention, speaking of ball turrets, our second gunner, Fred Kasper, I give credit for the following observation.. "The ball
turret is the smallest church that I have ever prayed in!"
The crew of "Bebe the Bombing Bee"
L-R back row: Ivan Thomas - Pilot, Chuck Balogh - Co-pilot, Fred Riley - Bombardier, Fred Pound - Navigator. L - R front row Fred Kasper - Ball turret, Chuck Sabin - Engineer, Bob Cooper - Radio Operator, Herb 'Pops" Morgan - Upper Turret , Leo Miller - Nose Turret and Godfrey 'Mac' Machka - Tail Turret.
"The greatest bombing planes in the world take him into battle through every opposition and in thirty seconds over the target he must vindicate the greatest responsibility ever placed upon an individual soldier in the line of duty."
...Eugene L. Eubank, Major-General USAF-RET.
In February 2002 Fred visited with Chick Balogh and helped him celebrate his 80th birthday. Here are two photos of their reunion, their first since 1978! Fred is in his "new" A2 jacket painted with bombs for each of his missions on the front, and with the aircraft name on the back.
Created 8/01/99 RJF Last Edited 05/18/2008 RJF
