Standing, L-R:  Co-pilot LAY, Pilot SCHLUETER, Bombardier REICHARD, Radio TRANZILLO

Kneeling, L-R (gunners): Engineer DALE, Tail PATTERSON, Nose PAINTER, Lower ORAND, Upper WELLS

The B-24 behind us was not our plane. For most of our missions we shared planes with other drews. Finally we received our own plane. It was the latest, a B-24L. We put in extra oxygen bottles, which we had salvaged from Vis Island, and some other items. We never got to fly the plane in combat. It was used by another crew and they left it splattered all over Rumania. the crew bailed out safely and made their way back with Russian help.

Note: By the time this picture was taken, Lt sachs, the original pilot of crew 6459, was missing. In 1994, when the 456th Bomb Group history book was released, it had him listed as KIA with internment in a military cemetary in Northern Italy.

In 1943, I was sent to Santa Ana, CA for preflight training as an aviation cadet. There we were selected for our future training as a pilot, navigator, or bombardier. We also received our military training with a fervor. Breaches of discipline were not accepted and the punishment for such was delivered swiftly and justly. However, continued breaches of discipline resulted in your transfer to an army ground unit. When we left there we were well drilled soldiers or airmen as we were called.

I was sent to Ryan School of Aeronautics, which was located in the desert high in the mountains west of Tucson, AZ. There I received my primary training in flight using the low-winged monoplane called the Ryan PT-22. If we weren't in the air, we were going to ground school, taking physical training, doing military drill, or sleeping. There was little idle time. I graduated from there and headed north to Marana Air Base, AZ for basic flying training. This time we trained in a larger monoplane with a lot more horsepower. It was made by Vultee and called the BT-13A. It was probably the nosiest airplane in the Army Air Force. At that stage night flying took place as well as blind flying training. Those who didn't fly at night sure lost their sleep when those noisy birds practiced night landings from dusk to dawn. I mastered the plane, or so I thought. It was time for my in flight test and I failed. Even though I had flown from the age of 17, I didn't make the grade. It was tough to take, but I was determined to fly one way or the other.

I convinced them to keep me in the aviation cadet program, so I was sent back to Santa Ana to preflight again. There I was reclassified for bombardier training, but first I had to go through aerial gunnery school. I was sent to Kingman, AZ for the training. We learned our 50 cal machine guns inside and out. We could detail strip them, change the feed from l e ft to right or vice versa and reassemble the gun blindfolded. I did it in 19 minutes. We took to the air and fired live ammunition at a canvas sleeve towed by another airplane. Our hits were recorded on the sleeve by the different color paints applied to the bullets and so we were scored. There I received my gunner's wings.

My next stop was Kirtland Field, Albuquerque, NM for bombardier training. More ground school, more drill, and we were pounded with load upon load of discipline. We trained in the AT-11 airplane there which had twin engines and twin tails. We trained on the ground first using the Norden bombsight, which was mounted on a high platform. Our target was an electric driven device that moved across the floor and we intercepted it, using the bombsight on our moving platform. At bombs away, and a delay time, the marker on the bottom of our platform would energize and strike a paper target on the device and so we were scored. We took to the air and we dropped on targets laid out on the desert floor. We first used 100 pound practice bombs called blue streaks. They were filled with sand and had a spotting charge in the tail, which initiated upon contact. The strike was photographed and that was how we were scored. Finally we headed for a place called Yucca and there we dropped our first high explosive bombs. Graduation time arrived and I received my bombardier wings and a commission as a 2nd lieutenant in the Army of the United States.

We were given leave time, so I headed to Pennsylvania to see Mom and Dad. When my leave was up I headed for Lincoln, NE. It was at the Lincoln Army Air Base that the graduates from all the schools were brought together and the crews were formed and given a crew number. And so crew #6459 was formed. Our crew members came from Nebraska, New York, Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Oregon. We represented the Catholic, Protestant, and a Jewish denominations. We were a cross section of the United States of America.

We were sent to the Air Base at Casper, WY for training in our combat aircraft, which would be the B-24 Liberator. It was a four-engined bomber and was considered one of the heavy bombers of that time. The training was a well rounded program that prepared each of us for our individual jobs in our role as a part of a combat crew.

From Bob Reichard: I found this picture of some of Crew #6459. It was taken at Camp Patrick Henry, VA the end of September 1944. This was just before we boarded the troopship to leave Norfolk, VA for Italy to enter World War II with the 456th Bomb Group.

Back Row Left to right: Bombardier REICHARD, Co-pilot SCHLUETER, Navigator SHUFELT, Kneeling left to right: Nose gunner PAINTER, Engineer DALE

Our crew headed for Topeka, KS and there we received our overseas orders. The lucky crews received brand new B-24 bombers and flew on to their military assignments. We went on a Liberty ship called the Felix Grundy. The convoy formed at Hampton Roads, VA and and on 1 Oct 1944 it headed across the Atlantic Ocean for Italy. A convoy is as fast as its slowest ship, so it took us 26 days to make the trip. Two of our ships were sunk, by submarines, in the Mediterranean Sea. Our trip ended in Bari Harbor, Italy.

At Bari we were assigned to the 745th Bomb Squadron, 456th Bomb Gp, 304th Bomb Wing, of the 15th Air Force, which was located near Cerignola, Italy. Our trip north was by truck.

The steel matted air strip was orientated in a north/south direction on what had been farm land. We lived in tents which were dispersed along the northwest corner of the air strip in an olive grove. Group headquarters was located on a knoll south west of the air strip. We learned that our tour of duty was 50 combat missions. At that time you received credit for 2 missions when you crossed over a certain parallel of latitude while heading north to your target.

Lt Sachs, our pilot had to fly a couple of missions with a veteran crew before he could take us into combat. He disappeared on a combat mission 11 Nov 1944, so Schlueter took over as pilot and a Lt Lay joined us as the copilot. I volunteered for a mission on 19 Nov 1944, which turned out to be Vienna. The crew would fly altogether for the first combat mission on 11 Dec 1944. It would be my third mission and the target would be Vienna again. After that mission we were stranded on Vis Island, off the coast of Yugoslavia. We left our battle damaged bomber there a n d got another one for the flight back to the base about six days later. All of the missions were two for, so we would be going home after 25 times out. Over night they changed their minds and said we could go home after 35 missions. However, all the missions we had flown before were now counted as one for one and so were all future missions. Another change of plans removed the bombardiers from all planes except 1, 2, or number 4 position. The nose gunners in planes 3, 5, 6, and 7 would drop the bombs for their planes when the lead plane dropped in their formation dropped, so if my crew was scheduled for position 3, 5, 6, or 7, I was left behind or flew with another crew.

Above is Lt. Jules Sachs and his wife, ca. 1944.

Also from Bob Reichard: In my personal picture & article book I do have the following: Lt Jules E Sachs, 0-826009: The only member of Crew 6459 who paid the supreme sacrifice while serving his country.

He was flying as a copilot with a veteran crew prior to leading his own crew into battle. He was missing in action on 11 November 1944, while flying from our base near Stornara, Italy, in B-24 bomber #42-51718, from the 745th Bomb Squadron, of the 456th Bomb Group.

In our squadron, at the same time, was a radio operator gunner named Francis Gallagher. We never met there. It would be fifty more years before we became friends when he formed a group of WW II fliers and I was asked to join them. How come we never met? In combat our crew number 6459 was used for all official communiques, but for other purposes we became known as Sach's crew and later Schlueter's crew. I am sure that Frank was wing tip to wing tip on some of the missions I was on and we knew them as Engelbert's crew. The crews fought and trained together as a unit, so we did not get to know other crews in depth. If you looked out and the bomber next to you was shot down, you said Jones's plane went down and I saw X number of chutes opening. That evening we acknowledged that Jones's crew was lost, but so were the other 9 guys. A l l the flier's names were listed as MIA on official records and their close friends in the squadron missed them. I guess that had a positive side, because any one or all of the crew members missing were not thought of as dead, because there was a possibility that they might have survived. Many crews did return after they had landed in friendly hands. That was a lot different than war on the ground, where you see the guy along side of you die or get splattered with his blood and know he will not be coming back.

In time my crew picked up more missions than I did, even though I flew one mission as a navigator, too. The war ended on 8 May 1945 when I had 25 missions. It was time to go home. Of the 9 other crew members I was able to keep track of four through the years. There are only two left as of this writing.

-RWR- 4 May 1997

Pilot Lt Jules E Sachs 0-826009

Co-pilot Lt Carl J Schlueter 0-699773

Co-pilot Lt Guiles P Lay 0-1999003

Navigator F/O Clifford C Shufelt T-127628

Bombardier Lt Robert W Reichard 0-777934

Engineer T/Sgt Daniel Dale 18044772

Radio Operator T/Sgt Louis Tranzillo 32975813

Nose Gunner S/Sgt Harold L Painter 42091142

Upper Turret S/Sgt Hardy L Wells, Jr 18139722

Lower Ball S/Sgt Thomas R Orand 38540905

Tail Gunner S/Sgt William R Patterson 18232997
 

UPDATE:  On 30 May 1997, Frank Gallagher called me and told me he had checked his mission sheet against mine and found we had flown together on five bombing missions.  Two were in 1944 and three in 1945. They included an oil storage facility in Austria, an oil refinery in Czechoslovakia, two railroad marshaling yards in Yugoslavia, and an airdrome in Germany.  Frank died on 20 May 1998.

Bob Reichard, ca. 1998

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