VIS ISLAND Location: Latitude 43^ 10'N, Longitude 16^ 8'EThis was our safe area. It was off the coast of Yugoslavia, in the Dalmatian Group. The mainland was occupied by the Germans in the latter part of 1944, but the Partisans controlled the Island. There was a 3500 foot crash strip. It was constructed of interlocking steel matting. There were about 10 or so Americans there. They were under a Captain Cader (correct spelling unknown) and he had a Sgt Zak as his noncom. Their purpose was to look after the crews; dead, injured, or healthy who sought refuge there. You had to cross the Adriatic Sea to get back to your home base in southern Italy if the target was in SE Europe. If the plane was damaged, the pilot had to assess the situation, and if there was the possibility of going down in the sea, you would head for Vis. Once there you had the choice of landing, if possible, or bailing out over the island or within sight of it. There were also some British troops there. Once there they tried to get you back to Italy as soon as possible.
We landed there on 11 Dec 1944 after a bombing mission to a target in Vienna. (see 11 Dec 1944 story, A Rough Mission, for why) As soon as the plane stopped rolling, we abandoned it as if it was about to explode. That caused panic because others were trying to get in. In short order the plane was moved out of the way.
(Photo and text added 10/12/99: This ripcord is one of the two chestpack ripcords that were used upon touchdown on Vis Island, 11 Dec 1944, to slow our B-24 down when the plane's hydraulic system was shot out. A chestpack was fastened to the right and left machine gun mounts at the waist windows. When the pilot rang the bailout bell the ripcords were pulled. The chutes provided braking to slow down the bomber on the 3500 foot crash strip, so it wouldn't overrun the strip. It worked!!)
That evening the Sergeant took some of us into a farmhouse they called home. We sat in the kitchen and the wine flowed freely. There was more wine than water there because their water supply had to be collected from rain water. The group was composed of a couple of the American cadre, some of our crew, and the partisans. Included was a woman with two bandoleers of ammo, complete with grenades. Zak cautioned me about getting friendly with the woman. He said she would disappear if she became friendly with me. The Partisans didn't like intermingling and would punish her.
The following day Zak asked me if I would like some eggs for breakfast. I don't believe I had eaten a fresh egg since I left the ship that had brought me to Italy, so my answer was "Yes". He had a gasoline operated squad stove and he proceeded to fry me a dozen eggs, which went down without any problem. Zak had broken his wrist watch, so I gave him my government wrist watch, which I knew I could replace upon return. That was a mistaken thought and the only way I was to get it replaced was to get scheduled as a navigator and that was how I got a watch again.
We were moved to a coastal town. There we heard about some of the other happenings the day we arrived. In one instance a P-51 pilot had the throttle linkage locked, so he couldn't maintain altitude. He found the Island, landed half way down the strip, continued off the strip, thru a vineyard, hit a British truck, killing the driver and stopped short of going into the reservoir. I never saw a guy suffer so much. He continually blamed himself for the death. That night he kept us awake by his screams brought on by nightmares.
The weather had been bad for a couple of days and it became apparent that there were no missions due to the lack of activity. The ground crew, from Italy, worked to salvage bombers and one was ready for us to fly. A day or so later the weather cleared and we were alerted for departure, so we returned to the airstrip. The plane we were to use, had an ugly skull and cross-bones on the side and I wondered if it was an omen. There had been a mission that day and it was apparent it was rough. Someone said, "Look out, here comes one" and with that a bomber touched down about half way down the strip. The pilot locked the brakes, the left gear collapsed, in front of us, the left prop came off, and the plane skidded sideways off the runway, into a vineyard. We hurried to get the crew out (did you ever try to run thru a vineyard) after a lot of effort and a detour around, we arrived as the pale crew exited. At that time someone yelled that there was a plane coming in again. Well, they never lined up with the airstrip, but went into a field with boulders as big as a one-story house. Another one came in downwind and ran off the runway on the far end. At this point the runway was blocked. A truck and other people arrived and they actually started to cut the bombers, with axes, so they could push the pieces clear of the strip. I cleared out, because I didn't know where the next one would hit. I will never forget that day.
A day or so later we cleared the air strip and started across the Adriatic at a lower than usual altitude. We had been in the air for some time when I looked out of my observation window and noticed a bright colored object on the water. I asked the pilot what the altitude was and then I realized it must have been an emergency raft. About that time I noticed a rescue craft and I told the pilot to turn back on course to spot the object again. We never spotted the raft, but the rescue craft might have located it. We landed at our home base about six days after our mission. (Webmaster's note: this recollection generated a remarkable response about this emergency raft - read here.)
The crew from Vis Island moved to the mainland after the Germans had moved north. They were located at a place called Zara. On another mission we had run out of gas while trying to support the Russian ground troops in the vicinity of Budapest. The targets had been cloud covered and the lead pilot had tried to get over and under them and in doing so had depleted our fuel supply. We were still trying to locate a target, (it had to be visual because they were targets in front of the Russians) when the engineer reported the low fuel supply. Our pilot informed the command pilot, who ordered our pilot to check the fuel supply himself. This he did and said he had a lower reading than the engineer and we were heading back to the base. As we traveled south the pilot realized it would be unwise to try to cross the Adriatic Sea and asked the navigator to plot a course to Zara. We landed there and I told our radio operator to scout around and find out where we would be drinking that night. He returned quickly and told me my friend, Sgt Zak, was there and was holding some chicken for me. It was apparent that others were running low on fuel because plane after plane landed. A later assessment revealed that only two of the bombers were able to make it back to base. I enjoyed my fried chicken and the late comers had C Rations. Zak directed me to his tent and there he had wine from Vis in 5 gallon cans. After an evening of celebrating I took over the co-pilots seat and went to sleep with a warm glow on a cold night. RWR - 25 Dec 1992
The following information about VIS ISLAND was copied from BRIEFING - The Journal of The International B-24 Liberator Club, # 45, Fall 1991.
Excerpts are from Convair Tech Rep, ED BRENDZA'S Journal , who was on Vis Island, twice during WWII to salvage bombers:
Today, vineyards cover the strip of land 100 feet wide and 3,000 feet long tucked between mountain ranges on Vis Island in the middle of the Adriatic Sea.
Almost a half century ago, B-24 Liberators roared, crashed and often crumbled onto this primative air strip, unable to return to their bases in Italy from raids over centeral Europe.
To the crews of crippled B-24's and other Allied bombers and fighters, the landing strip nestled among the stubby, stone-covered hills of the Yugoslavian island seemed like heaven.
Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, then a 23 year old major and squadron commander, guided his B-24 minus two engines to a rough landing on Vis in February 1944, washing out the nose gear of his flaming aircraft.
On the ground to greet and rescue the crews was a most unusual reception committee, usually made up of US Army technicians and defense contractor technical representatives, Royal Air Force personnel, grape pickers and Marshall Tito's partisans.
Vis served as headquarters for Tito, and from this 33-square mile island he directed operations against the German occupiers inside Yugoslavia, tying down a dozen of their divisions. The role Vis played in Tito's resistance campaign was not revealed until the war was over.
Brendza went to Vis from Bari, Italy in 1943. He said, "I still didn't know where I was going. After half an hour of flying very low we circled an air strip between two mountain ranges. After we landed and were greeted by a handful of grizzled guys, one stepped forward and introduced himself as Capt (S.R.) Keator of the USAAF"."I started inspecting crippled B-24's the day I landed." The strip was littered with damaged or wrecked Liberators. It was Brendza's job to determine which aircraft could be repaired to fly again. He was there for a month and would return for another month in 1944.
The scope of the Vis operation saved hundreds of aircraft and the lives of several thousand crewmen. On a particularly hectic day in 1944, 37 Liberators crash-landed on Vis airfield. "You have to picture this," Brendza said, "two B-24's each with a wingspan of 110 feet, trying to land on this little strip from opposite directions.
For many of the badly shot-up aircraft, it was either taking a header into the ocean or smashing into Vis. Some crews bailed out because the runway could not be cleared of wrecks.
Capt Keator had neither typewriter nor file cabinet. "We don't need them," he said. "If I had a typewriter, I'd have to type reports, and if I wrote reports, I'd have to file them. We're like Lil Abner, we'd ruther fix airplanes." And that they did very well. There was little else to do on Vis, what with no movies, no USO and not a single shop. There were Partisans, with whom to share wine and K-rations and armaments and tires of aircraft that would never see service again.
For the morale of the B-24 crews, knowing that Vis was there was extremely important. It was an unsinkable island in the Adriatic with a landing strip and medical attention. For them it was another chance at Mother Earth.
(from an article by George Salamon) RWR - 18 June 93
