The following is the text of a letter received here 19 June 1999 from Fred Riley, 456th Bomb Group Association Historian.

Dear Roy,

    Now to the reason for this letter, I ought to be out mowing but I received a most interesting letter yesterday. First I must set the scene for you. I think in the review of the last reunion that you added to the web site I mentioned that one of our members while visiting Disney encountered an artist who saw the 456th on several caps and said; "My brother was in the 456th Bomb Group".

    He gave them a business card which they gave to me. I then sent him a newsletter, a history sheet and a letter which he forwarded to his brother, Dom Uzzi in California.

    After a while I received a phone call from Dom and he gave me info on the crew he flew with and promised to write me. (He hasn't yet and I do not have his address). However, I checked out the crew he was on and found three current members (remember, we had no idea of where Dom has been since the war).

    I composed a letter and copied them all and advised them of his existence and asked them to respond as I showed that several had gone down but Domenick was not aboard when they went down. Yesterday I received the first response, the letter follows.

"Fred De Ed,

    Many thanks for your letter of June 8th. Glad to hear that you located Dom Uzzi. I will call  Chuck Johnson, as he lives in Brawley Calfornia, he was going to contact Dom. Chuck and I stay in touch and visit on occasion.
    Enclosed you will find three items that may answer some of your questions.

#1. A list of our orginal crew members.
#2. A list of the crew members on the 20 December 44 mission.
#3. An account of the 20 December mission.

    Thanks again for your letter.
Best wishes,
Jim Sesow."

Item #1. THEODORE MITCHELL'S ORIGINAL CREW - "BABY BOOTS"

 Theodore Mitchell - Pilot - Current status unk.
Joseph Dorne - Co-pilot - Current member.
Raymond Torpe - Bombardier - Deceased
Ken Hoffa - Engineer - Current member.
Robert Coakly - Radio operator - Deceased.
Jim Sesow - Nose turret - Current member.
Charles Johnson - Ball turret   - Current member.
John MacPherson - Tail turret - Deceased.
Domenick Uzzi - Top turret - soon to be current.
James St. Clair - Navigator - Current member.

    Dom Uzzi was assigned to the crew in Pueblo, CO. to replace a gunner that was taken off the crew. He flew with other crews in Italy as a radio operator. He did remain in our tent and we were never assigned another permanent gunner.

Item #2. THE CREW ON THE 20 DECEMBER MISSION:

Theodore Mitchell - Pilot - original crew member.
Charles Johnson - Ball turret - original crew member.
John MacPherson - Tail turret - original crew member.
Jim Sesow - Nose turret - original crew member.
Jim St. Clair - Navigator - original crew member.
Ray Torpe - Bombardier - original crew member.
John German - Upper turret -  Assigned to the crew for this mission. Current status unk.

    The following three were all from the same crew that had just arrived as replacements. They were flying with us for experience. "Some experience!"
Wallace Carl - Radio operator - Current member
Steve Guilia - Engineer -  Current status unk.
Irvin Prokes - Co-pilot - Current status unk.

Item #3. 20 DECEMBER 44 MISSION

    The mission was to the Pilsen Skoda works in Czechoslovakia. As we started the bomb run we lost #4 engine. We feathered it and fell back and continued on the run lower than the rest of the formation. We encountered some flak as we released our bombs over what we hoped to be the target, as there was complete cloud coverage over the target and the ground could not be seen.

    As we left the target area, the prop on #4 engine became unfeathered. By this time we had lost sight  of the rest of the formation. We headed back to Italy still with the ground completely covered by clouds.  A short time later we had to feather #1 engine. With #1 engine feathered and #4 engine windmilling we were rapidly consuming fuel, we tried to lighten the plane by throwing out flak suits, ammunition and anything else of weight.

    Late in the afternoon we were getting low on fuel and we had not seen anything below us but clouds since we had left the base. We figured that we should be back to Italy by this time, so we descended through the clouds and broke out at about 1000 feet.

    We were just crossing the eastern coast of Italy just north of Pescara which was just south of the front lines. Mitchell told us we could bail out, but that he was going to crash land as we were about out of fuel. We looked out of the back hatch and we could see two dogs o the ground. We decided we that were to low to bail out.

    With the gear down, Mitchell cxame down into a farm field. Just after touchdown the nose wheel hit a ditch and nosed into the field. The plane broke just aft of the wing the rear section stayed up in a vertical position.

    Sesow, Johnson, St. Clair, MacPherson and German  were in the rear piled on top of one another. As a group we had flown up and came back down in a pile. Sesow had a flak helmet on that was Johnson had put on him, as he fell back to the floor his head hit the ball turret arm putting a large dent in the helmet.

    We tried to exit through the bomb bay doors that we had opened before landing. This exit was blocked as the plane had broken at this point. Being afraid of fire we climbed back to the rear hatch, it was about 15 feet to the ground, all five of us jumped to the ground and took off running.

    Carl, Guilia and Torpe had stayed up front and exited the bomb bay, Mitchell and Prokes were helped out of the cockpit as both had hit the front panel, Mitichell were cut and bleeding.

    We were picked up by a British outfit that were staying in Pescara. Sesow later went into shock and he Mitchell and Prokes were taken to an Italian hospital for the night. We stayed with the British until the 23rd when a truck arrived from our base to take us back. On the 25th we were sent to Capri for a week.

    It seems as though no one at the base ever changed our status from being MIA. We were not given physicals on our return nor as I recall we were never debriefed regarding our experience. This is what my memory of almost 55 years ago tells me of what happened on 20 December 1944.

James Sesow.

Home

Top of Page