Twisted Bombshell: 566th Bomb Squadron of the 389th Bomb Group

THE GREATEST GENERATION BATTLES IN THE SKY AUGUST 17, 1943

THE UNKNOWN HEROES OF THE 566TH BOMB SQUADRON, 389TH BOMB GROUP (HEAVY)

TWISTED BOMBSHELL

The blessings of fate allowed me to write the book that my grandfather himself wanted to do. Through the publication of his story, I have been introduced to others who want to tell their family member’s military history. This is the story of the unknown heroes of the 566th Bomb Squadron of the 389th Bomb Group (Heavy) “Sky Scorpions” of World War II. This book is in loving memory of Richard Yuengling, Jr.’s father and his hero Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. May his memory and the memory of the 566th Bomb Squadron live on forever in our hearts, in our minds, and in our history. They were the Greatest Generation and will never be replaced.

- Daniel Ramey

TWISTED BOMBSHELL

PREFACE

CHAPTER 1

The Beginning

CHAPTER 2

Bombers and Gunners

CHAPTER 3

Battle Colors

CHAPTER 4

389th Bomb Group

CHAPTER 5

566th Bomb Squadron

CHAPTER 6

Battles In The Sky

CHAPTER 7

Battle of the Bulge

CHAPTER 8

The Return Home

CHAPTER 9

Yuengling Brewery

PHOTO GALLERY

566th Bomb Squadron

EPILOGUE

TWISTED BOMBSHELL

THIS IS THE STORY OF AN UNKNOWN HERO. THIS IS THE STORY OF RICHARD LEE YUENGLING, SR. WHO WAS JUST ONE OF THOUSANDS OF BRAVE MEN JUST LIKE HIM.

PREFACE

My grandfather was the greatest man I have ever known. He was also the greatest loss I have ever had to endure. He passed away from leukemia when I was eleven and the hole in my heart has never healed. Even now, thirty three years later, I cherish every single memory I have of him. His name was Paul Joseph Guiton.

When I was young, my grandfather would always have me sit with him and watch black and white World War II documentaries. He would always emphasize to me how important they were and the history involved. As I got older, he would tell me

bits and pieces why he made me sit and watch those documentaries, but he never dove into the details. He would mention once in a while that he was in the Army and he drove truck. He told me that he was in Europe during the war and that was about the extent of it. I would see some items from his military locker from time to time like his uniform and some old black and white photos while in Europe. It wasn’t until I started to research his true history in the military that it all started to make sense and come to light. As a matter of fact, the more I dug into his history, the more I found. The more I found, the more I was amazed by the details. It was like following a rabbit down the rabbit hole. The deeper

I went, the more his story took twists and turns. The more it twisted and turned, the more I got lost in one of the biggest and best history lessons of my life.

You see in the end, I found out that my grandfather was a bonafide war hero. In every sense of the word, he was a man that did more in his lifetime than most of us could do in multiple lifetimes. I was able to publish the book that he always wanted to do but never found the time. I was able to share his story and the story of those who fought alongside him.

As more people have read my grandfather’s story, they have come forward with their own desire to know what their loved ones did during the war and to honor their memory. They have shared with me

similar fond memories of growing up with their fathers and grandfathers and the brave women who loved them and supported them, not really knowing the extent of what they did during World War II. Little did they know, they were also unknown heroes. In honoring their memories and their heroic deeds, it has now become my mission to research, explore, and share what I have found and collected.

This is the story of another unknown hero. This is the story of my friend Richard Yuengling, Jr.’s father, and his hero Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr., who served in the 566th Bomb Squadron of the 389th Bomb Group (Heavy) “Sky Scorpions” of World War II.

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THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER 1

THE MISSION NOW IS TO REMEMBER THEIR LIVES AND TO HONOR THEM FOREVER.

Two years ago, I took the time to explore my grandfather’s history in World War II. To make a long story short, I had no idea the rabbit hole that it would lead me down.

In the end, I found out that my grandfather was a bonafide war hero, and not only that, but it sparked a lot of my friends to ask me to help them research their family’s history. The best part of publishing the first book was that we were able to present it to the last surviving member of my grandfather’s Company. To see the smile on his face was priceless. He unfortuantely passed away not more than a year later.

Shortly after, I had a friend come forward who wanted me to write a book about a man he was visiting weekly in a nursing home. He was a man who deserved more honor than we could ever provide. I obliged and fate continued to push me in the direction that I knew I was meant to go. I was able to finish the second book and with a room full of love and his wife by his side, the man passed away

the day my friend gave him his copy of the book written about his life during World War II. That was truly a hard pill to swallow. Right before our eyes, we were watching the last of the Greatest Generation disappearing from this world forever.

I knew that I wanted to do a third book for another friend of mine about his grandfather, but I won’t kid you, I just couldn’t get it started like I did the previous times. It is really hard to relive the memories of these honorable men who gave everything.

However, my mission was and still is perfectly clear. It is not to just write their story. The mission is to remember their lives and to honor them forever.

So I started the third book out in a very similar way as the previous two. Completely random for the most part but sparked by a set of fateful events to the trained eye, which I have started to acquire. Dough Smith, a good friend of

mine, called me over to his house one day and told me he had some things for me that he knew I would take good care of. Not knowing what he was offering to pass on to me, I was intrigued. Before I knew it, I was sitting at his kitchen table and he was piling various documents, photos, awards, medals, and even family military heirlooms on the table before me. Most of which belonged to his grandfather. Just like the loving relationship that I had with my own grandfather, Doug shared the same childhood experiences. His grandfather was his hero.

To top it off, his grandfather was his inspiration for both Doug and Doug’s father to serve in the military. Doug’s father served in Vietnam and Doug ultimately served in the Gulf War. They were a family of military legacy.

So knowing that and knowing how much these items meant to Doug and his family, I spent two years doing

the research and ultimately finished the third book. In a nutshell, Doug’s grandfather was active in a part of World War II that I knew absolutely nothing about - the Pacific Campaign. I learned that his grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel Horace D. Worley, was an inspiration to his family and his community. A true American hero. He received the Bronze Star for his services in the Medical Corps throughout the Pacific Campaign of World War II.

He started his military career in the 76th Field Artillery and was one of the last original “Buffalo Soldiers” of the 2D Cavalry Division prior to being absorbed into the 7th Infantry Division. He was activated to serve in World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Deployed to the Aleutian Islands, the Marshall Islands, Leyte, and under Operation Iceberg during the Allied Forces invasion of Okinawa, Japan, he provided essential medical services and aide to military soldiers and civilian casualties alike. Honoring his medical oath, he served and protected all human life, regardless of circumstance.

Lieutenant Colonel Horace D. Worley survived World War II and served in the United States Army actively for over 24 years. He retired with substantial awards and recognitions including the Bronze Star, Distinctive Unit Badge, American Defense Services Medal, National Defense Services Medal, Army Occupation Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, WWII Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, and Philippine Liberation Ribbon.

I was able to finish the third book and donate Horace D. Worley’s military items to a local museum to be preserved and on display forever, honoring his service and sacrifice. In finishing the third book, I found myself itching to keep my mission going. More of my friends came forward and wanted to learn more about their own relatives that served.

Just like my previous books, the research always starts with the uniform and any photographs that have been passed down through the family. During one of our trips to Lake Erie, Pennsylvania to see our friends Joanie and Pete Petersen, Joanie ap-

THE BEGINNING

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proached me with a pile of family photo albums. She simply said, “You should look at these. You will find them interesting.” And within seconds of opening the first photo album, I was thrown into another research adventure and the fourth book was underway!

Joanie’s father served in World War II in the 451st AAA Automatic Weapons (AW) Battalion and was a part of the invasion of Italy, known as Operation Dragoon. Once I started to read about Operation Dragoon, I found myself getting sucked into another adventure. I literally had no idea that Operation Dragoon occurred and I knew nothing about the history lesson I was about to receive. It was time to chase that rabbit down another rabbit hole!

Joanie’s father didn’t just take some photos, he documented just about every step of his journey through all of his campaigns. He even had some rare photos that I am pretty sure have never been released to the public of the infamous German Railway Gun the “Anzio Express.”

As I dug deeper, I discovered that Donald Jay Rogers was deployed to North Africa, Italy, France, Belgium, and Germany. He served in the United States Army from 1942 to 1945 and he not only participated in the invasion of Southern France and the invasion of Italy during Operation Dragoon, but he also liberated the historical cities of Rome, Naples, Pompeii, and Paris, witnessed the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, crossed the Rhine River into Germany, and aided in locating and destroying the infamous German Railway Gun, the “Anzio Express” that he took photos of!

I shared with Joanie what I had discovered and she was beyond thrilled and grateful! Not even a week after finishing the book about Joanie’s dad, I received a package in the mail. Joanie mailed me the original photos that her father took of the Anzio

Express and some other photos from his old albums. I was blown away! Needless to say, they now have a new home and will be well protected. I have added them to my growing personal museum.

Now that another book was finished, I sat back and started to ponder what I would do next. How would fate intervene this time? Being a resident of Pennsylvania and a huge fan of Yuengling beer (also from Pennsylvania), I popped open a cold bottle of Yuengling and started to reflect on the books I have finished. I looked around my man cave and noticed some World War II relics that I have on display, including a flight mask.

Looking at it, I didn’t think much of it at first other than how bummed I was because I haven’t written a book about World War II bombers. After all, that was what I was most interested in. You could easily say that is my passion, almost an obsession. Honestly, that was the whole reason I came up with Twisted

Bombshell. I even designed the Twisted Bombshell logo based on my fascination with bomber nose art and tales of the battles in the sky.

So as I was sitting there looking at the flight mask, my Yuengling bottle was in the foreground. I thought man what a cool picture that would make! I could take a picture to honor those bomber pilots and crew members. I could drink a Yuengling beer as a cheers to them, maybe use the photo as a social media post, and then maybe send it to my friend Richard Yuengling Jr. who continues to own and operate the Yuengling Brewery with his daughters. It has been their family business for generations. Then fate just smacked me straight in the face! I just got the idea for book number five! I am going to write it about Mr. Yuengling’s dad! Let me explain.

You see, the last time I visited the Yuengling Brewery, I had Mr. Yuengling autograph some of my photos and some articles I wrote about the brewery when my friends and I hosted an event there a couple of years ago. We all dressed up as prohibition gangsters (another fascination of mine) and did a tour of the

brewery since it was a known prohibition speakeasy.

As I was talking to Mr. Yuengling about the articles of the event, I mentioned the first Twisted Bombshell book that I was writing. I told him it was about my grandfather who was at Normandy. With that, Mr. Yuengling got a huge smile on his face and took me over to a wall in the building that was dedicated to his father that also served in World War II. His father’s name was Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. and can you guess what he did? You got it! He was a waist gunner on a B-24 Liberator (bomber) during World War II.

And BOOM! Then it all hit me! I could finally do a book about a bomber crew. I could finally write a book about my passion and about a person that has been right under my nose this entire time and I didn’t even remember! I could honor Mr. Yuengling’s dad! So fate just smacked me right in the face just from me drinking an ice cold Yuengling beer while looking at my flight mask! How freaking awesome!

I finished my beer and off I went on another adventure. I grabbed my computer and started digging through the files of all the photos I took that day when I visited Mr. Yuengling at the brewery. Within moments, I found what I was looking for. Luckily, I took photos of everything that was hanging up on the wall that was shown to me. I took photos of Mr. Yuengling’s dad with his crew members and photos of the information about the missions he flew. I started zooming in on the photos and reading the information and knew it was just the beginning of yet another awesome research adventure.

My heart skipped a beat and I knew right then and there, this would be the best research project yet! I emailed my friend Debbie who has been working with the family for decades at the Yuengling Brewery and let her know what I was up to. I asked her to let Mr. Yuengling know that a big surprise was coming his way!

Within hours, I was scouring the internet and yet again, chasing that infamous rabbit down the rabbit hole. I started researching one item and it led me left and right and connected to a dozen more. From my research, I found that Richard Lee Yuengling Sr. was part of the 566th Bomb Squadron of the 389th Bomb

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Group (Heavy) “Sky Scorpions” and aided in dozens of bombing missions that ultimately led to Germany’s surrender.

My research found that Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. was a Staff Sergeant by the end of his military career and was indeed a waist gunner aboard a B-24 Liberator, nicknamed the “Shady Lady”, which completed 34 successful missions from October 7, 1944 to March 9, 1945. Actually, while researching their missions and timelines, I discovered something very unreal. Not even three weeks after Richard Lee Yuengling Sr.’s crew finished their last mission, the “Shady Lady” was shot down over Germany. Both the entire new crew and the “Shady Lady” were gone forever. Fun fact despite this tragedy - if Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. stayed to fly for a few more missions, he would have also been shot down and killed and Yuengling beer would be no more, as the brewery was ultimately purchased and operated by his son, Richard Yuengling, Jr.

From the research, I also found that the 566th Bomb Squadron was stationed out of Helthel, England, and they engaged in very long range strategic bombardment operations over Occupied Europe and Nazi Germany. Targets included industrial facilities, oil production facilities and refineries, rail and other transportation centers, enemy military airfields and garrisons, and other vital targets. All of which Richard Lee Yuengling Sr. highlights and confirms in his mission notes that I took photos of.

I also found that the 566th Bomb Squadron was occasionally diverted from strategic targets to perform air support and interdiction missions. To support Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, it hit airfields and artillery batteries. It struck enemy positions to support Operation Cobra, the breakout at Saint Lo. During the Battle of the Bulge, from December 1944 to January 1945, it attacked storage depots and communication centers. It also supported Operation Varsity, the airborne assault across

the Rhine by dropping food, ammunition, and other supplies to the ground troops.

Not only did I find information about the 566th Bomb Squadron and the 389th Bomb Group (Heavy), I found some pretty amazing articles and publications about everything “bomber” related. Topics included the various types of “bomber” aircraft used throughout the war, unique assignments and responsibilities of each crew member aboard each aircraft, and even guides on how to identify aircraft in photos just by their colors and markings. Pretty much everything needed to fully understand life in the sky.

So let’s get on with the next World War II history lesson and adventure. Let me tell you all about Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. and the 566th Bomb Squadron of the 389th Bomb Group (Heavy) “Sky Scorpions”.

BOMBERS AND GUNNERS

CHAPTER 2

THANKS TO TECHNOLOGY AND TRIAL AND ERROR, BOMBERS EVOLVED LITERALLY MONTH TO MONTH...

Let’s start this history lesson and adventure with exploring bombers and gunners. Let’s talk about the different types of American bombers of World War II and the different crew positions that were on these bombers.

As far as bombers, there were dozens of types and sizes, all made specific for different missions and tasks. I provided a photo later in this chapter that I found on the internet to show you the variations. I can’t even begin to describe all of them, so I will stick to the most utilized ones throughout the war.

The primary American bomber types used in World War II were the Boeing B-17 “Flying Fortress”, the B-24 Liberator (the type that Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. flew in), the B-25 Mitchell, and the Boeing B-29 “Superfortress.” The B-26 Marauder also played a significant role as a medium bomber. Bombers were masters of the sky, loaded with goodies.

Each bomber not only delivered large pay loads of bombs, but they had to be equipped with ways to defend themselves against enemy fighter planes that were trying to shoot them down before reaching their targets. After all, bombers were big planes and were moving at a much slower speed than the small fighter planes. For example,

think of bombers as a flock of geese flying smooth and steady in formation to their destination and think of fighter planes as a swarm of bees flying in every direction to constantly annoy those geese every second of their flight.

So in ways to defend themselves, the bombers were equipped with machine guns and rotating ball turrets (also equipped with with machine guns) that could shoot in just about every angle from the bomber. Most bombers had machine guns in the front, back, top, bottom, and sides and obviously each machine gun had to be manned by a different crew member which we will talk about later in the chapter.

Here are just some key details about each of the primary American bomber types used in World War II. The B-17 “Flying Fortress” was a heavy bomber known for its defensive firepower and ability to withstand damage. It was used extensively in daylight bombing raids over Europe. The B-24 Liberator was the most produced American bomber of WWIl with a long range allowing for missions deep into enemy territory. The B-25 Mitchell was a versatile medium bomber used in various roles including strategic bombing and ground attack operations. The B-29 “Superfortress” was a very heavy bomber designed for long-range missions against Japan, capable of carrying large bomb loads.

And finally, the B-26 Marauder was a medium bomber primarily used for tactical bombing missions.

Most people think of the Boeing B-17 “Flying Fortress” when they are talking about World War II as it has been made famous in hundreds of television shows and movies. These bombers were literally stacked wall to wall with machine guns and bombs to deliver the heaviest impact against enemy targets, especially throughout the European Campaigns. Equipped with the Norden bombsight (a sighting device which was used to drop a bomb with accurate precision), B-17s carried out some of the most accurate strikes of the war and were state of the art compared to other aircraft of the sky in their hay day. As a matter of

fact, if a bomber was going down, it was absolutely mandatory for the crew member responsible for the Norden bombsight to make sure it was destroyed and to not be found and utilized by the enemy.

Thanks to technology and trial and error, bombers evolved literally month to month and the American bombers were starting to be made to be faster and fly longer distances, but yet still pack the firepower needed to cause absolute destruction. The B-17 “Flying Fortress” was starting to be replaced with the B-24 Liberator. Since the B-17 is my absolute favorite bomber and the B-24 is what Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. flew in, I will focus on these two bombers in more detail.

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The Boeing B-17 “Flying Fortress” weighed 65,500 lbs, had a wingspan of 103 feet, was powered by four 1200 hp Wright R-1820-97 Cyclone radial nine-cylinder air-cooled piston engines, had a max speed of 287 mph, max range of 2000 miles, max ceiling 35,600 feet (how high in the sky it could go), was manned by a crew of 10 people, and was armed with one 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine gun flexibly mounted in both cheek and waist positions and above radio operator’s compartment, two 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine guns in dorsal and ventral ball turrets and two tail positions. Later they were equipped with 13 total .50 caliber machine guns throughout the aircraft. Typical bomb load was usually 5,500 lbs.

was manned by a crew of 10 people, and was armed with two 12.7 mm Browning machine guns flexibly mounted in nose, upper, ventral, and tail turrets, and one 12.7 mm Browning machine gun flexibly mounted in each waist position. Later they were equipped with 10 total .50 caliber machine guns throughout the aircraft. Typical bomb load was usually 8,000 lbs.

In comparison, the Lockheed Martin B-24 Liberator weighed 65,500 lbs, had a wingspan of 110 feet, was powered by four 1200 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830-43 Twin Wasp or R-1830-65 piston engines, had a max speed of 290 mph, max range of 2100 miles, max ceiling 28,000 feet,

As far as the crew positions on the bombers, both the B-17 “Flying Fortress” and B-24 Liberator crew consisted of 10 members, including a pilot, co-pilot, bombardier, navigator, radio operator, flight engineer, and four gunners (two waist gunners, a ball turret gunner, and a tail gunner. Crew members had specialized roles and worked together to ensure the aircraft reached its target and returned safely. Each crew member was dependent on the others and all shared the same experiences and dangers.

Let me briefly explain the role of each crew member. The pilot and copilot sat in the cockpit. The pilot was in charge of flying the plane and in charge of the safety and efficien-

cy of the crew. They were the only ones able to make the decision to bail out of the aircraft if it was unable to continue to fly. They would hit the bail out alarm and ensure all crew members were evacuated from the aircraft before they evacuated themselves. The copilot assisted with the flying of the aircraft and the intercommunication with the rest of the crew.

The bombardier and navigator sat in the nose of the plane. The bombardier was responsible for everything bomb related. They would arm the bombs by pulling the nose pins when close to the target, open the bomb bay doors, and ultimately hit the switch to release the bombs after using the Norden bombsight to get a precise target acquisition. Like I stated earlier, if the aircraft was hit and going down, they were also responsible to destroy the Norden bombsight so it would not get into enemy hands.

The navigator was responsible for everything related to

the flight path of the aircraft. They charted and mapped flight routes to and from the target. They had to factor in fuel, weight, distance, altitude, speed, weather, and damage to the aircraft, and keep the crew out of harm’s way. They had to get the crew to the target and back safely and efficently while constantly flying over enemy territory.

The radio operator sat in the room behind the cockpit. The radio operator was responsible for receiving and transmitting radio and telephone messages. They also kept a log of the mission and assisted the navigator. They were responsible for communicating with other forces in the air, communicating with the division station, were trained in the use of Morse code, and would sometimes also serve as a waist gunner.

The flight engineer was responsible for repairs in flight and operating the top turret gun located behind the cockpit and in front of the wing. They controlled the aircraft’s me-

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chanical, electrical, hydraulic, and fuel systems. The flight engineer was usually a qualified airplane mechanic and assisted the pilot with pre-flight checks, take-off and landing, monitoring engine performance, kept track of fuel burn and gave accurate fuel calculations in case of emergencies, monitored the four engines, and took over flying duties if the pilot became disabled.

The gunners operated the machine guns to defend the plane. The gunners included the two waist gunners, the tail gunner, and the ball turret gunner. The gunners were responsible for defending the aircraft from enemy fighters.

The waist gunners stood in open windows on either side of the plane (the waist of the plane behind the wings) and fired a single .50 caliber machine gun at enemy aircraft that was usually suspended and hanging out a side window. Waist gunners sometimes released strips of shredded metal to confuse enemy radar, checked the aircraft for damage, and helped the flight engineer with repairs. The greatest challege for waist gunners was that they were exposed to frigid temperatures, were in extremely tight quarters, and had to fire from open windows at high altitudes (meaning it was extremely cold). They also had very limited fields of fire and it was very difficult to fire with accuracy at constantly moving targets. Fun fact: waist gunners had the highest casualty rate among U.S. bomber crews as the sides of bombers were usually the easiest targets for enemy fighters to hit. As you recall, Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. was a waist gunner on a B-24 bomber.

The tail gunner was responsible for defending the aircraft from enemy fighters by firing machine guns from the rear (tail) of the plane. They were responsible for spotting enemy fighters especially at night when they were trying to sneak up from behind. The tail gunner fired machine guns from a powered twin-gun turret.

And last but not least, the ball turret gunner protected the aircraft from enemy attacks from below. They were located on the underside of the plane and they operated a Plexiglas sphere (rotating electro-hydraulic ball turret system) that was equipped with double .50 caliber Browning machine guns. The turret rotated 360 degrees horizontally and up and down to 90 degrees. The turret was 3.5 feet in diameter and was very cramped. The turret gunner had to squeeze in the turret and remain in there for hours at a time in the fetal position. The turret gunner was usually the shortest crew member. The turret was so cramped that the turret gunner could not wear a parachute. The turret was retractable for ground clearance and aerodynamic efficiency and could be jettisoned (removed from the plane by the push of a few buttons). The ball turret could be released in the event of a belly landing to reduce structural damage to the plane. The pilot could also order the turret to be jettisoned to reduce the plane’s weight during a fuel-short flight. The turret gunner had the second most dangerous job on the flight crew.

Now that you have a general idea of bombers and gunners, let’s discuss the elephant in the room. DANGER. How dan-

gerous was it to be a member of a bomber flight crew?

During World War II, the mortality rate for bomber crews was high, with many crews being killed, wounded, or captured. According to my research, during the whole war, 51% of aircrew were killed on operations, 12% were killed or wounded in non-operational accidents and 13% became prisoners of war or evaders. Only 24% survived the war unscathed. Let me say that one more time... ONLY 24% survived the war unscathed!

In 1943, only about 25% of Eighth Air Force bomber crewmen completed their 25-mission tours. In late 1943, the average life expectancy of a B-17 crew member was about 11 missions. It should be noted here that at the beginning of the war, if you completed 25 missions, you

were able to return home. Later, it was increased to 30+ completed missions. Statistically, it was almost impossible to complete 25 missions without getting killed, let alone 30+. It is an absolute miracle that Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. survived World War II and completed 34 flight missions while serving as a waist gunner (a position that had the highest casualty rate).

After digging deeper in the research, I found that during the peak of World War II, being a member of a heavy bomber crew meant you were incredibly brave and you put your country over yourself because it was that dangerous. Many considered the occupation to be a death sentence. Nearly 71% of the bomber’s crew were either killed or labeled as missing in action, which accounts for approximately 100,000 service members.

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Regarding the crew members of the B-24 “Shady Lady” of the 566th Bomb Squadron, I was able to find some photos and put some names and faces to the different crew member positions. Here is the list.

B-24 “Shady Lady” Crew Members:

Pilot - Keith E. Shirk

Copilot - Dwight Harrington

Bombardier - Alfred White

Navigator - Arthur Dunn

Radio Operator - Herbert McDaniel

Flight Engineer - Elwood Lash

Waist Gunner - Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr.

Waist Gunner - Ken Johnson

Nose Gunner - Morris McClain

Tail Gunner - Alec Fontana

B-24 BOMBERS IN FORMATION BOMBERS AND GUNNERS

B-17 BOMBER OVER GERMANY BOMBERS AND GUNNERS

BOMBERS AND GUNNERS

B-17 AND B-24 BOMBERS

© 2025 TWISTED BOMBSHELL

BATTLE COLORS

BATTLE COLORS

CHAPTER 3

THERE ARE A FEW OTHER TOPICS WE SHOULD COVER THAT WOULD BE USEFUL IN UNDERSTANDING A SOLDIER’S LIFE IN THE SKY.

So now that you know a little about bombers and gunners, there are a few other topics we should cover that would be useful in understanding a soldier’s life in the sky. Actually, I had to research these topics in order to help me finish this book. Every time I do the research, it definitely turns into a huge history lesson, never short of learning something new along the way.

During my research I was running into some “flak” (FYI - “Flak” refers to German anti-aircraft fire, derived from the German word “Flugabwehrkanone” meaning “aircraft-defense cannon.” The 8.8 cm Flak (88mm gun) was a prominent and feared anti-aircraft weapon that was used to shoot down bombers and aircraft in route to their target destinations). So as I was trying to fly smoothly to finish this book, I was running into some “flak” that was causing me some problems.

For example, I couldn’t keep the different Groups and Squadrons of aircraft straight in my mind as

there were dozens. As you have probably noticed written several times, Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. was part of the 566th Bomb Squadron of the 389th Bomb Group. So one of the topics I will briefly review relates to what that actually means. The first topic I want to cover is the 8th Army Air Force aircraft organization and deployment structure.

I was also coming across hundreds of photos of B-24 bombers and I had no idea which ones could have been part of the 389th Bomb Group or the 566th Bomb Squadron, as I always try to use the pictures that relate to the specific soldier units that I am writing about. As you have also probably noticed, there are quite a few bomber photos throughout this book and it would be nice to be able to identify which unit they belong to. So another one of those topics I will brifely cover relates to battle colors and the markings on the sides of aircraft.

Lastly the final topic that I want to briefly cover is bomber battle formations. This refers to the group -

ings of bombers in the sky during missions. As you also may have noticed in a lot of the photos, bombers are always grouped together and usually never alone. There is a very specific reason for that.

So let’s start with the 8th Army Air Force aircraft organization and deployment structure. In a nutshell, the aircraft of the 8th Army Air Force of World War II were organized from top to bottom in this sequence: Divison - Wing - Group - Squadron. Basically think of the largest collection of aircraft (Division) and then you divide them into smaller collections of aircraft with a Squadron being the smallest.

Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. was assigned to the B-24 bomber called the “Shady Lady” and that was a part of the 566th Bomb Squadron. His Squadron was usually made up of six bombers at a time. His Squadron was part of a collection of four Squadrons

(the 564th Bomb Squadron, the 565th Bomb Squadron, the 566th Bomb Squadron, and the 567TH Bomb Squadron). The grouping of four Squadrons was called a Bomb Group and his particular Bomb Group was the 389th Bomb Group. There were usually six or more Bomb Groups to a Bomb Wing and and six or more Bomb Wings to a Division. The 8th Army Air Force had three Divisions.

So basically, Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. flew in a bomber that was in a Squadron of six, he was stationed in Hethel, England with four total Squadrons called the 389th Bomb Group. Other Bomb Groups were located throughout different stations in England and were collectively called a Bomb Wing. Finally, all of those Bomb Wings in a larger geographic region were called a Division. All in all, Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. had at any given time, 24 - 30 aircraft flying with him.

I should note here to pay attention to the key words of these organization structures. A “Bomb” Squadron or “Bomb” Group is different than a “Fighter” Squadron or “Fighter” Group. Recall the difference that I mentioned earlier in this book between bombers and fighter planes and their purpose (flock of geese vs. swarm of bees).

I should also note that when doing research on aircraft, sometimes you can’t find much on the particular Squadrons because they were so small and aircraft were constantly being shot down and replaced. You usually have better luck searching for the larger groupings. The same applies for specific soldier units if researching your relatives. Always

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start somewhere in the middle. Don’t look for something too general like a Division and don’t look for something too specific like a Squad.

Now that we know what it means when I say that Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. was part of the 566th Bomb Squadron of the 389th Bomb Group, let’s review how to identify those particular bombers in pictures. Thanks to this great book by Robert A. Watkins called Battle Colors, I learned how to identify a lot of the markings on aircraft. Specifically, I was able to find the exact markings used by the 566th Bomb Squadron and the 389th Bomb Group throughout World War II. I have provided images of specific pages from his book to help you visually understand the aircraft markings and placements.

In a nutshell most bombers had the national insigna on the side (which for USA was a star), Squadron Code letters near the waist of the aircraft (which was “RR” for the 566th Bomb Squadron), Call Sign letter on the waist and tail of the aircraft (“Q+” for the “Shady Lady”), Aircraft Serial Number on the tail (“44-40439” for the “Shady Lady”), and Division Symbol or Group Marking also on the tail (“C” in a circle

was most of the 389th Bomb Group, but as things in the military constantly changed, the “Shady Lady” had a tail that was painted Black with a White vertical line with a “Q” and “+” below it). I have also attached some photos and grids that I have found in my research specific to the markings related to the 566th Bomb Squadron and the 389th Bomb Group throughout World War II.

The book Battle Colors by Robert A. Watkins was pivotal to my research. This book is literally what I call the “bomber bible” in that it explains almost every Bomb Group and their specific Squadrons and markings, even down to a brief explanation of their station locations, campaigns, and individual Squad -

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ron logos. In the next two chapters, I will review the specifics for the 566th Bomb Squadron and the 389th Bomb Group individually.

As I mentioned before I am a sucker for the pinup nose art on World War II bombers and also a sucker for flight patches and logos. Just to digress for a minute, there has been a lot of research about the nose art on World War II aircraft and its origin. From what I have found, there really is not a complex reason why soldiers started to name their aircraft and decorate them with pinups or other drawings other than they needed a visual reminder of home, wanted to make their aircraft personal to their own crew, and it gave them something keep their hope alive.

Based on the cultural norms at the time, the young male soldier fighting in World War II wanted to get back home to their loved one, often a young “sexy” woman. During the 1940s, these young “sexy” women were usually called “bombshell” or “tootsie.”

Other slang terms used to describe attractive women in the 1940s included “dish”, “doll”, “gal”, “honey”, and “lassie.” Not only did nose art become the norm on World War II aircraft, so did giving each one a name, often a female name (like “Shady Lady”). Most muscle car owners of the present day still do the same. I personally have a 1970 460ci Mustang that I call “Bombshell.”

As I learned all about battle colors and the different markings on World War II aircraft, I made sure to filter out all of the B-24 bomber pictures that I was finding in my research and apply them to the appropriate Bomb Squadrons, Bomb Groups, and chapters of this book. Almost every singe photo that you will see in this book is a photo of an aircraft from the 566th Bomb Squadron and the 389th Bomb Group that Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. flew with.

The final topic that I want to briefly cover is bomber battle formations. Like I mentioned earlier, bombers were always grouped together and there was a specific reason for that. That specific reason is for safety. There was safety in numbers. Since every bomber was loaded head to toe with machine guns, if you stacked and grouped multiple bombers together, you could defend various planes in the formation from almost every angle. If you stack and group bombers in a particular manner, this defensive strategy was meant to increase your odds of success. This is what the military started to call the “Combat Box.”

Some of my absolute favorite World War II mini series television shows are Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and Masters of The Air. Any World War II fan has seen these shows. I watch them almost weekly, es -

pecially after I have learned something new or really want to get into the task at hand of writing another book. Well, since the show Masters of the Air was all about World War II bombers, there was a lot of lingo that I couldn’t understand when watching it until I learned about the “Combat Box.” They would often say phrases like “lead element” and “lead ship” and stress flight formation and plugging the gaps. Once you learn about the “Combat Box”, you will definitely get a greater appreciation for the show (and for the soldiers) with a better understanding of the complex things that are going on in every scene.

To explain the “Combat Box” and in a manner so that it is not too confusing, utilize the picture provided at the end of the chapter that I found in the “bomber bible.”

A “Combat Box” was made up of three Bomb Squadrons flying together, staggered, and at different altitudes (height in the sky). One Squadron flew in the front and in the middle altitude, one Squadron flew slightly further to the rear and at a lower altitude, and one Squadron flew even further to the rear and at the highest altitude. Keep in mind, all bombers flew as close as possible to each other to prevent any gaps in formation to allow any Fighter planes to attempt to enter their air space.

Now once you have these Squadrons flying together in this formation, it is called the “Combat Box.” Just picture the 565th, 566th, and 567th Bomb Squadrons flying together (these Squadrons together were called 389th Bomb Group). This “Combat Box” would consist of about 18 - 20 bombers.

Usually on major bombing missions, multiple Bomb Groups would get together and form an even larger “Combat Box” with a lead element Bomb Group (“A” Box), secondary lower altitude element Bomb Group (“B” Box), and third highest altitude element Bomb Group (“C” Box). This

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even larger “Combat Box” would consist of about 60 bombers.

At first, the “Combat Box” idea seemed pretty genius, as long as everything on a mission went perfect. One factor that military strategists forgot to realize was that the enemy often had an extreme desire to win at all costs, even sacrificing their own aircraft to take down ours. The “Combat Box” would work as long as enemy aircraft valued their own lives and planes and wanted to avoid collisions.

However, since the enemy loved to sacrifice their aircraft to turn into large missles to take down bombers, an extremely tight “Combat Box” formation often led to a “Tinder Box” of chaos and destruction. If one bomber was hit, it would often crash into another bomber and all hell would break loose.

Let’s just say there was a lot of trial and error (and extreme loss) at the start of using bombers in World War II. The “Combat Box” was not really perfected until the introduction of using the P-51 Mustang Fighter plane to escort the bombers. Our flocks of

geese were getting swarmed by enemy bees. When it came down to it, you needed to “fight fire with fire”, or in this instance, “fighter with fighter.” Now our flocks of geese started to bring along their own swarm of bees to fend off the attacking bees. Let’s just say our bees, the P-51 Mustangs, were the most feared bees of the sky!

One other weakness of the “Combat Box” should be mentioned. As I noted earlier, bombers were often targeted by anti-aircraft guns that were on the ground. On a bombing mission, any time a bomber would fly over enemy territory it would constantly

get shot at and bombarded with “flak.” Not only did the bombers have to worry about fighter planes in the sky, they had to worry about the endless shells bursting all around them from anti-aircraft artillery. Let’s not even mention the natural dangers of flying to include weather, mechanical failures, and psychological stressors of combat. Keeping that in mind, the lowest altitude “Combat Box” was the “B” Box and it was often referred to as “Coffin Corner.”

Since it had the lowest flying bombers and was closest to all of the ground dangers, it had the highest mortality rate. If you were assigned to the “B” Box, it was basically a death sentence from the start.

As I explored these topics and learned more about a soldier’s life in the sky, I couldn’t help but really gain a greater appreciation and admiration for each and every crew member on a bomber. Each member really did have a lot of responsibility, especially

the pilot who had to maneuver their plane through hell in the air.

In what I have called the “bomber bible” by Robert A. Watkins, I found a paragraph on the page about the “Combat Box” that would really sum up this chapter about aircraft organization, battle colors, battle formations, and pinup nose art.

Robert A. Watkins writes, “in order to accomplish these complicated aerial maneuvers it was imperative that every ship within the formation be recognizable to all those within the formation. While pilots might be allowed to individualize the nose of the ship with artwork, the remainder of the aircraft was pretty much off limits. Every letter, number, color, and pattern had a specific meaning and uniformity of these symbols was imperative to formation flying.”

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389TH BOMB GROUP

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THEY WERE ASSIGNED TO THE 8TH ARMY AIR FORCE “MIGHTY EIGHTH.”

The 389th Bomb Group, known as the “Sky Scorpions”, were activated on December 24, 1942 at Davis-Monthan Army Air Base (AAB), Arizona. Physical formation began at Biggs Field, Texas on February 1, 1943. Between April 17 and April 20, 1943 they relocated to Lowry Field, Colorado for final training. There they started to prepare for duty overseas with B-24 bombers. The ground unit went to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey and arrived on June 11, 1943.

On June 30, 1943 the 389th Bomb Group embarked on the ship known as the “Queen Elizabeth” and arrived in Gourock, Scotland on July 6, 1943. They then moved and were stationed in Hethel, England. They were assigned to the 8th Army Air Force “Mighty Eighth”. Their aircraft went overseas on June 13, 1943 via Dow Field, Maine to Gander, Canada, to Iceland, and to Prestwick, England.

Almost immediately after arriving in England, a detachment of the 389th Bomb Group was sent to join bases in North Africa at Benghazi No. 10, Libya, between July 3, 1943 and August 25, 1943 and at Massicault, Tunisia, between September 19, 1943 and October 3, 1943. During this period, the detach -

ment carried out bombing raids over Crete, Sicily, Italy, Austria, and Romania. The Group was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation in the famous low-level attacks in the Ploesti oil fields mission on August 1, 1943.

The detachment returned to England in August of 1943 and the group flew several missions against airfields in France and Holland. They supported Allied operations at Salerno and hit targets in Corsica, Italy, and Austria while temporarily operating from Tunisia from September to October of 1943.

They then returned to England and resumed operations until April of 1945, with their concentration on strategic objectives in France, the Low Countries, and Germany. Targets included ship yards at Vegesack, industrial areas of Berlin, oil facilities at Merseburg, factories at Munster, railroad yards at Sangerhausen, and V-weapon sites at Pas de Calais.

From February 20 to February 25, 1944, the 389th Bomb Group participated in an intensive air campaign against the Germany, called “Big Week.”

“Big Week,” also known as Operation Argument,

was a major Allied air offensive against Nazi Germany’s aviation industry, aimed to cripple the Luftwaffe before the Normandy landings.

The 389th Bomb Group also flew support and interdictory missions on several occasions, bombing gun batteries and airfields also in support of the Normandy invasion in June of 1944.

They bombed enemy positions to assist the breakthrough at Saint Lo in July of 1944 and they bombed storage depots and communication centers during the Battle of the Bulge from December 1944 to January 1945. In March of 1945, they dropped food, ammunition, gasoline, and other supplies to troops participating in the airborne assault across the Rhine.

The 389th Bomb Group flew their last combat mission in April 1945 and returned to the United States between May to June 1945. They were inactivated on September 13, 1945.

If you wanted to follow the path of travel, the 389th Bomb Group was stationed at Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona on December 24, 1942, Biggs Field, Texas on February 1, 1943, Lowry Field, Colorado on April 19 to June 8, 1943, Hethel, England from June 11, 1943 to May 30, 1945 (with temporary stations at Benghazi, Libya from July 3, 1943 to August 25, 1943, and Massicault, Tunisia from September 19, 1943 to October 3, 1943), and Charleston Army Air Field (AAFld), South Carolina from June 12 to September 13, 1945.

From 1942 to 1945, the 389th Bomb Group consisted of four Bomb Squadrons including the 564th,

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565th, 566th, and 567th Bomb Squadrons.

Being that Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. was with the 566th Bomb Squadron, I initially thought he would have traveled to all of these stations and locations.

However, with some deep research, I found that Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr.’s military career started a little different than most.

In a nutshell, he was a pilot for the Civil Air Patrol and would fly along the Atlantic coast to deter German U-Boat operations before enlisting in the military. At the age of 28, he enlisted in the Army Air Force with

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hopes of flying with the big boys and was told that he was too old to be a pilot.

So instead of flying, he went off to Gunnery Training at Tonopah Army Air Field in Nevada to be a waist gunner aboard B-24 bombers. He started training on December 27, 1943 and on August 17, 1944 he was shipped off to Hethel, England to be with the 566th Bomb Squadron. He was assigned to the B-24 bomber known as the “Shady Lady”, serial number 44-40439 with Squadron Code letters “RR” and Call Sign letter “Q+” on the waist and tail.

Also during my deep research of the 389th Bomb Group, I came across a scanned, digital copy of a published book from 1946 called 389th Bombardment Group: A Pictorial Review of Operations in the ETO. The book was published by World War Regimental Histories and is located in the Bangor Public Library. The book is literally equivalent to a high school year book but focused on the 389th Bomb Group and their time while in Hethel, England. It has hundreds of photos of aircraft, crews, daily life, and even missions. Despite hours of searching through all 275 pages of photos and information, I found only one photo of Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. and his crew and unfortunately, no photos of the “Shady Lady.”

Other great resources that I stumbled upon while doing research of the 389th Bomb Group include the websites www.389thBG.com, www.AmericanAirMuseum.com, and www.8AF.org.

Actually, when researching the 389th Bomb Group patch and logo of the blue dragon and fiery bomb, I found the following information which is very interesting. This was captioned under the photo of the patch on the website www.AmericanAirMuseum. com:

“Earl Zimmerman, a radio operator during the Ploesti mission, has this to say about the origin of the insignia: “I first learned of the name Sky Scorpions during the early 1960s when the book Ploesti was published. Up to that time, I had never heard of the name although I went over with the original Group and came back with the Group two years later. No one has confirmed it, but I assume the name came from Captain Kenneth Caldwell’s plane “Scorpion.”

Now about the formation ship, the “Green Dragon.”

Master Sergeant Pashal Quackenbush is the original artist of the dragon painted on the Officers Club wall. That dragon was green. His original painting of the dragon was blue and during the reunion at Colorado Springs, Pashal donated it to Al Kopp then VP of the 389th. The original now rests in the Library in

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Norwich. When I had the 389th patches made they were copied from the original, therefore the blue dragon.”

More of my research suggests that the blue dragon insignia of the 389th Bomb Group patch is based on the original emblem of The Green Dragon Pub in Wymondham, Norfolk in England.

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THEY ENGAGED IN VERY LONG RANGE STRATEGIC BOMBARDMENT OPERATIONS...

The 566th Bomb Squadron was constituted on December 19, 1942 and activated on December 24, 1942. Station locations were the same as the 389th Bomb Group and included Davis-Monthan Field (Arizona), Biggs Field (Texas), Lowry Field (Colorado), Hethel (England), Benghazi (Libya), and Massicault (Tunisia). Campaigns included Air Offensive, Europe; Sicily; Naples-Foggia; Normandy; Northern France; Rhineland; Ardennes-Alsace; Central Europe; Air Combat, EAME Theater.

As part of the 566th Bomb Squadron, Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. was stationed out of Hethel, England and assigned to the B-24 nicknamed the “Shady Lady” with a crew of 10 total members. They engaged in very long range strategic bombardment operations over Occupied Europe and Nazi Germany. Targets included industrial facilities, oil production facilities and refineries, rail and other transportation centers, enemy military airfields and garrisons, and other vital targets.

The 566th Bomb Squadron was occasionally diverted from strategic targets to perform air support and interdiction missions. To support Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, it hit airfields and artillery batteries. It struck enemy positions to support Operation Cobra, the breakout at Saint Lo. During the Battle of the Bulge, from Decem-

ber 1944 to January 1945, it attacked storage depots and communication centers. It also supported Operation Varsity, the airborne assault across the Rhine by dropping food, ammunition, and other supplies to the ground troops. The 566th Bomb Squadron flew its last mission on April 25, 1945 and returned to the United States.

The 566th Bomb Squadron’s patch and insignia was a horse with bombs strapped to its saddle (shown later in this chapter).

As noted earlier through my research, I was able to find the names of the crew members of the “Shady Lady” and that started to really help me to put names to the faces. Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. was a waist gunner and the rest of the crew included Keith E. Shirk (pilot), Dwight Harrington (copilot), Alfred White (bombardier), Arthur Dunn (navigator), Alec Fontana (tail gunner), Elwood Lash (engineer), Herbert McDaniel (radio operator), Morris McClain (nose gunner), and Ken Johnson (waist gunner).

Using more resources online, I was able to find very few pictures of the crew (usually individual photos), but literally no photos of the “Shady Lady.” The only photos I could find of her were partial pictures of the plane and one photo where only a majority portion of the plane was captured in view. I found that photo while rearching bomber nose art and luckily the photo was tagged with “Shady Lady” (ran-

dom info - turns out that the nose art on the “Shady Lady” was inspired by the artist Alberto Vargas). I was hoping to find a photo where the “Shady Lady” was in flight or in bombing formation, but all I could find was one where the 566th Bomb Squadron was in formation with what looks like half of the “Shady Lady” in view and another photo of the 566th Bomb Squadron on the runway ready for take off (both attached at end of this chapter).

I did, however, find some cool stuff. I found two other full crew member photos (one taken seconds before or after the photo that Mr. Yuengling has on display at the Yuengling Brewery and one of the crew right after coming back from their 13th mission) and a third photo of the crew in civilian clothing. This third photo was their escape photos made for fake documents if they were ever shot down. Finding that was awesome because that is pretty rare to stumble upon!

One other cool photo that I found was of the 566th Bomb Squadron and the 389th Bomb Group taken in the Spring of 1944 where they are all posing on top of a B-24 bomber

nicknamed “Fightin’ Sam” for an awards ceremony that was held at their station in Hethel, England. I was able to find a few of the photos from that ceremony and they are in various chapters in this book. Seeing the soldiers standing and sitting on bombers was pretty impressive. Besides the crew escape photos, I found two significantly important items while researching the 566th Bomb Squadron. Since I could not find much searching for the group, I started searching individual crew member names. When I searched for Keith E. Shirk (pilot of the “Shady Lady”), I stumbled upon a digital copy of his memoirs online. Reading those, I found some very interesting things. The next chapter will be of Keith E. Shirk’s memoirs and Richard Lee Yuengling Sr.’s battle diary, word for word, as I feel reading personal accounts of events is always the best.

Even though Keith E. Shirk’s memoirs are pretty brief, they helped me piece together the travel path of Richard Yuengling, Sr. and the rest of the crew. I discovered that they all trained together at the Tonopah Army Air Field in Nevada,

were then sent to San Francisco for overseas staging (also the location where they had their escape photos taken), were then put on a train and transported to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey where they were given their equipment (also riding on the train was a full division of Cavalry and Bing Crosby’s USO troop), and ultimately all shipped off to Hethel, England (where Jimmy Stewart briefed them on a couple missions and also flew as Command Pilot of a couple large missions they were on).

The second significantly important item that I found while researching the 566th Bomb Squadron relates to the ultimate fate of the “Shady Lady.” As I noted earlier in this book, Richard Yuengling, Sr. and his fellow crew members completed 34 successful missions from October 7, 1944 to March 9, 1945. While researching their missions and timelines, I discovered something very unreal. Not even three weeks after Richard Lee Yuengling Sr.’s crew finished their last mission, the “Shady Lady” was shot down over Germany. Both the entire replacement crew and the “Shady Lady” were gone forever. Well after doing more research and following that rabbit down the rabbit hole, I stumbled upon a declassified document and have it attached at the end of this chapter. The declassified document is the actual Missing Air Crew Report of the event when the “Shady Lady” and its new crew were shot down and lost over Germany! She was shot down on the morning of March 31, 1945 on a mission to Brunswick, Germany.

The names of the lost crew members are as follows and they should be honored for their service and ultimate sacrifice: George S. Crock (pilot), Philip C. Field (copilot), Elmer W. Empia (navigator), Francis X. Ryan (radio operator), Jimmie D. Lucas (engineer), Earl S. Housley (nose gunner), Benjamin F. Espinoza (waist gunner), Edward L. Balin (waist gunner), and John J. Ward (tail gunner). May they rest in peace.

As I was finishing up my research, there were a few loose ends regarding some of the photos I was finding and some of the things I was reading about in Keith E. Shirk’s memoirs. I again reached out to my friend Debbie who has been working with the Yuengling family for decades and asked her if she could arrange a meeting between Mr. Yuengling and myself.

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I told her that besides telling Mr. Yuengling that I had some surprises coming his way, let him know that I had some photos that I wanted him to look through. I wanted to try and see if he could identify his dad in any of them.

I also asked Debbie to see if Mr. Yuengling had any personal photos or keepsakes that his dad passed down to him from the war. I wanted to look through anything that he had, take some pictures of the items and add them to this book, and ask Mr. Yuengling if he remembered anything that his dad told him about World War II.

Man, was I for in for quite the treat! This adventure was just about to get really good!

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566TH AND 389TH - SPRING 1944

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WHAT THEY WRITE IS POWERFUL AND SHOULD BE SHARED WITH THE WORLD.

As I have emphasized in all of my books, the best research regarding a person’s history in World War II is to hear it directly from them. Better yet, if you can track down anything written by any soldier who fought alongside those you are researching, the information they provide is essential to confirming your research. It gives different perspectives of the same events that they all experienced together. What they write is powerful and should be shared with the world. As we are losing the last members of the Greatest Generation, their stories and words need to be preserved forever.

The following is Keith E. Shirk’s memoirs of his time with the 566th Bomb Squadron of the 389th Bomb Group. He was a pilot of the B-24 nicknamed the “Shady Lady” and Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. was one of his waist gunners on the crew.

Keith E. Shirk wrote the following in his personal memoirs:

“I graduated from advanced training at Frederick, Oklahoma on January 7, 1944. It snowed all day and when we left the base at 4:30 there was 10 inches of snow on the ground. I had a ride home with Robert

Rudd of Pulaski, Iowa. By the time we got to town we knew that all the roads out of town were blocked. The landlady rounded up some blankets and all four of us slept on the living room floor that night. We got started home about 9:00 a.m. in the morning. After we got out of Oklahoma, we got along okay.

I reported to Liberal, Kansas on January 24th and there was still a lot of snow around the base. The planes, B-24s, had gone to California when it started to snow. Ploesti January 7th and were just now coming back. From the flight line, when a plane came in to land it would disappear behind the snow bank except for the top of its tail. All the snow delayed training by three weeks, so by the time I had completed my training it was mid May. I had accumulated 90 hours of observer time. On Easter Sunday 1944, we were scheduled to fly in the afternoon. My partner, Moon Mullins, flew first and shot three touch and go landings and one full landing before we changed seats and I took off to shoot some landings. When we were on the base leg, the tower declared the field closed because of blowing dust so we left the area and went to Gage, Oklahoma to fly the radio range. We flew

through every kind of weather and it was so rough we couldn’t change seats so I flew for four hours, through rain, snow, sleet, and hail. We were even struck by lightning. Finally we started home and arrived over the field about 6:00 p.m. Static was very bad and we didn’t know whether we were over the runway for sure but a hole opened up and we could see the runway. The plane was caught in an updraft and suddenly we were up at 10,000 feet. We lost radio contact with the field and the radio beam went out as well so the instructor said to fly south and see if we could get out of this weather. We did and Moon Mullins took over the flying. We eventually reached Pampa, Texas, and landed there. Another B-24 saw our plane and landed as well. Both planes were beaten up by the weather and low on fuel. They asked us where we came from and when we said Liberal, Kansas, they told us a tornado was reported to have hit the base at 6:00 p.m. That explained why we had taken the sudden ride up to 10,000 feet. They had to send a tanker truck to Amarillo to get gas for our planes.

They didn’t have accommodations for the officers so we had to go into town to a hotel, but we didn’t wear uniforms under our flight suits and we couldn’t leave the base in our flight suits so we went to the PX and bought shirts, pants, ties and insignia so we could go

to town. Later when I was flying missions, that is the uniform I wore.

We did our over seas training at Tonopah Air Base. On one of our early flights we lost an engine and had to make an emergency landing. We came in smoothly but the nose gunner was standing down on the catwalk and yelled “Let me know when we’re going to hit.” Lash turned and said “Aw shut up we’re already rolling down the runway.” That smooth landing cemented my standing with the crew. We were sent to San Francisco for overseas staging. One morning at formation, 45 crews were called out and the rest were given four day passes. We were one of the 45 and began processing for the European theater. We sent our foot lockers home, had our shots, wrote wills, made out allotments, and had our pictures taken with civilian clothes for escape photos. We were put on a train and sent to Camp Kilmer, NJ where we were given overseas equipment and put on the Ill-De France for a five day trip to Europe along with a full division of Cavalry and Bing Crosby’s USO troop. He had given four shows a day during the trip to the troops on board.

In England, we received further processing and were assigned to the 389th Bomb Group at Hethel, England (at the request of Eighth Air Force Headquarters). We arrived about 7:00 p.m. and Major Winters came out of headquarters and asked “What are you doing here, we have no crews coming.” I told him it was at the request of 8th AF Headquarters and suggested that possibly Major Sieverding saw my name

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and asked that we be sent here. Major Winters said “No, Vic got sick in August and went home.” Then he asked if we had someone named Fontana on our crew. When I said yes, he said “Oh Jesus Christ I have to call Headquarters.” Pretty soon Corporal Leo Fontana peddled up on his bicycle. He was the one who had arranged for us to get to Europe.

We were assigned to the 566th Squadron and moved into our barracks. We were fitted with heated flying suits, parachutes, etc. and 45 caliber automatics and ammunition. That evening we were sitting in our barracks when Captain Bill Graff and Bill Boone came in and joined us. Bill Graff had finished his missions in August and married an English girl. When his crew wanted to paint some nose art on his plane he said, “Alright but she must have black hair and will be called “Delectable Doris.” When done, it became the most popular art in the Group. Everyone wanted to have their picture taken in front of that plane. Bill wanted to stay in England so he was made Group Operations Officer. He lived in town with his wife but he had to have a bunk in our barracks for those times when he couldn’t leave the base such as this night when he was Officer of the day. We were talking and sitting on the bunks. He asked to see Art Dunn’s gun and looked it over then, with it laying across his hand, he pulled the trigger and bang it had a shell in it. The slug went into Dunn’s mattress about an inch below his ankle. Luckily no one was hurt. We had dinner with Bill and Doris in Fort Worth in 1989. Bill Boone was from Strawberry Point, Iowa and was shot down and killed flying “Delectable Doris” in January 1945.

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My first mission was to Hamburg as an observer with another crew. Our first mission as a crew was October 7th to Kassel with a copilot from an experienced crew while our copilot flew with their crew. The flak was very heavy and after we turned off target, Dunn was looking out the right blister window when White poked him to show him something on the left side of the plane. He had just pulled his head out of the window when a piece of flak came through and shattered the blister window and continued across the plane and exited by my foot. I noticed we were gaining on the formation and I had made two or three power reductions by now but it was obvious the supercharger control was not working. As I reached up and pulled the throttles back, I noticed the manifold pressure was falling away from 75 inches. After slowing down, I pushed the throttles forward and we could not get up to power, so we had to leave the formation and descend to a lower altitude where we could maintain a reasonable air speed. We got home all right and the next day the crew chief said that the flak had cut the wires leading to the control on the pilot’s pedestal, and that all the gaskets in the induction system were blown out. That was the reason we could not regain power.

Jimmy Stewart worked at Second Division Headquarters which was adjacent to our field. He briefed us on several missions and flew as Command Pilot on a couple missions that we were on. He was a regular guy and wanted to do his part. When he was Officer of the day, he would put himself down to fly a mission known to be a tough one, but by 11:00 p.m. orders would come through from Eighth Air Force ordering him stood down and someone else was assigned to fly it.

This is a plane that was just ahead of me in the traffic pattern and ran out of gas and crash landed. Everyone got out of the plane okay. The farmer came storming out of the house and asked “Who’s going to pay for my chicken house.”

On November 26, 1944 we flew a mission to Misburg to bomb a petroleum plant. Our Squadron was leading the Second Division and we made a feint at Berlin then turned back and bombed Misburg from the East. As we approached the target there was no flak but just as we released our bombs there was one burst of flak which was a direct hit on the javelin down leader. We found out later that one man lived through it and was a prisoner. Then the fighters attacked us. They got several planes that day. We found out later that the Germans had sent up about 25 planes and our fighters followed them away from our formation, then 100 more planes came up and attacked our formation.

One day coming back from a mission, the field was covered with clouds down to about 200 feet so the Command Pilot took the formation out over the North Sea and found a hole big enough so the formation could spiral down through it. Then brought the whole formation in under the 200 foot ceiling. I was in the high right element and looking down across the formation and it seemed like the low left planes were dragging their wing tips on the ground, but we all got in okay.

On Christmas day 1944, we flew a mission to Wahlen, a crossroads behind the Bulge. The Squadron ahead

of us missed their initial point, while we turned at ours then they had to fly over us to get to their target. I held my breath but every thing worked out okay. After we turned for home we were hit by a single fighter who shot down one plane, my friend Walter Kunkle and his crew. They all got out and as they were coming down in their parachutes, they could see both the Germans and the Americans coming after them. When they landed they ran toward the American lines and made it but they had to prove they were Americans. Then they were escorted to the rear and eventually got back to Hethel. They were shot down in March 1945 and Kunkle was confused and walked the wrong way, away from the American lines, which was good for him. He went into a shed to hide and rest for a while. There he met a German Captain and a Russian who both wanted to be taken prisoner and escorted to the American lines. They made it.

During the month of December, we had a lot of fog at our base. On one mission take-off, I thought our plane was lined up with the runway when the compass read 239 degrees instead of 240. We could see about two runway lights ahead of us on each side. I asked the copilot and engineer to watch the lights on their side and let me know if we were getting close to the lights. When we reached 60 mph, Lash started calling out air speed as he always did so I asked him if he was watching the lights. He looked out and said “Look out you’re running off the runway to the left.” We were doing about 90 mph then so I called full flaps, emergency power, and pulled on the yoke and kicked right rudder. The plane jumped about

five feet in the air and moved over toward the middle of the runway. I knew we couldn’t sustain flight at that speed so I held the yoke steady, and it took a lot of pressure on the yoke to keep the nose from coming up. We bounced at about 110 and I figured we could make it so I called the gear up. As we gained flying speed, we brought the flaps up and reduced power and set the controls for normal climb-out. We broke out of the fog at 700 feet and continued a normal climb.

On a mission to Aschaffenbring, we were coming back near Cologne. The air was so clear the crew could see the Cathedral. As we approached the front lines, an 88 opened fire and from the first three shots I could see that three more shots would put him right on us, so I pulled out of formation and flew out around the flak. As I was pulling back into formation, I got a call from the leader asking me to escort Gowie’s plane to an emergency field in France because his navigator was badly wounded. We took off and he was following me but we came to a thin layer of clouds. I called him and told him my speed and heading and said we would meet him below the clouds. He didn’t show up. I found out later that the crew got the bleeding stopped and he had called Woodbridge for a heading and went there. Woodbridge was an emergency field for wounded and damaged planes. He had tried to call me but was on the wrong channel. While we were flying around looking for him #4 engine went out so we feathered it. The engineer and copilot were transferring fuel from #4 to #3 and #2 when both of those engines started to fail. The copilot reached for

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the feathering controls, but I grabbed his arm and said “No! Turn on the booster pumps.” He did and both engines came back. It was standard procedure to have the boosters on when transferring fuel.

We got home late and were directed to land on runway 30 which was a short runway, only 4700 feet long.

We came in high and landed too far down the runway. I hit the brakes and when we reached the end of the runway I called to cut the switches, hit the left brake, and ground looped the plane. The rubber in contact with the concrete stayed there while the wheel turned around it, tearing the rubber out of the tire and it went flat. The tower sent a truck out for us and the maintenance crew had to come out and change the tire.

Our longest mission was eight hours and forty minutes flying time to Ingolstat, Germany. We had clouds above us and below and as we were making the bomb run the space between them narrowed. I came up a little to stay out of the clouds below and the plane ahead of me dropped down a little to avoid the clouds above and suddenly I was in his prop wash and our air speed dropped to 80 mph and I was in a stall and I was working the rudders to keep us level and in the same relative position so we didn’t get hit by a bomb from above. The same time I pulled the salvo handle on the pilot’s pedestal to dump our bombs. Again we had to fly home alone.

We were lucky to get through our tour with no injures other than a scratch that our waist gunner got when a piece of flak hit him in the pocket where he carried his Zippo lighter. We finished our missions on March 9, 1945 and our enlisted men were on the way home in a short time thanks to Leo Fontana. We officers had to go to Stone, England and wait for the numbers to build up to fill a ship. We finally got on the President Madison and I got home to Grundy Center, Iowa on May eighth, V E Day.”

Besides Keith E. Shirk’s memoirs, I was also able to acquire photos of Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr.’s battle diary entries that are on display at the Yuengling Brewery. His battle diary entries are also brief but very helpful in acquiring first hand knowledge of what the crew of the “Shady Lady” experienced from mission to mission.

Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. wrote the following in his battle diary:

“Mission 1 - October 7, 1944

Target, Kassel - Factory producing 250 aircraft engines per month. Employs 5000. Secondary target north of town. Route via Zider Zee, Holland. Saw no enemy planes. Plenty flak over target described as inaccurate. Picked up about 15 holes in ship. Formation flying very poor into Germany and not too good over target. Believed bombs hit target area. Also saw plane seem to explode in air and circle to Earth in a ball of fire. It was very far back and before making bomb run. Might have been enemy fighter claimed hit and exploded. Turbos and instruments knocked out. Lagged behind on way home. About two hours late. Gas 2500 gallon. Take off 08:30. Landing about 15:00. This day’s raid said to be the largest air raid against Germany. While coming back alone across channel, saw hundreds of planes going back toward Germany.

Mission 2 - October 9, 1944

Target, Northeast of Coblenz - Airfields. Secondary target Coblenz. Take off 11:30. Overcast entire trip. No fighters seen and light flak. Plenty fighter P-51 es-

cort, bombed by instrument. Tail end Charlie again. Thought we’d never get off runway. Didn’t wear flak suits - considered mission a “milk-run”. Landed 18:10.

Mission 3 - October 19, 1944

Target, Mainz - Storage depot on east side of Rhine. Take off 9:15. Landed 4:15. Ship Q+ aiding ground forces. Flak light but damn accurate. Two engines hit, picked up about 10 holes. Flak hole close to pilot’s leg and hole in Martin turret. Johnson took pictures. I threw out shaff. Saw B-24 going down and exploded on hitting ground. Four or five chutes came out.

Bombed through overcast. Trouble getting bomb bay open. Bombs released by hand. -43 degree temperature. Interphone and heating system gave trouble. Didn’t wear flak helmet - forgot it.

Mission 4 - October 22, 1944

Target, Hamm - Three mile long supply depot bringing up supplies to front. Bombed at 23,000. Temperature -27 degrees. Take off 10:40. Ship L+. Light flak and inaccurate. Bombed through clouds. Good trip.

Mission 5 - October 26, 1944

Target, Munster in Rhur. Overcast. Bombed with instruments. Seemed like very poor bombing. Light flak. Ran out of oxygen. Came back early. Temperature -32 degrees, bombing altitude 23,000. Had scare when P-47 nosed into front of ship. Copilot yelled to get him.

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Mission 6 - November 2, 1944

Target, Bielefield. Railroad bridge 2 miles southwest. Visible bombing. Hit target but our bombs appeared to go in a field. Flew with 448 Group. They did a very good job. Saw jet propelled plane 262 chased by three P-47s. Had trouble taking off for target. Too many inches of mercury on right two engines and not enough on 1 and 2 engine. Weaved on runway, then got another plane. Delay prevented our flying with our own group. Light flak and inaccurate.

Temperature -29 degrees. Good trip.

Mission 7 - November 4, 1944

Target, Gelsenkirchen. Synthetic oil plant. Bombing altitude 23,600. Target overcast and poor bombing. Intense flak but inaccurate. Picked up one hole. Temperature -37 degrees. Trouble with interphone. Saw nobody hit. New instrument effecting German radio seemed to be used. Flak was at all altitudes.

Mission 8 - November 10, 1944

Target, Airfield at Hanau. 5/10 overcast. Target overcast. Temperature -40 degrees, altitude 22,000 feet. Flak at Coblenz not very close. No opposition. No. 2 engine lost oil and was feathered. Iceing on No. 3; almost landed in France. Navigator lost equipment. Oxygen low in the nose. Decided to cross Channel. Got lost in England. Rather funny trip. 7 1/2 hours in the air. Had closed waist and plating on floor. New sights. Good escort.

Mission 9 - November 21, 1944

Target, Hamburg. Synthetic oil. Partly overcast, couldn’t see target. Altitude 24,000 feet, temperature -32 degrees. Moderate to intense flak but inaccurate. Saw no planes hit. Two planes collided in forming; pilot of one blown free. One plane disintegrated, other plane going in barrel rolls - tail appeared to be blow off. Much flak over city. Ran into more flak on way out. Saw two flak guns firing from barn not far from German coast. Only fair fighter cover.

Mission 10 - November 26, 1944

Target, Misburg - 5 miles from Hanover. Synthetic oil plant. Visible target. Altitude 22,000 feet, temperature -43 degrees. No flak until over target, then light flak to moderate; very accurate. Front two ships exploded. Was never so scared in my life. Two hits in waist, one cutting some wires. Ship shook when hit. Broke formation right after target. Prop Governor of #2 froze. Fighters in area attaching formation in rear. Expected to be hit; so scared I shook. Worse than Kassel. Good fighter cover to target. Couldn’t find them after target. Said we missed target by 5 miles!

Mission 11 - November 27, 1944

Target, Offenburg. Marshalling yard. Altitude 25,000 feet, temperature -34 degrees. To south of Germany near Swiss border. Visible target. Good results. Very light flak. Fighters in area. Long uneventful trip. Saw no ships hit. Good fighter cover.

Mission 12 - December 2, 1944

Target, Bingen. Railroad yard and supply dump. Altitude 25,000 feet. 10/10 over target. Iceing conditions. Lost sight of formation. Dropped bombs early. Ship exploded up front, hit by fighter we found out through interrogation. I saw Rhine and bridge 10 seconds after salvoeing bombs. We turned and returned to base alone and using short cut. Didn’t see our target because of poor visibility. Turret and windows were frosted over. It was rough. Little flak.

Mission 13 - December 11, 1944

Target, Karlsruhe (3 miles west). Railroad bridge over

Rhine. 800 ft. long 90 ft. wide. Carried three 2000 lb. bombs. Bombed 21,000 feet, temperature -34 degrees. Told at briefing flak heavy and accurate. Expected it rough. Very cloudy over target. Light flak and inaccurate. Long trip. Took along doll, Suzzibell, for luck. Flew low over western France. Very interesting.

Mission 14 - December 19, 1944

Target, Ehrang. Took off in 100 yd. visibility to help troops against German push. Left wheel ran off runway. Shirk pulled plane off. A close one in Q again. Clouds over target. Weather bad in England. Landed in only clear field - Detling, an English Base, grass field. Had wonderful time in Maidstone. Returned Christmas Eve.

Mission 15 - December 25, 1944

Target, Wahlen - Small town through which troops of Germany pass on their offensive. Altitude 23,000 feet. Clear day. Saw front lines and artillery firing. Cities being bombed off the map. Saw dog fights. Germans up in force. Lost 3 planes to fighters. Flak meager but fairly accurate. Got hole above head while looking out right window. Kassel was first choice but changed. Took blankets and equipment for 3 days stay in France in case of bad weather in England. Got back just in time.

Mission 16 - December 27, 1944

Target, Kaiserslautern - Marshalling yards. Awoke at 3 a.m. again prepared with two blankets and cigarettes for three days. Take off at 7:30, moved up to

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8:30. Bombing 23,000 feet. Clear day. My heated suit got hot. No fighters today. Pretty good escort of P-51. Flak meager to moderate and accurate. Hole size of fist in left wing. Small hole in nose turret scratching face of Tex. Shell seemed to explode very near bomb bays. Trim tabs froze making it hard to hold plane in level flight. Haze over field, made five passes at field before landing opposite direction. Said to have missed target!

Mission 17 - December 29, 1944

Target, Railroad bridge just back of German lines to disrupt communications and supplies. Bombed 23,000 feet to target. Other bombers below so went on to bomb crossroads. Was taking pictures out camera hatch. City burning over our left. Believe we hit road. Light to moderate flak and fairly accurate. Weren’t hit. Could see below where ground fighting had been over the snow.

Mission 18 - December 30, 1944

Target, Railroad bridge or road to disrupt German supplies. Overcast. Took off in haze. Don’t know if we hit target. Coblenz was secondary target. Took pictures out the waist of plane formations. No flak. Uneventful mission. Very hazy near ground and landed by instrument used by navigator to line up runway. Not a bad landing.

Mission 19 - January 1, 1945

Target, Actdernach Viaduct. Altitude 23,000 feet. Bomb run 43 min. into wind averaging 126 mph. Fighters in area. Long trip and rough on nerves. Argued about the oxygen checks. Started checking for myself. Meager flak, fairly accurate.

Mission 20 - January 2, 1945

Mission 21 - January 3, 1945

Target, Hamburg. Third day straight. Missions aren’t hard but my nerves are getting touchy. Got mad at every little thing. Overcast over target. Made 360 degree on bomb run but saw no flak or fighters. Navigator said we missed target three miles. Uneventful mission.

Mission 22 - January 13, 1945

Target, Reudesheim bridge across Rhine. After rest I didn’t mind trip. Temperature -38 degrees, altitude 23,000. Slightly overcast; not sure of result. At one point our group got mixed with another group that went through us. Scared us all to hell. Saw no flak or fighters. A few rockets. A good trip.

Mission 23 - January 14, 1945

Target, Ehmen - near Brunswick. Oil plant. Briefing started with a letter from Gen. Spatz on its importance. Expected worst. Herman Goering steel plant secondary target. Bombed visual 22,500 feet. No flak over target. Excellent fighter protection some group hit by fighters. 189 GAF fighters hit. Biggest on record. Bombing results excellent. Bombed visual not far from Berlin. Saw smoke coming from target.

Mission 24 - January 17, 1945

Target, Hamburg. Oil. Clear visibility. Altitude 22,500

Target, Railroad bridge in Coblenz. Went in northern route via Holland then south back of Ruhr. I think we were bait to bring up GAF. Excellent support by our fighters. Bandits in the area saw none. No flak over target, on way out ran into meager to moderate and accurate. Weren’t hit but formation on right was. Gowey’s navigator hurt. We tried to lead them to Brussels. Clouds 800-9000 feet. Lost Gowey near ground. Decided to go back to base because of clouds. Haze and landed by instrument.

feet. Flak accurate; picked up 3 holes. Hit target. No fighters. For 10/10 cloud cover. Flak most of the way. We were lucky flying high right formation. Opened camera hatch to observe results. Saw tanks explode and burn. Ship hit in rear. Wing shot off, no chutes seen. Rough trip. Ten bombers said to be lost. Squadron lost a ship.

Mission 25 - January 29, 1945

Target, Hamm - Marshalling yards. 10/10 cover, hence, it was secondary target. Railroad viaduct supposed to be first target if clear. Flak moderate to intense. Flew high right and weren’t touched. Low left hard hit and our Squadron lost a ship. Its crew had four missions. Altitude 22,000, temperature -45 degrees. Flew D+ ship. Not too bad trip.

Mission 26 - February 3, 1945

Target, Magdeburg - Oil refinery. Berlin secondary target. Missed the town. Flew in mixed Squadron. 8/10 cloud cover. Flak moderate. Temperature -35 degrees at 23,000 feet. Flew A+. Gas leaked from right tank. My oxygen hose broke and feathered #1 engine at early part of mission. Everything went wrong. Nose section had 125 lb. oxygen going over target. Poor mission. Brewer flew as spare nose gunner with another crew that went down. All were said to get out.

Mission 27 - February 6, 1945

Target, Magdeburg - Oil refinery if visible. Railroad yard if not. Hit latter. Moderate flak. Had extra passenger who was completing missions. He threw out most of shaff. Heated pants went out and left foot got

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cold. Overcast. Not bad mission.

Mission 28 - February 14, 1945

Target, Magdeburg - Oil refinery. Supposed to be visual bombing. Clouds up to target. Flew 28,400 feet, temperature -45 degrees, seemed colder. Missed target. Flak moderate. Weiss’ crew hit #1 engine on fire. Eventually they got it out and last heard from they had 15 minutes flying time from Belgium coast. Are now M.I.A. We picked up one hole in front glass,

the flak lodged in life raft.

Mission 29 - February 15, 1945

Target, Magdeburg - Oil. Still after this target. 8/10 over target at 22,500 feet. P-47 supposed to dive bomb target first. Didn’t see them. Missed target again. Flak meager to moderate over target. Saw more over Hanover. Had radar ship and carried Smittie. White flak over target. Having trouble with trying to clear my ears on decending.

Mission 30 - February 16, 1945

Target, Rhine - Marshalling yards. Altitude 22,500 feet, temperature -33 degrees. Flak meager. 5/10 cloud cover. Think we hit railroad but couldn’t see yards because of clouds. Good trip. Most missions lately resulted in instrument let-downs.

Mission 31 - March 1, 1945

Target, Ingolstadt Railroad yards in southern Germany. Temperature -23 degrees, bombed at 16,000 feet through clouds. 5/10 cover. Saw no flak or fighters. First mission after, flak home. Flew terrible formation, flying over Cleveland’s plane too much. Eight hour mission.

Mission 32 - March 2, 1945

Target, Magdeburg factories. Temperature -38 degrees at 24,000 feet. Believed to have hit target visualy. Target looked to me like fake camouflage outside of town. Our Squadron flew with 445, high right. Formation good. Flak moderate to intense, inaccurate. Navigated all over the sky and came home

alone when others left us at coast. Slight argument when I wanted to fly back with other groups.

Mission 33 - March 7, 1945

Target, Soest Railroad yards. Altitude 22,000 feet, temperature -34 degrees. 10/10 cloud cover. Carried bombardier for visual bombing. Lost a Squadron plane that crashed in Norwich. Flak meager and inaccurate. Flew #2 position and Shirk flew good formation. Good trip but a cold plane.

Mission 34 - March 9, 1945

Target, Munster Railroad yard. 44-100 lbs. bombs. Altitude 22,000 feet. Temperature -26 degrees. Seemed colder. 4/10 cloud cover. Came close to target. Flak moderate and fairly accurate. Plane shot down in rear. One chute seen. Crock’s crew flew off right wing and good formation. It was their first and our last. Good mission but again my back ached.”

End of Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. battle diary.

After reading both Keith E. Shirk’s memoirs as a pilot and Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr.’s battle diary as a waist gunner, I couldn’t help but visualize what they must have experienced on a day to day basis. After learning so much about bombers, crew positions and responsibilities, and all the other topics we covered in this book, it was easier to understand what they were writing about.

I will be genuinely honest though. The hardest part about doing this research is when I get to this point. The point where their personal accounts really bring to life their photos and their personalities. Before, it is

just reporting the research, but after you start to see the true character and personalities behind each soldier’s face in a picture through reading their memoirs and diaries, it becomes much more difficult. You are reminded that they were people that we knew and loved. They were fathers, brothers, uncles, husbands, friends, sons, neighbors, and so much more. And unfortunately, almost all of them are gone forever.

This is why it is so important to share a soldier’s personal accounts of what they experienced in combat. It is imperative that we collect, preserve, and share their memoirs, diaries, letters, photos, and histories.

The Greatest Generation is a fading memory and it is our duty to forever honor their spirited souls. A picture can say a thousand words, but if you take a picture and pair it with the corresponding soldier’s written memory, then that picture finally says the correct words.

That picture finally has the words that belong and the only words it was meant to have. There is no guessing or hypothesizing or imagining. We are being told, by the people who were there, exactly what happened and how it felt. These pictures and stories are all we will have left that can withstand the test of time.

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You better believe that when a Veteran starts talking about his combat experiences and showing me pictures of his life and family, that I will ALWAYS be listening and paying close attention. With more love and respect that I can ever offer, I will fight through the difficulties of doing this research and always try to help someone preserve their loved one’s military history.

Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. was loved by many. He was a father, a son, a husband, a neighbor, a friend, and so much more. On March 9, 1945, Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. completed his 34th combat mission and he was finally going home.

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LARGEST AND BLOODIEST SINGLE BATTLE FOUGHT BY THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR II...

There was no way I was going to finish this book without mentioning the Battle of the Bulge. Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. and the 566th Bomb Squadron of the 389th Bomb Group played an extremely vital role in keeping the Allied soldiers alive, supplied, and hopeful during this absolutely hellish campaign.

If you didn’t know, the Battle of the Bulge was the turning point of World War II and Germany’s last hope to try to keep the Allied Forces from moving further into their homeland.

There are dozens of movies and television shows about it. If you watch the series Masters of the Air, they have an episode strictly dedicated to the Battle of the Bulge. Trust me, watch it and you will get an idea of what it was really like for these soldiers. The Battle of the Bulge is one of the most famous battles in American military history. Random note, the Ardennes Forest is famous for its strategic location. Besides World War I and World War II, many battles have been fought here. The Ardennes Forest has been a hot spot all the way back to Julius Ceasar and the Romans, Napolean and the French, and even the Gauls (the first inhabitants dating back to the 6th century B.C.). Here is a brief summary of the Battle of the Bulge.

The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during the World War II, taking place

from December 16, 1944 to January 25, 1945.

It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region between Belgium and Luxembourg. The offensive was intended to stop Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerp and to split the Allied lines, allowing the Germans to encircle and destroy each of the four Allied armies and force the western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis powers’ favor. I provided a map showing the Allied Forces in blue and the German forces in red to give you a visual idea of the absolute chaos that was occurring during these this hellish month in absolutey frigid temperatures.

The Germans committed over 410,000 men, just over 1,400 tanks and armored fighting vehicles, 2,600 artillery pieces, and over 1,000 combat aircraft. Between 63,000 and 104,000 of these men were killed, missing, wounded in action, or captured. The battle severely depleted Germany’s armored forces, which remained largely unreplaced throughout the remainder of the war. German Luftwaffe personnel, and later also Luftwaffe aircraft (in the concluding stages of the engagement) also sustained heavy losses. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were effectively out of men and equipment, and the survivors retreated to the Siegfried Line.

Allied forces eventually came to more than 700,000 men; from these there were from 77,000 to more than 83,000 casualties, including at least 8,600 killed.

The “Battle of the Bulge” was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II and the third-deadliest campaign in American history. It was one of the most important battles of the war, as it marked the last major offensive attempted by the Axis powers on the Western front. After this defeat, Nazi forces could only retreat for the remainder of the war.

During the Battle of the Bulge, the 566th Bomb Squadron and the 389th Bomb Group focused on disrupting German supply lines and communications by targeting storage depots and communications centers. As you may have recalled in Keith E. Shirk’s memoirs and Richard Lee Yuengling’s battle diary entries, they wrote about their specific missions and almost all of them had targets related to supply lines, oil refineries, bridges, communications, etc...

Now, if you compare those entries with the specific dates and what you just learned about the Battle of the Bulge, it paints a completely different picture. Let’s read those entries again and see if the words are more meaningful with some corresponding photos.

Here is a summary of those specific missions from Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr.’s battle diary during the Battle of the Bulge. He mentioned seeing cities burning and being bombed off the map, Germans up in force, bombing a crossroads behind German lines (actually a very famous location during the Battle of the Bulge), and witnessing ground fighting over the snow, tanks exploding, and hellish dog fights and the biggest battles in the sky on record.

Mission 14 - December 19, 1944

Target, Ehrang. Took off in 100 yd. visibility to help

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troops against German push. Left wheel ran off runway. Shirk pulled plane off. A close one in Q again. Clouds over target. Weather bad in England. Landed in only clear field - Detling, an English Base, grass field. Had wonderful time in Maidstone. Returned Christmas Eve.

Mission 15 - December 25, 1944

Target, Wahlen - Small town through which troops of Germany pass on their offensive. Altitude 23,000 feet. Clear day. Saw front lines and artillery firing. Cities being bombed off the map. Saw dog fights. Germans up in force. Lost 3 planes to fighters. Flak meager but fairly accurate. Got hole above head while looking out right window. Kassel was first choice but changed. Took blankets and equipment for 3 days stay in France in case of bad weather in England. Got back just in time.

Mission 16 - December 27, 1944

Target, Kaiserslautern - Marshalling yards. Awoke at 3 a.m. again prepared with two blankets and cigarettes for three days. Take off at 7:30, moved up to 8:30. Bombing 23,000 feet. Clear day. My heated suit got hot. No fighters today. Pretty good escort of P-51. Flak meager to moderate and accurate. Hole size of fist in left wing. Small hole in nose turret scratching

face of Tex. Shell seemed to explode very near bomb bays. Trim tabs froze making it hard to hold plane in level flight. Haze over field, made five passes at field before landing opposite direction. Said to have missed target!

Mission 17 - December 29, 1944

Target, Railroad bridge just back of German lines to disrupt communications and supplies. Bombed 23,000 feet to target. Other bombers below so went on to bomb crossroads. Was taking pictures out camera hatch. City burning over our left. Believe we hit road. Light to moderate flak and fairly accurate. Weren’t hit. Could see below where ground fighting had been over the snow.

Mission 18 - December 30, 1944

Target, Railroad bridge or road to disrupt German supplies. Overcast. Took off in haze. Don’t know if we hit target. Coblenz was secondary target. Took pictures out the waist of plane formations. No flak.

Uneventful mission. Very hazy near ground and landed by instrument used by navigator to line up runway. Not a bad landing.

Mission 19 - January 1, 1945

Target, Actdernach Viaduct. Altitude 23,000 feet. Bomb run 43 min. into wind averaging 126 mph. Fighters in area. Long trip and rough on nerves. Argued about the oxygen checks. Started checking for myself. Meager flak, fairly accurate.

Mission 20 - January 2, 1945

Target, Railroad bridge in Coblenz. Went in northern route via Holland then south back of Ruhr. I think we were bait to bring up GAF. Excellent support by

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our fighters. Bandits in the area saw none. No flak over target, on way out ran into meager to moderate and accurate. Weren’t hit but formation on right was. Gowey’s navigator hurt. We tried to lead them to Brussels. Clouds 800-9000 feet. Lost Gowey near ground. Decided to go back to base because of clouds. Haze and landed by instrument.

Mission 21 - January 3, 1945

Target, Hamburg. Third day straight. Missions aren’t hard but my nerves are getting touchy. Got mad at every little thing. Overcast over target. Made 360 degree on bomb run but saw no flak or fighters. Navigator said we missed target three miles. Uneventful mission.

Mission 22 - January 13, 1945

Target, Reudesheim bridge across Rhine. After rest I didn’t mind trip. Temperature -38 degrees, altitude 23,000. Slightly overcast; not sure of result. At one point our group got mixed with another group that went through us. Scared us all to hell. Saw no flak or fighters. A few rockets. A good trip.

Mission 23 - January 14, 1945

Target, Ehmen - near Brunswick. Oil plant. Briefing started with a letter from Gen. Spatz on its importance. Expected worst. Herman Goering steel plant

secondary target. Bombed visual 22,500 feet. No flak over target. Excellent fighter protection some group hit by fighters. 189 GAF fighters hit. Biggest on record. Bombing results excellent. Bombed visual not far from Berlin. Saw smoke coming from target.

Mission 24 - January 17, 1945

Target, Hamburg. Oil. Clear visibility. Altitude 22,500 feet. Flak accurate; picked up 3 holes. Hit target. No fighters. For 10/10 cloud cover. Flak most of the way. We were lucky flying high right formation. Opened camera hatch to observe results. Saw tanks explode and burn. Ship hit in rear. Wing shot off, no chutes seen. Rough trip. Ten bombers said to be lost. Squadron lost a ship.

Taking a second look at these mission entries with photos, you can feel it even more. Like I noted earlier in the previous chapter, a picture can say a thousand words, but if you take a picture and pair it with the corresponding soldier’s written memory, then that

picture finally says the correct words.

That picture finally has the words that belong and the only words it was meant to have. There is no guessing or hypothesizing or imagining. We are being told, by the people who were there, exactly what happened and how it felt. These pictures and stories are all we will have left that can withstand the test of time.

It is so important to share a soldier’s personal accounts of what they experienced in combat. It is imperative that we collect, preserve, and share their memoirs, diaries, letters, photos, and histories.

The Greatest Generation is a fading memory and it is our duty to forever honor their spirited souls.

BATTLE OF THE BULGE

CHAPTER 7

THE RETURN HOME

CHAPTER 8

FINALLY GOING HOME IN ANOTHER WAY.

Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. and the crew of the “Shady Lady” flew their last mission on March 9, 1945. The 566th Bomb Squadron, as a whole, flew its last mission on April 25, 1945 and returned to the United States.

Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. received four Air Medals for his combat service in World War II and received his honorable discharge on October 26, 1945.

After returning to the United States, Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. returned to his family in Pottsville, Pennsylvania and continued to help operate the family business, the famous Yuengling Brewery that was started by his great grandfather in 1829. He graduated from the U.S. Brewers Academy and with his brother, began to run the business after their father’s passing in 1963.

During his tenure, Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. was able to get the Yuengling Brewery recognized as “America’s Oldest.” In 1976, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission declared the brewery the oldest in the nation. He was also able to get the Yuengling Brewery placed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a state historic site in 1986. His son, Richard Yuengling, Jr. took over the family business and bought the company in 1985. Today, the Yuengling Brewery is one of the nation’s favorite, maintaining family traditions, values, and legacy. Just the way Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. would want it.

Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. was a loving family man and lived a long and full life after returning home from his service. On March 25, 1999, Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. passed away due to an extended illness. Exactly 54 years later and on the month of

completing his 34th mission to come home after World War II, Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. was finally going home in another way.

To this day, there is a monument and marker dedicated to the 564th, 565th, 566th, and 567th Bomb Squadrons of the 389th Bomb Group at the existing chapel at Station 114 in Hethel, England.

The chapel is the only remaining original building on the site and has now been dedicated and converted to the 389th Bomb Group Memorial and Exhibit. Thanks to the help of volunteers and various donors, the memorial has expanded and two more buildings have been added to display pictures, artifacts, and the memories of those soldiers who served and sacrificed while flying with the 389th Bomb Group.

THE RETURN HOME

CHAPTER 8

If you recall earlier at the end of a previous chapter, I indicated that I called Debbie at the Yuengling Brewery to set up a meeting between Mr. Yuengling and myself to review some of the information and photos that I had regarding this book and the research I conducted about his father’s World War II history.

I informed Mr. Yuengling about the ultimate demise of the “Shady Lady”, how his father probably met Bing Crosby on a transport train and flew with Jimmy Stewart (as his pilot’s memoirs indicated), and told him about the pilot mentioning that one of his waist gunners was hit by flak and his Zippo lighter saved his life.

Mr. Yuengling was surprised to hear about the “Shady Lady”, Bing Crosby, and Jimmy Stewart as he did not know any of that information. In regards to the possibility that his dad might have been the waist gunner hit by flak, he did confirm that his dad was a heavy smoker, but he also indicated that almost every soldier back then was too so we couldn’t verify that it was his dad that was the one hit. Also since his dad never mentioned it and really never spoke about the war.

I showed Mr. Yuengling some of the photos that I found of his father and I also informed him that his dad flew in various bombers, other than the “Shady Lady”. He thought that was pretty interesting to say the least. I proceeded to talk about his father’s time in the “Shady Lady” and we ultimately got on the conversation of the good luck doll that they carried on their 13th mission.

Immediately, Mr. Yuengling started to smile and went into great detail about the doll named “Suzibell.” I asked him, how in the

world do you know so much about the doll. His answer was the icing on the cake of this whole book and research project!

Mr. Yuengling said that his dad had that doll after the war and throughout the rest of his life and kept it safely tucked away in the top drawer of his dresser. His father would often talk about it and say that it was the crew’s good luck charm. In fact, Mr. Yuengling indicated that the crew carried that doll on every single mission and they would always make sure someone on the crew had it with them before they closed the hatch on their plane before flight. It was really the only thing that his dad talked about regarding the war, from what Mr. Yuengling could recall. He reported that he unfortunately did not have any photos, his father’s medals, or any other items that his dad might have kept from the war. He did however say that “Suzibell” is still around and is stored somewhere in his father’s things in his basement.

As I ended my conversation with Mr. Yuengling, we both couldn’t help but think of how remarkable a man Mr. Yuengling’s father was and how truly lucky he was to make it through all of those missions. Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. and the entire crew of the “Shady Lady” were definitely blessed.

I couldn’t think of a happier ending to this book other than sharing a moment with his son and reflecting upon the legacy that lives on.

They were the Greatest Generation and will forever be missed.

THE RETURN HOME

CREW OF THE “SHADY LADY”

YUENGLING BREWERY

CHAPTER 9

566TH BOMB SQUADRON

PHOTO GALLERY

566TH BOMB SQUADRON

B-24 BOMBER - THE “SHADY LADY”

EPILOGUE

HE WAS ACTIVATED TO SERVE AMONGST FELLOW SOLDIERS OF THE GREATEST GENERATION...

The blessings of fate allowed me to write the book that my grandfather himself wanted to do. Through the publication of his story, I have been introduced to others who want to tell their family member’s military history. This is the story of the unknown heroes of the 566th Bomb Squadron of the 389th Bomb Group (Heavy) “Sky Scorpions” of World War II. This book is in loving memory of Richard Yuengling, Jr.’s father and his hero Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. May his memory and the memory of the 566th Bomb Squadron live on forever in our hearts, in our minds, and in our history. They were the Greatest Generation and will never be replaced.

Staff Sergeant Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. was an inspiration to his family and his community. A true American hero, he served in the United States Army Air Force as a waist gunner aboard a B-24 Liberator, nicknamed the “Shady Lady” and completed 34 successful missions from October 7, 1944 to March 9, 1945, aiding in the invasion and ultimate surrender of Germany.

As part of the 566th Bomb Squadron stationed out of Hethel, England, he engaged in very long range strategic bombardment operations over Occupied Europe and Nazi Germany. Targets included industrial facilities, oil production facilities and refineries, rail and other transportation centers, enemy military airfields and garrisons, and other vital targets.

The 566th Bomb Squadron was occasionally diverted from strategic targets to perform air support and interdiction missions. To support Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, it hit airfields and artillery batteries. It struck enemy positions to support Operation Cobra, the breakout at Saint Lo. During the Battle of the Bulge, from December 1944 to January 1945, it attacked storage depots and communication centers. It also supported Operation Varsity, the airborne assault across the Rhine by dropping food, ammunition, and other supplies to the ground troops.

The 566th Bomb Squadron flew its last mission on April 25, 1945 and returned to the United States. After returning home, Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. continued to run the family business, the famous Yuengling Brewery in Pottsville, Pennsylvania that was started by his great grandfather in 1829. During his tenure, Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. was able to get the Yuengling Brewery recognized as “America’s Oldest.” He was also able to get the Yuengling Brewery placed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a state historic site.

He was a loving family man and lived a long and full life after returning home from his service.

This book is in loving memory of Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr.

Special thanks to Richard Yuengling, Jr. for your collection of photographs and keepsakes. This project is a true testament of the love that you have for your father Richard Lee Yuengling, Sr. He would be very proud of you and I would bet that the soldiers of the entire 566th Bomb Squadron are all smiling down on you. God bless you my friend.

TWISTED BOMBSHELL

TWISTED BOMBSHELL