Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is Vincent Bill Purple. He is a US Army Air Corps veteran of World War II, where he flew B seventeen bombers for thirty five missions as part of the three hundred and seventy ninth Bomb Group inside the Mighty eighth Air Force. And mister Purple, thank you for being with us.
Thank you for having a new oppensunity.
Where were you born and raised, Sir?
I was born in Nassaule, Nasachusetes.
Did you have an interest in flying when you were a child.
Not particularly until after the transition naturally with Japan December seventh. We heard that on the radio, and that's when I made a decision. I had graduated from high school where I made a decision that I would enlist in the Air Force if I could.
And so you did. Where did you go for training and flight school?
What happened with that is because I was underage to a degree, I ended up going to pre training in Atlantic City. After that, I went to a training phase for three months in Rochester, New York to be geared on how to go on the training missions. Then from there went to Nashville for classification. If I still was capable of doing what specs were, then they said, okay, you qualified to be trained as I'm a Air Corps pilot. Therefore primary Flight School went from Lafayette, Louisiana for primary
flight school. Basic Flight school went with Little Rock, Arkansas, and I graduated as a needed more later in the complete conflict multi engine pilots, they sent me to Stuttgart Archer Star and started to teach me. And I graduated as a lieutenant at Stuttgart, second lieutenant. And that's where my future with the military was because after that I ended up in multi amensine training.
Is that where you wanted to be?
No, everybody wanted to be a fighter pilot. So the answer was no. I expressed to you briefly a moment ago that I ended up in Stuttgart and they converted what we were all qualified to some degree to be and then they take and said, okay, this unit will now train multi engine aircraft. And that's what it happened in March of nineteen forty three.
And how quickly did you adapt to the bomber.
First of all, he had to qualify as a pilot. So from training at Lafayette, Louisiana for two months, Stuttgart rather Little Rock for two months, and the Yether One for two months, I graduated from flight school in March March of nineteen forty four as a second lieutenant age at that point was nineteen.
And then what happened, well, then we.
Were then assigned specific duties. I ended up going to Gulfport, Mississippi after the phase training in Seabring, Florida, when they appointed a bomber crew for me as their captain and their pilot, and we were trained in Gulfport, Mississippi on multi engines, being a flying fortress to be arventine from their simplicity, we did what we had to do in multi engine training and that gets you into the more
or less phase training, which was in Seabring, Florida. Suddenly, in September nineteen forty four, I was called one day at operations and said, okay, get your crew, go to Georgia, get a brand new B seventeen, and go to Europe and go to combat. That's a nice way to start today.
But whatever successful tall expense in extremes got to Georgia, got the brand new airplane, flew up the New Hampshire and stayed there for the night, and then flew up to a further export change of departure point in Canada, and then we were there for three or four days, and then suspect right after that we were told, well, all right, tomorrow you will fly to Europe. So anyway, the next day we did that huge snowstorm in front, but we took off later on in twelve hours we
landed in England. And now I'm with the Eighth Air Force.
Tell me a little bit about the men and your crew.
The crew was put together, They were more specific, very good, all of them. I can speak nothing but the best for them.
Did you do a lot more training once you got to England or did they put you in service pretty quickly?
Well, I'm going to say that that answer is easy. Whenever I landed in England, as I stated, they said you were here in our lieutenant, you are going to be assigned to the three hundred and seventy nine bomb Group at kim Bolton, and so you and your co pilot will be transferred to that base in Kimbolton and different with your crew, and then we were signed within four days went there and that's where I began my combat tour.
What was that first mission?
Like nothing? Why because I flew the plane to be seventeen, a very talented in pilot. He was my bodyguard and he take it all. So nothing really happened. You get up, you flew to target number one, no target, no problem is no bullets doesn't However, that was in October, about the thirtieth of nineteen forty four. The next three days there were nothing. But on the next day I was then assigned to the squadron and flew and that was entirely different than being on the first mission.
All right, so tell me about that one.
Well, I guess the thing to do that way is we're sitting here as we are talking, and one not that particular thing. I was appointed a pilot, I took my crew. We ended up being in the fourth squadron. Taken off that day and I flew in one of the positions towards the tail end, and it was just well, we did what we were doing. You looked out somebody had some black flax stack in our chair or something. But as I recall the ride for the training, it
was kind of like a nice weekend. This one here was a little bit different.
Well, we're going to get into some of those more difficult missions in a little bit. Tell me about the preparation you did for a mission, from getting up that morning to being briefed and getting in the air.
Well, I think you have to go back. They are told, in other words, if we're going to go on a mission, and let's say tomorrow or the next day, you didn't know that the night before you went on a mission, generally, either at the officer's club or wherever, you were told that you were going to go to the target of by name, And therefore, prepare your crew because they're talking
to me and my coppither. You get your troops ready and they will all be briefed and the next day in the right level of time so that when the next takeoff message time reach, you're prepared to go from there. Then the enlisted personnel, of which there were ten or no, there were eight on my crew, and there were four officers, and they went out and prepared what they had to do. Make sure your guns are good, make sure even there
blah blah blah, make sure everything was good. We as a mamba deer as the navigator and a pilot and co pilot may be in the pilot went. Then in the following day we did what we needed to do. On the morning of the particular raid, it came out that you would be we were known the night before
that report to briefing. You would go there generally about seven o'clock in the morning, be briefed by Colonel Lyle and Rust and what you're supposed to do, and therefore you were scheduled released and everybody would instantly go to their aircraft and do everything to what they were trained to do time and time again. And that's all we did at that point. They went everywhere, you know, you know on the amount, you know that you had twenty seven gallons of gash, you could know you had ten
thousand pounds of five hundred pounds whatever. It was a briefing like you were asking to me. So if I said that to you, you will now know what that's all about. So that's what happened. We got briefed. Then we would of course go to takeoff time. We generally with the fly on Fortress be sevething took off every thirty seconds at Kimbolton. We would put three squadrons out,
three squadrons of twelve each. That's thirty six aircraft, twelve, twelve and twelve, totally aware what the Eighth Air Force was doing that day. In particular, the lead squadron is here, the second was behind him thirty seconds and so forth. Didn't necessarily happen that everybody did that good be thirty seconds behind them, But that's beside the point. So we
ended up and that's how that went. And therefore, now when takeoff time came, and it generally would be between some place between eight and nine or ten, depending on our cloud conditions, dollar fog conditions, or whatever happened, and that would be there, and that's how you got into the bomber column for that portion of time.
That's Vincent Bill Purple, a US Army Air Corps veteran of World War Two. He served as a B seventeen bomber pilot for thirty five missions in the European theater. Still to come, we'll hear about several of mister Purple's most harrowing missions, but up next, he explains the stunning amount of fuel needed for bombing missions and what it was like flying through enemy anti aircraft fire. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles sixty seconds of Service.
This sixty seconds of Service is presented by T Mobile, offers exclusive discounts for a veteran and military families and are proud supporters of the National Defense Network. Visit T mobile dot com slash military to learn more about how they support our military community. Thank you, These are two words. Sarah Maybray, Child coordinator for the McBurney Memorial Library in Welsh is trying to share with veterans across Jeff Davis.
Parish in Louisiana.
Maybe launched a new program in partnership with the librarians across the parish and the Southwest Louisiana Veterans Home. She said her mission is to gather at least two hundred Bank You cards for veterans living or working in the Southwest Louisiana Veterans Home. Little things really do make a big impact, she said. You might not know what people are going through and just a small token of appreciation can make all the difference. Today's sixty seconds of Service
is brought to you by Previgen. Prevagen is the number one pharmacist recommended memory Support brand. You can find Prevagen and the Vitamin Aisle in stores everywhere.
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumba's. Our guest in this edition is Vincent Bill Purple, who served as a B seventeen bomber pilot in the US Army Air Corps during World War II. We now pick up his story as mister Purple explains the immense amount of fuel required for bombing missions.
The ones I'm specific of, because there was certainly individuals staluss the B seventeen, depending on you were going on a short bombing run or a long bombing run, long being from England to probably Berlin, a short one being someplace over in France. But the maximum that my trouble was was I had twenty four, twenty four or twenty seven hundred gallons on the aircraft point of departure from that type of thing. On February third, nineteen forty five,
the Air Force put one thousand bombs over Berlin. Figured out arithmetically what was involved for supplies to fill that? What did the American public do? One thousand planes with twenty seven hundred gallons of gas? That's a few gallons. How did it get there? It got there because there were five thousand vessels in the ocean between Boston and Europe bringing them gas every day going into the direction and all that which to me and I'll say it
now and I'll say it forever. The American public, the support. Nothing could could have been better or greater that. Maybe a little different times, but that's what that part was. I'm here. Somebody took good care of me somehow by giving me the right thing at the right time.
All right, So as you approached the target on a bombing mission, explain what happened.
Well, okay, take the three hundred and seventy nine bomb group. We put three squadrons up. That's thirty six Chapra twelve twelve twelve. When we got to the target area, this is a squadron one not by name, it's just on this conversation one two three, this one would assume it's necessary, started a bomb run and it could be X number of feet miles of whatever, generally it was miles, and this would be behind and this would be behind it
when you got there. To be actual, the pilot and co pilot sit there and listen to Glenn Miller or something, because there's nothing more they can do that because you have now as a head lead pilot me specifically or one Nott and everyone turn the aircraft over to the bombardier because he is now flying on the plane. The northern bomb site tells it what to do. So I'm sitting here talking like I'm talking to you, and one
of them, oh, yeah, that's climb blah blah blah. And therefore, and the bombardier was that was his job, and the navigator he was outside in the os of the Bee seventeen and told him where to go. That's what happened. But bombing ridge went from a minute to thirty minutes to forty minus depending what, depending how they took in the Travis the sky for competitive weaponry against him and all that. So that's how it went.
You have said, sir, that your first ten missions and I'm quoting, weren't bad and that the worst you faced was anti aircraft fire from German eighty eight millimeter guns, which sounds pretty bad. What's it like flying through flak?
Uh? Flying through flag the eighty eight millimeter of the one hundred and fifty five milow and nothing you're on the target, you were petrified, terribly thought or not, it wasn't damn thing you could do. My job was to take and go point A to point B to point C, drop the bombs, get out of there, to get back as soon as you could, still maintaining the complete structure of the aircraft, equipment and what not to protect yourself
against fighter attacks or stokers and whatnot. Mesierschmids from Germany.
How much resistance did you face from German fighter planes early in the.
War, back in late forty three early forty four, the preference of volume was totally German, Birtish and American coverage was not that totally. American and British capability of production was able to make a lot of more hirplanes at that point, at one point in time when they produced a P fifty one Mustang that allowed additional mileage for us to be protected against German fighters. So I don't know as I've answered the question, but that's what that's all about.
Well, as time went on, we dominated the skies, that's more and more.
Well, that's correct, we dominated the guy certainly a part of my career, except let's say in nineteen forty five because my initials missions existed from October late October until April, I think it was about the fifth or seventh, and then I had my thirty five plus an extra woman, and then they said you can go home, not home being home in this case, to a staging area to be cleared to take and of the paperwork done to get on a vessel to come back to the United States,
to get back to the United States, and then go to training so you can train on B twenty nine's to go to the other half of the world, Japan.
That's Vincent Bill Purple. He's a US Army Air Corps veteran of World War Two serving as a B seventeen bomber pilot. In a moment you'll hear all about his most harrowing missions. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is Bill Purple, a US Army Air Corps veteran of World War Two. Mister Purple served as a B seventeen bomber pilot for thirty five missions, but several
of them provided plenty of tense moments. That certainly includes November fifth, nineteen forty four, when Purple says he was nearly blown out of the scout after an engine caught fire.
Well, basically November fifth, that was at Frankfurt, Germany. In respect to that, we had our aircraft damage to a great degree, to such an extent that three of my ten people bailed out over Germany and myself the co pilot and my engineer. We struggled from it for a little bit of twenty five thousand feet leaving that. After all that, because we were going to we weren't getting anywhere. We're on fire, and right number four engine, amongst other things,
we ended up. I made a decision and says, well, we'll make a huge spiral to the right going to the ground. And at that point in time, if you visualize it, unless I'm wrong, the air going over the wing from the back of the wing to the fourth front of the wing where the engine was on fire, the fire would be going out into space instead of being blown into the aircraft. Well, it fire went out at fifteen thousand feet down towards the ground when we
were getting there. So that's where I am. Ten thousand feet we got away with it, So.
You flew back with three engines, or the fire just went out and you had all four.
It fire went out all by itself, but throughout the effort that I truly believe, with the huge spiral. The gas tank, of course is right behind the number four engine, and that's where it all happened. But it went out. So the aircraft to be seventeen micro nestle vessel. Rather it flies on three engines. It flies on two engines. But you don't want to keep too much when you junk on board. If you went two engines.
Did you ever find out what happened to the three who bailed out?
Several of them were more than several, but specifically they were captured by the Germans to what extent and I believe I've seen it written, but I can't remember this exact point of the statistic. But some of them survived, some died.
Let's discuss now, Christmas Eve, December twenty fourth, nineteen forty four, your order to take off in the fog, and you were very lucky to survive. Tell me what happened that.
Day, December twenty fourth, nineteen forty four. We were targeted to go to a target and everything was there, and as it progressed when the morning came twenty four being one day before Christmas, when the target got there, what it was we were all all parked in our parking spaces on the perferal parts of the airport because of the intense fog that was there, heavy heavy, heavy fogs.
And then eventually to day nothing was going on. We could constantly had red flares blorn in the sky and maybe you could see this says don't take off yet type of thing. And then eventually we did get a clearance. Well the clearance, can you believe you couldn't see much more than from me to you. That slight exaggeration, but
it was extremely, extremely bad. But we were number eight I think of my squadron from my base at Kimball from the for this mission, and several of them ended up getting properly taken off into spots of fog and whatnot. Extreme beyond that while we were going down we were number eight. We were one in a proper location and whatnot. And today's day fit for this day. I'm your pilot, your bicope. Now I'll put you over your your my cop pilot. But you took and reached under on your
holding stick and pulled this way, which made the aircraft shovel. Well, it were done. I was comfortable in our gratitude of flight. This one went this way, and suddenly the tail and the front end number two engine and propeller took a telephone pole off six feet off the ground. Telephone pole was about eight inches in diameter. Nobody in the world should still be here talking to you with As results of that, we got away with it. We flew back.
The colonel was releasing the flight equipment, and one not says, well, put a hold on because the last one crashed. Well, I did crash, but we kept flying. So we kept flying. Now we're ordered with gasoline, we're holded with bombs. We got everything, and we can't get back on the ground because the fog is that bad. So we spent considerable hours in the sky burning up gasoline on three engines
to finish. Beyond that, then we made a decision that we should take it, take the bombs and drop them in the North Sea, because if we can't, what are we going to do with them. We did that, and eventually as we came back about four or five in the afternoon, we spotted an airfield that was open. We landed there and that was on a Saturday morning, I believe you, and everything was good. We left the aircraft there. They were very nice to us. They set us up
the sleeping the floor and the hangars. A lot of fun sleeping on the concrete floor and a hangar. After almost got shot down, but that's okay. So we ended up. They put two new northeas put the one new engine in and our Monday we flew back to my base. But there's another part of that story. As time went by, and I'll project it into probably let's just show it was three, four or five years ago. A German fighter pilot in Germany today's German fighter pilot wrote a book
about the three something later. But he wrote a book about the raid on the day before Christmas. To this day, my only remaining crew member is in uh Minnesota, and I call him up at ten o'clock in the morning and he's there and I say, get the wine out. We will have a drink. And I do still do that every year. He and I are the only two of my crew is still there.
I'm impressed that you were able to get back on the ground safely. After all, that.
BE seventeen is a pretty fancy airplane.
You're also a good pilot. Though, let's be honest, if they let you take off in that weather. Was there any time that they said the weather's too bad, don't go today.
If it did, I don't really remember, but I'm sure that happened. They've canceled missions because of bad weather. In Kimball, we before we would fly in our mission even under those rules, we visited five hours of training west on the ocean to see what kind of storms are coming in to be hit at England in five seven hours, and there were many interpreted structures that says, don't go because when you get back there will be no airports. You can't find them in one. So again the huge judgment,
intelligence and structure of that whole program. I'm a little prejudiced, but I think it's pretty good.
All right, Well, there's still another story that we need to talk about, because there was another time where you were actually hit by shrapnel while you were flying. What happened that day.
Wherever we were towards the very end of my life there with England, we were on a raid and on the raid was I only had several more missions to fly. Long story short, the situation was, we're on a target run. Everything fine, We could see considerable eighty eight milibate of flat explosions and whatnot. And once you're on a bomb run with the bombardier, you don't do anything. He does it. And we're flying ran up a tube call it that of explosive eighty eight millimeters. And as we're going, we're
getting closer and closer and closer. And about the time wherever that person is over there, the one that exploded there was underneath the nose of the aircraft where the vombard deer and the vombed deer and the navigator work. The piece of shrapnel came right between them, came through the front part of the base where my right foot was, came through the flying pedal, took the top of my boodle off, didn't cut the toe and hit me right here and likewise. But I had a metal vest on.
Therefore I didn't get any metal purple cross because I didn't fly it flee any blood.
Another close call. Somebody's looking out for you. Shell is yes, sir, yes, sir. Now Interestingly, despite all of those close calls where you weren't injured. The only slight injury you suffered didn't even happen in the air. You cut yourself getting out of the plane one day, right.
Yeah, well, getting out of a plane one day, and whatever my Air Force ring and I tackle. I got out of the window that was near the navigator and one and on and when I hung up piece of metal cart right under that ring and cut it open a little bit. But that's not too serious.
After thirty five missions, I think I would take that. The Eighth Air Force suffered immense losses throughout World War Two. How fortunate do you feel to have survived thirty five missions?
Well, our first troops survived twenty five and they had mess in the world to speak of. Don't quote me that way, but minus school compared to what the total resources were for the Eighth Air Force or the particular the world in general. So it was.
Okay, where were you when the war ended? And how did you hear the news? Well you just arrived in Boston, right.
But yeah, okay, there was a reunion. I have now been promoted to certain other things, and I was in my base in in Michigan and we were having a real having a celebration on that day for the celebration of the Japanese calling it the Day. And there were thousands of people in Detroit at this operation, not Detroit, but nearby where it was. And the lady there was the host and she was whatever we'll call it, the leader of the present elevation there celebration, and they didn't
have somebody to take amail. So somebody says, hey, there's Bill over there, give them to him. So I participate on Pearl Harbor Day with my friend whoever she was. That's it.
I read that you trained bomber pilots who later went to Korea. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, correct, Sure, tell me about that a little bit.
Well, how do you train somebody whatever? They're doing the same thing that you went through as a youngster. But the bomber pilots that I flew, what we train is quality of whatever, so that they could help with the transfer of all the scrap information and take it to Kingman Arizona and whatnot. And so we were training them to fly to B seventeen to be twenty four, to
be twenty five and so forth. And we had a letder to fly on ourselves, but we taught them because of the photos and you've probably seen them as well. Arkansas of over one thousand B seventeen's and B twenty fours there that had been phoned back from Europe to there and then they were going to Kingdom Arizona for scrip. So that's what we did for that's what I personally did from nineteen forty five of May until June of nineteen forty six. Then I retired from the Air Force
that way. But then, as I expressed earlier, I believe I spent time with the National Guard in Westfield, Massachusetts for three years. And it says enough is enough. This is the part of that story. But maybe you're going to ask it anyway.
I don't know the rest of that story, so go.
Ahead, okay. In nineteen fifty one I left the military, and as such, and until about nineteen seventy something, Colonel Isle called me and he was flying for one of the commercial airlines at that point. He says to me, he says, we should form a reunion group because we didn't have anything of that nature. So we got to
thinking about it, make a closer to that. We then put it together so we formed a three seventy ninety Bomb Group Association and all that, and then for about eighteen or twenty years we always held the reunions at different locations in the United s States. Specifically, though pretty neat at first, one that we did put together was
the one with Franz Stigler, the German fighter pilot. Uh. Charlie Brown was with the V nineteen forty three B seventeen Squadron combination in World War Two with B seventeen's in my base, his base, and it shows a beautiful photo over B seventeen flying of such all shot to help or proper word, and here's a fighter of h here's a German fighter plane flying up above, and this
one's so damaged. They had actually built several people out, several good art, but this fighter plane said, well, he elected not to take and shoulder down, which he could easily have done. In fact, he scored it him part way back to England and then that was it. Well, Charlie Brown, in nineteen nine, eighty eighty five, close enough, he called up and said that we're going to form
this organization, which we did. Then he said, and I want to bring a German fighter pilot to my reunion, and he says, what long story short, he had found Franz Stigler, Charlie Brown had that allowed him to live
and looked out for for years to find me. Finally found him in outside of North north Well, Washington, gunsmoke or whatever, and so I said, well, it's okay, then read to gentleman, and so we adopted the German fighter pilot into the three seventy nine bomb group and from that point we had him on that reunion and then we quit. They both got lost from time ten years ago. They both died, but we had him with us and he had found Charlie Brown in part of the world.
So that's there. Friends, Stick and Charlie Brown.
You what are you most proud of from your service?
My answer to that is I did my job, and everything that I did was not in a negative viewpoint. I look at it. I'm glad I did this, I'm glad I could help and I personally if you know some of my history beyond and you're doing good there, That's the way I look at it. I'm happy to be here just to be able to say this, because that's what our world was like at that point. In time.
Well, sir, it's been a great honor for me to speak with you today. I thank you for your time, and I especially thank you for your service to our country.
Thank you very much for having me.
Vincent Bill Purple is a US Army Air Corps veteran of World War Two, during which he flew B seventeen bombers on thirty five missions as part of the three hundred and seventy ninth Bomb Group inside the Mighty Eighth Air Force. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information, please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter. We're at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube channel for full oral histories and special features, and of course, please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening, and please join us next time for Veterans Chronicles