Casey Hasey - My Bombsight View of WWII

My Bombsight View of WWII

Casey Hasey

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2010, 2011 Casey Hasey. All rights reserved.

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First published by AuthorHouse 09/17/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4567-1313-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-1314-0 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-1315-7 (hc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010918421

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My Bombsight View of World Was II Book II: War Stories of a U.S. Army Air Corps Bombardier-Navigator/Gunner/Pathfinder

Contents

MY BOMBSIGHT VIEW OF WORLD WAR II

War Stories of a U.S. Army Air Corps

Bombardier/Navigator/Gunner/Pathfinder

In War Torn England and France

(D-Day and Girls Included )

Book II

I have retained some sections of Book I which was a work in progress under the working title of 55 In a B-26.

By

Raymond Casey Hasey, J.D.

With utmost assistance from Mavis Hasey

Flying Wings Earned

Aerial Gunner

Bombardier

Navigator

Observer (Radar)

344 th Bomb Group

495 th Squadron

1 st Pathfinder (Provisional)

9 th Air Force

1 st Lieutenant

U.S. Army Air Corps

European Theater

World War II

Introduction

One thing I would like to be clearly understood is that any and all references to ladies are entirely fictional, and solely products of my imagination.

More than sixty years have gone by, and my memory is no longer perfect. Times have changed, wars have changed and I have changed, but my memories remain. After the war most veterans rarely discussed their adventures.

Most of my memories are from personal experiences, but some are from rumor or scuttlebutt. Although I recall many missions vividly, I can no longer be certain which crew I was flying with on some missions. I did my first nine missions with Dave Nichols crew, about thirty missions with Vaner Smiths crew, and I was a substitute with various other crews on about sixteen occasions, including D-Day.

I never kept a diary or notes, and the details now blend together in my mind. Some of the dates I mention came from memory, others from letters or military records. It has been said that people seeing the same action remember things somewhat differently. In a national Geographic article (June, 1995) it says there is no total recall, and although memories of unusual experiences are better preserved than others, even our most vivid memories are, at best, reconstructions.

In 1944 I flew in a B-26 Bomber from bases in England and France. I actually flew 56 missions, but was credited with 55.

About 1990 I was in a Federal Court in Tacoma, Washington as a witness. The judge allowed no newspapers or books or electronic devices of any kind. Being bored I decided to spend the three days writing, and I chose my trip on the Queen Elizabeth to fight the war. My briefcase and yellow pad were stolen. A few years later while recovering from two cancer operations, about all I could do was lay in bed. Then I really started writing, and the more I wrote the more memories came flooding back.

I found out about a reunion with my old squadron and decided to attend. My old buddies attended and helped out with corrections and additions. I found some old Air Force records. I also included some scuttlebutt, which abounds in every Army. We believed the scuttlebutt to be most likely true. I included the stuff about our Commanding Officer, General Vance in this book.

I especially remember the civilians and their hard life, with the deadly bombs falling almost daily. It was not our fault that most of the men were stationed elsewhere, and we had to put up with all those lovely ladies that were left behind. Everyone worked like crazy to win the war, soldiers and civilians together.

Read on for those special memories that I can never forget. What follows is the way I remember it.

Raymond Casey Hasey

Foreword

My father, Ray Hasey, didnt speak about his experiences in World War II for more than 45 years. He says it was the same for many other veterans. When the war was over, he put aside those memories and let them go.

After my father began writing he brought me chapter after chapter, hand-written on yellow lined paper, which we later re-arranged into chronological order. He was still writing in June of 1996 on the 50 th anniversary of D-Day. That year my father wrote much of it while lying on his side, recovering from surgery.

Several times after that, I thought we were done with the book, dad would show up with a new chapter. With each draft, I asked my father lots of questions, drawing out more and more details until I could picture each scene as if it were a movie. I edited, clarified, and expanded the text to include the details, then added footnotes to define the jargon and technical terms the way he explained them to me. Because my father and I wrote this together, we speak to more than one generation.

My father re-met many former air Corps buddies at various Air Force reunions. Some of them examined our earlier drafts. If they had comments or a different memory of events, we incorporated them. Another buddy, John Goolsbee, found my father through a phone book search. They are both still looking for other buddies they flew with.

My father says he was lucky to he born when he was so he could have these experiences and play a role in such an important cause. He flew fifty-five missions, and was undoubtedly changed in significant ways by his experiences.

It was important to me to hear my fathers story.

Mavis M. Hasey

August 7, 1997

I would not have been able to write this book without the devoted help from my daughter, and the myriad of friends and buddies.

I always felt bad because she spent so many hours out of her busy life assisting me with this book. Feeling guilty, I would ask her to turn everything over to me and I would take it from there, but she insisted, and I could not change her mind. I still feel that it was not right for me to high-jack so much time away from her life. My debt is enormous and this book is dedicated to her. She is beyond all praise.

Raymond Casey Hasey

August 24, 2009

For those who wish to get right down to the combat action and the bullets and the bombs, etc. its OK to skip right to the chapter about sailing to war on the Queen Elizabeth across the stormy North Atlantic in midwinter, with submarines lurking about. Or you have my permission to go to any other chapter or anyplace else that strikes your fancy.

Chapter 1

The Prelude

A little one engine airplane came flying over. It buzzed the area and circled around. All of us kids in the neighborhood ran after it shouting and waving. It was the first real airplane we had ever seen. No one we knew had ever been in an airplane.