Tag: USAAF

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Rendezvous With The Gestapo

As his body plummeted towards the Normandy landscape at 250 feet per second, Sgt. Hilliard was likely praying to God that his chute would open. He had been trained to clear the plane before pulling the cord. Sgt. Hilliard saw for only an instant that several of his crew mates managed to jump out of the damaged aircraft before it began its downward spiral and broke in two. Glancing up, he figured enough time had gone by to clear the damaged bomber. He pulled the cord and felt a rush of excitement and relief when the chute opened and caught the wind to slow down his descent. Those feelings were short-lived. Now he realized that he was at risk of being shot by the Luftwaffe attack fighters such as the Messerschmitt Me-109s and the Fw-190s or killed by the German’s anti-aircraft guns’ flak which had crippled his aircraft and worst of all, he had absolutely no control over the situation.

Hilton G. Hilliard. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Permission to use by Ann Hilliard Ussery.
Hilton G. Hilliard. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Permission to use by Ann Hilliard Ussery.

This is the story and fate of the top turret gunner, Hilton G. Hilliard (1920−1985), and the crew on the B-17F heavy bomber which was shot down over France on the evening of 29 May 1943. Read More Rendezvous With The Gestapo

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Meyer’s Bugle

By 1944, the war wasn’t going well for Hitler and his military. In fact, a year earlier, people began reaching the conclusion that Germany might eventually lose the war. How was it that within less than five years after conquering almost all of Europe that Hitler’s armies, navy, and air force were on a downward spiral toward defeat? There were many reasons including what historians now chalk up to the Führer’s military decisions that were huge strategic mistakes. However, during the early years of World War II, it seemed as though the German juggernaut was invincible and leading the pack was Hermann Göring’s Luftwaffe (i.e., the German air force).

Göring was so confident of his pilots and planes and their supremacy in the sky that he vowed Germany would never be bombed. Addressing the Luftwaffe when the German air force was at the peak of its power, the antisemitic and future generalfeldmarschall and Hitler’s second-in-command made this promise to the German people:

“No enemy bomber can reach the Ruhr (valley). If one reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Göring. You may call me Meyer.”

⏤ Hermann Göring

      September 1939

As Allied air forces increased their bombing activities over Berlin and the Ruhr Valley in early 1944, air raid sirens in the city were going off on a nightly basis. It didn’t take long for Berliners to begin calling the sirens, “Meyer’s Bugle.”

Did You Know?

Did you know that the last surviving female agent of the British-led Special Operations Executive (SOE) passed away in October 2023? Phyllis “Pippa” Latour, MBE (1921−2023) was born in South Africa to a French father and British mother. She spoke fluent English and French along with Arabic, Swahili, and Kikuyu. After war broke out, Phyllis joined the British Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and became a balloon operator and mechanic. In 1943 she applied to and was accepted by the SOE’s F Section. Dropped into Normandy, France in early May 1944 as a wireless operator, Phyllis (nom de guerre: Geneviève) was part of the D-Day underground support forces behind enemy lines and she was responsible for gathering and transmitting intelligence on German positions as well as landing sites for equipment air drops. Read More Meyer’s Bugle