The date was Aug. 1, 1945. The war in Europe had concluded 85 days prior when the United States and Great Britain declared Victory in Europe (VE).
Victory over Japan was only 13 days away and this would finally end World War II.
The U.S. Fifth Army had been active in Italy for the previous two years, pushing back the Nazis amid frequently intense hostilities. By VE Day, many individual soldiers had endured more than a year of active combat duty.
Memories of home and an abiding desire to return had sustained many a soldier during wartime.
For those soldiers fortunate enough to have survived combat to see VE Day, it's easy to imagine the jubilation and relief they would have felt as their dream of returning home and being reunited with their families was within reach.
In the months following VE Day, Army personnel who had served the longest and accrued the most points were the first to go home. Those with fewer points remained in-theater for various occupational duties.
Now, on Aug. 1, 1945, it was time for one lucky group of seasoned Fifth Army soldiers stationed in Italy to go home. They had seen it all. They had been through it all. And it was time to put it all behind them. Their only focus was on returning to some sort of normalcy and rebuilding a future.
In advance of their return, word was sent to the States assuring elated parents, wives and children that their beloved service member would soon be home safe and sound.
But a very cruel fate stood in the way of that homecoming, a fate that would leave many of these soldiers dead before even departing the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO).
Just who were these Fifth Army soldiers returning home?
They were a group of 20 “high-point” Texas soldiers, non-commissioned infantrymen ranking from private to staff sergeant. These men were headed back to the Lone Star State and, with ages averaging in the mid to upper 20s, many of them had already married and started families prior to being shipped overseas.
Early on the morning of Aug. 1, 1945, these 20 homebound Texans boarded a B-17 aircraft in Pomigliano, Italy, bound for Port Lyautey, North Africa, on what was to be the first leg of their journey home.
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| On Aug 1, 1945, a group of 20 homebound Texas troops boarded a B-17 aircraft (similar to the one above) in Pomigliano, Italy. |
Some of the B-17 “Flying Fortress” planes that had played such a huge role in winning the war were now designated essentially as passenger airlines ferrying soldiers homeward.
About an hour after takeoff, while over the Tyrrhenian Sea, an engine on the aircraft began to fail; it caught fire and eventually shook loose from its mount and fell off leaving a gaping hole in the wing.
The pilot (there was a crew of five in addition to the 20 Texas soldiers on board) announced that he would be ditching the ill-handling aircraft due to power loss and drag, having determined that he could not make it back to land.
With only a couple minutes to prepare, the men were instructed to don Mae West vests and brace for impact.
The pilot sought to ditch the plane in as controlled a manner as possible but there was a very heavy sea. The plane broke in two upon impact and sank in about 30 seconds. The location of the ditching was in deep water approximately midway between Naples and Sardinia.
Five crew members survived the ditching and escaped the sinking aircraft; however, the co-pilot was not a strong swimmer and drowned before reaching one of the inflatable life rafts that the crew had managed to release prior to the plane's sinking.
As for the 20 Texas soldiers who were passengers, 12 were killed in the crash. Three of the eight survivors had major injuries. For more than 12 hours the survivors drifted in a couple of inflatable life rafts before being rescued by a large ship that happened upon them.
None of the 12 soldiers who died in the accident (13 counting the co-pilot) was ever recovered with the exception of Pvt. Woodrow Boyles, whose body washed up on the Italian coast some four months after the incident.
The missing are memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy.
As difficult as it is to lose a loved one in combat, there is a painful irony in successfully sweating and fretting out the war years, only to lose your loved one on the way home. Instead of a telegraph informing 12 Texas families of their soldier's safe return to American soil, they received a telegraph stating that the plane carrying him developed engine trouble and was ditched at sea. And that he was among the missing later declared dead.
That was 69 years ago, on Aug. 1, 1945. A tough day for Texas.
1 comment:
Yep, and one just never knows... May they RIP.
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