Russell Brainard
95TH BOMB GROUP (H)
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
2003 REUNION RENO, NEVADA
Russ Brainard in 2005, standing beside a ball turret at the Vintage Flying Museum in Ft Worth,TX, when he served as a volunteer greeter.
JM: This Janie McKnight with the Legacy Committee here with David Vandegriff. Today we’re interviewing Russ Brainard. This is September 9th, and we’re in Reno, Nevada at the Hilton Hotel. Russ, will you state your name of the record?
RB: I’m Russ Brainard
JM: And your dates of service with the Army Air Corps?
RB: I was inducted January 1, 1943 and I was discharged in 15 November 1945.
JM: And when did you serve with the 95th?
RB: From March of 1943 through, I guess, spring of 1945.
JM: And what squadron were you in?
RB: In the 334th.
JM: And your principal job?
RB: I was a flight engineer and a ball turret gunner.
JM: Where and when did you enlist in the service?
RB: I didn’t enlist, I was inducted. I tried to join the cadets. I couldn’t pass the eye test for pilot training. That was prior to January of ‘43.
JM: And can you tell us a little bit about your training?
RB: Yes. I went first to Florida for basic training - St. Petersburg and Clearwater. And from there I was transferred to Gulfport, Mississippi for the mechanics and flight engineer training. And from there I went to Arizona for gunnery training - I can’t think of the name of the area - Kingman, Arizona for gunnery training. And from there transferred to a training base in Utah. It was at the Salt Lake area. It was just a separation station, what crew we were going to be sent on. It was a division of all kinds of people - pilots, and everything. Putting them all together and sending them someplace to make a team someplace. And we went from there to Dalhart [Texas]. That’s where we were assigned to a crew - each member had not previously known each other or anything. We developed a crew of ten. And from there we went overseas to Horham, England. That was our base there, and I can’t think of the town that’s close. I’ve got the record here someplace. I think it’s Prestwick, England [1]and that’s where Horham base is. But anyway.
JM: During your training, were there any memorable experiences, anything out of the ordinary? Or was it just a regular training?
RB: Well it was rather provoking (laughing). The first time in my life I had to take so many orders from so many people that didn’t know any more than I did, as far as I was concerned. But anyway, we survived that. I wasn’t used to that kind of thing.
JM: And how did you get to England? Did you fly over?
RB: Well, we were supposed to pick up our plane in Cheyenne, Wyoming where it was being built. And we - sent us from Dalhart, Texas to Cheyenne, and our plane wasn’t ready. At that particular time, they were just making the G edition. And they weren’t finished with the F’s. They were converting the F edition of the B-17 to the G. And so, our plane was stopped. And they put us on a train again, and we went to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, which is an overseas station for all different kinds of troops.
We were there a few days waiting for a certain ship. From there they marched us down and we went aboard the Mauretania – that’s the sister ship to the Lusitania that was sunk early in the war. And from there I think we went to Scotland - was let out in Scotland, I believe it was. And from there trained on into England, to Horham Field.
JM: And when you got to Horham, did you start flying missions right away?
RB: We had to go through a certain procedure with - you know, get ready for it and get assigned an airplane. I don’t remember just how long it was. It was three or four weeks probably getting initiated and getting our crew package together and, you know, some more basic training. Maybe three or four weeks. I don’t really remember. Enough to get acquainted and do a few things.
JM: So, the crew you trained with in the states was not the same?
RB: Yeah, it was the same one, but, like I said, we didn’t get our own airplane. We were kind of put in a reserve situation and the plane we were put in was named Sandy Sanchez. We had nothing to do with that. Sandy Sanchez had been - previously done his missions at some point. He was no longer there. I don’t know what happened to Sandy Sanchez. But I know everybody has asked me about him. He apparently was a hero of some sort. There’s a lot of people in this group that knew him. But, that’s the plane we - it was almost a new airplane, however. It was made in April or something of ‘44. It was produced in Cheyenne February 15th of ‘44. And it arrived over in - went to Kearney, Nebraska. And it went to Presque Isle, England in April of ‘44. I guess that was it. But apparently it was assigned first to Sandy Sanchez[2](chuckling) because that was the name on it. But that’s about all I can tell you there.
JM: So, once you started flying missions, were there any memorable missions?
RB: Well of course the biggest one that was important was the mission over Berlin. On our flight over Berlin, we were hit over - after we had dropped our bombs we were hit on the right wing, number three engine by a rocket. I was in the ball turret - I seen it. They say we didn’t have rockets, that Germany hadn’t had rockets yet, and we sure didn’t. Anyway, it was a ball of fire as big as a bathtub. And I know that no ground ammunition or cannons would have been a fire like that. And it did knock off the number three engine completely. There was nothing left of it except wires hanging out. If it had been four feet further back that it hit, it would have taken our wing clear off. It moved us up in the air about 30 feet, from turning over. You know, it was that forceful. Like I say, if we’d been going ten miles an hour faster, it would have taken the whole wing off. But we limped on from there.
We lost, we’re losing altitude of about 1,000 foot a minute, and I imagine we were to [inaudible] close to 20,000 feet, or a little better. So that was coming down pretty fast. And we were told to get rid of any weight we could get to sustain flight, because we were pretty much out of control of our number two engine and had lost our number four engine. And we limped along for a while. I personally - it was my job to get out of that ball turret and get rid of it. That was the heaviest thing on board it. The only thing I could think to do at the time, because there were nuts and bolts to be unscrewed and everything else.
So, I pulled the barrel and the chamber out of the 50-caliber waist gun and used it as an ax to chop the aluminum pole, which is about six to eight inches round. It held all the wiring and things that controlled the ball turret, and was hooked up to the top of the plane. So, chopped it in half, and we got the last four bolts out. And it went on down. Fortunately, I think, for us, by this time, I don’t think we were over 2,000 feet, or maybe even less than that. I don’t know. But everything was visible on the ground. You know, you could see the movement down there. And it went out and fortunately it landed in the middle of a German airport - a small German airfield base, or something.
They were lined up, like about six planes following each other, take their turns taking off. And apparently none of them had as yet. And our ball turret must have scared them to death, because it had a big string on it like a cannonball, like you see in the funny papers with a bomb with a fuse (laughing). They must have thought it was an atomic bomb coming down, and it had to do some damage to the runway too, because they were heavy.
But aside from that, we were able to sustain our altitude and keep going. And we got over the sea there on our way. We had no idea really where we were. But we did make it to the very tip --southernmost tip-- of Sweden, which we didn’t know whether that was Finland or where it was.
But anyway, at that particular point, we were clear out of fuel, all four engines were gone, and our pilot did a magnificent job of bringing it down. And it was on what they call “dead stick.” He had to get it down. He did a very good job. I have all the pictures of the plane, and it’s - you know, the condition and the way he landed it. We all got out safely. But we were right in a Swedish area of gun emplacements for their own protection, like we would have on our coastline or anything. It was their regular army for their own protection. And they came running out at us, shooting the guns up in the air, actually. They didn’t know - you know, to let us know they were there. And we thought, even then, we weren’t sure they weren’t Germans, or Russians (laughing). But the uniforms weren’t American. They were wool, just like the Germans. And most of them did take their training in Germany. Most of the army in Sweden, the officers’ part did take their training in Germany. So they acted pretty much like they were German. And none of us spoke Swedish (laughing).
But anyway, it was quite an experience. They took us, and they billeted us in a hotel in the town of Ystad, which is just a short distance from where we crashed. Where we crashed was just 100 yards off of the Baltic Sea. You could see it from the plane, in my pictures, the Baltic Sea behind us there. So, we just barely made it. But anyway, from there we had - they took us to an internment camp in Sweden that was a converted winter resort, but this was springtime. They closed the resort and made a camp out of it. It was a very nice place - a very lovely place to be. And it was empty.
For summertime, it was mostly for winter ski place - a resort type of thing. But anyway, we had a very nice position there - treated nice and could get passes to get out, and we had civilian clothes. We had to buy all civilian clothes. It was just ran by the military - the Swedish military. We had our own officers in charge of us, but they overlooked the whole situation. And they were very nice to us.
I personally, because of a little future that I had going in the service at the time I went in the service - I was a copy boy for Associated Press. And I had teletype - I just watched the teletypes for Associated Press. That was on my entry exam - original examination into the service, that I had teletype equipment as part of my training. And they took me into the - allowed me to go in and work at the American Embassy in Stockholm. And there we recorded all of the air travel through Europe and anything that we could get over the air, and had it on teletype to forward it on. It came to us on teletype from all of the different stations around the world. And so it was kind of an interesting situation. But they kept me there longer, which I was happy about.
But we had our own living quarters - had rented an apartment. I was free to do anything that was available. I worked there at the Embassy on the night shift type of thing - came to work like at seven or eight o’clock in the evening. And stayed there all night until seven or eight o’clock in the morning. But it was a nice deal - met a lot of people.
After living in an Ambassador’s house, I thought about going into politics (laughing) as a young kid. It looked like a good job. But anyway, I didn’t. But that’s about the size of it. I came back. When I did get out of Sweden, the war - it had been past D-Day, and things were advancing very well in Germany. It wasn’t over yet.
But they sent me back to the states. I was on a troop train, or a train coming back from - in the states - on May 12th.[3] I remember that because that’s the day Roosevelt died. And everybody on the train, and all over the country, was - about like the Kennedy deal you know. So, and we went then from Santa Monica to get reappraised of what we could do or should do from there. Another physical and shots. You know, everything examined. And they got our life story and what had happened in the past. We had to take another IQ test, and all of those kind of tests were there – a few weeks at Santa Monica. And then I was sent to March Field in California where I was put on B-59s. I had five weeks of training for B-5 's in there. But never had to leave March Field. From that station, the war got over in, I think it was September - August or September - of that year. And I got discharged shortly after that.
JM: How long were you in Sweden?
RB: We got there May 19th, and I left Sweden – it was spring, almost May of the following year, ‘45.
JM: And after went to work at the Ambassador’s place, did you correspond with your crew? Did you have any contact?
RB: Oh yeah. There were several of them came into Sweden and other different jobs with legation. Particularly the officers. They were doing things loose – running the legation, which was a different part than the Embassy itself. Several of them I got in contact that I’d been in (contact) with – become good friends and run around together in Stockholm, in fact. I’ve got a lot of pictures there that I’d like to identify. That’s what I’ve got in this book, you know. I remember a few of their names, but I’d like to identify where they are today. That’s been a goal for a long time, to find out what’s happened to a lot of the friends that I made. And I hope this helps in some way, to do that.
JM: How did you wind up at the reunion?
RB: Well, we had a B-17 in Arlington, Texas to take passengers and to show. It was going to be there for three days. The museum that’s in Ft. Worth, the Vintage [Flying] Museum that I donate my time to now, we have a B-17 of our own. And I went to – I was asked to go out and see about this one at Arlington. And I was going through my papers on an interview with the editor or whatever he was with VFW airport newsletter. And he was interviewing for our museum and what I’d done in World War II and what I knew about B-17s and was a ball turret gunner and that type of thing. And Margaret [Blagg] came up and watching and listening to all of this. And she’s the one that came up and said, did you know that we had a reunion next month, the 95th Bomb Group? And she just started talking, you know, about different things. And I said, no I didn’t. Anyway, that’s how it started. And they mailed me the stuff and I sent them a check. From there on, that’s why we’re here today, I guess.
JM: Were there any other experiences that you had in England that stand out in your mind.
RB: Only that one time I had leave there a short time and went into London. And I stayed at a - I think it was a USO arranged shelter. They just had cots, like you’d have in a homeless area, you know. Troops could have a cot to sleep in overnight if they didn’t get back to their base or anyplace. And a buzz bomb from Germany or France - I mean it was sent from France, but German buzz bomb came over. It hit about a block away, but it blew me right off my cot. Or I jumped that high - I don’t know. But I was sound asleep. (Chuckle)
JM: Where were you when this happened?
RB: In England, in London. But the next day, it had done tremendous damage about a half a block away on the other side of the street. I mean, those were terrible things, and everybody was scared to death. Hearing one of them whistling by. That was probably the most - thing that happened to me over there. You know, that alerted me that we were really at war with them, you know. Of course, we went all through the other procedures - the darkness and everything. Everything blacked out at night, and those things. And getting used to the overseas environment. We did have a hangar dance there that we have imitated at our museum in Ft. Worth now. And it was a lot of fun. The USO arranged for girls from the villages around Horham Field, and brought them in. And all of the men that were stationed there got to go. They cleaned out one of the hangars and just had a B-17 in it, and a big-name band. It was very enjoyable. Now, today, at the museum that I work with in Ft. Worth, we have a yearly deal just like it. We try to put it on, except we charge people for it. That’s how we support our museum. Basically, that’s the biggest income that we have - a non-profit organization. But that’s about the size of it for other experiences. And of course, the experiences I very much enjoyed in Sweden. At that age, I was impressed with everything that happened.
JM: How old were you when you were over there?
RB: Nineteen, when we crashed in Sweden.
JM: And have you been back?
RB: No, no I haven’t. I always thought I would go back. Whatever come up, I couldn’t take off more than three or four days it seemed like (chuckling). I owned my business. When I got out of the service, I started a used car lot because all I had was a car that I’d left with my sister before I went in the service. And I had - I mean, there was 12 million men out of work. I couldn’t get back with the Associated Press. I couldn’t get back with the Herald Express that I had been a route manager prior to working with Associated Press. Anyway, I had to sell my car – I mean I felt like it. You know, the pay wasn’t too good. Our severance pay from World War II was $100 a month for three months. Well that was your whole - that ended it all. That went pretty fast, three months. I was fortunate. I had a car and a motorcycle that had been in the garage all the time I was overseas. And I went down and put my car for sale, and the motorcycle on a lot in front of a body and fender shop. He had some space there - just with a “For Sale” sign on it. And the OPA had restricted what you could ask for anything. They had set a price - pre-war price - on used cars and everything. From the blue book, what they were worth when the war started.
JM: What does OPA stand for?
RB: The Office of Price Administration. And everything - your rents and all your housing and everything had - stuck at a price for a year or two after the war. Until ‘48, or maybe until 1950. So, I wouldn’t take what that was. And the only way that you could get around that was to have somebody trade you something and basically give it to you and pay you the difference. And you couldn’t buy anything from anybody after that for what OPA would let you have. So, you just had to keep trading like that. So, I got in the car business. I rented a lot for $75 a month. I had my car, and $500 (laughing). That’s what it was. And a year later I had a used car lot then, and was doing pretty good. Just old junkers, you know - pre-war cars, and that type of thing. Worked into a new car agency later on.
JM: Going back just a bit, tell me about how you got - you went directly from Sweden to ...
RB: Well, they went back to Horham Field there for just a very short time. They gave me my barracks bag, I think, or whatever was left there to pick up. To me it’s unclear, but we were there long enough to get another set of orders to go back on the train to get on another boat to go home. But there is one other thing that happened to me on that trip that I was quite impressive to know that we were still at war. There was an angel on our shoulders even getting back into Sweden to there in that on our approach to the final runway at Horham, as we turned on our landing lights, there was a German reconnaissance plane was coming right at us. And instead of going up over us, he went down. And he crashed at Horham Field. But that was very, very close, and something to think about. But anyway, that’s one experience that none of us expected at that time and point of the war.
JM: And how was your homecoming?
RB: Well, my parents - I lost my parents at an early age. My dad died when I was 14, my mother when I was 4. The only one I had was my sister. And that’s where everything was left. She took care of my car. She was married and I had a little niece. Well, she did one day - I had belonged to a motorcycle club before the war. And I had delivered things for Riggs Optical Company. Opticians used my motorcycle for deliveries. Anyway, I belonged to this motorcycle club - The Booze Fighters, we called it (laughing). I was only 16 or 17, you know. But I had a lot of friends in that organization. One of them’s going to meet me here tonight. He lives in Garnerville.
But, at any rate, my sister went down to the clubhouse where our old group used to meet and put a sign up: “Little Russ is Home.” And there had to be 100 motorcycles at my sister’s house (laughing) that night. And all of my sister’s neighbors, everything, in fact, the girl I married lived two doors from her. What became my mother-in-law, she never forgot it (laughing) - the noise, and all this stuff we made in the neighborhood that night.
But it was a welcome home. I’m glad it’s over. I was glad to get out of the place. I couldn’t get out soon enough, really. I didn’t want a career of it. But that was the thing to do. And a lot of them, because they couldn’t get jobs, did go back.
And there was a lot of entrepreneurship after the war, because of that. And today, if you look around, a lot of your corporations that were big corporations today were founded in 1946. Because people couldn’t get a job anyplace else. They bought ice cream trucks for business, made out of old Model As. Put an icebox on the back of it, and had ice cream trucks. And any kind of a pick-up truck to haul things. Those kind of jobs - they invented jobs, people did. And I’ve often wondered, this talking about things today in our situation, if that same thing couldn’t happen and wouldn’t be good for us, frankly. For the people that are out of work, to be a little inventive. And many of them are doing that. They’re going home and figuring out a way to do something with their computer. You know, it’s going to turn out that they are innovative. Because there aren’t going to be any more jobs, you know. I mean it’s going to take a long time before it’s a real rush area. And they got to come up with a lot of new ideas.
That’s what saved me. I wasn’t qualified to do anything particular. And what I could do, there was no need of. That same situation occurs today - the people that have been in the businesses that had to cut back and lay them off, that’s the only thing they’re qualified for, and that whole industry is laying off. It isn’t like it was one thing. So, they just have to come up with something else to do. At least that was my situation. But I’m glad it was that way. Basically, it worked out good for me. And I think in our present situation, it’s working out good for a lot of people. They didn’t know that they could something for themselves, you know, basically. I know my kids don’t. I’ve raised four, and a granddaughter. They’ve all had to do things for themselves.
JM: Well we just have a couple of minutes left. Is there anything else that you would like to add before we finish up?
RB: About what, about the squadron? No, like I say, I enjoy working with my museum. I just donated a lot of time there. And I enjoy being in our local politics a little bit, and service clubs. I keep busy, and I enjoy what I do today, being retired. But there’s always these memories, and I’ve made that a fun thing now. Something that I basically hated at the time, you know.
JM: I’m so glad that you came to this reunion. I wish you luck in finding out more information about your crew. And thank you for taking the time to do this tape.
RB: Thank you for asking me.
JM: And for your contributions during World War II.
[1] Prestwick is in Scotland
[2] The plane was named Smilin’ Sandy Sanchez
[3] FDR died on 12 Apr 1945