John Kille

95th BOMB GROUP (H)

ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

2006 REUNION        PORTLAND, OREGON

 (Interviewed by Tom and Peggy Cozens)

PC: (This is Peggy Cozens of) the Legacy Committee recording for the Library of Congress.  If you would please state your name, the date, and the place of recording – where we are today.

JK:  My name is John Kille, and I’m in Portland, Oregon at a Marriott Hotel, and the time is 5 o’clock, the 31st of August.  That’s it.

TC & PC:  2006

JK:  2006 – How about that.

PC:  Okay, just to get some basic things on the record.  What were your dates of service with the Army Air Corps?  

JK:  I entered, I joined up in July of 1940, no ’42.  And I separated some time in ’46, ’45 I think, from Amarillo, Texas.  

PC:  And what were your dates of service with the 95th Bomb Group?

JK:  About February of ’43, ’44 until about August of ’44.

PC:  And what unit squadron were you in?

JK:  335th squadron.

PC:  What was your principle career field?

JK:  I was a bombardier.

PC:  Okay, let’s go back to the beginning, and tell me about your induction.  How old were you and where were you living?

JK:  I was just 22 – New York City.

PC:  And how about your training?
JK:  Training I went to ____________ville, California.  Got my wings.  And the next space was Ephrata, Washington where I met my pilot, _______________ John Kirby.  And he and I were the nucleus of the crew.  And we had additions to the crew from Ephrata, Washington through Ardmore, Oklahoma.  And we took off from Kearny, Nebraska in a brand new plane and headed for Newfoundland.  We got weathered in in Newfoundland for three weeks.  Then we went from Newfoundland to Nutscorner, Ireland.  We landed the ship and we had a lot of loot in the ship, and we locked up the ship and went to the base for breakfast.  Got out to the ship to get our loot; our stuff in it was raided by the Irishmen, and they cleaned us out of everything.  That was my introduction to Nutscorner, Ireland – our whole crew.  From there we went to Stone, England where they were all crews – they were coming from the states, congregating.  And that’s where the various fields or planes were hauling their crews from.  And all of a sudden we got a call to go to the 95th and 335th Bomb Group there.  We could have been to the 100th or anybody.  Whoever needed a crew, that’s how they sent us.  And we stayed together right through the whole deal, the whole crew. 

PC:  To step back just a little bit, were there any memorable experiences that you had during your training or anything that stands out for you?

JK:  One thing in our training, we were a very close bunch of men.  And to this day we still touch with each other at least once every couple of months.  There’s only five of us left out of the ten.

PC:  How long was it before you actually went on your first mission out of Horham?

JK:  Oh we were there, probably one or two days.  We got there and I think our very firs mission was the raid to Berlin.

PC:  Do you want to tell us a little bit about your missions, the more memorable ones?

JK:  I think there was only one real memorable mission.  I wouldn’t be here talking to you today if it wasn’t for our pilot. We were on what they call a snowball mission.  It was our tenth mission.  The pilot, we had problems.  Our navigator was a smart boy, and they took our navigator and put him with the lead crew, and they gave us no navigator.  So they made me a navigator.  And they gave us a man, a boy that just came back from the state from his first tour of duty.  And he was to be our nose gunner.  So, this chap had the distinction of shooting down – he was a tail gunner – and he shot down a jerry from the tail, and the ship ran into another ship.  And he was the only one to be known as killing two planes with one deal.  And the newspapers – the publications – he was in the newspapers as – that’s when the Air Force was doing a lot of advertising for recruits and so forth.  And this was his first mission on the way back.  So he’s my nose gunner.  We take off on this mission, and the initial point, the snowball mission was a ski site.  Now a ski site is a buzz bomb site.  And the buzz bomb site is the shape of a ski.  And at the bend of the ski there’s supposed to be a house, or control tower.  And those were the things we were studying.  And we, from the maps and pictures we had, that was our target.  Our initial point was a G fix out in the North Sea, I guess it was, low into the ___________________ Peninsula.  We hit the G box, I changed places with the nose gunner, and I became a bombardier.  On the initial point, three or four minutes in the bomb run, and we got hit by flak.  A burst of flak hit right directly underneath our ship and ball connections from the instrument panel - to the instrument panel.  And the co-pilot saw all the instruments go dead, and he automatically feathered all four engines.  We dropped like a ton of bricks.  We’re hit.  The pilot, realizing what had happened, he immediately started unfeathering the engines.  The first one caught on.  Meanwhile, we had dropped our bombs and the pilot was asking me, “Give me a heading.”  I’ll never forget this.  I said, “See that water?  Head for it!”  That was the North Sea.  We were over the ________________________ Peninsula, heading for the North Sea.  We had dropped the bombs and whatever.  We were headed for the water.  The second engine wouldn’t catch; the third engine wouldn’t catch; the fourth engine wouldn’t catch, but would windmill.  The supercharger in the fourth engine was knocked out.  Thank God we had the one engine.  We have been known for bringing back a trip from Europe on one engine.  We got rid of everything that we wore – all our clothes.  We threw all our ammunition out; we threw the guns out – everything that moved.  All our radio equipment we threw out to make that ship lighter.  I remember vividly about that whole deal.  We came flying over – we had a tough time getting over the white cliffs of Dover.  And we’re just flying pretty much close to the ground and we’re headed from our point – just drew a straight line from where we were hit right to our field.  And that’s the heading.  And it took us right over the city of London.  And we were hearing these squeaks and looking above us, we had the ____________________ around us.  We were right in the middle of it, made a 180 and went around London and we got back to our field.  We beat our formation back that we were in.  And I do remember after landing and so forth, they knew that we were in trouble.  And I still remember our crew chief, the ground crew chief, setting there crying like a baby over that ship.  That was my story.  And I think we’re in the Contrails magazine about bringing our ship back with one engine.  

PC:  How long a time was that?  What span of time was that?  

JK:  It was a five hour mission.  And the further complex on that, that ship had 197 holes in it.  Not one man injured.  And the further story of it, when that ship got all fixed – redone and everything else, they gave it to us to fly.  And we were all scheduled to fly it, and my pilot – we got in the ship, and he says, “No, we don’t want to fly this ship.”  So they took us all out and put us in another ship – brand new one.  And that old ship they gave to another crew that had just landed, just arrived, and this was to be their first mission.  They gave them that ship and they were in a box position on this particular mission that went to Poznan, Poland.  It was aborted.  The mission was aborted.  But that ship caught on fire over the North Sea, and went down.  And they lost every man in that ship.  Further beyond, that’s one stinking mission.  And it went down with a chap that I went through bombardier school with that washed out and he became a gunner.  And his name was Johnny Giosa.  I visit his memorial at an airfield in Manchester as Missing In Action, whatever.  That’s the story on that one stinking mission.  

PC:  We know that you guys faced a lot of danger.  None of you claim the name hero, but we feel that that’s what you are.  I wondered if you’d seen any specific incidences that you really – that stand out in your mind – from your crew or any other crew that stood out as being heroic?
JK:  I’ve seen some of these movies they’ve had on.  What happened with us, I’ve seen it all happen.  Everything happened on these movies that happened to us somewhere during our tour of duty.  What was that one, “Flying Belle” or “Memphis Belle?”  Everything that on that whole mission has happened to us somewhere along the line.  I remember our waist gunner getting just one foot almost shot off and so forth.  And this happened on the mission and after the mission I dragged him – I went back there and dragged him into the radio room, slipped his pants off, and put a tourniquet on his leg to keep it from bleeding to death, and kept it from freezing – opened up my chest and put his stump in my legs, to keep him warm, to keep from freezing.  These are things that happened.  But you don’t talk about it too much.  His name is Lacy C. Willowby.  He’s a southern gentleman.  And that was on our 17th mission.  He wound up owning a couple of high rise motels at Myrtle Beach.  A very wealthy man. But he’s on the government disability with his leg to this day.  And they did a beautiful job on his foot.  I take that all to be what the government has done for him.  Because I remember that whole situation, pretty bad, sad. 

PC:  ________________________ of war I’m sure there’s all sorts of funny stories.

JK:  Well, we had another waist gunner by the name of John Foos.  John Foos got hit with a piece of flak in his foot.  And a sliver of his foot, of this flak went into his shoe, into his arch.  Well poor John, (chuckle) had to go to the hospital.  And while he was in the hospital, he was going to get married.  He decided that he wanted to get circumcised.  Well, he’s in this hospital, and that can be the worst thing that can happen to a young chap.  We would _______________ around looking for the dirtiest magazines to give to John (laughing).  He became a mailman outside of Philadelphia.  He passed away at a pretty young age, but I did meet his wife at a reunion of the 95th outside of Philadelphia at the Revolutionary War – Valley Forge.  We had a reunion there.  And that’s when I met his wife.  That’s about the extent of my stories – you got the enjoyable ones.

PC:  Thirty five missions you went on…

JK:  We did twenty five, and then just as we finished that 25th, they decided to make it 35.  So what.

PC:  How did that feel?

JK:  You don’t feel things.  One day’s the next.  So when the white flag would go up, we’d have to go out again.  

PC:  Did you do doubles?  Did you do morning?

JK:  D-Day we made two missions that day.  

TC:  What was it like around the base for you when you weren’t flying?  Did you find something….

JK:  Yes, I’m a dog man.  I love dogs.  And the first thing I did, no sooner hit our base, I got myself a dog – a Sussex cocker.  And it was next to the air base I bought this dog.  And I brought the dog to the base.  Well the whole crew met, and they said, “Sir, nobody ever finished up a tour of duty with a dog.”  So that meant I had to get rid of the dog.  So I took it back to the people I bought the dog from, and that’s where we left him.  And we named him John.  And I would visit that dog every couple of days – that was my tour of duty to myself.  And when we finished that tour of duty, we bought John back to the base, and he became a friend of everybody there.  And when it came time to get home, I was hoping I could bring him home by boat.  And I got to Liverpool, and they decided we were going to fly home.  So the dog couldn’t go in altitude.  So I had them leave the dog over there at some friends I’d met at the flak shack  - R & R place in Southport, England.  And I left the dog there, and that’s where I lost my dog.  

PC:  How did you meet Vi?

JK:  Vi.  Vi was – I met her during my wife and my first visit was about 1962 when she was married to Alan.  And we were on a trip to – went to Dusseldorf – I wanted to see what Dusseldorf looked like because I’d dropped a lot of bombs there.  And from there we came back to the base.  I went through the Horham Air Base with no group – it was just my wife and I.  And we met Vi and Alan there, and they lived in the littlest house in Horham.  And that’s how – from there my wife and I went on and about our way, back to the states.  But at the time, they were complaining about the 95th had money – about $40,000 at that time.  My wife mentioned something about they were restoring the bells and needed money to restore the bells.  Well, I mentioned it to several people of the Bomb Group about where to spend this money. And about five years later they came up with the idea of restoring the bells, which was my wife’s idea years before. (chuckle)  But we went over there – it was during that whole deal of restoring the bells.  That was the most wonderful thing to see.  I think 70 from the 95th went over there to restore the bells.  I don’t know if you’re acquainted with Horham at all, but all it is is just one street.  And I think the whole – there must have been thousands of people there – just lined up, that whole street thanking us for the whole deal.  It was remarkable for what the local people did.  And every one of those people put the 70 of us up in their own homes.  I couldn’t believe that.  This was back when they first had – the beginning of it.  Now I’ve been over there – I go back there about once every two or three years.  And I stay with Vi and Gordon Allen.  Nice couple, nice people.   And she and I communicate with each other once a month.  I sent her a letter, and she sends me a letter back.  She remarried a fellow by the name of Gordon.  She divorced Alan.  Alan never re-married.  And I remember when they were married, they were at the New Orleans reunion.  And from there they were to fly to New York, and from New York go back to England.  And I met them in New York.  I took them for one solid week, and they stayed with me and I showed them New York, West Point, and so forth.  Really introduced them – had a wonderful week.  And the last – the time we had a reunion in Pennsylvania?  Kansas?  We had a reunion in one of those, and I took Vi and her present husband, Gordon from there.  We traveled through the western United States.  We spent four days traveling, showing them the western part.  I had reservations at the space needle in Washington at 6:30.  And we drove into the space needle and took them up there, and that’s how they saw Seattle.  And they never saw it before, or anything close to it.  We spent – from there we went out to ____________________ and they spent four or five days in _______________ with us, and from there they flew back to England.  And I do go back there.  I lost my wife due to Alzheimer’s.  And every once in a while I would spend about three months with my wife night and day, night and day, and it would finally get to me.  And I had to go someplace.  I remember getting up on a Sunday morning, getting on the plane, going to Paris, getting on the underground, go to London, take the train up to Horham.  Vi and Gordon would meet me there for the next day or so.  Then I’d fly back home for three days.  

(JK’s daughter):  Dad had some minor surgery, and the doctor was Jewish.  You can tell that story, and he was going under.  What did he say to you?

JK:  He didn’t charge me.  “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here doing this for you.”  He was doing some polyps on me.  

(Daughter):  (Laughing) You’re a hero.  Thanks for being here.

PC:  Is there anything, before we close, that you would like to add to the record?  Something that you feel you need to say?

JK:  Yes.  My wife and I were over there during the Battle of the Bulge – not the Battle of the Bulge, but the landing of D-Day, the deal with the group and the 95th on one of their programs.  It was on a bus tour, and we were in this town, and she fell.  Then she came down with scabies.  And from there we went to England and this Vi and Gordon Allen met us and took us to their doctor, their hospital in Ipswich and so forth.  And they went through all the necessary deals for my wife.  And we were to be back in ____________, Washington.  And when it came to paying the bill, they wouldn’t take a dime for it.  That’s the people in Horham, the hospital, or anything.  They wouldn’t take a dime for it.  We got back to the states.  The medical situation we had here, they did the same thing that they did in England.  I think I had a bill something like $650 from my own medical operation here.  But they wouldn’t take a dime for it in England.  I thought that was something – really interesting.  

PC:  Thank you.

TC:  Thank you very much.

JK:  There’s some stories for you.

TC:  Yes, and I hope you’ll share some tonight at the Fireside Chat.

JK:  Well I don’t like to talk too much about these stories.  I don’t think what we did was the best thing in the world, but when you go over there and see what you had done to the towns, it’s unbelievable.  And how they’ve redone, fixed and so forth.  Being in London at the time the buzz bombs were going over and so forth, and see these people living in the subways and you’re down there traveling in the subways.  We’re not meant to live like that.  It’s hard to see it happening.