Neal Connelley

95TH BOMB GROUP (H)

ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

2002 REUNION          ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

 (Interviewed by Karen Sayco)

KS: This is Karen Sayco for the Oral History Project of the 95th Bomb Group Association.  I’m here with Neal Connelley, St. Louis, Missouri, September 13th, 2002.  Could you state your name, the date, and where we are recording this.

NC: Neal Connelley, Hilton Frontenec, St. Louis, Missouri.

KS: Just to get some basic things on the record: What were your dates of service with the Army Air Corps?

NC: 1942 - 1945.

KS: How about your dates of service with the 95th Bomb Group?

NC: Mid January, 1943 until discharged, 1945.

KS: What specific unit or squadron were you in?

NC: I was in the Headquarters group, 95th Bomb Group.

KS: And your principle career field with the 95th?

NC: Administration.

KS: We’d like to go back to the beginning.  If you would, tell us about your induction - what brought you to join up?  

NC: (Laughing) Well I’d been in school at Oklahoma State all year, and summer school.  And on the way home I stopped in Tulsa and saw John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara in ______________.  I went right across the street and enlisted in the Marines.  Being 18 at that time, you had to have a parent’s permission.  When I got home, Mother just shut up like a clam and said it isn’t going to happen.  And it didn’t.  So I had to call the recruiting sergeant back and tell him I couldn’t get my parents’ permission.  He just laughed.  So I stayed home, building fences on the farm and working for about six weeks.  Then I went up to the State Fair in Muskogee where I ran into a cousin - a distant cousin of mine - and two of his friends from Stillwell, Oklahoma.  They were going to enlist in the Air Force.  So I said, I’ll just go with you.

KS: And your mother had no objections to...

NC: Well, I’d been home for 6 weeks, eating them out of house and home (chuckle), and she acquiesced. 

KS: What about your training?

NC: Well, when we originally enlisted, they were going to send us to aircraft mechanics school.  Well, everyone in the service knows how they promise one thing, and something else - well, they never had openings for that.  So, we’re at Ft. Sill, and after a few days we were moved down to Shepard Field for basic training.  And after a couple of weeks of walking in the mud and having sand in your face, I was offered an opportunity to go to administration school in Los Angeles.  I said, well, I came in to go to aircraft mechanics school.  And they said, well, we don’t have any openings.  So anyway, I went to Los Angeles on a troop train with green mohair cushions on the seats, a field kitchen in a boxcar in the middle of the train.  Two months later, I was moved to Ogden for a few days to Hill Air Force Base.  Then on a train to just about the Wyoming, where the Colorado and the South Dakota border.  This train, we were on it from late morning until about 5:30 in the afternoon, to cover thirty some miles.  It ran down Rapid City Canyon.  It seemed like there was 100 plus bridges over this stream that ran along, through the Canyon, along with the railroad.  Our train consisted of combination baggage and passenger car, and one passenger car. 

KS: You always hear about when the troop trains were going through, if you stopped at a town, the people would come out to the railroad station.  Did that happen to you?  

NC: Yes, no.  The ones in town, we’d stop at a crossing, and there would be a little building over there, and they would put a few sacks of grain, or a few cases outside. And we’d run over there and hit the candy bars and so forth.  The engineer would blow the whistle.  So we’d start straggling back to the train.  If you were a little late, you could always trot behind it and catch up to it - grab a handful of snow on the way to quench your thirst.

KS: How about your train trip from Oklahoma to Los Angeles?

NC: Well, when I went into the service, I just took $5.00 with me.  I thought the army would furnish things.  I didn’t realize that there were a lot of necessities that they do not furnish.  You have to shave, you have to have other things.  When I got on that troop train, I had 50 cents left in my pocket. I’m 18 years old, I’m hungry all the time, and they were feeding us twice a day.  I heard that if you volunteered to work in the kitchen, you could have all you wanted to eat - whatever they served.  So I volunteered.  When I got to LA, then I wired Dad for $25.  I don’t think I ever paid him back.  

KS: You paid him back in other ways.  Were there any particularly memorable experiences during your training?

NC: Well we went to night school.  We were staying in a hotel at 7th and Grand, which is very near downtown LA.  There were three to a room.  Right across the street was the 30 lane bowling alley.  Now the older men, they would sneak down the fire escape after curfew at night, and go over to the bowling alley, and fraternized with the people getting off swing shift.  I guess, because I was too young, I didn’t drink or anything.  I didn’t get involved in that.  Maybe I was afraid to.  

KS: How did you get over to England?  

NC: We went over on the Queen Mary.

KS: What were those accommodations like? 

NC: Crude.  The swimming pools became mess halls.  We were on English rations.  And we were on English rations for 6 months after we got to England.  If you’ve been on English rations, bread was so scarce that they would hand you ½ a piece of bread - now they were large loaves, but you’d get ½ a piece.  They wouldn’t let you reach to get your bread yourself, because you would take a handful.  We had a lot of Brussel Sprouts - about four times a week.  Not much meat.  You were in a constant state of hunger.

KS: This was in 1943?  I always heard that the air crews were well fed, so this is something different.

NC: I think there was enough food available.  At one time Colonel Truesdale, not Truesdale, Geiger, he put armed guards on the mess halls.  More food was going out the windows than was being consumed.  Then it got somewhat better.  Food, to the English population, was a very good means of barter.  

KS: When did you get to Horham?  

NC: March, ‘43.  No, Horham, I’m sorry.  We got there later.  First we went to Framlingham.  The first night we were there, Lord ______________ was welcoming us to England while we were on the train, and we got to Framlingham the first night.  And we were in tents.  Some German fighters came over.  We had an air raid. ________________ party.  Just outside of our tent area, the Irish workmen were building a cement road.  And in the moonlit night, it was whiter than these tablecloths were.  Most of us ran - there was a big deep trench the other side - maybe 12 feet deep.  We ran over to it.  One fella, he panicked and run right up the middle of the road in very, very soft concrete (chuckling).  It left deep imprints of his shoes there.  When we got back after the raid was over, the raid didn’t amount to that much, but it was frightening.  You know you hear the scream of the engines - the anti-aircraft fire.  When we got back, we found out the Irish workmen had been using the bottom of this trench as a slip trench to relieve themselves.  

KS: That was a harrowing welcome.  How long were you at Framlingham, and when was it that you felt then that you could get over to Horham?  

NC: I believe it was in May.

KS: And once you got to Horham, what were your living conditions?

NC: We were in Quonset huts, small Quonset huts.  For the Headquarters personnel, the enlisted personnel, there were two little Quonset huts that faced each other.  And we did have a toilet in there.  Well, everyone, they promptly ruled that off limits to use for the purpose it was intended.  Everyone went to the loo up on the hill, where the bath facilities were.

KS: What specifically did you do in the Headquarters company?

NC: I worked in group operations.

KS: And did you do clerical work?

NC: It was clerical work for the group - my particular part, for the group navigator and group bombardier. 

KS: Now I don’t think we’ve heard from somebody in Headquarters before, so what exactly kind of reports were coming to you?  

NC: Well, we’d check late in the evenings for any mission alerts.  We’d do the preliminary work on the navigation routes that were laid out - actually were coming from division headquarters, from Third Air Division.  And lay those out.  And if it did get scrubbed, later that night - 11:30 - we’d contact the bombardier, navigator.  They would come down and go over the work we had done.  And they would check it out.  Then we’d go with them to the briefing for air crews in early morning.  

KS: So your hours were sort of opposite from what the air crews were.  What were your hours?

NC: As required (laughing).  When the air crews were out, we would sweat out their return, like everyone else did.  Sometimes we’d be down at the office, waiting the return, or we’d be at the same place where air crews were briefed, they were debriefed when they came in.

KS: Were you ever in on any of those debriefings?

NC: Oh yes.

KS: What was that like?

NC: Well, you were just listening to the stories that the people have.  For example, everyone - you know the different gunners, all different ones, would be shooting - a lot of planes would be shooting at the same aircraft.  So you need confirmation from several sources.  Every gunner doesn’t get credit for every plane he fires at.

KS: What kind of things did you do when you were off duty?  Where did you go?

NC: Well, when we first got there I started going to London.  There were very few soldiers or airmen in London at that time. Later, it got very crowded in London.  At that time, I would go to Cambridge where I had at various times, I had relatives that were in the Midlands, different places.  Later in the war I had three relatives that were shot up in hospitals. But they had come back from Germany, and I went up to visit them.  Or I’d go to Ipswich, was where we’d go to take our cleaning.  I was a designated driver in those days, because I didn’t drink.  We’d go to Norwich, to the north of us - a little less often than Ipswich.  

KS: What kind of things did you do when you went down to London?

NC: We’d go see some shows.  I learned to dance.  I was very shy.  

KS: Did you like London, and how were you treated by the British?

NC: Well, our group had a habit of staying in the Mapleton Hotel.  The Mapleton Hotel was a big old hotel.  It was American style, and it had private baths for all the rooms.  Many other hotels, although newer and nicer in some respects, only had one floor with private baths.  For the rest of the rooms, the loo was down the hall.  The Mapleton people, we like to get our rations from the PX in London if we could, because they had everything.  Our PX - half the things on your ration card, you couldn’t get.  So you’d save them up until you got to London.  You’d go there and you’d save some of your rations and share them with the workers - the desk people and so forth at the Mapleton.  I’ve never been turned away to room there, no matter how late at night it might be.  They’d be turning away other people in droves.  Now I have stayed at the end of a hall behind a screen.  But the bed was clean, and it was warm.

KS: Did you witness any things that you would classify courageous, or dub somebody a hero?

NC: I don’t know.  Seeing some of the air crews when they were returned.  I remember one particular fella had a 20 mm through his leg - just about put your hand through it, the hole.  And he had been shot up with morphine, but he was still semi conscious.  My part was - we were there to do the job we were assigned to do.  And it didn’t include getting your rear shot off.

KS: You were there during D-Day.  Is there anything particular you remember about preparations  in Headquarters for D-Day?

NC: On the coast of London, not coast of London - east of Ipswich - sitting on a bluff.  That wasn’t D-Day.  That was when they had the drop on ______________ - their drop - and seeing as far as I could see from horizon to horizon, C-47's coming over towing gliders.  And a few days later, they were dive bombing bomb bay tanks from fighters loaded with chocolate rations bars, and ammo into them, because the Germans had them surrounded.

KS: How about D-Day?  Any recollections?

NC: D-Day, we had a lot of small raids - they call them no ball missions, to the north seacoast of France, upper part of France.  Everyone thought because of the - and I’m sure the Germans did too, because of our effort in this area - this is where the invasion would take place.  Of course it didn’t happen that way.  

KS: Do you remember anything specifically about D-Day, or the day before?  Did you realize it was going to be that day?

NC: No, didn’t realize it was going to be that day.  It just seemed like an increasing build, but then it just kept increasing.  

KS: How about your reaction to the fact that we had landed?

NC: Well, Jiggs Donahue, Major Donahue, our Intelligence Officer, he had been leading a series of Sunday talks to standing room only crowds, I might add, at the base theater, telling us that D-Day plus 6 months, the war would be over.  Well, it didn’t happen that way.  

KS: We know that sometimes in the face of human adversity, there’s sometimes humorous incidents.  Do you remember any humorous incidents, or practical jokes, or anything like that, that people played on each other?

NC: Well, there was always some kind of practical joke.  People do that to relieve tension, I think. 

KS: Any specific thing you remember?

NC: Not at this time.

KS: What was it like when you came home?  What was your homecoming like?

NC: We were on the water when Truman dropped the first bomb.  I was on the troop train from New Jersey to Ft. Smith, Arkansas when the second one was dropped.  And we figured we were slated for Okinawa.  Everything had been packaged and shipped that way.  All our extra clothes - we were only permitted to come back with no more than we went over there.  When you’re over there a long time, you accumulate extra uniforms - extra boots, things like that.  They went into boxes.  They were unlabeled, along with boxes that contained typewriters or other materials, along with a few side arms.  

KS: How about when you got home to your parents in Oklahoma - what was that like?

NC: I think they were very happy - I know I was.

KS: Started to eat them out of house and home again?

NC: Yes.

KS: Have you ever been to one of these reunions?

NC: No.

KS: What do you feel is the most important benefit of these reunions?

NC: Shared experience.

KS: Is there anything else you would like to add for the record?

NC: I went back to Horham during the Gulf War.  As soon as the Gulf War started, I made reservations for May.  My wife said, oh, we can’t go there then.  I said, well our reservations are May the 7th.  I don’t think we’ll have anything really to worry about then.  It may not be over, but it will not be dangerous, flying to London.  I got to the railhead at Diss, and looked up the Constable’s office, and asked for directions to Horham.  The lady told me, she said, well I could take you there, but I can’t tell you how to get there.  She says, there’s no signs.  During the war, within 15 miles or so of the coast, the English had removed all the road signs so the Germans wouldn’t have any help if they did come in on the expected and feared invasion.  Almost 50 years later, they had not replaced them.  So I made a couple or three wrong turns, driving through those hedge rows along the road is a little different.  But I did find it.  I found that Horham had increased from about 28 dwellings to about 34.  When we were there, it was all brick.  A few of those had been torn down.  There were a few frame houses there now.  Paid a visit to the church, to St. Mary’s.  And I was shocked at the number of people that had returned and signed the register there.  Left some money, picked up some honey.  I’d expected maybe - our offices at Headquarters there were concrete, gas proof structure, with double sealed doors on it. I thought that would probably be standing, but it wasn’t.  The Red Feather building was still there.  Part of the runways were there.  Control tower was gone, which I was - I thought it would have still been there, but it wasn’t.  There were - had gone back to farming area - they were raising a lot of mushrooms in buildings there.  Coming from the racetrack, I don’t know whether you know, but mushrooms need to be raised on horse manure and straw.  This was coming from the racetrack over in New Market.  

KS: Was that your first trip back to Horham?

NC: That was my first trip.

KS: Well thank you very much.  We’ve been talking with Neal Connelley who was with Headquarters Company.  This is Karen Sayco from the Legacy Group talking with Mr. Connelley.  And thank you again for your time and your service.

NC: Could I say something else?

KS: You bet.

NC: It brought back some memories, the fella this morning talking about the Dutch countryside. I was on several of the Chow Hound drops to Holland where we double bagged beans and flew over, kicked them out at low altitude.  The Germans had flooded, had tripped the dykes.  And a little earlier we were on, when they liberated Paris, we flew over Paris at 10,000 feet that day.  Then we went down to the British peninsula, where the 29th Division had a German Division holed up down there.  And we napalmed them from about 29,000 feet.  

KS: That’s something that I didn’t ask, if you had gotten a chance to go over at all.  I appreciate your sharing that.

NC: Well I can understand when the air crewmen talking this morning, you know, taking off in the fog.  It was - some of those take-offs were very foggy.  Everyone staring as hard as you could to see if there was another plane.  Because they were in our flight pattern - to climb to altitude over eastern England, ours interlocked with five or six other air bases.

KS: What could you see at 10,000 feet of Paris?

NC: Not much.

KS: And what was it like, from your point of view, on the manna chow hound missions?

NC: The grateful people down there to get something to eat.  We were quite low altitude there.  We were coming into 150 feet.  The way the buildings were built, out to the street, and the gardens were inside - a quadrangle in the small towns.  The many many Holstein cows on high ground.  There was not a great deal of high ground, either.

KS: Well, thank you again.  This has been Karen Sayco, from the Legacy Group, talking with Neal Connelley.  And again, thank you for giving us your time this morning, and for your service.

NC: Thank you.