Returning to Stateside

Larry Stevens
August, 1944, 10:00PM
Horham, England

Staff Sergeant Larry Stevens, tail gunner, had completed 35 missions and was awaiting his orders to get shipped back home stateside. Many of his crewmen of the Full House (97797) had already shipped out. 

“I had checked the posted roster earlier in the evening. There were no instructions for me. Around 10:00 PM I was preparing to go to bed and decided to check the roster one more time when I read, I was to fly out at 3:00 AM. Earlier that morning, I had sent all my laundry with the “laundry boy”, Peter Brane, whose family did the laundry for the 95th Bomb Group. I didn’t have any of my clothes and would have to go track them down. My navigator, Frank Morrison, had a bicycle. I went to his quarters to ask him if I could borrow it. I had never been to town before; I was not sure where to go or how to find the family. I asked the guard at the gate how to get to town. The night was pitch black when I set off on a dirt country road to track down Peter’s family. When I got to town, I found a dimly lit pub. I walked in to see men throwing darts and drinking mild and bitters as the wives and families watched. As I walked in, all the action stopped, and they turned their attention to me. I explained that I was looking for the family that did the laundry for the 95th Bomb Group as they had my laundry, and I was to ship out to America at 3:00 AM. The folks were very pleased to help. They said, “Yank, go down this dirt path a bit and you will come to a haystack. Make a right turn and go a-ways and you’ll find a barn, turn left and you’ll find the house.”

Young Peter Brane

I got to the house around midnight and the family was asleep. There were no lights on. I knocked at the door and soon someone from upstairs opened the window and asked, who’s there? Then someone lit a candle, and another appeared out the window. Soon the whole family was looking out the window. I told them I was Larry Stevens with the 95th Bomb Group. Peter had picked up my laundry that morning and I was shipping out in a couple hours back to the United States of America. Peter's head had slipped out of the window, with an intake of breath, he said “The United States of…. America?!” It sent chills up my spine. After a short conversation, they gathered my clothes and put them in my barracks bag. It was a long, dark ride back to the base. I shipped out at 3:00 AM with my clean clothes”.