A B-17 Gunner Series: Episode II
TECHNICAL SERGEANT ED HALL was attached to the recently activated 347th Squadron, 99th Bomb Group, and received orders for transfer to Marrakesh, Morocco.
His outfit headed to Morrison Field, Florida, where they were assigned to their Boeing B-17s.
Their unit was called the Diamondbacks, due to the diamond-shaped insignia painted on the vertical stabilizer of each aircraft.
Red's pilot named their Flying Fortress the Stardust and had that name clearly painted on the nose of the craft.
They stayed on at Morrison and trained on the Stardust for several months.
Then Red and his fellow crewmen, after receiving considerable training on their craft at Morrison Field, flew on to Borinquin Army Airbase, Puerto Rico.
From Puerto Rico they flew to Georgetown, British Guiana (Guyana), then to Belem, Brazil, and then more than 1,000 miles over open seas to the Azores Islands.
Next they traversed to Bathurst, Gambia, and finally rested in northern Africa in early March, 1943.
Technical Sergeant Ed Hall trained on exercises as radio operator, but also as the waist gunner on the left side of their beloved Stardust B-17.
After more training on their bombers, the group was transferred to Navarin Airfield, in Setif Province near Algiers, Algeria, and then the 99th Bomb Group was attached to the 12th Army Air Corps.
On March 31, 1943, Red flew his first of 55 hazardous bombing missions.
That first bombing was at Villacidro Airdrome, Sardinia, where they destroyed aircraft and ammunition dumps.
Subsequent missions included bombing raids at Monserrato, Sardinia, as well as Gerbini Airfield, Sicily, and Foggia, Italy.
At these targets they destroyed the German fuel storage sites, ammunition dumps, runways, airfields, aircraft, and aircraft production and assembly factories.
After a few of these missions the hazard increased as the Germans began attacking the bomber squadrons.
Until the last of the Foggia missions, only one injury had befallen Red's fellow crew members.
As a bomb hung-up on the edge of the bomb-bay doors, a crewman had the perilous duty to go down and wrestle it free.
In the process, as the bomb fell, his wedding ring caught on one of the bomb fins.
He survived the incident, but he lost his ring and ring finger.
The most treacherous mission for TSgt.
Ed "Red" Hall and his fellow squadron members was their last at Foggia.
An estimated 75-100 fighter planes attacked the convoy of bombers.
Red had always left the radio operation during radio silence and proceeded to the left waist gun.
So when the fighters attacked, Red was already in position and took aim.
His outfit headed to Morrison Field, Florida, where they were assigned to their Boeing B-17s.
Their unit was called the Diamondbacks, due to the diamond-shaped insignia painted on the vertical stabilizer of each aircraft.
Red's pilot named their Flying Fortress the Stardust and had that name clearly painted on the nose of the craft.
They stayed on at Morrison and trained on the Stardust for several months.
Then Red and his fellow crewmen, after receiving considerable training on their craft at Morrison Field, flew on to Borinquin Army Airbase, Puerto Rico.
From Puerto Rico they flew to Georgetown, British Guiana (Guyana), then to Belem, Brazil, and then more than 1,000 miles over open seas to the Azores Islands.
Next they traversed to Bathurst, Gambia, and finally rested in northern Africa in early March, 1943.
Technical Sergeant Ed Hall trained on exercises as radio operator, but also as the waist gunner on the left side of their beloved Stardust B-17.
After more training on their bombers, the group was transferred to Navarin Airfield, in Setif Province near Algiers, Algeria, and then the 99th Bomb Group was attached to the 12th Army Air Corps.
On March 31, 1943, Red flew his first of 55 hazardous bombing missions.
That first bombing was at Villacidro Airdrome, Sardinia, where they destroyed aircraft and ammunition dumps.
Subsequent missions included bombing raids at Monserrato, Sardinia, as well as Gerbini Airfield, Sicily, and Foggia, Italy.
At these targets they destroyed the German fuel storage sites, ammunition dumps, runways, airfields, aircraft, and aircraft production and assembly factories.
After a few of these missions the hazard increased as the Germans began attacking the bomber squadrons.
Until the last of the Foggia missions, only one injury had befallen Red's fellow crew members.
As a bomb hung-up on the edge of the bomb-bay doors, a crewman had the perilous duty to go down and wrestle it free.
In the process, as the bomb fell, his wedding ring caught on one of the bomb fins.
He survived the incident, but he lost his ring and ring finger.
The most treacherous mission for TSgt.
Ed "Red" Hall and his fellow squadron members was their last at Foggia.
An estimated 75-100 fighter planes attacked the convoy of bombers.
Red had always left the radio operation during radio silence and proceeded to the left waist gun.
So when the fighters attacked, Red was already in position and took aim.
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