Honoring Fathers of the ”Greatest Generation” By Robert Verl (Bob) Lewis
The Last Flight of the Banshee Father’s Day was always a big deal in my home. My dad’s birthday often fell on Father’s Day (June 15, 1917). He spoke little of his war experience, except for a few humorous anecdotes from time to time. It was not until after his passing that I was able to truly appreciate what he and many other young men from the “Greatest Generation” would risk to protect their families, present and future. My father flew the B-17 aircraft during World War II. The Boeing B-17 and its variants were the workhorses of the Allied daylight bombing campaign. 12,731 B-17 Flying Fortresses were produced between 1936 and 1945; 4,735 were lost during combat missions; less than a dozen are air-worthy today. It was Easter weekend of April 6, 1944, when my father’s B-17 was shot down, the mission for the boys of the 15th Air Force 463rd Bomber Group (the Swoosh Group) stationed in Foggia, Italy was to destroy the Zagreb Airdrome in Yugoslavia. Pilot Mike Wistock, Co-pilot Verl “Monte” Lewis (my father), Navigator Bill Ure, Bombardier Jackson Kiefer, Flight engineer/top turret gunner Bob Applebee, Radio Operator Jack Robinson, Ball turret gunner Chester Majewski, Waist gunner Bernard Cummings, Waist
gunner Roy Coble and Tail gunner Leon (Bud) Ballard were assigned to the 775th bomb squadron and to B-17G #42-31831, affectionately named: “Banshee --Deliverer of Death”. The crew’s mission was to last 7 hours and 25 minutes, at a speed of 200 miles per hour and an altitude of 25,000 ft. By 3 P.M. the boys of the Banshee were approaching their target. The B-17G presented a formidable opponent for enemy fighters, particularly when flying in tightly stacked defensive boxes. Once locked in by the Norden bombsight, the B-17G required a minimum of 20 seconds of non-deviational flight while on the bombing run. The Banshee was forced to endure constant anti-aircraft fire and harassment by the Luftwaffe while the bombing group stayed in formation and locked on target. Due to heavy cloud cover, the 775th bomb squadron was forced to go around and attempt their bombing run for a second time. The Banshee would endure flak and machine gun damage, injuring several members of the crew including my father, co-pilot Lewis, who sustained flak injury for which he eventually received a Purple Heart and a Distinguished Flying Cross.
Banshee Crew next to B-17
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WWW.SanDiegoVeteransMagazine.com / JUNE 2020
