Honoring Fathers

from San Diego Veterans Magazine June 2020 PTSD

VANC Supporting the Community

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.

Aflame, the Banshee broke formation but maintained heading and altitude in order to salvo its ordinance on target and to protect the rest of the formation should the Banshee explode. Set upon by forty Luftwaffe pilots who were flying ME 109s and FW 190s, and who also knew the soft spot on the B-17G, head on towards the plexiglass housing of the pilot’s cockpit where the machine gun coverage was at its weakest. The Banshee stayed straight and level and it’s machine guns eliminated four of the attackers. “Bombs away” came the command and the load of M41 fragmentation bombs fitted in 500 pound clusters descended towards their targets.

Wistock and Lewis turned the Banshee “upside down and inside out” in order to extinguish the flames but to no avail. The order to bail out came and co-pilot Lewis went through the plane to make sure the rest of the crew had jumped and then exited through the bombbay doors. Wistock aimed the Banshee north and left through the pilot hatch in the cockpit. Although none of the crew knew it for another 42 years, all had landed safely.

The Banshee, their Fortress, rolled off the Boeing assembly line in Cheyenne, Wyoming on Christmas Eve 1943 and on Good Friday 1944 was reduced to burning wreckage scattered across a hillside near Zlatar Yugoslavia.

Despite the full moon, three airmen were able to elude their hunters. With the help from locals and Marshall Tito’s Partisans, Lewis and Majewski arrived at a British mission near Petrovac on the Adriatic coast. Joined by seventy five other downed airmen, they were evacuated by C-47s to Brindisi, Italy; Ballard was evacuated later when able to travel. All the rest were captured and held as prisoners of war.

Wistock injured both ankles while landing and hid out under leaves for three days before being captured by the Germans at a farmhouse. He was paraded through town, stoned and spit on by the locals. He spent 14 months in Stalag Luft I in Barth, Germany, barely surviving an Allied bombing raid before being liberated by the Soviets at wars end.

Captain Wistock returned to the States and married Mabel Smith in January 1946. After Mike was honorably discharged, they moved to southern California where they remained for the rest of their lives. Mike graduated from Northrup Aeronautical School and began his lifelong career with Boeing working on the space program. For his contributions, he was awarded an American Flag which had flown to the Moon and back.

After his evasion and rescue, Lewis returned to the U.S. and went on to fly B-24s and to train pilots in Florida for the rest of his active duty. He met Florence Campbell; they were married a month later. My dad retired as a Major in the United States Air Force.

Mike and Monty never knew what happened to each other or the rest of their crew until 1986. Dad suffered guilt and emotional demons for most of his life. The dark cloud evaporated when the boys of the Banshee reunited later that year in Tucson Arizona. Pilot Wistock Official POW Photo

As we commemorate Father’s Day, let’s all take a moment and remember the “Greatest Generation” and give thanks to the young men who risked everything for we owe them all that freedom has provided to us.

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