Captain Harold Musikoff Speaks About His Experience Bombing Nazi

A Humble Hero

Captain Harold Musiko Speaks About His Experience Bombing Nazi Germany

BY SUSAN SCHWAMM

Captain Musikoff, thank you for sharing your experience with us. Can you give us a little background on your life before the war?

I was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1924. I will be 97 in July.

I was probably around three years old when my parents moved to Brooklyn, NY. I think my father’s brother had a job for him, and that’s why we moved. I still had relatives in Ohio, though, and I went back a number of times. I lived in a kosher home when I was growing up. My mother was kosher. Unfortunately, she passed away when I was about 14.

I was just about ready to start high school when she died. My mother’s sister lived across the street from us in Brooklyn. I spent most of my time at my aunt to begin with because she had children and it was a more lively house. With my father working long hours, I went to live there after my mother died.

I graduated high school when I was 18. When a young man was 18 at the time – in 1942 – he had to register for the draft. I didn’t register for the draft because I enlisted in a program that was part of the Army Air Corps. The Air Force wasn’t in existence until after World War II, and so the Air Corps was a branch of the army. In that Air Corps, there was a program called The Aviation Cadet Program. I enlisted in that.

What made you decide to enlist in the Air Corps?

My cousin had gone through that program before. He was four years older than me. When he went through, you had to have two years of college before you went. But of course, when the war was on, they needed people, and so they accepted high school graduates.

The Aviation Cadet Program was, I’d say, about 16 months. The first eight months was just classes. Initially, you went into what they call basic training. Everybody that goes into the military has to go through basic training. That was about four weeks. That’s to introduce somebody to the military, and everybody gets a uniform so everybody looks the same. You get a lot of vaccines, too. You get what you are supposed to have in the United States. And of course, at that time, they didn’t know if you were going to go to Europe or the Pacific, so you got shots for both. You got all those shots in one day. Some boys fainted, but they expected that. I guess there are people who can’t stand needles.

You also have to have on your record that you shoot guns. There were two kinds of rifles. There was a handheld machine gun on a tripod and a pistol. And you have to throw a hand grenade. And so we did all that.

What were your feelings when you were trying out that gun that first time?

Yeah, well, I had never [held one before]. One of the things that was interesting is, I couldn’t hit anything with a gun. Luckily, I was not in a part of the army where I had to use a gun.

You’re not a sharpshooter.

Yes. After that, I went to Syracuse University for about four months taking classes, many that pertained to flying, like topography, map reading, celestial navigation, meteorology, communications, and other things. In addition, we learned about why we were in the war to begin with, the history of Germany going back and Japan going back and the history of many other countries.

And of course, you had to exercise every morning, and every Sunday was a parade. You had to learn to march in unison, and you learned military protocol, like saluting officers.

After that, I went to a base in Nashville, Tennessee, that was a classification center. You went through a battery of written tests, physical tests, and dexterity tests to determine if you were going to be on the program for a pilot or a bombardier or a navigator.

One of the most stringent part of the physical tests is for your eyes. For a pilot, they’re not only concerned with 20/20 vision, but also about your peripheral vision and depth perception. They’re very strict. And all through training, they would al-

ways test my eyes again, wherever I was.

How many people were in the program with you?

I was in a class called 44G. There were probably over 100 cadets in the class.

The testing that they did didn’t take very long. I could have done everything in a couple of days, but it was very crowded with cadets going through.

I once was assigned for KP, Kitchen Police. It was unusual because we generally didn’t get it. And of course, as an officer, you don’t ever get that kind of stuff. So I went to the sergeant – I was a cadet then – and he put me on a machine that peeled potatoes. You put the potato in, and it had a disk that was wavy and it had sandpaper on it, and it actually ripped the skin off the potatoes, as water was flushing on it at the same time. So I put in maybe half a bag of potatoes. They were a 100-pound bag of potatoes. After I put the potatoes in, my friend, another cadet, came over. He was assigned pots and pans. That was the worst.

We got to talking and I forgot about the potatoes. And all of a sudden, I shut the machine off, and I looked at the inside. The potatoes were like mothballs, they were so small. I immediately got rid of them and put other potatoes back in because I was afraid the sergeant wouldn’t be too happy with me.

After Nashville, I went to a place, Montgomery, Alabama. More classes, aircraft identification, codes, the Morse code.

Then there was a place called Maxwell Field. They patterned that after West Point. When you came in, you were a lowerclassman, and after a month, you became an upperclassman. And again, there was a lot of marching and a lot of classes.

And then, finally, after that, I went to a base in Americus, Georgia, and that was where I had the first plane, a primary trainer, a simple plane, that I had to fly. It was a double-wing like the World War II planes

“You don’t consider that anything’s going to happen. Nothing happens to 20-year-olds.”

and an open cockpit, one for the cadet and one for the instructor. The instructor taught you things. One of the first things, you learn is how to land the plane because once you’re up in the air and something happens, you can’t pull over and call AAA.

And then you do acrobatics because, again, they don’t know if you’re going to be a fighter pilot or a bomber pilot, and that also takes about six or seven weeks.

After eight hours of flying with an instructor, one day, we landed. And he got out of the plane and he said, “OK, give me three takeoffs and landings, and see if you can bring the landings, and see if you can bring the plane back in one piece.” plane back in one piece.”

You were on your own – sink You were on your own – sink or swim. or swim.

I thought I should have soloed I thought I should have soloed earlier because I was doing everyearlier because I was doing everything right. thing right.

to Greenwood, Mississippi, for a basic trainer. The plane was a little more complex, with more instruments, a bigger engine, and again, we had the same type of routine. You start out with an instructor. He teaches you how to do things with this plane. And again, after I don’t recall how many hours – it wasn’t that much – I soloed again. And then you continue. And every so often, there’s a different instructor that gives you a test while he’s up there, and you go through the whole routine of all the things that they want you to do. And then, the next place that I went to was in San Antonio, Texas, a place called Kelly Field, where I had the advanced trainer. I was assigned to a twin-engine plane, which meant I was going to be a bomber pilot of some sort. They didn’t know what at the time. It took about two months. You partner up with another cadet because, in a bomber, there’s always a pilot and a co-pilot. And so, you start out with two cadets and a plane and an instructor. Eventually, the instructor leaves, and you solo. By this time, you’re acquainted with what you’re supposed to do on a plane. And again, there’s more instruments, more complex things. Actually, that was the first plane for me that had headlights so you can fly at night. Also, the wheels came up. On the previous training planes, the wheels didn’t come up. That took two months and then you graduate from the program. How hard is it to fly a plane? How hard is it to fly a plane? When you graduate, two things I never flew one. I never flew one. happen. You get your pilot’s wings.

Well, it’s like everything Well, it’s like everything And by an act of Congress, you beelse – repetition. You do the else – repetition. You do the come an officer and a gentleman. It’s same thing over and over same thing over and over interesting how they say that. again until you get it good. again until you get it good. Then I was assigned to a B-17

And the sooner you get it And the sooner you get it base in Sioux City, Iowa. I was there good, the better you are. I good, the better you are. I for two months. Again, we assembled thought I should have sothought I should have so- a crew. loed maybe after six hours. I was landing the plane the way it was supposed to be. After that, I went

How many people are on a crew?

There are ten members of a crew on a B-17. We have a pilot, a co-pilot, a bombardier, a navigator, a flight engineer, a radio operator, and four gunners. They are all on the plane. There’s also a lot of ground crew that take care of the plane.

After Sioux City, we went to a base outside of Denver, Colorado, practicing formation flying and flying at night. After that, we went to Las Vegas. They took over the airport in Las Vegas because back then – we’re talking about 1944 – outside of the city of Las Vegas it was all desert. It was a great place where the gunners could practice shooting their guns and the bombardier could drop dummy bombs.

After that, we came back to a base in New Jersey, and we stayed overnight. And then we flew to Nova Scotia, and we stayed overnight, refueled, and then we flew over to England.

I was assigned to a bomb group based in England.

When they told you that you’re going to England and going to be putting your training into action, what were your thoughts?

Well, you’re ready to go. Remember, I was 20 years old at the time. You don’t consider that anything’s going to happen. Nothing happens to 20-year-olds.

The training was interesting and fun. I had never been in a plane, and all of a sudden, I’m flying a big, four-engine bomber.

What was the feeling between the members of your crew?

We had a good crew. They became like a family. I had organized the crew. As I said, we were like a team. Every member has to do his utmost because we have to be prepared. In combat, things happen, unexpected things you should expect. And so, they all were very good.

Is the pilot sort of like the leader of the crew?

Yes, they become the aircraft commander. As a matter of fact, when you graduate, you’re promoted to second lieutenant. And when I was finished with all the training, before I went to Europe, I was promoted to first lieutenant. That’s the next level.

There were only four officers on the plane: the pilot, the co-pilot, the bombardier, and the navigator. All

the others are enlisted men.

When we got to England, nothing happened for, I guess, almost a week because it was raining. The rain was not the problem. It’s the target area in Germany. If it’s overcast, the bombardier can’t see the target. The bombardier has a bomb site, and so that’s how he drops the bombs on the target.

How many bombs could the plane hold?

It depended on the type of bomb. Well, most of the time, it was 100-pound bombs, and the bomb bay could hold 20 bombs. On a couple of occasions, we had 500-pound bombs, and so the bomb bay could accommodate four.

There were a couple of occasions when we had incendiary bombs. The incendiary was a much smaller bomb; it weighed about 10 pounds. They wrapped eight of them together, so they were about the same size as a 100-pound bomb. And when they were released, the wrapping came off, and all the bombs separated. When an incendiary bomb hits, it starts a fire, and it’s very hard to put out. You can’t put it out with water. The targets of those bombs were primarily factories that were making war materials for the Germans.

Were you bombing Germany itself?

Yes.

On a mission, there were probably a couple of hundred planes at the time. My base put up 25 planes, usually, sometimes 24, depending on if they were all ready to fly. We did a mission almost every day when the weather was permissible to go.

One of the things that you encounter on a mission are German fighter planes that are trying to shoot you down. They don’t want you to be dropping bombs. And that’s the purpose of having gunners. When I got there, the German fighter planes were not a big problem. Their air force had been decimated from previous bombings. In addition, we had a fighter plane, a P-51, that escorted us. Previously, they didn’t have a fighter plane that had the capacity to go to the target and back. But this newer one – it was probably the most superior fighter plane at the time. In addition to fighter planes trying to shoot you down, there was anti-aircraft fire when you got close to the target and when you left the target. That was a big problem – the anti-aircraft fire. They shoot a missile up, and it’s designed to explode at the level that the planes are at. We were 20,000 feet, usually. You were assigned an altitude, could have been 19,000 or 21,000, but it was around 20,000. Because there were so many planes, they didn’t want all the planes at the same level.

If the anti-aircraft bomb exploded, flak, which was shrapnel, flew out at the planes. These were pieces of metal, sharp pieces of metal, that flew out at a high velocity like a bullet.

On our 24th mission, the flak actually blew a hole on the right side of our plane. Unfortunately, it killed my co-pilot instantly. He was hit in the head. The bombardier, navigator, and one of the gunners were seand one of the gunners were seriously wounded. riously wounded.

What was going What was going through your through your mind at that time? mind at that time?

I was wounded. I was hit in the back I was hit in the back of my right arm. My of my right arm. My wound, I guess, was wound, I guess, was serious, but I could still fly the plane, luckily. I also lost one of the engines, but the plane could fly on three engines. I knew I had to get the plane back as soon as possible to get these wounded men into a hospital at the base.

How far was

the flight back to England?

The target that time, I think, was Dresden. So it was probably three and a half hours.

I was in pain. In the first aid kit, they had vials of morphine for the pain, and my flight engineer Captain Musikoff ’s medals wanted to give me a shot, but I refused. I didn’t know what kind of my back. When I leaned against it, effect it would have. I might have there was a slight pain. I didn’t think passed out if I didn’t have pain to much about it. It wasn’t a big deal. keep me awake. And so I refused. My wife and I went to visit an uncle

I was able to bring the plane back down in Philadelphia. He was a surto the base. geon. He looked at it. And he said,

When you fly back, there’s some- “Let me take an X-ray and see what it thing there’s a type of pistol that fires is,” and he did. He said, “I see somea missile that leaves a yellow line of thing there. There’s something, a tiny smoke that tells the ground crew you something.” And he took out a little need medical help. We did that. And piece of the shrapnel that was left in then, the ambulances came up to the from the flak after all these years. plane, took the wounded out, took me In Europe, I think the surgeon was out, and we were taken to the hos- younger than I was. He probably was pital. drafted also.

Unfortunately, the three who were I was on furlough for about six wounded in my crew died that week. weeks. And then got a notice to come to a veterans’ facility on 6th Avenue Along with your co-pilot, that’s in the 20s. It wasn’t a hospital; it was a lot of losses. a building. One of the floors was a

Yes. medical floor. I had to go there a few times, and they finally decided that I You were wounded as well. was fit for duty.

I was in the hospital for three weeks, not because the wound was Did you feel ready to go back? so serious, but because the bandage It isn’t whether I felt ready. They had to be changed every day. tell you. I was told that I was fit for

After about, I guess, four days duty. And they were looking for exmaybe, I could take a shower. And perienced pilots because the war in then after the shower, the nurses Europe was just about ended. would change the bandage. The doctor would look at it. I remember they What year was this? put some kind of powder on it; they We’re now talking about 1945. called it sulfa powder. When I was wounded, it was the end

Because I was in bed for about a of ’44. And so this was early in 1945. week, they had to get me up walking. I’m not sure what the month was. Your legs don’t work like they should You know, we’re talking about over if you’re in bed for that long. They at- 75 ago. rophy somewhat. And so, a couple of nurses used to walk holding onto me. I’m amazed how you know evBut after a few days, I was OK. And ery base where you trained. then I was sent home to Brooklyn. It’s unbelievable.

Years ago, I had a little lump on I was sent to New Mexico to fly

on a new bomber, a B-29, which was bigger and much more sophisticated. It was also a four-engine bomber and also made by Boeing. The B-17 was made by Boeing. One of the nice things about the B-29 was that it was pressurized. The B-17 wasn’t pressurized. The gunners had guns sticking out of the windows. Up at 20,000 feet over Germany, it was minus 30 degrees. Of course, everybody was 20 years old. We had heavy leather, fleece-lined jackets, pants, and boots.

I spent, oh, I guess it must’ve been three, four weeks training. We, again, assembled a crew. I was promoted to captain at that time.

Eventually, my plane and three other planes flew to Guam. We were going to bomb Japan. I was on Guam for, I think, two weeks, getting the crew ready. Everybody was new. Actually, only me, the flight engineer, and the bombardier, and the navigator had previous combat experience. Everybody else was just trained on the B-29.

While we were in Guam, the war ended. They had dropped the atomic bombs, and the war ended. We didn’t even know what happened, but I never got into combat in the Pacific. I was in Guam for quite a while. I guess they didn’t know what to do with us.

What was your feeling when you heard that the war ended?

Well, I was glad. It’s not a happy thing when you find out what happens in combat.

Did you feel like your service helped to end the war?

You don’t think too much about it. People say, “You are a hero.” I never felt I was a hero. I was the same hero as everybody that put on a uniform and put their life on the line.

The real heroes are the people who gave their lives and those that their lives changed forever because of serious wounds, the loss of a limb, people were blinded… Even while I was in Europe, there was one mission that we went on, and two of the planes from my bomb group didn’t come back. We didn’t know what happened to them. Either they were shot down or the plane exploded. That’s 20 people that we don’t know what happened to them. And there are many others that I know that didn’t make it.

It was all very traumatic.

Yes. It was.

There’s a funny story that happened when got back from Guam. When I finally came back, we stopped in a base in California, some place above San Francisco, to refuel.

We came back from Japan over the Pacific, and we landed in California. We were there for a couple of days. And then we flew to a place called Great Bend, Kansas. That’s where they were going to store the planes. When we got there, they were hundreds of planes already, all kinds of planes. We were there for a while.

One day, I was called into the office and one of the officers there, he was a major, told me, “Tomorrow morning, you’re going to be the officer of the day.” Every day they pick an officer for the officer of the day. The officer of the day rides around the base to make sure everything’s OK. On the base, there’s a headquarters. There’s a hospital. There’s a building where they do laundry. There’s a prison. People have fights in bars – nothing serious. And so, you ride around. And he said to me, “Report at 0600.” That’s 6:00 in the morning. And so I did; I reported. They gave me an armband that said, “OD,” and they gave me a gun with a belt. I don’t

Captain Musikoff’s daughter, Lisa, with her family in a B-17

You were awarded The Purple Heart. Is that for what happened in Dresden?

Yes. When you’re wounded in combat, you’re eligible for a Purple Heart.

Was there a ceremony?

Yes. I never really wanted to wear it when I was still in the service because my four crew were awarded a Purple Heart posthumously, and I was awarded and I’m living. It was very traumatic for me, that we were a close crew, and all of a sudden, they’re not around anymore.

That is certainly very traumatic. Were there other Jews in the military with you?

Back then, when I mentioned that I went to live with my aunt, she wasn’t kosher. So I guess that was good training for me because, when I went into the military, there was no such thing as kosher. There weren’t that many Jews in the units we were in. There were some. I encountered a few Jews. There was always a chaplain at the base. Some bases had a rabbi. They always had a service on Friday night. As a matter of fact, when I was at the base outside of Denver, at a base called Lowry Field, the chaplain was a Catholic priest. He did the Friday night service, all in Hebrew.

One of the things that these chaplains always did, they tried to get you a dinner invitation to a Jewish family for a Shabbat dinner. That was really nice.

Did your crew know that you were Jewish?

Yes. Of course.

I didn’t really encounter any anti-Semitism. We were all young people. It wasn’t like it is now. Everybody was very busy. They keep you on your toes constantly. I can remember, the basic training was in Atlantic City. And a couple of times during the month, we had fire drills. We were in a hotel on the boardwalk – the Air Corps took over hotels. If you were asleep, the fire drill was like at 3:00 o’clock in the morning, you put on a coat and shoes – you didn’t even tie them – and you had to go out. And you assembled on the boardwalk. I was there in February. It was cold, but again, I was 18 years old.

What did you do after you left the service?

Well, I took advantage of what they called the GI Bill. They paid for education. I wanted to go to college. When I was still in high school, I never knew that I would go to college right away. My plan was, when I graduated, I would get a job, and then maybe go to college at night.

But here, the government paid for the tuition. Plus they gave me $75 a month for subsistence. So I went to a small college in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Polytech in Downtown Brooklyn.

There are a few reasons why I went. I had been away for over three years, and I decided I just wanted to be home. In addition, one of my boyhood friends wasn’t accepted into

“I just flew in a four-engine bomber but I never drove a car.”

think there were any bullets in the gun. Then he told me, “Go down to the motor pool and get a car.” I looked at him, and I didn’t say anything.

I went down; the motor pool was just walking distance. There was a sergeant there, and he knew, every day, that there’s an officer coming, so he had a jeep ready for me. But I looked at him, and I said, “I don’t know how to drive a car.”

He almost fell down laughing. I never had a car. My father never had a car. In the ‘40s, not a lot of people had cars. And back then, everything was a stick shift, nothing automatic. I just flew in a four-engine bomber but I never drove a car.

He showed me how to shift and use the clutch, and I was hopping along until I got the hang of it.

the army. He had a medical problem, something with his leg, so he was marked what they call 4F. That meant wasn’t physically ready. He became an assistant professor in this school. It was a technical school. I got a BSEE, an electrical engineer school in college.

I started college in ’46, and I actually graduated in ’49 because I got a lot of credits. I got credits for being a veteran. And also, they gave me a lot of credits for the time I spent at Syracuse University.

My last term in college, I sent letters out to General Electric, IBM, Westinghouse, also to Con Edison, and the New York Telephone Company for jobs. And I got a response from all of them telling me, “Come down for an interview.” All the other companies except Con Edison and New York Telephone were out of town. IBM was upstate New York. I think there was another place upstate. Westinghouse, I think was in Virginia or something. General Electric was upstate New York.

I got a call from Con Edison. I went down there, and I was accepted, and I worked there one day. That afternoon, when I came home, I had a message to call New York Telephone to come down to them because they wanted to interview me there. And so I did. I worked in Con Edison for one day and – I’m trying to think of what my first pay was – I think it was $22 a

week. But then I went down the next day to New York Telephone, and I was accepted. And my pay was $31 a week. I got a raise overnight. it. My medals were in a cigar box – I used to smoke cigars. My wife found them one day when we were in Florida, so that’s probably 50 years or more that I never spoke about it.

One of the clubs that we belonged to in Florida was a veterans’ club. One day, they were talking about medals.

And my wife said, “Why don’t you bring your medals down?” So I did. Another woman there said, “Why don’t you mount the medals?” And she said, “Give them to me. I’ll get them mounted.” And so she did. Of course, she gave me the bill for it. And that’s how the medals got mounted.

“I never felt I was a hero. I was the same hero as everybody that put on a uniform and put their life on the line.”

When did you decide to share your story about your experience in the army?

Well, I really never talked about it. I didn’t talk about it for probably 50 years. My wife didn’t know about

When did you decide to share your story with your children or with other people? What was the impetus?

Well, it was time. And I guess the feeling had worn off a little bit, as it does when a loved one passes. You never forget. Almost every day I think about my daughter, who passed away in 1989.

A few years ago, we were invited to Rabbi Trump’s house for Shabbos lunch one day. During the lunch, they talk about the parsha for the week. Rabbi Trump asked me, “What did you ever do for that took courage?” I thought that was a peculiar question for me. But apparently, it was something in the parsha that people needed courage to do something. I didn’t know that. I wondered to myself, “Why is he asking me?”

What was your answer?

I said, “Well, I guess it took courage for me to fly my plane into enemy territory, knowing they were going to shoot me down.”

There were other people invited to the meal. Everybody started asking me questions. I guess they didn’t expect that answer.

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