MY MOST SECRET MISSION the untold story of Yalta by Al Eberhardt |
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This article
is based on the writer's personal experience and interviews with fellow pilots
from each of the three participating squadrons in the 1st Fighter Group and
Navy crew from the President's ship, the USS Quincy, plus information from
recently declassified federal documents.
Lt.
H. A. Eberhardt
P
38 Pilot, 94th Fighter Squadron
1st
Fighter Group, 15th Air Force
TOP SECRET ??
We
thought something big was about to happen. It was the middle of January and the
colonel had disappeared for nearly a week; nobody seemed to know where or why;
scuttlebut had him at a dozen different places. The Exec. Officer finally and
reluctantly would admit that he was suddenly called to headquarters. We assumed
it was 15th Air Force HQ at Bari, Italy (General Nat Twining, Commanding). Our
Ops.(operations) Officer could not, or would not, offer any additional info.
At this
time we were based at the Salsola Air Base a few miles north of Foggia, Italy.
I had 18 missions under my belt and had just recently been promoted to first
lieutenant. The weather in Jan. was lousy turning the plains surrounding Foggia
into a sea of mud; I had only flown a half dozen times for the entire
month----escorted bombers to Linz and Vienna regions and escorted photo recons
far into Germany and even Czechoslovakia.
Being an
intensely curious 20 year old "hot-shot" P-38 ( Lockheed Lightning )
pilot, I tried every which way to pry information out of some of our normally
talkative flight leaders. I came to the conclusion they genuinely did not know
and were almost as curious as I was on the whereabouts of our 94th fighter
squadron's CO. Our commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Francis A. Harris,
was affectionately known as "Bucky" to "his lads".
Speculation
ran rampant. Was he in trouble with the higher command? Bucky was an
experienced, but gutsy, seasoned fighter pilot. An affable, well liked officer
respected by all of his men; he came across to me as an extremely conscientous
commander not likely to be in difficulty
with the 15th's top brass. Had he been
selected for some singular, secret, "behind the lines" operation ? I
knew he couldn't speak German. Our
Flight Surgeon, Captain Walsh was a
friend and said he was definitely not ill in any way. Maybe he was being reassigned ? We
all hoped not.
Then I
found out that the other two CO's in our
1st Fighter Group (from the 27th and the 71st Fighter Squadrons) had similarly disappeared. Bucky must be
involved with some sort of secret planning meeting. Something big and important
was about to happen; perhaps some big offensive to end this damned war !! We were living in tents in the cold grimy
winter mud of southern
Most of
us, by the end of the week, had come to the same conclusion, top brass
were planning something big, but what?
It was the middle of January 1945 and we already had the Germans retreating on
all fronts. Combat missions for our Group had apparently been temporarily
suspended. The powers that be were really keeping this one quiet; nobody seemed
to know anything other than something was about to happen to the First Fighter
Group---it was obviously classified "TOP SECRET".
The Squadron
After
about a week our colonel reappeared at our base in Italy as suddenly as he had
disappeared. Our inquiries were answered with his broad, friendly, silent
grin. It was good to see Bucky
"back in the saddle again". It would be many years later, at a
squadron reunion, that I learned of his
one man odyssey in his P38 "Ginny". to "check out" the bases we would use. He said he was treated with some disdain by a
few of the allied base commanders until they saw his secret orders signed by
Major General Ira Eaker, in command of all of the allied air bases in the
Mediterranean Theatre.
Lt. Col.
Harris was short in stature, physically fit, somewhat cocky with good military
bearing. He had the appearance of a typical fighter pilot. With 2 tours under
his belt, he was a highly decorated combat veteran. He had won the respect and
admiration of his subordinates, especially the younger ones like myself. In some ways, I'm sure we were a difficult
bunch to manage, but Bucky was up to the task. He was a top notch CO for the
94th.
The 94th
"Hat-in-the-Ring" Squadron was steeped in history and combat
accomplishments; it was the first combat squadron of the old Army Signal Corps,
dating back to World War I. It was made famous in the early days by names like
Rickenbacker, Lufberry, and Winslow. Many of its pilots had been volunteers in
the French Lafayette Escadrille. America's first ace in World War I was Douglas
Campbell, an early member of the 94th whom I had the pleasure of meeting when
he attended several of our post WW II reunions. Mr. Campbell died in 1987.
Several World War II generals had been fighter pilots in our squadron. Among
them were: Jimmy Doolittle, Ira Eaker,
Curtis LeMay, and Carl "Tooey"
Spaatz. We were the only squadron in the armed forces allowed to wear its own insignia
(silver Hat-in-the-Ring pins) over our wings. Apparently, Eddie Rickenbacher
had obtained official authorization for this from his friend General Henry
H."Hap" Arnold. We were, indeed, a proud bunch !
Shortly
after Bucky's return, I was told at evening mess to report to the Ops Tent for
a 2000 hrs briefing. This was it !! We
were about to learn what the secret plan was (or so we thought). Bucky was in a
jovial mood and handled the entire briefing, which was rather short, (normally,
weather and intelligence officers would give us a lot of miscellaneous info on
the mission) . I was surprised there was not the normal squadron complement
present. There were only about a dozen pilots there and the audience included
our crew chiefs (all top-notch master mechanics including my own crew chief,
John Michunovich)--not a typical briefing at all !!.
The
Colonel said he was proud to let us know that the First Fighter Group had been
chosen for an extraordinary TOP SECRET
mission. " I want to congratulate you lads, in particular, for being
selected to fly this mission". We
were then told to pack our B4 bags for at least 3 nights and to have them and
our sleeping bags at the flight line at 0800 hrs and Ops would see that they
were loaded (along with the crew chiefs) on a C 47 from the 15th Air Force
Headquarters. The Colonel had said we would fly a 3 flight formation to Tunis,
North Africa and added "I will lead it and we will maintain radio
silence". Apparently our neighbors in the 71st Squadron got a similar message
as their planes were also being pre-flighted across the runway on that cold
morning of January 28, 1945.
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