97th Bombardment Group, 12 O'Clock High, etc

[Herb Kugel]

Hi,
Geoffrey Perret in his book Winged Victory, The Army Air Forces in World War II, states on page 245:

"In June 1942 the half-trained, under strength 97th deployed...[to] England. What little discipline it possessed fell apart. The group commander and his deputy were taken up by the Rothschilds, who had an estate nearby. The group desparately needed training but didn't get it... The wayward beginnings of the 97th, and its eventual redemption under an able, hard driving commander, were turned into the best novel and the best movie about the wartime air force, Twelve O'Clock High. The new group commander was Eaker's executive officer, Col. Frank A. Armstrong, Jr. As the 12 B-17s headed toward Rouen [8th Air Force's first raid, Aughust 16, 1942]...Armstrong Sat in the copilot's seat next to Tibbets..."

[Col. Paul Tibbets, Jr., who flew the B-29 Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.]

My question is simply this: Yes, it is documented, but is it conceiveable that the 97th could have been turned around in so short a time? Is there anything else about this raid anybody might want to share?

BTW, both the book and film were written by Beirne Lay, Jr., one of Eaker's officers. He got much of his material from his article I Saw Regensburg Destroyed, which appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, November 6, 1943. There are still copies of that SatEvePost around, I saw one for sale recently, when I was doing my digging. It sold for $70.

Or you can spend about $20 buying Reporting World War II, American Journalism, 1938-1946, Preface by Stephen E. Ambrose, Introduction by Samuel Hynes, The Libary of America, New York [ISBN I-931082-05-07], which is a fine book with much wonderful writing in it.

Herb

[drgondog]

The Book by Lay was of course a composite of different groups and people.. Lay flew for the 91st BG and later went down on the way into Berlin on 6 March 1944 flying lead in a Pathfinder.

Frank Armstrong was indeed with the 97th on that first mission and commanded the Group from 31 July 1942 until 27 Sept - it shipped for Africa in November 42.

He had the 306th BG from 4 Jan 43-17 Feb 43 which is where his character 'probably was' as protrayed in the book - as he was promoted to BG shortly after being relieved of this assignment.

Most of the stories in 12OCH had roots in 91st BG where Lay was a Flight leader under Col Stanley Ray.

Regards,

Bill

[Herb Kugel]

Hi,
Thank you for the information. You know, you can pick up a video of 12OCH easily, I did that through Amazon for about $10, as I recall. However, the book, oh, that is another story.

All the best.
Herb

[drgondog]

Highly recommend First of the Many by Tex McCrary - maybe best anthogy of early 8thAF stories ever - and many of the stories recounted in 12och are in it.

Long out of print but a lot of the Book stores specializing in WWII will have it.

[Steve49]

With reference to the bombing mission; Raid No1 targeted the Rouen-Sotteville rail marshalling yards on the 17th August. Twelve B.17's (one from 340th BS, five from 342nd BS and six from 414th BS) dropped a total of 36900lb of bombs with little opposition. Four squadrons of Spitfires provided the close escort and another four provided rear support.

Another six B.17's (three each from 340th and 341st BS's) were to carry out diversionary mission, but the one heading over Alderney was aborted after failing to rendezvous with the escort. The other three aircraft flew over the North Sea without any reaction.

Three aircraft returned with minor damage, one each by flak, fighters and a birdstrike. The birdstrike injured two aircrew.

One fighter was claimed as damaged by the group's defensive fire.

Regards,

Steve

[DavidIsby]

The "accepted wisdom" is that the fictional 918th BG was based on the 306th (note number is multipled by three) and that the fictional BG Savage was based on Armstrong. Of course, many of the incidents came from other groups (and, on the other side, "Wutz" Galland rolled into a composite character or simply confused with his brother, General Adolf Galland).

[Bruce Lander]

Hi Guys,
check out eBay UK, I have just listed the 1949 Bantam Paperback of
"Twelve O'clock High".
Well worn but definitely worth looking at.
Cheers
Bruce Lander

[John Beaman]

Well, still one of the greatest “war flicks” of all time. Many people here may not realize what a sea change this film was. For the first time, in American filmography, US service men were shown as less than heroes, mortal, afraid and making mistakes. Prior to this, all WWII films showed most characters as stalwart, and unflinching.

The opening scene where the B-17 belly lands was by Paul Mantz, one of the greatest, if not the greatest, aerial stunt pilot in Hollywood history. They used real B-17s which would make all of us cringe, today, but, it was 1949 and there were still lots of B-17s around. Mantz was killed when trying to fly that contraption in the original “Flight of the Phoenix”.

Almost all of the base scene filming was done in Alabama, hence the persimmon and scrub oak trees not usually found in England!

But, that first scene with Dean Jager standing on the landing stand, the engine sounds, and the prop wind blowing the grass…hard to beat!

Lastly, I believe that Gary Merrill, the deposed BG Commander, was briefly on the 1950s Hollywood “blacklist”. He was married to Betty Davis one of filmdom’s greatest actresses.

[drgondog]

John - Amen. That particular scene is perhaps my favorite of all time.

Red Morgan, 92nd BG, was the co-pilot in Ruthie II, that held off his pilot (who had the back of head blown off from an inbound 20mm - another of which blew off the arm of the top turret gunner) en route to target and almost back to coast (2 hours) before the Navigator helped him get the mortally wounded pilot out of seat.. Medal of Honor and absolutely true story.

Morgan went down also on March 6 Berlin mission to finish as guest of Stalag luft I.

The pilot was a big strong man and never quit trying to fly the airplane - and Morgan kept the ship in formation while leaning to center so he could see. The 20mm round that hit his pilot went through on co-pilot front windscreen.

including narrative about the Navigator who put a tournaquet around the top turret gunner's arm and put the rip cord in his other hand - then shoved him out to survive the war as POW.

The Germans absolutely controlled the airspace over Germany in that timeframe - enormous courage on both sides

[Herb Kugel]

HI everybody,
Thank you for all the information.

Leslie Halliwell in The Filmgoer's Companion, (6th Edition, 1978) called Twelve O'Clock High, "A belated, thoughtful tale of World War II which achieved freshness and realism by concentrating less on the of the hazards undergone by American pilots based in Britain than on the strains of command..."

Evidently, also, "A successful TV series was shown in 1964-65."