anders Crew – Assigned 753rd Squadron – February 13, 1945

2Lt William V. Sanders and crew were assigned to the 753rd Squadron on February 13, 1945.  The crew’s bombardier, 2Lt Harwood, was pulled from the crew prior to movement overseas. There is a bit of a discrepancy regarding William Sanders and if he was reassigned after a short time at Horsham St Faith, but as far as all the records show, he was the pilot of the crew until the war ended (see section below).

The crew flew their first combat mission on March 8, 1945 to the marshaling yards at Dillenburg without incident.  Their second mission was to be on March 14th, but there was a mishap prior to the crews manning their planes.  An experienced gunner in the 753rd Squadron accidentally discharged his .50 caliber waist gun while on the ground.  Several rounds struck an adjacent aircraft, We’ll Get By (which had been flown by Sanders on the 8th) narrowly missing three crewmen who were preparing that plane for the mission.  An incendiary caught fire and the men were unable to suppress the flames and were forced to abandon the aircraft.  All efforts failed to bring the fire under control and the area was evacuated.  The aircraft exploded, causing damage to nine other aircraft in the vicinity.  As a result, the 753rd Squadron was stood down for the day.

In late May 1945, most of the crew were transferred into the 755BS.  As with most of the combat crews on the base that had not completed a tour at war’s end, Sanders crew was tasked to ferry a Liberator back to the States.  S/Sgt Jordan Jacks remembers the flight[s] home, “We started to fly home on a group B-24 but aborted it, landing in Gibraltar, then flown back to Horsham. [We] again started home on another group B-24, aborted it in Wales, then flown to Sudsbury, England, [where we were] assigned a wonderfully new B-24J. [We] flew home with a B-17 group that ditched one in the north Atlantic, crash landed one in Iceland, spun-in one into the thick forest outside Goose Bay, Labrador, and so on to air base at New Haven, CT, where we kissed the B-24J good bye and kissed the US runway hello.”

This is an interesting situation, one I have not come across in all of my research.  This crew was assigned under William V. Sanders in February 1945.  In correspondence with the radio operator, Jordan Jacks and with Arie Church, the grandson of co-pilot Hubert Church, there are statements (Jacks) and indications (Arie Church) that Sanders was removed as pilot of the crew shortly after they had arrived at Horsham, and that replacement pilot, 2Lt Donald I. Wroten took his place.   While I have no possible way to know with absolute certainty, which man piloted this crew, I have presented the information that I have below.

Jacks remembers, “Donald I. Wroten joined us as our pilot the next day or so, coming from R&R, doing the Ireland runs, we were told. We loved the guy right off the bat! He was one hot pilot! We thought of him as ‘Hotshot Charlie’, right out of Milt Canniff’s Terry and the Pirates. In civilian life, he had been a carpenter from around San Francisco. He was redheaded and short and always wore a ‘50 mission crush cap’. He was so short that he sort of [had to] fly our B-24 almost standing up. He enjoyed touching wing tips when we flew in a tight formation, that’s how great he was. On our first ‘practice’ mission with him, he flew down the channel as low as he possible could. He had me go to the bombardier’s position, lay on my belly. There, I looked out the Plexiglas just below the turret, and when a spray hit the glass he had me tell him on the intercom, and he lifted the ’24 up and buzzed a radar tower and RAF air field at war speed, and we were away before being identified. He was often called into the base commander’s office, but he talked his way out of trouble. One time he ‘borrowed’ the colonel’s small aircraft to see his girl in Ireland. He always got away with a slight reprimand. Because of these ‘pranks’, he was never promoted, but he was truly one hot B-24 pilot!”

Neither records kept by the group or at the squadron level show Wroten flying a mission as airplane commander. Lt Sanders, on the other hand, does appear on 16 group formation plans, indicating he was flying as pilot. He is also listed in 754BS records for March and April under “Missions and Pilots Participating”. On General Orders (GO118 2AD) dated April 5, 1945, Sanders along with most of the crew, was awarded the Air Medal for, “meritorious achievement in accomplishing with distinction, several aerial operational missions over enemy occupied Continental Europe.” He was awarded an Oak Leaf Cluster to the Air Medal (for five additional combat missions) on April 16, 1945. So Jordan Jacks recollection that Sanders, “made runs to Ireland for the rest of the war” do not hold up well. Wroten received the Air Medal (first award) on April 16, 1945 and an OLC on April 24th. The absence of his name on formation charts, but the awards of the Air Medal and OLC-AM clearly show he was flying combat missions, but strongly indicate that it was NOT as an airplane commander.

When the crew was transferred to the 755BS in mid-May 1945, all except Sanders, Grahlmann and Gooch (who went to the 453BG in April) were on the list. Don Wroten was listed with the crew in this transfer order. Further clouding the issue is a line in the 755BS records for May 25, 1945. The group was readying aircraft and equipment for the trip back to the states and the squadron record keeper wrote, “The Air Echelon was to be flown home in our own airplanes – the regular combat crews plus 5 passengers in the PFF equipped ships and 10 passengers in the regular combat planes. The first Squadron crew – that of Lieutenant Wroten – was alerted on the 25 of May.”

It is possible that Sanders was removed from this crew and flew with a different crew during March and April, but he was in the same Squadron as his “old crew”. This still does not explain why Wroten’s name does not appear on any records as being pilot in charge of a crew.

The only way to know for sure who the pilot of the crew was, is from the load lists currently stored in the National Archives. They list each man’s name and position that he was flying in on each combat mission flown. If one of these should ever be acquired for this crew, I will post it on this page.

Lt Don I. Wroten?

Arie Church has contributed many photos of “unknown” personnel, including several flying officers. Perhaps one of the men below is Don Wroten?

This photo appears to have been taken either prior to or after a flight in Briney Marlin.  William Sanders is shown on formation plans flying this aircraft on March 25, 1945 as the Weather Ship; and on April 11, 1945 on their 13th combat mission.  William Sanders, however, does not appear in this photo.  I can only tentatively identify three of the men in this picture. Standing, second from left, appears to be Vernon Powell.  Kneeling, far left looks like Paul Pottharst, and second from right Hubert Church. It is difficult to identify other members of the crew, but the man to Church’s right is definitely not in other crew pictures.  Is this Don Wroten?

Unknown officer

Gallery