Roberts Crew – Assigned 752nd Squadron –  May 27, 1944

The Roberts Crew was assigned to the 752nd Squadron 458th Bomb Group ten days prior to D-Day and flew their first mission on June 10, 1944.  Two crew members, Lt Walter Dietzgen and S/Sgt George W. Parks flew on June 6th, and Parks flew again on the 7th.  Dietzgen is shown on several load lists as having flown as navigator with a number of crews.  He flew twice on D-Day; the July 12th mission to Munich with the Gulick Crew (where they lost an engine); and on an AZON mission in August.  It is assumed that he flew with various crews until his tour was complete, although the reason for him not remaining with Roberts is unknown.

Lt Wallace C Brown is believed to have flown as co-pilot until sometime in mid-July, when he was either given his own crew or flew as Instructor Pilot with new, incoming crews.  He flew a total of twelve missions as aircraft commander between July 12 and August 6, 1944.

It seems that the job of navigating frequently fell to the crew’s bombardier, 2Lt Lester R. Johnson, who had received navigator training (see A.J. Parades “North Atlantic” story below).  At some point during the summer of 1944, 2Lt Theodore E. Joiner, Jr. was assigned as the crew’s navigator.  Joiner came to the group as a navigator with F/O Harold A. Walker and crew, which joined the 458th on May 11, 1944.  On October 23, 1944 the 458th underwent a massive reshuffling of crews when the 755th Squadron was designated as a “lead crew” squadron.  Roberts and his crew were transferred from the 752nd to the 755th.  For some reason, Jack Roberts was transferred back to the 752nd on November 20th only to return to the 755th two weeks later – such is the bureaucracy of the Army!

The 458th came off of combat operations in September in order to transport gas and supplies to Patton’s army in France. Roberts and crew flew seven of these Truckin’ Missions in late September.  While these missions did not involve combat, some crews believed that they were sometimes more dangerous since they were loading their Liberators with as much fuel as they could carry in 5-gallon Jerry cans or modified fighter drop tanks.  There were a total of seven Liberators lost by the group during this time, most from accidents, but one was shot down as they strayed over enemy lines and were hit by flak.

It is assumed that most of the crew flew the majority of missions together, possibly as a lead or deputy lead prior to being transferred to the 755th Squadron in October.  The crew was not assigned a co-pilot in order to make room for a command pilot on these lead missions.  Three mission lists are available.  That of the bombardier, 1Lt Lester R. Johnson, gunner S/Sgt George W. Parks, and the pilot’s record of missions gathered from group records.  All are presented below.

It appears that most of the crew completed their required missions in November or December 1944 and were rotated back to the States.  Capt John Roberts remained with the group, and after being trained on the Army Air Forces SCS-51 (Mobile) Instrument Landing System (ILS) in January, he may have been employed as a landing control officer, but that is not known for certain. In April 1945 he was appointed to the Instructor Pilot Proficiency Board.

Ryan TerSteeg, great-nephew of Jack Roberts, built a model of Final Approach to honor his uncle’s service. 

(May have to adjust quality settings for a clearer video)

Test Hop

“We were going on a test hop so we don’t have our heavy suits on. (Right to Left) That’s Jack next to me [wearing cap], then our new navigator, Joiner, and a ground crew man.”

1Lt Lester R. Johnson Mission List

“Our navigator [Ted Joiner] is in the pilot’s seat, the engineer [Stanley Pistakos] is in the top escape hatch, and me in the copilot’s seat.  We have no copilot because we have a command pilot on all our combat missions, so I get to be copilot on all our practice missions, and do I love it!”

Click on dates above for Lester Johnson’s Bombardier Briefing Forms

(Photos, Mission List, and Forms courtesy: Erik Johnson)

S/Sgt George W. Parks Mission List

(Photo: Erik Johnson / Mission List: Annie Parks)

Capt John P. Roberts “…the best darn pilot in the USAAF.”

Capt John Roberts in the co-pilot’s seat

(Photo: Erik Johnson)

Lost over the North Atlantic

Yeah, I remember the “lost over the North Atlantic” mission well.  Dietzgen, God rest his soul, was missing from the crew.  We were flying along without a navigator.  Johnson would serve as bombardier/navigator.  We left the group somewhere west of Munich, and Roberts asked Johnson if he could “dead-reckon” us home.  He said he would try.
 
So we started out in a Northwesterly direction.  Roberts had lost his radio compass, command radio and his liaison radio.  There was no way he could get any bearing, or get any help by communication.  The only hope was with my CW liaison (code) radio.  About an hour had gone by and everybody was dozing as we cruised at 10,000 feet.  Johnson called Roberts and said something kind of chilling.  I will remember the words to this day, “Jack, I’m lost.  I don’t know where I am.  There’s cloud cover and no landmarks.”  Then Roberts called me [and] asked me if I could get him a fix.  There was no panic in his voice.  Just a calm, every-day kind of question.  I told him I thought I could get him a fix.  It would take a minute.

Those old transmitters had nine tuning units.  They each had a short range set of frequencies.  They were about the size of a carton of cigarettes.  You pulled them out and slipped another one in its place depending on the frequency you wanted to use.  I had a pre-tuned unit to a direct finding station somewhere in the south of England that I used to practice with every time we went on a practice mission.  I thought that maybe someday I might have to use it.  Their call letters were CQ9.  When Roberts asked for the fix, I was ready.  There was one hitch though.  They weren’t on the air every day of the week.  There were days I had called CQ9 and they wouldn’t answer.  They were not ON that day.

Now I kept hoping that this wouldn’t be one of those days.  I put the tuning unit in, fired up the transmitter to its peak, and pounded CQ9 V (from) 7VGL (my call sign), E (emergency), and the codes for our problem and request for a fix.  You can imagine when I heard that beautiful 7VGL V CQ9, and then the instructions to hold down my key for an uninterrupted radio signal they could home in on.  Then they gave me our position and directions to take heading such and such in a line for home base.  They kept repeating until we got [within] sight of the coast.  I’d be willing to bet we didn’t have more than a few gallons left over after we landed.  Whew!

I remember Pitakis coming over when we got out of the airplane and kissing me on the cheek, and saying, “You did it!  You did it! You got us in!”  It seemed pretty much routine to me at the time, but supposing we hadn’t been able to get contact, and would have had to ditch in that cold North Atlantic. I just don’t think many people survived that cold – if they survived the crash.

(Photo: Erik Johnson / Story: Annie Parks)

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